This is the most exciting time of the year, for us! It’s the equivalent of the World Series, Superbowl, and World Cup all wrapped up into one. This weekend is the 25th annual Southeastern Flower Show. It’s a time when we get to take a break from our usual landscape and design routine and meet with our peers, see old clients, welcome new ones, and create amazing cutting-edge garden scenes.

A little friendly competition is good for the soul, right? This will be the 5th year that Bloom’n Gardens has competed in the show and we are not holding back! In 2011, we were so honored by winning the Vince Dooley Showmanship Challenge Award, Mayor’s Trophy-People’s Choice, Fine Gardening Magazine Trophy, Lynn Downden Trophy, and the Planters Garden Club Trophy. In keeping with the theme, “In Tune with Blooms,” our garden scene featured a waterfall running through trumpets and tubas and a large gazebo surrounded by white columns and a variety of live trees, plants and seasonal flowers.

We can’t wait to “Wow” the judges again this year! This year’s theme, “What’s Old is New Again,” requires us to incorporate antique objects in a garden setting. We are unable to reveal what we are doing for our garden this year, prior to the show. What we can say is that we plan to do something incredible which will, hopefully, open your eyes to possibility.

Our favorite part of the competition is Friday morning when the gates open and the first group of people floods in. After weeks of preparation, planning, and construction, there’s nothing like the look on a person’s face when they see your garden scene for the first time. We love hearing the immediate critique and honesty from our industry peers and flower show attendees.

Here are some more photos from our 2011 medium garden display. Come back next week to see photos and results from this year’s garden scene!