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Winterthur Presents GardenFair, a Plant Sale Like No Other
It offers great plants, certainly, but it also features tools, garden art, crafts, and antiques... plus lectures.
by Denise Cowie - 9/11/2007
Winterthur Museum & Country Estate in Delaware is getting ready to pull out all the stops this weekend for GardenFair, an annual extravaganza that combines a great plant sale with offerings of tools, garden art, crafts, and antiques from some of the country’s best nurseries, artisans, and suppliers, and wraps in horticultural lectures, tours, and how-to demonstrations as well. (Scenes from last year’s GardenFair at right.)
GardenFair, now in its fourth year, is unlike any other plant sale in the region, which probably isn’t surprising, since it was originally modeled on a famous French market/fair.
This event has evolved over the years, but it is still one-of-a-kind in this region – and it is a lot of fun to wander around even if you don’t have a garden. At previous GardenFairs I’ve bought bulbs from Brent & Becky’s and vines from Brushwood Nursery, certainly, but I’ve also picked up a quilted shoulder bag in a French print from a little company that specializes in French fabrics, hand-painted stationery from the woman who actually painted it, and garden-inspired table linen.
If I had a garden that was just a tad less wild and woolly, I could have gone home with some imported English garden objets d’art, and I was sorely tempted by a spectacular wooden garden bench that looked like a wave.
Lots of educational events
But GardenFair isn’t only about shopping, entertaining though that is – it has lots of educational events, too.
Each day of the fair, it has free (with admission) gardening lectures and how-to presentations, and on Friday it also has a “keynote lecture” by acclaimed garden designer and author Gordon Hayward. That lecture, which costs extra, is called “Fine Art as Inspiration for Garden Design.”
And on Saturday, an all-day symposium called “Seeds of Inspiration” features such well-known speakers as Rick Darke, Julie Moir Messervy, Ed Snodgrass, and Panayoti Kelaidis from the Denver Botanic Gardens. (This event also has an additional fee.)
You can listen to some of these speakers on a podcast at www.winterthur.org/calendar/gardenfair.asp.
Floral flair… and a fuel cell bus?
If you’re more into decorative arts, there’s a “Floral Tour” of Winterthur’s period rooms ($5 fee), or “Antiques in Bloom,” a display in the Winterthur Galleries of floral arrangements inspired by objects in the museum collection.
More future oriented? Take a ride on a state-of-the-art fuel cell bus created by researchers at the University of Delaware. You’ll be able to do that at GardenFair, too.
The bus is one of the few fuel cell-powered vehicles licensed to operate on American roads, according to Winterthur. The bus, which debuted at the University of Delaware in April and has been shuttling students around campus, is powered by fuel cells that combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity. It can reach a maximum speed of 45 m.p.h., and it has three times the fuel economy of a traditional diesel-powered bus.
In addition, the bus emits zero greenhouse gases, is significantly quieter than a typical diesel transit bus, and gets better gas mileage (15 miles per gallon gasoline equivalent for the fuel cell bus, compared to approximately 5.5 miles per gallon for a typical diesel transit bus).
Bet you didn’t expect to find that at a plant sale!
If You Go to GardenFair…
GardenFair at Winterthur: Sept. 14 and 15 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sept. 16 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This three-day event offers choice plants, garden tools, furniture, statuary, and outdoor décor from more than 60 vendors, plus lectures and demonstrations on garden trends and topics. General admission wristbands cost $15 (Winterthur members free). Extra fees for early-bird shopping, and other special features. Variety of admissions packages available. Visit www.gardenfair.org or call 800-448-3883. Winterthur is on Route 52, six miles northwest of Wilmington, Delaware, and five miles south of U.S. Route 1 in Chester County.