Central Ohio Home and Garden Show 2008 review
I would like to say that I was amazed by the Central Ohio Home and Garden show this year, but unfortunately, I wasn’t.
A couple of points to keep in mind. I was much more interested in the garden portion of the show. I also did not have more than about 45 minutes to devote to the home portion. Trying to take two children under the age of 5 is a challenge under the best circumstances. Looking at windows and roofing materials just doesn’t peek their interest. This year we went mostly for the child book themed gardens.
The gardens were cute but at the same time very similar to past years. For those of us like myself who go for the plants, I find the selection of plants fairly dull and common. You will find tulips in virtually every exhibit and most have a nice selection of astilbe, azaleas, and flowering cherries. Is it really that hard to find other plants? Are tulips the only flower that can be forced?
Is it just me or do you find it annoying that the exhibits are painstakingly put together with varieties of plants but few take the time to label the plantings? If I see a new type of plant that interests me, I would love to at least know what I am looking at. This year, I did find a plant I hadn’t seen before but I still had to ask several people before someone could tell me what it was. If you are curious it was Fothergilla.
Back to the exhibits, my favorite would have to be Winnie the Pooh. The garden’s centerpiece was a large tree house with a house in the trunk viewable from the center of the garden. The garden was easy to navigate even with a stroller. A small pond had Winnie the Pooh video being projected into the water. The use of what looked like a duck house or bird house above the water served to hide all of the projection equipment.
My second choice would have been Noah’s Ark. This is where I saw the Fothergilla. The Ark had a walkway tunnel through its center. The tunnel had several windows to cages which held baby ducks, baby chicks, roosters, ducks and I’m sure some other animals. Tom McNutt was signing autographs at the back of this garden. Both kids were able to get a nice autographed photo of him with all of Noah’s creatures. He was gracious and friendly towards the kids as well as the adults.
One other garden that deserves mention is the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. This garden immersed you in snow covered pines after walking through "the wardrobe". Nicely done. All in all, the gardens were nice but this portion of the show always seems to lack reasonable space. All of the gardens seem cramped especially when you have the pleasure of a couple of toddlers.
The home space I cannot really comment on for my previously mentioned reasons. That aside, Fortin Ironworks has a beautiful display directly inside of the doors. Other than that few exhibitors caught my attention. Some ladies along the back wall of the exhibit hall grabbed us to sign a petition to put gambling back on the ballot. It didn’t really bother me except that they didn’t want to tell you what you were signing right away. Please cut to the chase. Tell me what you want me to sign and why.
The entire show seems to suffer from space issues. I also would strongly urge the organizations putting together the show to save more room for seating. The food court was impossible to eat in because everyone was using it to rest. I also would love more scheduled events or maybe entertainment in between the main speakers. It would give the visitors more time to take a break.