BY MIKE PULFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
If you go
Gale Wood decorates a food cart.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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What: 198 Cincinnati Flower Show.
When: 9 a.m.-8 p.m. today through Saturday and 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Ault Park, Mount Lookout.
Admission: Tickets $11 at Kroger stores, Provident Bank locations and at the gate. Orders: 872-5194, (800) 670-6808.
Directions: From Interstate 71 South, take Dana Avenue exit (Exit 5), turn left on Dana, which becomes Observatory Avenue. Follow Observatory into the park. From I-71 North, take Dana/Montgomery Avenue exit (Exit ). Turn left on Duck Creek Road, right on Dana, and follow Observatory into the park.
Parking: Limited parking at Ault Park, $6 for five hours. Recommended parking/shuttle at Oakley Drive-In Theatre, $3. Directions to Oakley parking: From I-71 take Red Bank Road East exit (Exit 9). Turn right on Madison Road (second intersection). Oakley Drive-In is one block on left.
Miscellaneous: Many plants and props from show exhibits will be sold when the show closes 6 p.m. Sunday. Admission for the after-show sale is free.
Web site: www.cincyflowershow.com
Information: 872-5194; (800) 670-6808.
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The 1998 Cincinnati Flower Show opens in Mount Lookout 9 a.m.-8 p.m. today with plenty of professionals and more amateurs than ever.
"The biggest change this year is the amateur exhibition," says Mary Margaret Rochford, president of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society and coordinator of the five-day show. "We've got hundreds more (entrants) than ever before."
Why?
Partly because of this spring's accommodating weather for gardening, she says. Partly because "more people have seen the show and thought, "I can do that.' "
For unregistered exhibitors who get caught up in the show's excitement, the amateur competition will accept walk-in plant samples 7-9 p.m. Thursday.
Everything appeared to be happening on schedule Tuesday, as flower show exhibitors put finishing touches on outdoor and under-tent displays.
Ray Tanner, a contemporary sculptor from Covington, was frustrated by traffic congestion as he moved his heavy metal examples ($15-$3,200) into place in the Gardener's Market, south of the main tent.
"They need more room for trucks -- or a longer time span for moving stuff in," he says.
It is Mr. Tanner's first year selling at the show. "I walked through last year and thought, "What the heck,' " he says.
The show offers three sales markets: plants, crafts and gardening products.
Exhibits at the show include themed gardens, flower arrangements, window boxes, table settings and an 85-foot rain-forest display, produced by the Cincinnati Park Board, with a gushing 15-foot waterfall. The show's overall theme: "Voyage Home."
In one intriguing interpretation, H.J. Benken Florist & Greenhouses Inc. of Silverton integrates life milestone symbols, from baby cradle to coffin, all engulfed in floral displays.
In the show's lecture series, Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council and editor of Herb News, will discuss herbs and their medical benefits; Willard Scott, host of HGTV's Home & Garden Almanac, will talk about his experiences with gardening, and Dutch architect and landscape architect James Anthony van Sweden will explain the New American Garden Style, a phrase he coined for a growing movement toward more natural landscapes.
Lecture tickets are $35 for Mr. Scott, 7 p.m. Thursday; $30 for Mr. Blumenthal, 2 p.m. Saturday; and $30 for Mr. van Sweden, noon Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday.
The show, expected to draw about 60,000, continues through Sunday at Ault Park, at the east end of Observatory Avenue, in Mount Lookout. A sale of exhibit plants and props will begin 6 p.m. Sunday.
