5. Flower Power Don’t forget that Canada Blooms is about blooms – and equal partners with Landscape Ontario in the show is the Garden Club of Toronto. This is a not-for-profit group of amateur (in the true “loving” sense of the word) and often insanely talented floral designers and horticulturists. They are the force that […]

4. Grand larceny You might be unable to afford all that limestone hardscaping or the wrought-iron fencing or the brilliant “exterior designers”. But there’s one thing every gardener can afford at Canada Blooms: free ideas to steal. Wantonly and with abandon. To wit: the watering can fountain in my own garden, pictured on the right; […]

Next in line in our Canada Blooms reasons why series: 3. Escape from winter The Ides of March are approaching. The snowdrops and bluebells are buried under the foot or more of snow on the ground in Toronto. And then there is Canada Blooms; Canada Blooms, where the hyacinths fly for the winter. We go […]

This continues our series about why, despite everything, we keep returning to Canada Blooms: 2. Rekindling the passion Within the spidery network of the Internet, I’ll probably regret using this term, but one thing you’re always sure to get at Canada Blooms is what I call “garden pornography.” We go to get all lathered up […]

I’ve visited Canada Blooms almost every year since it began; often as a volunteer, sometimes as a civilian. After a few start-up pains (like that first year way out by the airport) and a few glory years (remember Janet Rosenberg’s spectacular garden designs for Loblaws?), Canada’s largest indoor garden show has settled into something of […]