Northwest Flower and Garden Show

The excitement is back into the air as Northwest Flower and Garden Show opened at the Convention Centre in Seattle Washington on February 3, 2010, a little earlier than usual this year. Despite the uncertainty from this past year due to its sale to new owners the show remains highly popular around the area.

The show started twenty one years back and has been highly popular around the Northwest and Seattle area particularly.

To pull of such a spectacular show takes plenty organization, hard work and money. For instance, the Northwest Flower and Garden Show uses 1,200 cubic yards of sawdust and mulch for the gardens (that's about 150 dump truck-loads) and 280,000 pounds of rock. The trucks getting in the flowers & plants for the gardens come from all up and down the West Coast. Over 300 theatrical lighting instruments are hung from the ceiling over the gardens.

Creating the gardens is an intricate and expensive part of the show. Planning for them begins nine months prior to the show. The landscaped gardens are the most complex component of a garden show like Northwest Flower and Garden Show.

The show this year that opened on Wednesday has lovely display gardens twenty three in all. The emphasis is on how to live in a way that is eco-friendly and how to create beautiful gardens in small spaces. Even in this economic down turn there is certainly an aura of celebration and hope. Over the course of the day there are a number of seminars going that are informative and educational. To top it of there are many well known celebrity speakers?

Many local and even out of state businesses visit to display their exquisite gardens, equipment, tools, variety of seeds, potteries, ceramics, arts and crafts and a variety of items that make living beautiful. Northwest Flower and Garden Show is an excellent opportunity for businesses to sell their products and services. However more valuable is the opportunity to network, showcase your enterprise and sow the seeds for ongoing business later on.

There are many exhibitors at the show and one of my favorites is Italian Country Home and Kitchen of Woodinville, WA /italiancountryantiques.com>. The owners, Francesca and Roderick Carmichael own an upscale Italian store full of exquisite crafts from Tuscan ceramics to beautiful table linens. The Italian connection comes from Francesca who was born and grew up in Cremona, Italy. Cremona is a beautiful medieval town in the north of Italy and is most famous because of its violin making tradition with Stradivarius its most famous citizen. Francesca makes frequent trips to Italy to buy directly from small suppliers in her hometown and also from numerous areas of Italy. Francesca has actually known many of the suppliers from her Childhood. Therefore, the authenticity of antiques and also the high quality of the home furnishings and gift items are assured. Suppliers are mostly smaller artisans who tend not to typically have representation in the Country, which adds to the originality of the shop. In 2010 their theme for the show is Terracotta Pottery and other Kitchen Items that Francesca uses herself in her kitchen. See the video to learn what is cooking in Francesca's Kitchen.

You can go to their new website http://www.italiancountryantiques.com which is as artistically done as their store and the products inside. Visit the Northwest Flower and Garden Show and you can meet Francesca and Roderick there.