Spring Flower Show: Landscapes For a Summer Day

By The Old House Web

Late winter in Maine: Reality

The same view in early summer

Late winter in Maine: A dream (flower show display)

Northern New England, where the Old House Web is based, has five seasons -- winter, spring, summer, fall, and the shortest, but nastiest stretch -- mud.season. Cars get mired in mud, mud gets tracked into homes, schools, and offices, knee-high boots are required gear for walks in the yard...and it's at least three months before tender perennials can be planted.

It's no wonder, then, that folks around here love spring flower shows. This year, I visited the People, Places & Plants Show in Scarborough. This modest show dreams big. Tulips and daffodils are welcome harbingers of spring at other shows; but this show went one step further and featured summer landscapes.

On a 35-degree day with intermittent snow and sleet, the lavish floral displays, fountains and stone walls were a pleasant reminder that this season of dreary days won't last forever. I took home a few free packets of seeds, an uplifted spirit and the motivation to begin planning my summer gardens. Below are some sights from this year's show.

Lacy leafed Japanese Maple provides contrast and color to this water garden.

Art imitates life: Pink tea roses are a perfect match for the roses in this marble statue. Display was appropriately names, "Rosie's Afternoon Tea."

A shade garden can be rife with colors and textures -- as well as carefree -- as this display of Hostas (above) and Coleus (below) shows.

Container gardens provide a spash of color and softness in places with difficult growing conditions.

Foliage can provide contrasts in color and texture in an easy-to-maintain garden.

In this garden herbs and vegetables share space with colorful geraniums.

Electric blue flowers of borage contrast with the vivid pinks of these Canterbury bells.

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