Canada Blooms 2012

If there is one event I look forward to each year it is Canada Blooms. I have been to the show twice before and both times I was blown away by the creativity of gardeners, florists, bird watchers, horticulturalists...basically like-minded people. I have had great conversations, taken a lot of pictures and simply had a lovely time. In 2009 I accomplished all this with a two-month-old breastfeeding baby!

Canada Blooms 2009 - feature garden

Last year I missed the show and was really upset. So we planned well ahead for this year, got the tickets and prepared for every kind of scenario with a three-year-old in tow and got to the show just after it had opened. For once I even got an empty SD card in my camera and charged the batteries. However, when I got to the show and walked through the doors I felt this huge sense of disappointment. I just saw stalls everywhere, not an indoor 'field' of tulips or fantastic flower arrangements.

One of many many beautiful flower arrangements

It felt like a humongous, messy marketplace. I did not take my camera out, not once. All I would have likely managed was the backs of people's heads anyway, most of whom seemed to be angry and in a great hurry. In all fairness I think the focus was on the National Home Show this year. But the sheer volume of people coupled with more stalls than the place could have comfortably accommodated did not make for a pleasant time. There was no room to walk let alone with a sleeping child in a stroller.

Canada Blooms 2009 - Another fabulous feature garden

One thing the stalls did accomplish was to get us to part with a sizable amount of money. We now own three steam irons (don't ask!), some fabulous lily bulbs (the Girl would love them), a glorious African violet, some (apparently) fantastic mineral make-up and the Offspring scored a fancy egg shaped night light that changes colours.

It seemed like a show for someone interested in the home show, either looking to renovate, buy or build a house and then contemplate a garden. It was not for the gardener or art lover in me. 

Fabulous sand sculpture, also from 2009

We saw none of this fabulous art work, just tonnes of vendors. Canada Blooms is open for ten days this year, I am not sure having it open longer with fewer attraction is worth it. We figured it all boils down to dollars and cents. I felt sad when it was time to leave, I don't think I will go again next year.