The 2013 Southeastern Flower Show was an amazing experience for the whole Bloom’n Gardens team. We can’t get over the overwhelming response to our garden display, “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue.” Our interpretation of the show’s theme, “What’s Old is New Again”, means that a landscape can be installed in a matter of days but a garden takes time to grow. In our garden, we incorporated the old with the new and soothing blues shaping a constantly renewed space for living.

Nature is a constant cycle of growth and decay, building the land in layers over time. We mimic this cycle as we create our personal environment, upcycling vintage items that have outlived their original purpose and bringing in new technologies and techniques to enhance our lives. Salvaged windows find a new life as a glass house retreat, allowing the passionate gardener to play with mixing seasons as well as drinks. A small solar panel allows harvested rainwater to be a decorative as well as sustainable element.

Our garden includes a framework of hardy native and adapted plants in cool neutrals and analogous colors allows for changing focal points. In our design, a pop of red emphasizes the table decked out for a dinner party. Tropical exotics create variety, and can even become naturalized if they find their niche in the right microclimate. Edible plants come into the mix, placed to feature their beauty of form and color as well as their tastier qualities!

Below is the ‘Wow’ Award winning garden plan created by our very own Felicity Davis, RLA LEED AP. Curious about what plants were used?  Here’s a complete Plant List for the Bloom’n Gardens’s exhibit.

This year, we were so fortunate to take home the following awards:Vince Dooley Showmanship Challenge Award – for taking a landscape garden to a “WOW” level of fantasy, entertainment and theater.

  • Southern Living-Southern Accents Trophy – for best designed Southern garden.
  • Gardens for Peace Trophy – for the garden that best represents the design principles of harmony, balance, and unity. Honoring the 20th anniversary of the founding of Gardens for Peace by Dr. Laura Dorsey and her mother Laura Whitner Dorsey.
  • William L. Pike Trophy – for the garden that captures the essence of a southeastern backyard landscape, integrating a harmonious blend of living and garden spaces and utilizing good horticultural and design principles.
  • James E. Hinkle Award – for the large-sized garden best maintained throughout the show.
  • Mayor’s Trophy – for the people’s favorite landscape garden. By ballot vote of attendees on the first three days of the show.

Thank you to our suppliers who helped make this possible:

  • John Deere Landscapes, Villa Riica
  • North Georgia Turf
  • Arbor Hill Nursery
  • The Outdoor Lights
  • Greenstone Pavers
  • Arbor Equity
  • Suzanne Hudson Designs
  • Carolyn Wright, seamstress

We also want to thank all of our customers who donated their throw always that we repurposed. Here are some more photos from our garden exhibit and photos with Vince Dooley!