Last week, I attended Plant Science Day in Hamden, CT as a representative of the CT Horticultural Society (www.cthort.org).  This event is held on Lockwood Farm, a property serving as a research facility for the CT Agricultural Experiment Station (www.ct.gov/caes).  Station scientists and staff conduct field laboratory experiments on many different plants at this farm to learn how to control pathogens and insects.  Large test plots of various herbs and vegetables sit on the property consisting of about 75 acres, some grown with the goal to choose the best varieties for CT. Fruit trees line the fields and there are a couple old barns on the property as well.  A well-maintained beautiful bird and butterfly garden is onsite for anyone wishing to browse it.  All of this is surrounded by rolling hills seen in the distance.

I remembered this farm can be a very hot location in early August from when I attended Plant Science Day several years ago as an attendee, so I packed my large patio umbrella for the CHS display table, a cooler with lots of ice for my water bottles and snacks, and hit the highway around 7 am, making it there in 40 minutes.   Luckily, I missed the morning rush hour traffic.  Setup was easy alongside the other varied vendors from NOFA (www.organiclandcare.net) to OSHA (www.osha.gov), and the attendees quickly started arriving for the days educational and research based presentations. Soon the seats began to fill under the big white tents as the speakers began.  And eventually people came to the vendor area to check out our offerings and information packets.

You may wonder what type of people would attend this event held mid-week, on a Wednesday, in the midst of summer.  You would also be surprised to see how many people attend.  (FYI, last year, over 1,000 people were there).  It was quite active throughout the day, yet someone mentioned they thought the turnout may have been a bit lower this year.  There were visitors of all ages, or perhaps better said, from one end of the age spectrum to the other.  In fact, when I arrived home at the end of the day, I told my father that there were many attendees of his age, some that had run agricultural businesses for years, or were former farmers, and even a couple retired scientists. He replied with, “Of course, there ‘are’ no young farmers today – there’s only us.”

I thought, well, maybe on some level this is probably true.  On the back of a bumper sticker I picked up during the day which reads, “No Farms No Food ®” by the American Farmland Trust, it states that “American loses two acres of farm and ranch land to sprawling development every minute.” (See www.farmland.org).  In fact, my Dad, at the healthy age of 80, still owns 100 acres of land, which no longer has his cows roaming upon, but is now used to grow hay.  He was picking up bales of hay that very day.  He tried to sell his property with no luck – so far.  Perhaps due to the economy woes – or perhaps there are not many young interested farmers these days.  However, it seems to me not selling it has worked out for him as he still enjoys every second on tending to his land.  And selling bales of hay has become quite profitable.

However, I did not talk with only the retired agricultural types or farmers at Plant Science Day.  There were many young students around as well and young kids of the 6-8 years of age range too.  I also met two young teachers, guessing in their early 20’s, from regional Agriscience Programs of local schools.  A few students were tagging along with them.  And an occassional college students on their summer break attended with their parents.  I started to wonder, how did attendees hear of Plant Science Day?  What lead them here?  How did the older generation know about it – versus the young?

When I asked the older generation this question, all of them responded with, “I’ve been coming to this for years.”  One gentleman told me he sold the farm equipment used on this very farm when he ran a business.  Another told me he is a scientist, and scolded me for saying I only had a two year degree as a response. Like a good educational champion, he strongly insisted every learning experience is one to be proud of – even if you don’t end up as a scientist! I also had a comical fellow tell me that I would never find what he has in his backyard in any yard in CT.  So, of course, I had to ask.  Well, low-and-behold, he has been building volcanoes – yes, volcanoes on his property amongst his gardens.  Odd or interesting?  You decide!  Yet, I have to admit, I did find his story entertaining, and his motivation different from any other gardener I’ve encountered!  And there were also a few other retired folks that were the garden-traveler types.  They enjoy learning about hort, and visiting gardens or events like this one throughout the year, thus they were very interested in hearing about the travel programs offered via the CHS.  But in general, all of them were very happy to be attending the day’s activities.

And as for the younger visitors to my booth, I asked them if they were a student?…and then asked, “high school or college?”  High-school students were flattered.  But I wanted to find out why they were there.  Many are in that phase of just starting to be interested in agriculture, plants or horticulture in general.  So when I let them know, for the first time ever, the CHS is offering free memberships to students, they immediately perked up with interest – especially the college students. I informed them, they would receive the CHS monthly newsletter packed with horticulture information, tours dates, and interesting plant related articles as a member – and perhaps they could eventually make it to one of CHS’s program meetings, held monthly in West Hartford when in town.  Every month, CHS offers amazing, regionally known speakers of varied gardening and horticulture topics.  Our focus is also on education. (www.cthort.org)

As for the even smaller, younger children attending, they were running around with chaperones, stopping at several educational booths offering kids a challenge where they received a stamp once completing a specific task.  If they received all stamps in their book, they won a prize at the end of the day.  It gave the youngest generation a window into the future career of agricultural studies.  Check out www.soundschool.com, also featured at Plant Science Day.

It was nice to see the mix of people attending presentations which included everything from Beekeeping Basics (with free honey samples included) to the Mosquitoes and Transmission of West Nile and Eastern Equine Viruses in CT, and many more.  There were talks on the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug and Bed Bugs, and many guided walking tours by pathologists and entomologists of selected field plots reviewing their studies, and other technical demonstrations.  In the old barns, technical displays of various studies to view and learn – one about the functions of charcoal in soil, which I found interesting, by Dr. Joseph J. Piganatello and Dr. Charisma Lattao. I’ve used charcoal on top of some of my container gardens, so I had to read about this one.  And in the vendor area, where I was hanging out, lots of packed resources on things like invasive plants, arborists licensing, soil tests, farm programs, timber producers, energy and environment protection, forestry, organic farming, plant health inspection, farm related products, and more. The gist of this event is it is very research based, technical, and educationally focused.

Cathy T with Nancy Brennick

As for me, Plant Science Day offered me a chance to recharge my fuel and share what the CT Horticultural Society (www.cthort.org) has to offer interested members of all ages and interests.  From monthly speakers to garden related travel, I was enjoying, very much, sharing the information and letting visitors know it is out there as a resource and a way to learn and network with other enthusiastic plant people.  Sure I would have liked to attend the Plant Science Day presentations or go on their wonderful guided tours, but you know, I didn’t mind one bit staying at my post all day to talk to the people who came to ask about the society.  Many enjoyed entering CHS’s free raffle for a compost bin.  62 people entered – and the winner was very happy at the end of the day!

On my breaks from my table, which were short and fleeting, I picked up information on the Census of Agriculture Lesson Plans (www.nass.usda.gov), Honeybee Pollinator Information (www.nrcs.usda.gov/pollinators), a pamphlet on the Experiment Station Association (www.ct.gov/ caes), Web Soil Survey (http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov), Arborist License Information (www.CTPA.org), Bulletin on Invasive Plants in CT Lakes (www.ct.gov/caes), and a book on CT’s Land Use Value for landowners – just to name a few items.  The last item, landowner land use value assessment book, is to share with my Dad. Cathy T

• As noted on their website, the CT Horticultural Society is an educational organization dedicated to encouraging and improving the practice of gardening and the dissemination of  horticultural information to its members and the public.  In 2011, Bill Cullina, Lee May, Michele Owens, Stefan Cover, Charlie Nardozzi, Doug Tallamy and many more were in the CHS line up of their presentations!  Check us out!  Grow-Learn-Travel with CHS.  www.cthort.org
• What is the CT Agricultural Experiment Station?  They make critical scientific discoveries and their scientists do a lot for CT!  See www.ct.gov/caes for details about all they do. Click on Experiment Station Associates. 

For this Friday’s ‘Photo Friday’, I’m posting this picture (see below) of a Professional Photographer taking shots of my Container Gardens on a deck designed by a new company called, “Scenic Post and Rail, LLC” in Broad Brook, CT.

Now talk about passion!  The professional photographer, Catherine Cella of Joyful Reflections Photography, is someone I met through a gift certificate I donated to a local Boy Scout’s fundraiser last spring.  http://joyfulreflectionsphotography.com/.  We held our first meeting at her beautiful home and shortly afterwards, I designed a landscape plan for her backyard area near a shed and in front of the woods. 

Of course, I noticed her photography and style the minute I entered her home.  She has this beautiful country porch, wonderful woodlands around her property, and many elements of style all around her home, inside and out, and she has an extremely energetic personality.  We connected immediately.

Catherine end up attending our 2nd Annual “Gardens, Gallery and Gift” event in Broad Brook this past weekend.  There is no doubt, this is an event where any photographer has opportunities everywhere for photos, from the gardens on the properties, to the butterflies floating about the plants, to the flowers at my booth and my Container Gardens all around my tent.  She took many stunning photos and I’m honored to be part of them.  Especially the one with the funny floating frog figurine on an inner tube that everyone loved at the show.  It was perfect in my Container Garden themed with succulents and drought tolerant plants. 

Well, one thing led to another, and the following Thursday, yesterday, I was commissioned to stage my container gardens on this deck with newly installed custom glass railing systems.  Gosh, I wish I met the couple designing and promoting this wonderful decking system before we put up railings at my Mother-in-Law’s home which faces a lake!  This system allows you to see through without anything blocking your view.  And imagine, no staining required ever!  But the element that turned me on the most about this railing system of glass, is the way the flowers in my container gardens on the deck reflected in the glass.  Oooh-la-la, that was nice!  I would thoroughly enjoy that aspect the most and I oohed over that image.

As I oohed about this “reflection” in the glass, and Catherine hopped around the property in every direction to take the most stunning photos of it all, she said, “Don’t get too excited Cathy, you may pass out in this heat!”  And then we joked, “Isn’t this ironic and funny? Your business is ‘Joyful Reflections Photography”.  How perfect is that?!”  Reflections is a big part of her style – see her website for more.

She and I almost did pass out – We were so thrilled, and the heat was a little tough, but the passion continued.  I can’t wait to see “Scenic Post and Rail” display their product this season on their upcoming website.  It will launch soon.

But when Catherine was lifted into a bucket loader, that really topped off the day!  I had to capture this photo and share it with you.  The passion in her work is clear, and it made me feel like I’m not so crazy when I get overly passionate about my plants and containers.  When you love what you do, the adrenaline comes through.  And it did on this day for all of us.  This new product is also something the business owners are extremely proud of and I can see why.

BTW, if you would like to reach the entrepeneurs of this railing system, feel free contact me at 860-977-9473. I’ll hook you up and will let you know when their website launches!  Cathy T

U go girl!

Photo Friday’s shot is a field of dreams – a field of the future – an inspirational day, taken last Friday, May 13th, when I picked up a load of plants from this wholesale yard for my upcoming Container Garden Parties and gardening events!  And although it was “Friday the 13th”, there was no bad luck experienced.  The sun was shining, a helpful employee walked the grounds with me talking plants and birds, and then Steve and I went to lunch and enjoyed the rest of the day – even hitting up another retail nursery to look around at what was new!  This day was very inspirational for me – I hope to someday fill my property with this many plants.  Perhaps that is ‘dreaming in color’, as my Dad would say!  Now, let’s hope our sun returns here in Broad Brook, CT this weekend.  We need it after a week of wet weather – and so do my plants.  The word “nursery” hasn’t been more prevalent than this week.  Cathy T

Visions of the future

EW Students!

What is cuter than this?!  I think it is the a perfect photo to kick off “Cathy T’s Photo Friday” where every Friday I will post an inspirational gardening related photo with a very short note:

This photo was taken last weekend, on May 7th, at the East Windsor Community Day.  Held the day before Mother’s Day, I had the fortunate experience of kids visiting my booth from time to time to select plants for their Moms. I have to say, kids are the best listeners and customers!  They would ask for help, listen attentively to every detail about the perennial, and often surprised me with their own gardening experiences.  In fact, one boy told me he grew Dahlia plants last year, and has chickens on his property.  He was so enthusiastic, loved looking over all the plants, and had this huge smile on his face.  As he told me more about his gardening routines, I responded with, “Looks like you will be a nurseryman some day!” Then later as the day’s event activities were coming to a close, this group of young ladies came by with their friend who purchased a plant earlier.  I quickly asked if I could take a group photo of them because they were so cute and just being very girly, laughing, smiling, and having a good time.  As soon as I asked if they would allow me to take a group photo, they jumped at the opportunity to grab a plant of their choice and then with a quick “snap!” – I took this shot!  It makes me smile. I hope it does the same for you too! 🙂  

Cathy T of Cathy T’s Landscape Designs (www.cathytesta.com)

If you felt a bit down in the dumps yesterday about our unwelcomed snowfall, I suggest you get into your car and go visit one of your local nurseries.  Nothing will cheer you up more than walking into a greenhouse filled with colorful pansies and annual plants beginning to grow and show buds. 

Luckily for me, I had the opportunity to do this last Thursday, the day before our hopefully last snow storm of the season.  I was invited to a guided tour of the Flower Power Farm located in my hometown of East Windsor, CT.  www.flowerpowerfarm.com.

Flower Power Farm opened up in 2009.  Some of my gardening friends started to ask me if I’ve been there yet.  I did make a few trips there last summer during my hustle and bustle days of the season. I loved how well arranged the rows were set up with neat and clean tables of plants perfectly lined up.  Even though I can identify many plants from a mile away, I appreciated the efficiency of their table arrangements with clear lables at the front of every grouping of plant varieties in their greenhouses and hoop houses. 

Well, now the movement through this nursery is at warp speed.  A cement super highway, as Ben Lupien, the owner of the Flower Power Farm called it, has been poured along the perimeter of his 53 acre grounds.  As it takes you past the first set of greenhouses, you arrive upon a huge outdoor open area of tables just waiting to be stocked with plants as soon as Mother Nature allows.  Beyond this space are many more newly installed greenhouses.  You would not know they were back there when driving by their nursery.  They are located on the far end of the property.

As Ben continued to guide me through the area, he rattled off amazing statistics about their new farm.  They have expanded the area by 50%, growing in bulk so they can afford to offer good prices to their customers, and all their pots sport their new logo.  Every hanging basket has an attached plant tag by color; red tag for full sun and orange for part-sun.  And not only that, the tag lists all the plants in the hanging baskets.  They are growing thousands of plants.  “Hard to believe?”  Well, not when you enter the newest growing houses in the back.

As we walked in, I had to gasp a bit.  Each was fully loaded with plants in pots just waiting to hit the sales floors.  Ben quickly picked up one of the hottest new petunias on the market, a black variety called ‘Black Velvet’.  This is the world’s only black petunia and a must have this year.  It is early flowering, tightly branched and has a mounding habit.  It will be popular, along with Petunia ‘Phantom’ and ‘Pinstripe’ – both also new with back flowers and stripes of color down the petals’ centers (yellow on Phantom and Rose purple on Pinstripe).  His instincts are on target.  I ordered the same variety this winter for my container offerings.

Suddenly, Ben’s cell phone rings for the fourth time.  “Sorry,” he apologized.  I replied with, “Not at all – that is a good thing.” 

It is apparent Ben is a busy young person with lots of ambition.  I thought to myself, “If you are going to dream, you might as well dream big.”  And, Ben, along with his wife, Barb, is doing just that.  However, this new kid in town isn’t just dreaming.  He is going for it. 

The personal aspect that makes this new nursery/growing business all the more exciting to me is that Ben selected this area of East Windsor to pursue his dreams and ventures.  I grew up right down the road from his business location.  It feels good to see a business growing in a product I enjoy so much – plants – right here in my hometown. I was able to share with Ben my history of living on a one-hundred acre farm with a river behind it, and mentioned this land is for sale at the moment. 

The Flower Power Farm has expanded its selection of trees and shrubs this year too.  They have some fruit trees ready for the grow-your-own people out there, and a great selection of shrubs for the landscape.   And they also relocated their entry area with a nice building offering a small selection of products like Osmocote, gardening gloves and watering cans.  I took a photo of watering cans in the shape of pigs sporting this year’s hottest new color, honeysuckle pink!  Planting containers are displayed near this area, all graced with new paver walkways and small beds showcasing some of their shrub offerings.

It is nice to have local choices for gardening.  And I would like to point out that plants are products that we grow right here in the U.S.  When we buy from our local nursery owners, we are not only supporting our “local” economy but supporting our country.  There aren’t any labels stating plants are ‘made in China’ in this nursery, or any other reputable nearby nursery in our hometowns. 

If you are a local to East Windsor, such as me, I encourage you to visit the newly expanded Flower Power Farm – and the other nurseries in our towns.  The owners and their staff work hard to bring us the pleasures of colorful plants to add to our gardens and landscapes.  And they beautify our towns with their community projects and help their local garden clubs.  Don’t miss out on your chance to see their offerings and wake up your spring senses at the same time!  Cathy T of Cathy T’s Landscape Designs (www.cathytesta.com).

Expansion

Fruit Trees

Pansies

Shrubs

Begonia

Pink Pigs

Sun Tag

Growing

FPF

FPF Pot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Friday could not have been a more perfect day to attend the Boston Flower & Garden Show.  It was sunny, warm and breezy.  A day which presented us with the first signs of spring.  Donna, my friend, accepted my invitation to come along on this trip.  She was as equally excited, partly because I turned her onto container gardening last year.  She hosted one of my Container Garden Parties at her home last spring, and not only did she and her friends learn about plants and designing containers, she ended up with 20 rhizomes from the canna plant in her container by the end of the season.  Yes, 20 produced from one starter plant!  In the fall, Donna came over to my house to learn how to store the rhizomes for use again this spring.  I told her she can start to pot up the rhizomes now to get them growing in her house for an early start. 

The deluxe motorcoach bus ride to the show was convenient and relaxing.  Organized by Friendship Tours on behalf of the CT Horticultural Society’s trip offerings (www.cthort.org), it went smoothly with no traffic delays into the city.  We sat back and chatted until we were dropped off at the front door.  On the way, we stopped for a one-hour guided tour of the Boston Public Library.  But to be honest, I was too anxious to see the show, which featured container gardens this year! As you can imagine, I could not wait to get there. 

I really liked how the show floor was setup this year.  Right down the middle, the landscape designs and garden exhibitors were displayed.  As you entered the main entrance, you walked straight ahead to begin seeing all the thrills of container gardening by the exhibitors participating in the displays.  And on each side of this central area were the market places where you could shop and buy many gardening related products.  I liked how they broke the market place up into two sections on each side of the landscape display areas because it also broke up the shopping crowd.  Plus you felt like you could step out of the displays and shop on either side when you needed a change of pace.  In the very back of the building were the floral and horticulture competition exhibits, held in well air-conditioned rooms.  So if you need a little cooling down from all the excitement, these rooms are not only cooling but very quiet.  We decided to see the award winning plants as the grand finale later that day.

Donna shops

This year’s show featured 25 gardens each encompasing some creative aspect of container gardening.  Some were embedded with displays as focal points.  While others were interesting takes on the container concept.  I was immediately impressed upon arrival to the first exhibit.  In fact, I started to feel like some of these displays may have been even better than the Philadelphia’s flower show which I just raved about a week ago on my blog!  Or perhaps it is because I’m addicted to container gardening, so it thrills me the most.  Donna’s reactions were equally positive.  She was inspired on so many levels by what she saw – and so was I.  As soon as we began our journey through the displays, we felt charged up for more. 

Yoga Gardening

Tub Above

A lot of the landscape and garden displays had raised or elevated features.  For example, one with lots of orchids had a table on a turn-style platform which rotated as a central focal point in the center of the display, elevated above everything else around it.  It was held up high and provided an action feature.  Another display showcased an old galvanized tub filled with plants.  It was situated on top of a tall and worn wooden ladder.  The older type of materials worked well together, giving a rustic country feel to the scene.  I liked how the plants cascaded from the tub down the ladder a bit. And this display showed how you can reuse common old products in new ways as containers. 

Another feature I noticed in this show, and in Philly’s and Hartford’s flower shows this year, was the use of live people in landscape or garden exhibits.  In Boston, one designer showcased a zen-like garden with yoga instructors doing poses on a wooden platform floor set inside a garden room.  This offered a new element of inspiration as you witnessed the intended garden theme being used in action on the spot.  In Hartford, there were people in a garden display carrying picket signs about plants.  I can’t recall exactly the theme of their showcase area, but the fact they used actors along with the plants engaged interest in a new way.  It made the concept come alive along with the plants.  And in Philadelphia’s show, they had artists painting an image of a live model.  The model had a beautiful blue dress on and was surrounded by garden displays.  All of this lent a feeling of gardens being part of our lives and our journeys through gardening leading to expressions or emotions. 

Nooney

One of the other fun aspects of attending these big garden shows is the way art is presented in the displays.  Sometimes in very unusual and unexpected ways.  Jill Nooney of Fine Garden Art (www.finegarden.com) had an exhibit using natural elements gathered from the land.  Most of it, from what I was told by the gentlemen handing out her business cards, were gathered by Jill from land near her home in Lee, New Hampshire.  There were lobster shells standing up to form a small container.  It was like a small bowl filled with a soft white fabric like substance in the center.  It looked like cotton or fibers, but I wasn’t sure what the material was but sensed it was a natural product.  It made me think of an animal’s nest where they gather various materials like fur or string.  There were also things like sea shells with twigs and vines.  Piles of seaweed on the floor formed a thick textural mat.  It made me think about the times I’ve seen seaweed on the beach.  It was so cool to see it reused in an usual way.  I spotted lamb’s wool and feathers too along with branches all enveloped or containing other raw and natural products of the land.  All the materials were earthy and recognizable but staged to offer a curiosity to the scene – to make you question and admire the art of her works, and imagination.  Her exhibit fit her communicated style of “one-of-a kind pieces” and “distinctive.”  Jill Nooney’s work is located at Bedrook Farm in Lee, N.H.  She is having open house showcasing her art on four dates this year in May through September.  I will try to go to at least one.   The dates are May 14th, June 11th, June 9th and September 10th.  Ironically, I admired Jill’s work at an earlier show this winter, but didn’t realize it was the same person until I came home to write about Boston’s displays.  But it is exhibits like her’s that make you think outside of the box and get creative with nature that leads to the surprises in your own gardens.  

Lobster by Nooney

By the time we reached the end of the garden display areas, Donna and I accepted an offer to sit in a giant blue chair.  It was really there to draw the attention of kids, but we didn’t miss the opportunity to act like ones!  As you can see by our expressions, we were enjoying our day. We continued through the marketplaces, then we took a nice break for lunch by the adjacent Anthony’s Pier 4 restaurant on Northern Avenue.  We politely asked our server to make it quick because we wanted to return to see the prized horticultural exhibits before we had to jump back onto the motorcoach bus to return home.  Our only disappointment of the day was the fact we could have stayed at least one hour longer.  Our feet were tired, but our energy was still strong enough to see more.   Cathy T