This past weekend, I traveled to Toronto, Ontario to attend Canada Blooms, the fabulous and prestigious flower and garden festival. It was truly spectacular with six acres of amazing gardens in full bloom and plenty of vendors selling all of the finest plant materials and products for the garden. Throughout the five days of the show, more than 200 hours of seminars, workshops, and demonstrations are offered from some of the finest garden experts in North America. Canada Blooms is presented by The Home Depot and I was asked to attend to introduce my new Martha Stewart Living line of products, which are sold exclusively at The Home Depot. I demonstrated gardening, planting projects, and ideas for arranging a beautiful outdoor space. Please enjoy these photos and be sure to check out my products at The Home Depot. Please note that presently, a few of these items, such as lighting, are sold exclusively at The Home Depot Canada.
These are some of our garden tools.
You can buy our nicely designed tools at the Home Depot.
The Home Depot booth
Who are they aiming their cameras at?
Here I am with Annette Verschuren – President of The Home Depot Canada.
Annette Verschuren, me, and Frank Turco
This is my Logan Faux Wicker 4 piece set.
Beth Edney – lead landscape designer of Landscape Ontario’s Garden Creations Green For Life garden
Some more of the enthusiastic crowd
Gorgeous daylilies from Artemesia Daylilies http://www.artemesiadaylilies.com/
Terry McLaughlin of Dubarry Boots of Ireland and his assistant. http://www.dubarryboots.com/
One of the vendors
African violets galore
The boots on the right are the pair that I wore to the event.
The floral designs presented in the Garden Club of Toronto’s Horticultural and Design Competition – I loved this lily garland.
Exotic birds of paradise
A really great rose heart
Exotic grass with succulents
The Home Depot Canada offers 11 different Martha Stewart Living lighting designs.
And also this great paintable textured wallpaper
This is a 24-inch Greek Planter, which also comes in other sizes.
Our lovely lunch was prepared by Centerplate Catering at the Direct Energy Centre. There were wonderful Ontario cheeses with homemade jam.
There was a selection of sandwiches on a variety of artisanal breads – smoked turkey, grilled chicken, smoked salmon, grilled vegetables and Woolwich Dairy goat cheese.
This is a beautiful salad of Ontario Organic micro green salad with avocado, smoked Ontario chicken, and charred grape tomatoes.
Nicole Sutliff – The Susan Magrino Agency, Patsy Pollack – EVP of merchandising at MSLO and Lindsay Knaak – marketing director MSLO
Gordon Calman – sous chef who prepared a variety of sweets, including lemon curt tartlets
Terry McLaughlin gave me a brand new pair of Dubarry Boots.
My nice new boots are on the left.
More feet join in.
Here I am with Margot Austin – senior design editor of Style at Home magazine
Here I am with Chantal Lapointe, decor journalis, Chez Soi Magazine
The crowd was quite large – about 400.
My speech was about designing an outdoor space.
Betsy Perretin, my stable manager, was having a great time. She was also given a pair of Dubarry boots and she purchased that great Tula hat.
We visited The Home Depot in Oakville, ON – here I am with Annette Verschuren and Ammar Abuarjeh – the manager of the store.
My seeds and bulbs on display
It’s very exciting!
My paints
The lighting aisle
More lights
I was happy to see some of my products on someone’s cart.