GardenScape 2018

GardenScape 2018 is the annual flower and garden show in Rochester, New York, which runs from March 8-11, 2018. It is held at the newly remodeled dome in Henrietta, New York, a suburb of Rochester. Top landscape companies from around the area transformed the Dome into a living garden paradise. GardenScape showcases the most unique designs, display, plants and products for the attendees.

This is the 22^nd presentation of GardenScape, but there has been a gap of six years since the last show because the Dome was not available. I have been fortunate to have displayed bonsai, in every GardenScape and I’m the last of the original exhibitors. The Bonsai Society of Upstate New York has also displayed in each show.

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This year’s theme is “The Flower City Blooms Again.” GardenScape is presented by the GardenScape Professionals Association, a not-for-profit organization whose proceeds will help to benefit the association’s many educational and public service efforts, and by the Professional Landscape and Nursery Trades of the Genesee-Finger Lakes Region.

Several seminars are presented throughout the four day event. I presented two seminars on “Stone Appreciation” and “Horticultural Art Forms Of Japan.

Each year nursery and horticulture professionals from outside the region judge the garden displays. Two or three teams consisting of landscapers, garden designers and horticulturists carefully evaluate each garden display and present many awards to worthy entries.

The GardenScape Competition Mission Statement:

To raise the level of horticultural entertainment and education by rewarding imagination, creativity and the highest quality execution at GardenScape.

The Bonsai Society of Upstate New York won two awards for “best garden or display with educational value for the gardening public” and for the “most entertaining display for the gardening public.” Their display was next to mine so half of an entire wall featured bonsai.

In past GardenScapes, my bonsai were displayed in garden settings. This year, keeping with the theme The Flower City Blooms Again, each display was to feature something unique to Rochester. My display was named “Rochester: Home of the US National Bonsai Exhibition” because Rochester has hosted six US National Bonsai Exhibitions, 30 symposia, 45 Upstate New York Bonsai Exhibitions and one colloquium. Additionally there have also been numerous smaller displays for the public. The city of Rochester seems to be becoming a center of bonsai in the United States. My Monday Senior Crew assisted me in the set up of the display. We began on Monday morning at 9 am and finished up Wednesday morning. On Tuesday two friends from Ithaca, NY, drove up to Rochester to help. My son Chris and his friend Ray were a tremendous help, especially with moving two skids of stones and all the lumber for the gazebo.

Six alcoves displays, identical to the US National Bonsai Exhibitions were designed to feature the seasonality of bonsai to present bonsai as a fine art to the public and therefore the hanging scrolls were not in keeping to my aesthetic appreciation. The hanging scroll paintings themes were usually duplicated with the main displayed bonsai to suggest the four seasons for the public, not the bonsai hobbyists. Colorful flyers for the upcoming 2018 6^th US National Bonsai Exhibition (September 8-9) were handed out. Hopefully visitors to my display at GardenScape will want to see more formal displays and will attend the September exhibition.

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Additionally my display included a gazebo where Harvey Carapella, Alan Adair and presented continuous demonstrations working on two different trees at a time. Questions were answered during the event about what we were doing as well as the formal displays.