A friend of mine offered me the opportunity of riding up to Jackson, TN, and participating in the Summer Celebration Lawn and Garden Show. I am so glad I said, "Yes." The schedule is here. I went to "Plant This, Not That" presented by Troy Marden, "Got Something to Hide?" presented by Carol Reese, "Southern Belles" by Sue Hamilton, "A Melee of Plants and Garden Art" by Felder Rushing, and "Cutting Back" by Amy Fulcher. When we weren't in formal sessions, we wandered around the test gardens, enjoyed the garden art, and ate hamburgers sold by the 4H group. There was a plant sale. I didn't buy anything, but my friend and her husband bought a bald cypress to train in their quest for bonsai perfection.
Felder Rushing had his world famous truck garden on display:
The emphasis, as you might've guessed from the photo at the top of the post, was bottle trees. There were bottles everywhere:
There was a cute display of tiny bottles transformed into fireflies with not much more than yellow antifreeze:
Most of the gardens had art features:
This event was great fun!
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Looks like a great outing! So many lovely flowers, and the bottle theme really adds fun to the arrangements.
ReplyDeleteThere's a different theme every year. Great imagination those folks have! The flowers were amazing. They explained how the test gardens work to help the companies know which plants will grow well in what areas and which ones just aren't ready for prime time.
DeleteThe bottles are cool, I have a friend who uses bowling balls throughout her landscaping.
ReplyDeleteBowling balls would be fun. Mother used one of Daddy's old bowling balls as a planter/lamp when I was young. I still miss that lamp lol. They would be fun in a garden used like gazing balls.
DeleteThat must have been great fun! I would have liked to been there. Interesting bottle tree ideas; I don't have one but see them often. Fielder Rushing is an interesting guy; never met him but enjoy his writings.
ReplyDeleteWe never had a bottle tree, and -even though I'm from the South- I was grown before I knew what they were. I had never heard of Rushing, but I'm a fan now :)
DeleteLooks like a lot of fun even tho I'm not a gardener. I've seen pictures of bottle trees but never seen one in person. My favorites are the blue bottles.
ReplyDeleteDarla
They had bottles for sale, but I didn't see many blue ones. I like them best, too.
DeleteWhile listening to "Hell" I enjoyed this post very much.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos and a bottle tree is something we would like to add to our garden.
Thanks for sharing such a fun time!
oxo
Thx :) I would've thought a bottle tree would've taken up too much space for us, but some of these were quite small.
DeleteThis has been one really interesting post, I loooooovvvvvvveeeedddd the bottle trees and the other art adorning the gardens, I so want to go to that place and have a good look around. Thanks you for sharing your post. Gosh I really would love to make some bottle trees for the garden, now that would be interesting. I also loved the bicycle wheel display.
ReplyDeleteHappy Tuesday
Hugs Eliza
I'm glad you liked it. I found the garden art more fascinating than the plants!
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