Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Canada Blooms, Regaining The WOW.

Kathy and I have just returned from our annual trip to Canada Blooms in Toronto at the Direct Energy Centre #canadablooms
We attend our regional meeting of the Garden Writers Association and of course visit Canada Blooms.
During the mingle part of our meeting and lunch Terry Caddo new General Manager was taking the time to speak to individual garden writers about some changes this year at Canada Blooms.
During his brief address to the crowd he echoed some of our thoughts. Primary was  the need to rekindle the WOW factor  that Canada Blooms had originally.
The location has been changed within the Direct Energy Centre to allow the garden creators more  control over lighting and weight of materials.
The previous location on the main floor with the Home Show has high bright ceilings and is over the parking garage. This has meant high lighting and low garden hard-scaping weight.
The new location has lower dark ceiling and just mother earth under the floor. Now the lower and more directed lighting levels and huge heavy rocks give the show a more cool outdoors atmosphere with rocks and trees in abundance.
The big thing still lacking for those of us from Muskoka where we still have three feet of snow covering our gardens was the abundance of flowers that we long for at this time of year. But two big steps forward (or back to the  early days) in regaining the WOW factor of Canada Blooms.
A big thank you to the huge team of companies, managers, directors and of the army of volunteers who make Canada Blooms happen. From early morning tours to selling fund raising delicious ice cream bars the show would not go on with out volunteers.