Flower & Garden Show–Seattle

We thought it would be a nice break from the Yukon winter to spend a long weekend in Seattle, Washington, USA, at their annual Northwest Flower & Garden Show.  A number of years ago we went to Canada Blooms in the Toronto Convention Centre and were really impressed with the gardening exhibits and displays.  So when the Home & Garden Television Network had a show on preparing for the Seattle F&G show, it looked like it would be bigger and better than Canada Blooms – 10 acres of displays and exhibits under one roof in the Washington State Convention Centre.  Pretty impressive!

So off we went on February 9th.  Air North (our favourite airlines) from Whitehorse to Vancouver, then a touring bus from the Vancouver Airport to Seattle that dropped us off just below the famous Seattle Space Needle.  A taxi ride from there to the Red Lion Hotel on 5th Avenue and we freshened up for supper downstairs at the hotel in the Elephant & Castle pub and eatery.  Awesome!!  What a switch, from Whitehorse to the Seattle nightlife.

The next morning we were anxious to get off to the Convention Centre, about two blocks from the hotel.  We had made prior arrangements to rent an electric scooter for Susan.  The weekend was going to involve a whole lot more walking than her knees and ankle could handle.  The rental folks had dropped off the scooter at the hotel, so the front desk clerk gave Susan instructions on how to operate it.  Her warning was to be real careful because it is very ‘sensitive’.  We soon found out what that meant because when the lever was pulled even a little bit to move forward or backward, it was like this thing could do zero to sixty in 10 seconds, or less.

So tentatively we made our way out of the hotel lobby onto the sidewalks to the Convention Centre.  When we got there we had to go up one level and we proceeded to the elevator.  Hank held the elevator door open while Susan negotiated the scooter inside, with a sudden acceleration that startled both of us and resulted in the scooter smacking into the far wall of the elevator.  Gratefully, no one else was inside.  After we got out, in reverse, Susan noticed on the scooter console a small knob that could be adjusted from a slow setting (indicated by a picture of a turtle) and a fast setting (indicated by a picture of a jackrabbit).  The knob had been set to ‘rabbit’.  No wonder it was so ‘sensitive’ on acceleration.  Now the scooter speed could be managed much better, and we were grateful to have found the control knob, especially when we had to negotiate our way through crowds of people.  It would have been mayhem otherwise.

We made our way to the exhibits hall.  There were 25 garden exhibits on display.  And the exhibitors spared no effort in putting together some really elaborate displays.  The only thing was that the exhibit hall was totally black – ceiling, walls, everything.  The displays were lit by theatrical spotlights, some normal lights and also coloured lights to create certain ‘moods’, we supposed.  This made them not only hard to see really well, but made photographing them a nightmare!  With the digital camera on its highest setting it was still difficult to get reasonable images.  A good deal of adjusting in PhotoShop finally produced some pics that we can share.

Once out of the exhibit area, we saw other halls filled with commercial booths and displays.  And, of course there were several cafes where we could take a break and have lunch.

OK, here are the pics.  If you roll your mouse over any of the images, a description will show up. Clicking on any of the images should give you the full size image, then just click on your browser ‘back’ button to return to this page.

Overall it was a great experience.  We couldn’t help but make the comparison with Canada Blooms in Toronto.  And Canada Blooms wins, in our view.  It’s an excuse to go back to Toronto next March to see if our opinion still holds.  But, Seattle itself is a great place to visit.  More photos in the next post of the Public Market and the Space Needle.