Great Day at the Garden Fest

The Garden Festival at Ladew Topiary Gardens was a huge success, with the largest crowd ever! It could not have been a more gorgeous day, with temps in the low 70’s and a clear bright blue sky overhead!

One of the main attractions at the Garden Festival is the availability of things that you don’t usually find, especially plants and antiques. Both were in great evidence at the Festival.When Mum and I got to the Gardens, we headed for the barn where I spotted this great Chinese Chippendale-style bench.  I didn’t check the price of the bench, but the polo mallets were about $250 each. Shouldn’t have thrown the ones we had in our garage away!

In a lot of places, columbines grow wild, but they’re not native to this area. They are such interesting flowers, and when the seed-heads come in, they look like a tall pointy crown.  I am always drawn to the minute details of flowers, and ones I saw were no exception.

The plant in the bottom right image is a double file Viburnum, and it was just the most spectacular bush! It probably covered about 200 square feet and was about 15+ feet tall. The branches were covered in a double row of florets, and they were a bright white.   The flowers almost look like lace-cap hydrangeas, but they stand out on the branches like arms held straight to the sides.  It was really a stunning plant.

The antiques tent held a lot of treasures, as always!  Here, the men of Halcyon House are completing a sale, one of many many during the day!I loved this little bird-house with some of their great salt-and-pepper shakers standing in for real birds.  And what’s not to love about a great John Robshaw pillow? Here are some other things in the antiques tent that caught my eye.

Beautiful antique Philadelphia-made chrysanthemum plates Roll of old linen fabric. Gawd only knows how I managed to resist this! Two of my favourite things: Old iron urns and peonies! I loved this little set of Lloyd Loom chairs and ottoman with the great blue and white toile! These contemporary garden pieces from Pennoyer-Newman, are actually very light-weight, as you can see here. She looks like Atlas carrying the world!

Thanks so much to everyone who came up and spoke to me, and thank you so much for reading the blog! It means the world to me. 

Tomorrow: Pictures from the Ladew Gardens which are in spectacular form this year!