The Garden Show experience

What a show this was! The Southern Spring Home and Garden Show in Charlotte was fantastic! This was the 49th annual event and I thought every bit worth the time to go. I sat in on a talk about organic gardening, and was impressed by the amount of booths set up that were focused on environmental decorating or water conservation tools and green architects... it was really neat to see environmental consciousness a bigger presence in the market.

The show was completely indoors, which was a surprise, but the landscaping competitors did a phenomenal job of making the surroundings look real. Of coarse each landscaper was there to pass out business cards -- it was really clever how it all worked.

In the landscaping area shown in the pictures above, there were intermingled home settings where interior designers showed off their skills in home decor. This room was designed out of environmentally friendly materials -- non VOC paint and fabrics, etc. I loved this room for its cozy feel.

Then in another part of the center, there were booths for folks to sell their wares. What is a garden show without the Gourd Lady? She made hand painted gourd decor and with enthusiasm! She was a real crowd pleaser.

I ended up coming home with some plants for the garden and then Darth Orchi II pictured here in his ominous glory amongst the tulips. I had bought Darth Orchi I when we were still living in California. He was a beautiful orchid, I thought, because of his originality. Paul thought he looked downright scary sitting on a shelf in the bedroom and thought he resembled Darth Vader. Of coarse Paul would think that since he is on a one-track mindset of Star Wars. But anyway, Darth Orchi caught some mysterious orchid disease after a year or so and I found out his roots were shot. So I did a emergency surgery, cut off the dead roots, dipped the base in rooting hormone, placed him in moist soil with an upside-down vase over the top of him to keep in the humidity. Paul immediately drew the similarities between the real Darth with his supplied air in the dome-like helmet to Darth Orchi and his dome-like oxygen chamber. So the name was truly a good fit. Sadly, Darth Orchi didn't make it and we missed him bad. I never saw another one like him until this show and so I couldn't pass up Darth Orchi II when I saw him sitting amongst the orchids at the orchid booth. Paul was thrilled and gave him a special place on his bathroom counter.