Great Big Home + Flower Show Review
Monthly Theme: Great Big Home + Flower Show Review
To change things up, I thought it would be fun to review the 2023 Great Big Home + Flower Show presented by Carter at the I-X Center in Cleveland, OH. Due to Coronavirus, the show was not hosted last year. Personally, I haven’t been to the show for the past two-years. So, I was really excited to return and see some flowers in bloom and hopefully spark my excitement for the upcoming gardening season.
On the first day of the show, I was securing a spot in the parking lot before the doors opened for the day. I’m sad to report, I was rather disappointed. First, tickets cost $15 per person and parking is $10 per car. So, if you go alone, you’ve already spent a minimum of $25 before you even get in the door (East gate in my case!). Most people don’t attend alone so now the entrance and parking go up to $40 for a couple. I don’t even want to talk about how much it would cost if you brought along children and grandparents.
In the past, they had three fully decorated, custom-built homes to walk through. We’d wait in a long zig-zag line anxious to see the home décor. This year, they only had one small house to view. I can see that for free at the Hartville Hardware Store in Hartville. Previously, there were multiple displays of landscapes designed by local landscapers and builders, which were filled with spring flowers in bloom, flowering shrubs, and trees. Of course, they were forced to bloom for the show, but that’s what we were paying to see in the middle of winter. The houses and gardens were always my favorite part of the show.
There were a few landscape examples, but mostly filled with non-blooming shrubs, evergreens, and trees (lots of trees). Excuse me, one of the gardens actually had two daffodils in bloom (be still my heart). Okay, there were a few azaleas blooming or almost ready to bloom, but mostly a sea of green.
On a high note, they did have a couple of lovely and creative water features and man-made waterfalls on display. There was a cute “She Shed” with a small greenhouse attached.
I did catch the end of a lecture by a speaker from Petitti’s Garden Center, which was interesting, but I didn’t see a Petitti exhibit and not even a 10% off coupon for Petitti shoppers.
Mulberry Creek Herb Farm from Huron, OH had a wide variety of houseplants, succulents, and bonsai plants available for purchase. Your Garden Specialist was selling lilies and bare root perennials.
There were lots and LOTS of sheds – all different shapes, sizes, and prices. If you are looking to build a shed, you’ve come to the right place. I only spotted two greenhouses, which I would have enjoyed seeing more greenhouses with REAL flowers blooming inside instead of plastic ones. If you are in the market for a home sauna, there were many to choose from. There were quite a few examples of pergolas and gazebos (mostly pergolas – someone forgot how much it rains in northeastern Ohio in the summer!).
I was surprised there weren’t more lawn maintenance and/or tree service vendors. I did find one and took their information for a lawn care service quote.
As always, there were rows and rows of vendors selling their wares. According to the website, there are 600 exhibitors this year. I only saw a couple of fencing companies and a handful of companies that sell landscaping stones. However, there were plenty of vendors selling roofing and/or gutter guards, if that is something you need for your home.
There were amply ideas for custom designing your outdoor living spaces with massive outdoor kitchens (that would thrill a Michelin star chef), firepit areas, hot tubs (small, medium, and ridiculously large), and such. Needless to say, if you have enough money, you could transform your backyard into your own private paradise.
If you do attend the show, take time to sit in one of the massage chairs. The one I tried cost over $9K – way out of my price range! But it felt like the ultimate full body massage given by a professional masseuse or massage therapist.
In the future, I would suggest a Fan Favorite Contest for the best garden designer and/or landscaper. The public would be able to vote on the landscaper who presented the best design for the show. It might be useful to have more DIY options/vendors, everyone can’t afford to hire a builder to build a shed, pergola or design the perfect patio, but they might have enough money for information on how to build it themselves. To spice things up, they could have an hourly contest to win a house plant.
Bottom line, in my humble opinion, the BIG return of the Great BIG Home + Garden Show was not that BIG or grand of a return. I went home with a bag of penny candy, informational flyers, and a couple of new pens.
