Spring at Epcot

Just got back from Epcot's 2010 International Flower and Garden Festival in Orlando--wow!  I was invited to speak at their "Great American Gardeners" series, and in between my talks (the weekend of March 19-22), I kept running outside to check out the flowers. 

Epcot is always beautifully landscaped, but coming from the gray, cloudy weather we've had here in Georgia, where it's raining and chilly, and going outside under the blue Florida skies to "oooh" and "aaahh" over the pansies and impatiens and Gerbera daises and roses--well, it was just incredible. Really a lift to my spirit after the long winter.  It also made me want to fly home and head straight to the garden center, but it's still too early here--gotta wait at least until mid-April to be sure we're past the possibility of a late frost.

Here are some of the pix we made during our trip.  One of them shows me on the speakers' stage, surrounded by a few of the many heirloom plants the Disney horticulturists grew for me, just for my presentations.  The Disney/Epcot crew was great, by the way--nice, friendly folks with awesomely green thumbs!

I'll post a few more pictures over the next few days.  And check back, and I'll share some info a gardener named Greg told me about an heirloom watermelon.  It's called 'Scaly Bark,' and while I'd never heard of it before, I want to try it now (in spite of its strange name).

Okay for now..enjoy the pictures!



This big green guy is positioned near-- what else?  The butterfly gardens and exhibit!

You probably recognize Tinkerbell, part of the Disney gardening magic.

Finally--for now--here's wha I'm calling my Mouscar - that's "mouse" + "Oscar".  I couldn't be more proud if I'd actually won the golden Oscar in Hollywood.  The Epcot gardeners gave him to me at the conclusion of the event.  Isn't he cute? 

Epcot Flower & Garden Festival

I'm really looking forward to this year's International Flower and Garden Festival, which will be held at Epcot in Orlando, FL.

I'll be there as a speaker for Epcot's Great American Gardener series.  The park's horiculturists are already planning to "grow out" many of the beautiful heirloom veggies and flowers I'll discuss (and I'll appreciate having the plants already set up around the speaker's stage. Can you imagine trying to travel with a pot of petunias or zinnias?  If you can't make it through security with more than an ounce of, say, mouthwash, I don't think I'd make it onto the plane with a bag of delicious Italian frying peppers or a box of heirloom tomatoes).

Hope you can join me at Epcot on March 19-21.  I'll speak twice daily, at noon and three pm.  Think spring!

Night temps were in the teens last week, and today it's rainy but near 60 degrees--yep, this must be Atlanta.  If you don't like the weather, give it 24 hours (or less), and everything will change. 


There was even a little sunshine last Friday, enough to make people yank off their coats, put on their sunglasses, and look up at the sky, basking in all that nice warmth.  Ahhh....


Then I got a list of the plants that the fantastic horticulturists at Epcot are already growing, to prepare for my talk there in March.  I'll be there for the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival, discussing heirloom flowers and veggies, on March 19-21 

The gardening gurus at Epcot have ordered heirloom seeds, so they can grow exactly what I'll be discussing, and the names of these plants are enough to make a gardener swoon:  Pansy Carmel Spice; Sweet Pea Wedding Blush; Zinnia Ol' Mexico.  


But there are lots of veggies, too, like old-timey Watermeloon Moon and Stars, Christmas Lima, Hidatsa Bean, and Arikara Yellow Bean.  I'm crossing my fingers that the recent cold snap in Florida doesn't keep any of the seeds from sprouting--even though they're growing in greenhouses, it's been terribly cold there.


A couple more days of this mild weather, and I'll be rummaging through the garden shed, wanting to do something to get the garden started--but it's way too wet now, because all our snow and ice has melted.   Soon, though....soon!