News

CONVENTION CENTER HOSTS HOME & GARDEN SEMINAR

By Erin France/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, February 14, 2009 11:39 PM CST

Plants and people sprouted in and around the Pine Bluff Convention Center on Saturday during the 2009 Home and Garden Seminar and Show.

Loretta Smith of Pine Bluff admires Bubba West’s wind dazzlers on Saturday during the Jefferson County Home and Garden Seminar and Show at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

Hundreds flocked to the center for the 22nd occurrence of the event, named “My Heart is in the Garden.” Sponsors estimated the attendance at about 2,000.

“We start planning this in June,” said Elaine Eckert, president of the Jefferson County Master Gardeners. “The show is only as good as the vendors.”

About 65 exhibits ranged from area representatives of public safety to state institutions to product demonstrations and entrepreneurs pitching their favorite plants.

At Bob’s Bonsai’s of Redfield booth, Bob Davis displayed miniature trees artistically arranged in tiny plots.

“I started doing it as stress management,” he said.

His day job as a diesel mechanic could include a lot of worry, Davis said, but with the addition of his own bonsai business, “I just don’t stress about it anymore.”

Davis warned that many who start with bonsai often overdo the upkeep, leaving them out in the backyard sunlight where weeds can take root.

Another plant vendor from Poplarville, Miss., sold easy indoor plants.

“How do you like my pets?” asked Michael Seal of The Funny Farm.

Seal’s plants are bromeliads that can hang from the wall or dangle from the ceiling.

“I am a bromeliad man,” he said. “You don’t need dirt; all you need is a little imagination.”

Bromeliads are air plants, Seal said. They need little water to survive, but they cannot function below 30 degrees, he said.

Seal said he bought his first bromeliad about 25 years ago and killed it within a year because of too much water.

“They don’t like their feet wet,” Seal said.

Seal said it was his first time at the show, but he would like to participate next year and maybe even present information in a seminar.

The event contributes most of the funding for the Jefferson County Master Gardeners, Eckert said.

“This is our big fund-raiser,” she said.

The group’s booth is one of the biggest with T-shirts from the previous year, honey and educational material for sale.

The money collected Saturday, usually several thousand dollars, will go to fund projects such as the community youth garden, Eckert said.

Besides the exhibits, the program included six different speakers throughout the day, and door prizes released to picked registered participants.

Eckert said she was grateful to the merchants who offered their products and services as prizes.

Print this story   |   Email this story