Quiet Riot

Summer's scorch may loom but, this weekend at least, plant fairs lavish us with cool green. It's a refreshing repast for fans and families.

By JOHN A. STARNES Jr., Times Correspondent

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 28, 2000

[TimesFILES 1996: Bill Serne] Visitors to this year’s Green Thumb Festival will find exhibitions about nature, gardening and the environment, and seminars on topics such as garden tool sharpening and testing your water.

We fight traffic all week, cope with office politics, try to please our Significant Other (or get one). We haul the kids from here to there, try to keep the bills paid and the house and yard looking respectable. When it's all done, maybe we squeeze in some fun or just pass out in front of the tube.

By the end of the weekend, we hope we have rested enough to do it all over again.

Quiet moments spent gardening alone or with a good friend offer precious opportunities to find a calm center, a quiet oasis from the shrieking demands of adulthood.

Screaming with thousands of other fans at a baseball game does offer togetherness of sorts, but a lot of us need to cool our jets.

Strolling through an open air plant fair on a gorgeous day for some precious alone time, or with family or friends, is like a good deep rain for a drought-stricken soul. No fast rides or blaring music. Instead, fascinating exhibits, beautiful plants and friendly fellow gardeners blend to celebrate nature's gifts to us.

As the weather heats up, the gardening show schedule slows down. But this, the final weekend of April, offers all kinds of opportunities.

There is the Green Thumb Festival in St. Petersburg and the National Orchid Show at the Belleview Biltmore Resort and Spa in Belleair. If you don't mind a drive to Orlando, the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival starts this weekend and continues through June 11.

Farther afield, Miami's famous Fairchild Tropical Garden holds its Spring Plant Sale on Saturday, your chance to buy plants from the garden's own nursery and local plant societies. Next weekend offers the Tampa Rose Society's annual rose show, and the Sarasota Bromeliad Society Show and sale. Details accompany this story. Stay tuned to the St. Petersburg Times' Home & Garden section every Saturday for the complete garden calendar.

There's no end to what you'll find at these shows.

Curious about orchids? Stroll over to a booth brimming with them, inhale their amazing fragrances and chat with folks who grow them easily in their back yards.

Ever eat a red banana that tastes like a very sweet pineapple? Get to know the growing number of folks cultivating exotic tropical fruits in Central Florida, and taste free sample slices so you can pick out your favorite for your landscape.

Gave up on roses years ago? Learn about varieties that thrive here and bloom year-round with no chemical spraying.

Already bonkers over a certain kind of plant? Join local plant clubs at their membership tables so that once a month you can hang out for an evening of friendship, excitedly sharing your obsession with ferns or daylilies or roses or what-have-you.

If you have children, a plant fair can be a chance for them to have fun while learning -- just don't tell them about the educational part.

A lot of us are, to be polite, frugal. Our friends may think us cheap. In any event, who doesn't like a bargain? How about coming home from a plant fair with potted trees the height of an adult for a few bucks? How about FREE trees given away by a city reforestation program? Imagine scanning a table for way-cool potted plants that cost less than a fast-food meal?

John A. Starnes Jr. is an avid gardener and rosarian who studies, collects, cultivates and hybridizes roses for the diverse regions of Florida and Colorado. He can be reached at: THE.GARDEN-DOCTOR@worldnet.att.net.

What's on

Whether you're an experienced gardener or a novice facing a barren yard, plant and garden shows are a great place to get and share knowledge and inspiration. Here are shows this weekend in the Tampa Bay area and a couple farther afield:

• Green Thumb Festival 2000, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, Walter Fuller Park, 7891 26th Ave. N, St. Petersburg. Now 13 years old, the Green Thumb Festival offers exhibitions about nature, gardening and the environment, and seminars on topics such as garden tool sharpening and testing your water. Kids can enter a Plant Fair and win ribbons, and grown-ups can score free samples and inexpensive plants. Free recycled mulch available. Admission free. Call (727) 893-7335.
• National Orchid Show, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. today and Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Belleview Biltmore Resort and Spa, 25 Belleview Blvd., Clearwater. With 19 vendors and exhibitors and a full schedule of expert lecturers, this is the place to find out more about this major horticultural craze. With 30,000 known species and more than 100,000 hybrids, it's not hard to see why orchids are a consuming passion for so many. Show admission $2. Single lecture admission $3. Call (813) 968-3402.
• Daylily Show and Sale, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday, Tampa Bay Center (near center of mall), Himes Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. (across from Raymond James Stadium), Tampa. Bay Area Daylily Society sponsors this event. Plants and books available for purchase all day. Flower judging in morning. Judging area open to public noon-5:30 p.m. Call (813) 831-8294, (727) 536-9948 or (352) 544-0330.
• Water Garden Tour, 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Self-guided Pondscapes Water Garden Tour of 20 ponds in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Maps and garden descriptions available during tour hours at Pondscapes, 4213 S Manhattan Ave., Tampa (1 mile north of Gandy Boulevard). Tour includes some ponds installed by professionals and others built by homeowners. $5 donation for tour benefits the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. Call (813) 839-8062.
• Spring Plant Sale, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday at Fairchild Tropical Gardens, 10901 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables, offers a chance to purchase plants raised in the famous gardens' own nurseries, as well as those raised by plant societies and to talk to experts about how to make your selection. Other Fairchild events in coming weeks include a flowering plant show and sale, May 13-14; a cactus and succulent show and sale, May 26-28; a fern show and sale, June 3-4; a bamboo show and sale, June 11. A mustn't-miss event for mango lovers is Fairchild's International Mango Festival July 8-9. Gardens admission: $8; free for 12 and under. Check Fairchild's Web site: http://www.ftg.org/horticulture, or call (305) 667-1651 for more information.
• Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival, today-June 11 at Epcot Center in the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. With topiaries and displays using 30-million blooms. Disney horticulturists and other experts present demonstrations on topics such as topiary, butterfly gardens, pest management, vegetables, use of color and water. Epcot's hours are 9 a.m.-9 p.m. seven days a week. All garden festival activities are included in regular Epcot admission. One-day, one-park pass is $46 for adults; $37 for children 3-9. Call (407) 824-4321 for information.