Festival of Flowers

For the past 18 years Providence Hospital has put on the Festival of Flowers. I am quite ashamed to say that I had never been....until Thursday. How have I not been to see this?!?!?! It was amazing! Myself and the Dirt Queen had the pleasure of going with the Hyndrangea Queen, Audrey (garden club friend) and Linda.

(I know its been a while since I posted and you may have forgotten some of the cast of characters...Dirt Queen = my mom, Hydrangea Queen = my good friend & garden buddy Ramona). Last August Hydrangea Queen went to a hydrangea farm in Nantucket for a week. While she was there she roomed with another gardener, Linda. They became friends, and Linda came down this past week to visit from New York.  

The five of us loaded up in the car ( a mid sized SUV) and off we went! 

This was at the main entry

Each tent had a different theme. This tent was set up as roomscapes by various vendors.

This vendor had some really nice stuff. Matter of fact myself, Dirt Queen and Linda all bought the bird feeder shown in the bottom right hand corner. It is pretty tall, and the feeder is probably 30" in diameter. It is "supposed" to be squirrel proof. I am keeping an eye on it to see! 

This was my favorite roomscape!! Isn't it precious!!! I love how they made the food out of flowers!!

There is a large tent that has various garden scapes set up by landscape architects, garden shops, and nurseries. They had done quite some work!

This garden scape was my favorite!! It was so creative and fun!!!

There was also an art exhibit that featured the work of Justin Gaffrey. He has a gallery about an hour from here that I plan on making a trip to oneday soon! His work was amazing!!! He works in impasto acrylics, and it takes his paintings about a week to dry! You should go check out his website.

There was also a flower couture display. Each ensemble is made entirely from flowers. They were very clever. You can click on the photo to enlarge.

When we stepped out of the tents and on to the lawn....we saw the sea of vendors. I think thats when it hit us that maybe we shouldn't have crammed 5 people in the car. 5 gardeners that love yard stuff in one car = no room. I tried to stay focused on the matter at hand and tackle one tent at a time. This was no easy chore!

 This vendor was out of Cincinnati, Ohio (Greg's Antiques) . They had the BEST pricing!!! Unfortunately, they don't ship any of their items. But if you live near Cincinnati you are in luck!

This was the same vendor that was in the room scapes. Here you can see the bird feeder and how large it really is.

I absolutely adored this potting bench!!!! I am going to build one of these.

I thought these were very cute. The are flowers made from old door knobs. Well...I thought they were cute until I saw the price! I'm cheap, and I think $75 is too much...but others may disagree. I have tons of old doorknobs, and re-bar....so I plan on making a few of these as well.

This gentleman made baskets and birdhouses using wisteria vines. I really wanted one of his baskets, but I didn't get one. Mainly due to the fact that all five of us had purchased a lot of stuff at this point and I was beginning to think we were going to have bring a U-haul back to pick up our stuff. Lucky for me he lives near here, and I can get one at anytime.

I thought this was cute....using the old cans for a fountain/pot.

This is also where I picked up my flying pig! The vendor had every type of creature known to man...and I picked a pig! LOL! He has tiny little flying pigs and big flying pigs....and ya'll know I couldn't just get a little flying pig.......

By the time we got ready to leave, we all had our hands full. We had to go to the pick up area to pick up the larger items and flowers we had bought....oh and the flying pig.

We filled up the back hatch with 3 bird feeders, and some wrought iron pieces. Poor Audrey, Linda and Hydrangea Queen had their laps full of stuff sitting in the back sit. And then I realized there was no room for my flying pig.....so I had to make due.....

I had to hold that pig the entire way home!! LOL!!! His hooves were pretty sharp!!! I had to put a sheet in between me and his hooves. I was praying we didn't get into a wreck. I could only imagine the headline
"Woman impaled by flying pig"! The lesson learned here is that if you are going to a garden show....DON'T invite your friends to ride with you....LOL!!! Keep it to a 2 person limit per car. Hydrangea Queen and Linda had so much fun, they actually went back the next day and bought more stuff!!!

We really had a great time, and I can't wait to go again next year....in my own car!