A Breath of Spring: Garden and Flower Show Promises Relief For The Winter-Weary

A BREATH OF SPRING

Garden and flower show promises relief for the winter-weary

By MARIANNE RZEPKA

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Like robins, snowdrops and receding snow piles, the Ann Arbor Spring Garden and Flower Show is a sign that winter is finally over.

And it brings out thousands eager for a taste of spring. Last year, about 12,000 people stopped by the show at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds on Ann Arbor-Saline Road, said organizer Jay Schmidt.

This year, the flower show will focus on “Homescapes,” with an entry garden that brings visitors through an urban backyard, said R. James Gorenflo, director of land development at Wexford Builders and designer of the entry garden.

Following the pathway through the show, visitors will walk along neighborhood streets to see the front yards of houses, with vignettes of home interiors, including a flower “bed”room, a sitting room, a floral-inspired bathroom and a backyard kitchen.

“Because of all the development and growth and home buying and building going on in the Ann Arbor area, we thought it’d be helpful to give people coming to the show some ideas and inspiration of what to do not only with the front of your house, but also for the back of your house,” Gorenflo said.

Show organizers also are trying to use more unusual and difficult-to-find plant and landscape material, such as unusual variegated rhododendrons, he said.

Displays will be scattered through the show, and vendors will be placed in a kind of main street area, Gorenflo said.

Turner’s Garden and Landscape Center in Lodi Township plans to use pavers and plants to landscape around an in-ground pool.

Last year, the company landscaped three pools, several ponds and a waterfall for a client who lived near the intersection of two roads and wanted to drown out the traffic noise with falling water, said Tom Bradley, landscape architect for Turner's. 

"I don't know why the year 2000 was the year for that, but it was," he said. "People are interested in water in the garden."

His crew will use pavers around the small peanut-shaped pool and use annuals to give the area color, Bradley said.

Homeowners who have pools might want to use perennials that bloom in the summer, when they're apt to be in the water, and plant flowering shrubs that don't drop their blooms, he said.

Children's presentations will include artwork by students from Burns Park and Logan elementary schools, as well as a "botanical choir" of more than 100 plants put together by the South Arbor Charter Academy. 

Children also can stop by the petting zoo and attend a workshop where they can make wren houses.

Also on tap will be vendors selling garden supplies, plants and books.

The show is a continuation of an annual event sponsored by The University of Michigan's Matthaei Botanical Gardens, which ended its spring flower shows three years ago. 

One element of the earlier shows was a competition judged through the state branch of the Women's National Farm and Garden Association.

The reincarnated show will try out a smaller version this year when the Ann Arbor Garden Club holds its first Plants on Parade, a collection of flora brought in by the community.

"We're trying to get to the general public," said Kathy Fojtik, garden club president. "This is really open to everybody."

The public can show up at the farm council grounds between 4-9 p.m. Thursday with healthy, good looking plants to display at the show, she said.

No one knows who's going to show up with what, said Fojtik, but everyone will get a blue ribbon of participation and free entry into the garden and flower show.

It's something different for the garden club, she said. "It's the first and only time the Ann Arbor Garden Club has sponsored a show open for anyone," Fojtik said. "I want a lot of plants there."

If it's a success, the garden club could make it an annual event, but probably a more rigidly constructed one in which entries have to meet certain standards, she said.

The Junior League of Ann Arbor again will hold a fund-raiser in connection with the show.

Last year, it was a pre-show gala.This year, it will be a backyard barbecue from 6-9 p.m. Friday evening during the show.

Tickets for the barbecue are $15 for adults and $5 for children ages 4-12. Children under 4 are free. The tickets include admission to the show after 5 p.m. Friday and all day Saturday. 

The league, a nonprofit volunteer organization, runs programs for women and girls, including conflict-resolution and avoiding dating violence. 

For more information or tickets to the fund-raiser, can Janeen McNally at (734) 547-1747.

Marianne Rzepka can be reached by e-mail at mrzepka@annarbornews.com or by calling (734) 482-2263.

Garden Show Essentials

Theme: Homescapes -displays will focus-on-front and back yards

When: March 30-April 1

Where: Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds, 5055 Ann Arbor-Saline Road

Admission: Adults $10, Seniors $8, Children 12 and under $5

Hours: Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday,

10a.m.-4p.m.

For more information:

(734) 434-8004

Web site:

www.aaflowershow.com