Did anyone go? I'm curious as to what people thought. I've been sick for the past week, so I haven't done much.

I went and frankly I was a little disappointed this year. I thought last year was great, but this year just seemed OK to me. I hope it's just a Sophmore slump and not a permanent problem.

They moved the show to a larger area and there were not all that many people there when I was there on Saturday. I don't think advertising was an issue either, because I saw ads everywhere. Maybe it's the location? I think people might be afraid of driving into the city rather than going to the Fairgrounds. Eventhough parking is free, I saw a lot of people that didn't know that.

There was a decent crowd present for a seminar given by Melinda Myers and a respectable crowd during Terry Ettinger's seminar, but the other seminars had very low attendance. I attended one on soil testing and I don't know if it was the subject matter or the lecturer but there was only about a dozen people at that seminar.... very sad.

As for the display gardens, I was very disappointed. There was maybe 2 or 3 gardens that had the "Wow" factor and even then it was a little "wow" not a big "WOW". I took pictures, but haven't uploaded them to photobucket yet. I will make a point of doing that and posting here if anyone is interested in seeing them. I don't think I took half as many as last year and you'll notice that there are not many people in the photos either.

I know it probably costs them lots of money to put a garden on display for a show like this, but if they want it to be successful, I believe they need to pack in the plants as much as possible, not just space them 6" apart with tiny little plants. Some of the plants weren't even in bloom or were hardly sprouted. Maybe they need to take a lesson from the people who put on the Rochester Flower Show. Maybe they need to hold it a little later in March so that more plants are available, but then that probably conflicts with the Rochester Show and many nurseries that are starting to open?

They also need to have more vendors selling stuff. I go there to look at unusual flowers and plants and to buy unusual garden art or gadgets. There were maybe 4-5 good retailers there....Watson's Greenhouse, Ballentyne Nursery, a stepping stone vendor and a lady selling really neat wrought iron things. Other than that, there was maybe a couple of more booths with garden gadgets (nothing exciting) and several booths of different clubs, cooperative extensions, newspaper....not all that exciting.

I don't know...maybe it's the Syracuse area. Rochester/Buffalo seem to have a much bigger gardening market than Syracuse....don't know about Albany.

I was one of the biggest supporters for this show last year and I really hope they continue and make it better next year. I would be very disappointed if they can't make it work.

The show did seem very early. I was a turnip and didn't go, mostly because they were predicting snow. It's hard to think about spring when you're shoveling your driveway. I think if they held it a little later in the spring, it would do much better all the way around.

I've uploaded my photos to photobucket. If you click on the main menu, there are photos from last year as well as the Rochester flower show for the past three years. Enjoy!

Here is a link that might be useful: CNY Blooms 2008