Most days looking out the window reminds us that our beloved Canadian summer is ages away, but a constant reminder that spring is around the corner is the annual Canada Blooms show. Canada’s largest garden and flower show is a non-profit event sponsored by the Garden Club of Toronto and Landscape Ontario, showcasing floral and landscape designs, products and services. The sights and smells are intoxicating and brings out flocks of people to dream of the perfect patio or deck.
Canada Blooms is at the CNE grounds and shares the exhibition hall with the National Home Show. This makes it a one stop shop for renovations inside your home as well as outside in your outdoor living space.
For the 20th anniversary of Canada Blooms, we aimed to create a show that could appeal to more than just gardeners while sticking to our theme It’s a Party,” said Terry Caddo, General Manager of Canada Blooms. “While the flowers remained the main focus, the feature gardens, speakers and hands-on seminars are what make Canada Blooms an unforgettable experience.”
If you weren’t able to make it out to the show, or you want to reminisce, here are some of the highlights from this year’s show:
- Genoscape’s feature garden H2O Yeah! was awarded the Tony DiGiovanni Garden of the year award. With sights and sounds of water, this garden also featured a one-of-a-kind wood igloo made out of old pallets.
- Grout, the 7ft gnome at the entrance of the show, was also the focal point of the selfie contest #groutatblooms where a few lucky winners scored a copy of Mark Cullen’s new book The New Canadian Garden.
- The seminars, especially those by Frankie Flowers and Mark Cullen, were successful in sharing tips on what grows best in small spaces, how to plan and prep for spring and what fruits and vegetable plants are and are not worth the effort.
- The Fafard Gardening Experience allowed kids to learn about seeds and soils while letting them plant their own seeds in a miniature take-home garden.
- The National Home Show’s DreamHome was designed and built by Michael Upshall of Probuilt Design + Build with the intention of bringing the outside in with oversized panoramic windows. The house was a glimpse into the future as it featured invisible surround sound and smartphone-controlled heating, cooling, lighting, sound and security!
“While celebrating the 20th anniversary of Canada blooms was quite the experience, we are already looking ahead to what 2017 will bring,” said Caddo.
If you have never been out to Canada Blooms we highly recommend it. Just getting out and getting the sense of spring and summer being around the corner is worth the price of admission. The event ran for 10 days and was packed on the last weekend which was also coincidentally the last day of March Break for school children. So regardless of whether you need a spa, a patio set, or just some nice bulbs to plant, this is the show for you.
We leave you with some lovely sights from the show.
