Finding Signs of Spring Indoors at the Indiana Flower & Patio Show

That groundhog was right about six more weeks of winter. But those six weeks were over a while ago, and we still have winter! I am more than ready for spring! Mom and I headed to the Indiana Flower & Patio Show on March 12 to enjoy some spring color indoors while we wait for winter’s thaw. It’s one of our favorite annual traditions, and this year the show celebrated its 60th anniversary. Our favorite parts of the show, held 9 days each March at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, are the feature gardens in the center of West Pavilion and Expo Hall, and the Plant Market just inside the West Pavilion’s entrance. We skip most of the vendors hawking everything from bathtubs to mattresses, and stop at our favorite places like the vendors selling garden flags, cut flowers, plants, gift items and garden accessories, many of which are concentrated in the Plant Market section. There were two vendors selling fairy garden supplies and we each found some cute items for our fairy gardens. As cold as it’s been, we didn’t buy any plants.

The last several years we’ve made it a point to go to the show on a weekday since it’s so crowded on the weekends. It was still pretty brisk when we arrived at lunchtime, but thinned out during the late afternoon.

Every year the gardens are designed according to a theme, and this year it was the number 60 to go along with the 60th Anniversary theme. Garden designers interpreted the theme either by celebrating the 1960s, 1958 when the show started, or a 60th anniversary theme. Although the garden designs have gotten less elaborate over the years, they’re still beautiful and showcase unique ideas. Our favorite garden display was by McNamara Florist, which never disappoints. Their garden, titled “The Icing on the Cake” featured a 60th anniversary three-tiered floral “cake” topped by a rotating 60. It was inspired by a 25th anniversary cake featured at the show in 1983. Each layer was made up of flowers planted in large galvanized steel planters, accented by flickering electric candles. A stunning backdrop of hanging planters, which matched the cake’s steel planters, completed the colorful display of flowers.

Elsie’s Flower Shoppe of Sheridan, IN had three beautiful and unique large scale floral arrangements at the show which we loved: an old VW bug given new life with flowers bursting out of the hood of the car and peace sign floral tires; a topiary horse and flower cart filled with ivy and hydrangeas; and a festive three tier cake laden with colorful fresh flowers.

Other highlights were the return of the butterfly bench, which Mom and I saw at one of the first shows we attended several years ago, a froggy mowing the grass with a 1960s era push mower – yet listening to an iPod as he worked, a stone arch and small garden that reminded me of a life size fairy garden, and the items on display that had been worn in Saturday’s floral fashion show. Models had dressed head to toe in outfits covered in fresh flowers, with the theme of “Groovy Fashions – Floral Couture from the ‘60s.”

After walking through all the show gardens, we took a break to sit down and eat popcorn while watching a seminar on container planting then did our shopping and headed home. We covered a lot of ground that day! My FitBit recorded just over 10,000 steps by the end of the day.

Next year’s show is March 9-17, 2019 and I’m already looking forward to it.  I wonder what the theme will be?  And I wonder if we’ll have another March that roars in like a lion or if it will be a total lamb!