The Toronto Blue Jays started spring training three weeks ago. So did the Baltimore Orioles and the St Louis Cardinals. Even the non-bird MLB teams got an early start. Not so for gardeners. For us, spring training just began at Canada Blooms.
Indeed, our season opener is 10 days long and by the time it closes on Sunday, March 22 over 150,000 visitors will be well primed to take flight for a successful gardening season.
The theme to Blooms this year is, “Birds of a Feather.” It promises to add some interest to a festival that is steeped in floral colour, fragrance and garden design inspirations. Enough to knock the downy feathers out of your puffy winter coat. That’s ok, as you won’t be needing a winter coat soon enough. That is how powerful Canada Blooms is: when it arrives, you can count the days to sunshine, warm soil and blooming crocus in your garden. The festival is sponsored by our company, Mark’s Choice.
This year, 40 gardens feature a birding theme. Garden designers have risen to the challenge to create green environments that attract songbirds, which attract gardeners. Come on out and see the latest in water features, stone steps, patios, walkways and a naturalized approach to “hardscaping”.
One garden designer/builder who has been exhibiting at Canada Blooms for 24 years is James Garfield Thompson. He has won so many awards for his displays that he has run out of wall space in his Etobicoke office to hang them.
James said, “This is a truly exciting year for us at Blooms. We have built a naturalized garden and antique potting shed. We want visitors to feel as though they are walking through an enchanted landscape where native plants are interplanted with colourful seasonal favourites. There is a temptation to stop and pot up some primulas or pat the cool, green moss.”
The James Garfield Thompson garden is located to the right as you enter the main pavilion of Canada Blooms, at the Enercare Centre, Exhibition Place, Toronto.
No place like a gnome garden
The Garden Club of Toronto, one of the partners in this not for profit event, has brought together 25 celebrity gnomes just in time for the festival. More to the point, they brought 25 celebrities to Blooms to help paint and decorate the gnomes. Wherever the gnomes go, fun is sure to follow.
We have created our own gnome. His name is Gnomenclature. You can bid to own any one of these wonderful clay friends. All the proceeds go to Gilda’s Club of Greater Toronto in support of people living with cancer.
Outdoor Do It Yourself Education Centre
If you are inclined to sow your own garden, mow your own grass and trim your own hedge, you will enjoy the Outdoor Do it Yourself Centre where you will meet and talk with experts each day who can help you create the garden of your dreams. They may even have some cost-saving tips for you. We will!
Marketplace
With over 100 vendors attending this years’ festival there is no excuse to go home empty handed. We have tried to walk the aisles of the Marketplace with our hands in our pockets and it is no use. Just too many unique items to buy and use around the yard and garden.
Learn and learn some more
There are over 300 entertaining and educational seminars happening over the next eight days at Canada Blooms. Many of the speakers you may know, proven professionals with something worthwhile to say, like Tara Nolan, Frankie Flowers and Ben and Mark Cullen. Plus, others including Sean James who was recently awarded Garden Communicator of the Year by his peers at Landscape Ontario, and our friend Lorraine Johnson who will share her expertise on gardening for biodiversity.
There is more, of course, just not enough space here to tell you about it. Canada Blooms has 264,000 square feet to impress you. Best that you go and experience the 24th edition of Canada’s No. 1 garden festival for yourself.
Come say hi to us, bring your camera and walking shoes. This is, after all, spring training for gardeners.
Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and Member of the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourth-generation urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullengardening, and on Facebook.
