Garden Show Delivers First Taste of Spring
By Annie Calovich, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.
Mar. 6–The plant buying has already begun.
Brandi Pappan of Derby saw Tangerine geraniums blooming Wednesday at the Wichita Garden Show and, like several flower lovers before her, had to have one.
“I just love that color. It’s awesome,” she said after turning over $3 plus tax for the orange bargain at Stone Creek Nursery’s booth.
And what about the fact that the geranium can’t go outside yet?
“I’m going to take my mom’s advice,” she said: Keep it in a sunny window.
The garden show opened Wednesday at Century II to people eager to bottle up their first whiff of spring and keep it going until the real thing arrives.
The show drew 44,000 people last year and continues through Sunday. It is sort of nature’s version of an amusement park, doling out entertainment along with education and a chance to shop for services and products from hot tubs to tomato plants.
“My, oh my, oh my,” Kathy Schlechte of Seward, Neb., said as she walked under a fallen tree limb that served as an entry arch for Scenic Landscape’s garden. She then looked up to see towering evergreens.
“You can’t truly take all this in, can you? You have to come through twice,” she said. “It blows my mind how they get all these rocks in here.”
A new attraction this year is a 10-foot walking, talking willow tree. “Willow” emerged from a black-curtained booth to awestruck looks from not only children but adults.
“How many rings are you?” his green lips asked Warren Angle, who stared, speechless, his mouth agape.
“Seven,” his mother, Vicki, answered for him.
“That’s a very young sapling,” the tree remarked, going on to educate his audience about his need for water and the benefits he provides to the environment.
“Any tree will talk to you,” he told the children. “Press your chest against the tree, close your eyes, and listen.”
If you go
Find hours, prices and additional Wichita Garden Show information on Page 5E.
Reach Annie Calovich at 316-268-6596 or acalovich@wichitaeagle.com.
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Copyright (c) 2008, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.
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