It’s been about 20 years since I last attended the Boston Flower & Garden Show.

I finally returned for the 2014 show with my mom.

We’re both glad that we made the decision to give this event another try.

The Garden Marketplace
The vast array of exhibiting vendors was impressive. One of my favorites was the book area with titles like this!

Great book titles, like this one, at the Boston Flower & Garden Show.

This book was one of my first finds, but I was holding off on purchases at the start of the show. Unfortunately, I forgot to go back to pick up a copy.  I think that I need to order one online for my own library.

Speaking of a library, my vote for most artistic vendor goes to the Hudson Valley Seed Library. Their seed packages are also amazing works of art – definitely suitable for framing.  Since I’m not sure yet what I want to start from seed this year for my own garden, I held back on any purchases, but definitely plan to place an order soon (even just to have these little works of art displayed in my backyard garden shed!)

Loved the artistic packaging for the Hudson Valley Seed Library’s offering.

I also enjoyed stopping by the display for Peony’s Envy. (The company name, of course, was a draw!) I’ve never seen such a variety peony plants in one small location.  My mom immediately recognized this vendor from the dozens of gardening and landscaping magazines that she’s been browsing. A Peony’s Envy peony is now at my home, tucked in the back of the ‘fridge until it’s ready to plant in the garden in a few weeks (or as soon as the snow melts!) 

One of my early blogs entries shared information about the peonies that have been in my garden for the past 40+ years.  It’s always nice to add something new to the mix!

The new peony from Peony’s Envy is going to make my neighbors jealous!

Spring’s Arrival at Boston’s Seaport World Trade Center
The highlight of our visit was the feeling of being outside in so many beautiful gardens, all under one big roof.

Walking through these indoor gardens, on a cold Friday in early March certainly made it feel like spring. It also smelled like spring. So much so that a dose of Benedryl was required while walking through the expo.

One of the more interesting and surprising landscaping themes was the inclusion of many outdoor bedrooms in the garden.  While this is far from practical (imagine mosquitos and other nocturnal critters crawling into your outdoor bed – it gives new meaning to bedbugs), it was fun to imagine and displays like this one fulfilled the overall show theme of ‘Romance in the Garden’!

Sweet Dreams in the Garden.

Something I wasn’t expecting to see was a landscape filled with ceramic fish, provided by a vendor called Fish in the Garden.  There was discussion in this display area amongst other show spectators.  We all thought that this garden looked like we were peering into an aquarium.

Garden Aquarium – Just missing the diver, castle,  and treasure chest.

The inclusion of sculptures into the garden is especially appealing to me — I enjoyed seeing a variety of stone, ceramic, metallic and other types of sculpture (including the giant rope spider web that you can see in the background of in one of these photos.)

Stone Sculptures (look to the far right for the rope spider web!)

Gate posing as sculpture in the garden.

Back to Life. Back to Reality.
With spring only a few days away, our happy return to the 2014 Boston Flower & Garden Show provided a nice dose of hope and optimism, even for just a few hours, before returning home to my (still) snow covered garden.

Back to Reality! Garden is still covered in a thick blanket of snow.

“Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.”

~Victor Hugo