RI Spring Flower & Garden Show Preview

Monday, February 21, 2011

GoLocalProv Lifestyle Team

This year's 19th annual Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show is all about love.

The show, which opens February 24, wraps popular love stories around 28 gardens, yielding green and brightly colored realizations of novels, songs, and films including Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, and Sleepless in Seattle.

And the love doesn't stop there. The Rhode Island Horticultural Society gardens will showcase a red motif featuring red flowers and special red dresses designed by RISD students. Corresponding with the overall theme, this year’s distinctive flower is the bleeding heart perennial flower. Look for the Rhode Island Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc., comprised of 36 clubs working together to present dramatic and exciting horticulture and floral interpretations of “Passions of the Heart”. Experience the sometimes overlooked spiritual and emotional components of our hearts, organizers promise.

Gardening celebrities in the house

The longest standing and largest flower show in New England, the RI Flower Show attracts more than 30,000 attendees annually and will showcase more than 5,000 different blooms. Nationally known lecturers include: Gordon

Hayward, lifestyle expert, television personality and best-selling author; Donna Ranucci, a participant on the Rachel Ray Show’s “Hey, Can you Cook?!4” reality competition; Louis Raymond, gardener for over 50 years, for six years as the show designer for the former New England Flower Show; and Kerry Mendez, a “passionate perennialist” and the owner of gardening Services; and Charlie Nardozzi, nationally recognized gardening author and a personality on radio, television and the Web.

Healthy tips, Wear Red Day

In addition to the numerous lectures and demonstrations of gardening and healthy cooking topics, will bring its experts and volunteers to educate garden aficionados on how to lead a heart-healthy lifestyle. The Show will also host a Wear Red Day on Saturday among its vendors, staff and volunteers to celebrate the partnership with the Heart Association.

For wee gardeners there's children’s activities, games, songs and story-telling by Lindsay Adler, Marvelous Marvin the Magician, Marc Kohler & Frances Slade face painting, Cameron the Caterpillar and Wheel of Fortune healthy prizes.

Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show, Feb 24-27, Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence. Admission is free for children five and under. Children 6-12 cost $7. Adult tickets are $16 in advance, $15 evening discount or $18 at the door. For more information visit www.flowershow.com or call 253-0246.