DEL.ICIO.USFRENCH CONNECTION
From Parisian gardens to Tahitian treasures, flower show promises: "C'est magnifique!"The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/01/07
Close your eyes. Picture yourself lounging among the swaying palms of a tropical escape in the Virgin Islands, winter a distant memory.
Or perhaps you've zipped away for a Mardi Gras garden party in New Orleans' French Quarter, where guests sip a concoction among the colorful clematis and roses.
If you're after something more introspective, there are the gardens of France's great cathedrals, where the only thing prettier than the exquisite stained glass are the fragrant roses and wisteria.
Or just maybe, Denise Caffrey says, you're simply touring the Georgia World Congress Center, where next week's Southeastern Flower Show bursts into bloom with a French twist offering a taste of all those locales — and more.
"Whether you want to see gardens from the medieval to the contemporary, or hear about Monet's Giverny from a garden historian, or see floral arrangements inspired by the Louvre, we've got it," says Caffrey, chairwoman of the 20th annual show.
The five-day extravaganza, which last year drew 32,000 visitors, features 17 life-size gardens by local garden designers, as well as competitions in horticulture, floral design and photography. There are also lectures by nationally acclaimed experts, culinary demonstrations by some of Atlanta's top chefs and a marketplace teeming with hundreds of garden products and services.
The show, which opens Wednesday in Building C off Northside Drive, will wow visitors from the get-go, Caffrey says, with an entrance garden budding with thousands of roses and allees that will lure them to a setting from Paris' night life.
Here's what's new . . .
GARDENS THAT WOW
Gardens, hands down, are the major draw of the flower show — a misnomer for what has become a celebration of outdoor living. Visitors devour the gardens for landscaping ideas, and the best exhibits are ones that reach over the top. Show gardens, after all, are theater. They employ everything from music and lighting to visitor interaction and, above all, the unexpected.
This year, for the first time in the Atlanta show, judges have the option of presenting a "WOW Award: The Vince Dooley Showmanship Challenge" to the designer who takes a garden to a new level of fantasy and entertainment. Among the contenders will be several of Atlanta's leading designers, who in past years have taken home best-in-show honors:
• Alex Smith Garden Design, which rolled out a 3,500-square-foot Italian garden last year, is heading to New Orleans this time for the "Wormwood Ball," a garden party in the French Quarter. "I wanted to do a garden with really a lot of color, long borders of roses, clematis and delphiniums," says Smith, busily forcing those plants into an early bloom in his greenhouse. Look for an arbor sheltering sippers of absinthe, the green spirit derived from herbs, including the flowers and leaves of artemisia, commonly known as wormwood.
• Ellis LanDesign salutes the great churches of France, particularly Amiens Cathedral north of Paris. Visitors will pass through a portal and down an aisle flanked by tree-form wisterias and evergreens mimicking the cathedrals' pillars. Iron window frames set into hedges represent the churches' famed stained glass windows. "It's our hope that, like at Amiens and the other wonderful cathedrals of France, visitors will leave feeling renewed," designer David Ellis says.
• Fine Gardens also takes the religious route to wowdom with "The Garden of Saint Fiacre," a classic French monastic garden based on the legend of the gardener's patron saint. Designer Brooks Garcia, who has participated in London's famed Chelsea Flower Show, is creating a potagère brimming with vegetables and herbs, both culinary and medicinal, a monk's cell and a shrine to the Virgin Mary.
• New Leaf Landscape Group goes exotic with a garden inspired by designer Matt Klyn's vacation to the Virgin Islands. "The French theme encompasses such a mix of gardens that I wanted to do something tropical," he says. The ruins of an old plantation he saw on his trip with a garden growing out of them will form the centerpiece of "La Vision de Paradis," with a palm-shaded patio, fire pit and glass fountain.
GARDENER-TO-GARDENER NIGHT
Seminars and demonstrations are offered throughout each day, but new this year is one evening focused on the show's highlights, Caffrey says. From 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, visitors can talk one on one with national and local gardening experts, observe demonstrations and tour the show with professionals who will point out the lessons to be learned from award-winning entries. The event includes lectures, book signings and an auction of new and unusual plants. For topics and schedules, visit www.flowershow.org.
NOT THE HUBBY'S POTTING SHED
Everybody likes to leave the flower show with a souvenir, but these take the cake. Four garden structures designed by some of Atlanta's most noted architects — Tom Ventulett, Keith Summerour, Peter Block and Stan Dixon — will be auctioned during Tuesday's opening-night party. Their designs range from the traditional to Asian to whimsical.
In addition, look for special exhibits, including watercolors by artist Gary Bukovnik, a display by Warren Hill's School of Bonsai and "Necklaces From Nature," jewelry handcrafted from seedpods, cones and other organic material.
IF YOU GO
Southeastern Flower Show
10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday through Feb. 10; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Feb. 11. Georgia World Congress Center, Building C (adjacent to Georgia Dome on Northside Drive). $18 adults ($15 in advance); $12 twilight ticket (4-8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday); $35 all-days access; $8 students. 404-351-1074, www.flowershow.org.
Services »
