Oct 26 2021 - Flower-Powered Steam

 

Yesterday was a windy, rainy day.  The waves on the Lake were significant.  I'd reserved my spot for the Hamilton Chrysanthemum Show at Gage Park.  So I drove off through the sheets of rain and wind towards Hamilton.   And it was worth it.  Niagara grows millions of pots of garden mums for the outdoor display garden this time of year.  These are mostly hardy mums.  But there are even more than the myriad of colours and shapes in our gardens.  Check out a flower competition and one can see how they organize by bloom type and shape. We got to see all the types in an exhibition format.  Beautifully grown flowers - big pompom varieties, spider and thistle, spoon, anemone and the regular sorts of single and semi-double.  And then there were displays with mosaic culture art around themes to give drama to the experience.  There was 20,000 square feet of displays, themed around past years so the overall show was a Trip Down Memory Lane.  There were 200 varieties on display, plus hundreds of varieties of companion plants to make the display interesting and entertaining.   How does that compare with Longwood Gardens' display?  It claims to be the biggest Thousand Flower Tree outside of Asia with more than a thousand flowers each year on a single-stem plant.  It is a beautiful display with an amazing grand conservatory setting. You would guess that other festivals in Asia are larger.  Korea has the Dream Park Chrysanthemum Festival.  It is outside in a 860,000 square meter space. That's massive. There are numerous festivals in China.  Kaifeng Chrysanthemum Festival in China is a month long. It has over 1.6 million pots on display.  Japan too has numerous festivals with one of the festivals over 100 years old.  Asian countries have a particular fondness and love of Chrysanthemums. One of the things that is so lovely is that we humans mark our opening and closing garden seasons with flowers - the beautiful Cherry Blossom and Bulb Festivals announce Spring, and Chrysanthemums close off the Fall.  Maybe we mark every season with flowers - Christmas has its decorated trees and Poinsettias.  And the winter?  The exotic Orchid Festivals. And add to the fun - somehow, it is Train Day everywhere you go - flower festivals included!

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Oct 31 2020 - On Holiday Time

 

This year's Halloween feels like gridlock: it is Halloween on a Saturday with the time change from daylight savings time tonight - and if you look up - it is a full moon.  Isn't it even supposed to be a blue moon? How often does the time change with Halloween? It looks like the last one was And a full moon!  A full noon on Halloween is around every 19 years.  And the time change on the same day? It looks like the last one was 2015, and then before that 2009.  In 1982 Toronto, Saskatoon and Halifax made kids go trick-or-treating on the Saturday October 30th so they wouldn't be in the dark.  There's a movement to make Halloween on the last Saturday of October to extend the party time, etc.   Perhaps with the Pandemic, we aren't used to so much happening at once.  And with the Pandemic, there's so little happening that this seems like a lot.   Who helps the little pumpkins cross the road safely? The crossing gourd. What type of plants do well on all Hallow’s Eve? Bam-BOO What do you call a witch’s garage? A broom closet. What kind of food would you find on a haunted beach? A sand-witch! What was the witch’s favorite subject in school? Spelling. Here we are with the ever-lasting supply of Chrysanthemums from the Hamilton Gage Park Show. Its theme was First Responders - so there was a bus, and an ambulance as backdrops.

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Oct 30 2020 - Dogs have the best costumes

 

With Halloween on a Saturday, there is an unspoken, clear message to adults to participate in the fun.  What a dilemma as our enthusiasm seems to have diminished over time.  Even to figure something simple out - and then looking through ideas for seniors turns out to be a stroll through unfunny and then poor taste. The pet ideas, in comparison, are hilarious. We don't need to tell you who they are dressed up as.   Today's stroll through history puts things in perspective, sort of. It was this day in 1995 when the Quebec referendum happened with 93.52% voter participation and a narrow defeat with 50.58% voting no and 49.42% voting yes.  Do you remember the relief back then?  I hope the same will happen next week over the U.S. election.   There was lots of enjoyment yesterday with the big display at the Hamilton Gage Park Chrysanthemum Show.  With pre-booked timed entries, it wasn't crowded.  It was so much more enjoyable than in past years.  Here is a small sampling of the beautiful flowers and displays.

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Continuing Flower Week with an Uber Ride

The Canada Blooms Show in Toronto is promoted as the largest garden and flower show in Canada - Philadelphia's is the largest in North America.  The trend, however, is that it continues to shrink each year. We toured it in less than an hour.  There were still a few 'Wows!' at the entrance.  The positive news is that the floral design section expands each year.  We saw some familiar faces in the judges' groups and got to say hello.   I wondered what others thought of the show - there are no reviews, just promotional articles explaining what to see.  Theresa Forte's article in the St. Catharines Standard on March 8th listed the workshops and speakers and avoided commenting on how small the show is.  There doesn't seem to be a major sponsor this year, and there were no garden centres represented in the marketplace.  I guess the show has decided to focus on workshops for the family as its main feature, rather than a showcase of garden design.  These are expensive ventures - pools and patios all created in a week and then taken apart after the two week show. We went searching for the Butchart Garden booth to say hello, but it was not present.   I wondered if they might bring news of the Victoria Flower Count.  It completed yesterday, but the total hasn't been announced yet. Our own excitement of the Canada Blooms show this  year was getting to and from the show.  We took Uber rather than driving.  We had three trips - a mix of people and vehicles - we were driven home in a huge Ford truck.  I had to 'fall out' to reach the ground. And the highlight was the amazing tiny restaurant at Spadina and Queen - Aloette - sitting at the bar, watching the chef organize each dish - often with tweezers.

Toronto Blooms in March at Canada Blooms

The Canada Blooms and Home Show was on last week, and I had a chance to visit.  While there are still landscape planting displays, the overall trend has transitioned to luxurious outdoor living rooms and outdoor kitchens with built-in barbecues, etc.  Water features are very popular in the landscaped areas. My favourite part of the show is the floral display competition featuring international artists and their creative arrangements. There are always so many people in these areas and the overall lighting isn't that good.  As a result, I don't get too many pictures.  Here are the few that worked out. I've included the last picture of Ranunculus.  Each year there is a mass display of Ranunculus flowers in vases.   It is another lovely part of the show, and a welcome sign of Spring.