You Grow Girlâ„¢

It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks. BagO’Rats came down to visit and that was a lot of fun because she’s a lot of fun. It was a great visit for many reasons, but especially because we got to indulge our inner plant geeks by meeting up with Gayla and visiting Canada Blooms.

I’m going to let everyone in on a ‘secret’ that’s so hush-hush most people have probably just assumed this about me anyway: I get lost a lot. I’m actually really good at reading maps and figuring out the most straightforward route between two points. The problem isn’t that I don’t understand where I am and where I want to be going. The problem is that I’m often not paying a great deal of attention to where the hell I am at any given moment.

I once was so involved in a conversation I was having with my sister that I drove past the road to my own home. Twice. In twenty minutes.

I only mention this because BagO’Rats and I, under my expert direction, had to backtrack for about an hour on the way to meet Gayla because I neglected to mention the turn-off even though I was supposed to be watching for it. BagO’Rats was pretty gracious considering that she’d never driven in Toronto before and my solution (a word I use loosely here to mean ‘dumb-ass idea’) was to spend an hour driving cross-town on the busiest and most stress-inducing city streets rather than ‘waste time’ getting back on the highway. But we made it. And I didn’t get a deserved slap from anyone. (Which was nice, considering how much I hate to be slapped.)

We took a cab down to the show. I think Gayla might be paying tribute to the gods of cab riding, because not only did she nab one four seconds after we walked out onto the street, but the cab driver took us lickity-quick to the venue. The actual show was about five miles from the door, up and down several large escalators. But the flowers were clearly smellable (if you can see it, it’s visible, hear it, audible – what the heck is the word for something scented?) the moment we walked in. It was a stinky place, but in a nice way.

Canada Blooms is huge. Huge. We wound up staying for a bit more than three hours and I know we didn’t see everything. I could easily have spent an afternoon just in the vendor section. I liked some of the displays, particularly one that was set up as a courtyard with a sheer wall of water in the middle of a pool (which was in turn surrounded by various pretty mosses). There was a different pool surrounded by wheat grass that looked delectable. I have to say that water was a huge theme in the show. Or maybe it was just that, despite all of the water-themed displays, the venue was extremely dry. Everyone was looking longingly at the various ponds and pools and fountains and then forking over their two bucks for bottled water.

My favourite display was the huge, freaky Loblaw’s Garden of Eden gone wrong. It wasn’t Loblaw’s actual display garden, but an agricultural nightmare in the midst of which people occasionally did some example cooking. I’ve mentioned before that I grew up in a rural area. Every year at the county fair there were buildings dedicated to various seedy vendors. It was excellent. Like late-night television ads, but with the poor hacks up close and personal. My favourite was the lady who had to shred vegetables. Every morning she got a pile of produce and by noon she had mounds of neatly grated everything. The Loblaw’s display was a lot like that, only with a bigger budget. So the shredding lady was surrounded by a very colourful pretend garden (produce lying around on the ground) and some cherubic cabbage-headed children on-lookers.

It’s too bad Loblaw’s was there or else my heart would surely have been won by the many weird ‘lady’ flower arrangements. Those who have a budget of thousands really ought to try this for their next canapé and chat party. Take a million expensive flowers and use them to coat a dress dummy (amply padded with florist’s foam) until you have the effect of a life-sized southern belle. For added pizzazz place the ‘lady’ on a turntable. Wheeee! She’s dancing!

I bought three kinds of basil seeds, a gerber daisy plant for my son, and (when I finally found some) rooting hormone. And after that I was exhausted and I had to eat (BagO’Rats and I had prepared for the drive and the show by consuming a single bagel (each) and six hours later were wondering if that was adequate fuel). Gayla snapped her fingers, another cab appeared, and we were whisked off to the best vegetarian restaurant I’ve ever eaten in (it’s in Kensington Market). The food was good, cheap, and abundant. Which are all excellent recommendations for a restaurant.

When we got back to Gayla’s house we split up our seeds and wound up with many varieties to try. Six kinds of basil (lemon, lime, sacred, sweet salad, dark opal, and purple delight)! Two kinds of tomatoes (including the reputedly delicious yellow pear)! Chamomile! Mustard! Bergamot, mint, and lemon balm! Then Gayla gave me two rooted stalks of lucky bamboo, a pretty little jade plant, a dracaena marginata, a planter, and a poster.

I made out like a bandit.

Everything arrived home in tip-top shape and I spent most of the next day potting things up and planting a lot of cuttings I had waiting in glasses of water. I also tried out the rooting hormone on some ivy. It was an excellent weekend all around and it got me all excited about the coming growing season.

Some photos from the show.