March 27, 2011
Art Drysdale
According to senior members of Landscape Ontario, the Horticultural Trades Association (the 2,000-member group that, with the Garden Club of Toronto, founded Canada Blooms back in 1996 [with the first show being held in 1997]), the show is “one of the best flower and garden festivals in North America.” Landscape Ontario has, for the past several years, been the primary driver of the show although the Garden Club of Toronto still stages its own area of prime horticultural and flower arranging displays. Their area, annually, could be said to be right at the apex of the displays of that type in any of the shows certainly in North America, if not the World. And, I have seen pretty much all of them!
As to the overall show itself, I guess I would agree with that observation (“one of”) but in the last several years, the quality of the show has been dropping significantly each year. One of the worst, with its totally un-nspiring entrance garden (trash in receptacles mixed with a few Gerbera blooms), was in 2007 when there were hardly any well-forced trees and shrubs either. Landscape Ontario blamed that disaster on the freakish ice storm that hit the city just as the show was being installed. I was not so sure that the ice storm was entirely to blame!
Then, a year later in 2008, I did not see a whole lot of improvement—in fact a couple of steps backwards in a few areas. One of the comments I made back then was: “I do think that one of the things Canada Blooms needs is a garden or two designed and constructed by long-time members of the association, which would help to show some of the newer, younger landscape contractors a few of the ‘tricks of the trade’ and that would surely improve the gardens and get them back to the standards of old.”
That show made me make up my mind I would not bother to attend at all, and advised Gerry Ginsberg, the general manager, that I would not be coming east, and not to put my name on the speakers list. I have not seen the show since that year.
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