Spent two days last week at the San Francisco Flower Show.  Two years ago the show moved to San Mateo south of San Fran.   The new venue is terrific, flat and open with space outside for art installations and food vendors.  But the show was disappointing and didn’t have nearly the pizazz of either NW Flower and Garden Show or the Portland YGP Show.  The parking lot was full and the show crowded but folks didn’t seem excited or engaged.

As a long time show goer I was surprised by an encounter with a proprietary and snippy vendor  who only shared info about her product with folks willing to commission her to create an artwork.  Never before have I encountered any one at a show, garden tour or event that wasn’t willing to share what they were doing and why.  I wanted to stomp on her posies and chastise her for being an unnatural  and churlish gardener.

Two of the more decorated (meaning those with the most medals) display gardens were conceptual and very esoteric.  Both gardens were apocalyptic in nature–revealing a vision of native plants reclaiming the site in the absence of human kind.  Gardens by definition are a human construct and for me are part of the social fabric of our culture.  Interesting and provocative ideas.  The most arresting garden visually was a room sized cube sided in succulents.  The structure seemingly floated over a shallow pond.

Succulent cube at the San Francisco Flower Show

Thursday was spent photographing gardens in Palo Alto followed by a marvelous dinner at an Italian restaurant in Half Moon Bay.  Home again, home again on Friday.