GardenScape Background
One of the Best Shows in the Northeast
Imagine a fresh, green, growing retreat just steps away from the cold, wet days of a northeastern Winter. It's a place you go to to escape at the end of a dreary March day. The sights and smells there will lift your spirits, help your resolve to survive until Spring, and if you're a gardener, deliver inspiration for your outdoor projects. That place is GardenScape, the Rochester Flower Show. Since its creation in 1992, the annual event has grown in features and popularity to become one of the region's premier Spring shows.
The core of the GardenScape show is approximately 20 landscaped gardens reflecting a different show theme each year. The gardens represent all aspects of gardening, the hardscapes such as stone and structures, plus water features and art. You can explore the gardens as you wish: with food, drinks and live music at a preview reception or evening ball, on a guided tour after an early breakfast, or at your own pace with camera or notebook in hand.
A short distance from the impressive landscape exhibits you'll find dozens of vendors with garden, home improvement, and decorative items for sale. Each day of the show, information about plants and techniques is presented in seminars by national and local experts.
The GardenScape Professionals
GardenScape is produced by the GardenScape Professionals Association (GPA), an organization of some 120 member firms in 7 New York counties: Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Seneca, Wayne, Yates and Cayuga. Member firms are those in the horticultural trades, including landscapers, nurserymen, garden centers, material wholesalers, and regional schools with horticulture programs.
Most members have staff with professional status as Landscape Architects, Cerified Arborists (tree experts), Certified Pesticide Applicators, or Certified Nursery & Landscape Professionals. Member firms are some of the most experienced in the region, and exhibit their skills in the planning and execution of the annual show. Every facet of show production mirrors daily work of these professionals: garden and structure planning, site design, plant selection and application; with attention to beauty, economy and function in the completed projects. Their work incorporates plant material, hardscapes such as stone walls and walks, water features, lighting, and structures. After months of planning, the show comes together in 3 busy days of construction.
The GPA not only produces a great flower and garden show every year, it also contributes to the community in a wide variety of ways, including beautification efforts and education initiatives. Association members have created a number of plantings in otherwise bare areas, such as the swing bridge entrance to Irondequoit Bay. It also assists in landscaping houses built by the Habitat for Humanity program, and it marks the annual Arbor Day celebration in April, by providing and planting trees at local public ceremonies.
The Association supports the Rochester Landscape Technicians Program, preparing participants for green industry employment through work experience, job readiness skills development and classroom instruction. Each year, GPA awards scholarships to candidates to local students studying Horticulture, Nursery Management, Landscape Design, or Landscape Architecture. The proceeds from the annual GardenScape show fund all of these efforts to develop the "green" industry and its future workers. The overwhelming majority of show planners are volunteers, putting together a super show during the months when our yards and gardens lie dormant.
In the weeks and months after GardenScape has ended, remember the GardenScape Professionals and call on them for your landscape needs. Complete information, including service and member search, is available at the Association website, GardenscapePros.com
