Saturday, March 19, 2011

March Madness - Meh.

After two glorious, warm and sunny days, we're back to the kind of late winter weather we here in Rochester know and are tired of - gray, cloudy skies and a chill northwest breeze. Inasmuch as spring officially begins tomorrow, it really shouldn't matter, but after being outdoors without a jacket, feeling the sun on my face (and seeing a nice pink glow looking back at me in the mirror) and seeing so many flowers beginning to bloom, being busted back to a de facto winter is just so disappointing. And I don't even have the consolation of going to the annual garden show this weekend. I gave up on the Rochester Gardenscape show after seeing the Philadelphia Flower Show in all its glory. Rochester's show, I regret to say, is a joke. Once upon a time it was an eagerly anticipated event. The Federated Garden Clubs (my peeps) had a standard flower show there that was a huge crowd pleaser. There were special exhibits by the area florists, tons of plants and seeds for sale, etc. Well, they kicked us (flower show) out first, moving us from prime floor space to progressively smaller and more cramped areas, until our last show which wasn't much better than a modified storage area! When they started wanting us to pay a premium rate for that crappy space, we left. Then the florists disappeared. After that, the number of plant vendors began to steadily decline, followed by other garden vendors. Now most of what's in the market area is totally unrelated stuff - foods, clothing, as-seen-on-TV junk. As a garden show, it's pretty much a bust. Even the landscape displays have declined in quality. What really makes me laugh is how the organizers love to tout it as "the next Philadelphia Flower Show". I've seen the Philly show folks - in your dreams....

So what's a Rochester gardener to do on a day like this? Curl up with a cup of jasmine tea and write a blog post, I guess!

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