In the Garden Articles

San Francisco Flower & Garden Show

by Joan S. Bolton

Eye candy.

There was plenty to behold at the recent San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, where exhibitors staged 22 eye-popping fantasy gardens.

The stylish, themed displays ranged from contemplative to whimsical to stark raving mod. There was at least one unorthodox presentation that left visitors muttering, "That's a garden? That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen."

But then that's the fun of attending the biggest garden show in California: seeing how teams of high-end landscape architects, designers, contractors and materials suppliers throw thousands of dollars at displays that aim to impress for less than a week.

The Winners Are...

This year's theme was "Live Beautifully -- Live Outdoors!" While the results were wildly different, a few common threads included an emphasis on recycled materials and flowing water.

Best of Show honors went to A Zen Spa Garden, an extravagant, walk-through display that promoted quiet and calm, with lounge chairs nestled in nooks created by a series of smooth, terra cotta walls.

The dominant feature was a drop-dead gorgeous glass mosaic wall containing a niche sporting a Buddha head and a sheet of water cascading into a concrete soaking tub. An outdoor shower was hidden in a nearby alcove. A living fence of feathery bamboo topped a low planter, with succulents at the bamboo's feet in tones of bronze, terra cotta and green, to coordinate with the color of the walls. The only element that seemed out of character was the artificial turf, which was touted as an "environmentally sustainable and water conserving" surface, yet appeared at odds with the other natural materials.

The People's Choice award -- the result of ballots cast by visitors during the first three days of the five-day show -- went to an even more meditative space, Olive Grove Retreat.

The crowd pleaser was a simple presentation in the center of the Cow Palace. A waist-high berm marked the perimeter, and was planted with 40-year-old olive trees. Their gray, gnarled trunks were offset by a dark-gray, horse shoe-shaped concrete bench encircling a water basin in the middle of the grove. Crunchy gravel filled the sitting area. Clumps of ornamental grasses wove their way through the trees.

My favorite garden, Water Is Life, was an otherworldly display of water, faux wood, faux stone and dramatic lighting. Horizontal slabs of concrete sculpted with amazing, wood-like textures created pathways over a central pond. Tilt-up slabs created interesting stone-like columns for water to stream down.

With the design light on plants and heavy on style and texture, I'm not sure how you'd try it at home. Perhaps the best spot would be in a narrow side yard, where the interplay of staggered, upright columns and a random waterway would create an illusion of depth in an otherwise small space. The effect would be particularly spectacular at night, with the dripping columns lit from lights placed in the water and pointing skyward.

Day-time water was dominant in Jungle Skinny Dip, an inventive take on an afternoon getaway in Costa Rica. A waterfall cascading into a central pool was ringed by more plants per square inch than just about any other exhibit. Twisting vines, flashy orchids and lush, leafy tropicals all jostled for space beneath specimen palms. Several discarded bikinis and swim trunks reinforced the idea of a tropical Eden. Given the many greenhouse plants, this one might be challenging to replicate, unless you're planning to ram your SUV into the bushes and toss bathing suits around your back yard.

Other displays promoted evening getaways. Dreams of Peace featured a romantic canopy bed with swagged curtains, satin sheets and a plump teddy bear. Inside Out: The California Lifestyle included a bed covered in recycled fabrics, along with an outdoor shower where the drain water was to be collected for future irrigation.

While Dreams and Inside Out promised a relaxing end to the day, And Now Playing in the Garden... promoted a disturbing trend: the glamorization of outdoor movies, with a laptop and projector aimed at a stucco wall. What a great way to annoy the neighbors into the night.

Camper's Paradise depicted a far more placid retreat, with a mountain stream, picnic table and tent snuggled in among redwoods, red twig dogwoods, azaleas, rhododendrons and ferns.

Also family friendly and down to earth was It Doesn't Take a Hectare, the show's only edible garden. A giant metal rabbit sculpture towered over ornamental beds of vegetables, edible flowers, herbs and small citrus trees. Proving that charming and sustainable are not polar opposites, the vegetables were positively attractive in their own right, sporting frilly leaves, interesting textures and a range of colors.

There was also a nifty design element that could be easily copied at home: in a bed mulched with gravel, a curving path was delineated by parallel lines of chunks of rocks. You could create the same effect with walk-on bark and river rocks, or decomposed granite and bricks set on edge.

Broad sweeps of tumbled glass stood in for running water in The Jeweled Garden (which might have been subtitled, "Band-Aids, Anyone?"). Stretching the boundaries of practicality, nearly all the exposed surfaces were composed of sparkling shards of recycled glass, including sapphire blue mulch, ruby red boxed planters and obsidian black walls.

Lit from below, the garden was stunning and would most certainly be dramatic at night. Yet it seemed more suited for an indoor hotel lobby than for outdoor living.

Poly-Patio pushed the use of surplus materials even further. Recycled glass formed a faux stream and garden furniture was fashioned from recycled plastic. Yet it seemed a little farfetched that anyone would have on hand that many used dominos to adorn a pair of swinging doors, or that many short pieces of multi-colored PVC pipe to shape a path.

While the plastic pipe, set on end, created an interesting mosaic and would probably stay pristine indoors, it would get dirty, dusty and dingy in the real world. However, the designers deserve credit for imagination. And the collection of plants -- agaves, aloes, grasses and other water-conserving plants -- was among the most interesting in the show.

Indeed, many of the exhibits were surprisingly heavy on hardscape, at the expense of plants.

Perhaps the most extreme example was a modern take called Nueva California. The minimalist display was composed of heaps of river rocks with an occasional redwood tree perched on top. Giant white glow sticks protruded at random angles. Winding its way between the rock piles was a planked deck with a solitary metallic panel rising from the center.

The design might be interesting in a mall or theme park. But it would be difficult to translate into comfortable back yard living.

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It's in the Details

It's difficult to imagine packing up a show garden and plopping it down, lock, stock and barrel, into most suburban back yards.

However, you can borrow bits and pieces of various designs to great effect. For instance, you might replicate pots filled with interesting succulents; mimic the idea of water spilling from a wall into a basin; carve a "window" in a fence to display an outdoor piece of art; or stack stones around a spa to soften its edges and make it appear more integral to your garden.

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Seeds of Wisdom

Garden shows are often filled with an overwhelming number of ideas -- from incredibly outlandish to ones that might be worth actually repeating in your garden. Rather than trying to remember each, shoot photos with a digital camera or digital telephone to preserve the memories.