A So-So Dutch Floriade

May 2nd, 2012

   I’m just back from leading a group of central-Pennsylvania gardeners to the Netherlands and its Floriade garden show, held only once every 10 years.

One of the disappointly sparse flower beds at Floriade 2012.

    Floriade 2012 was worth a look, but to be honest, I didn’t think it was nearly as impressive as the last one in 2002.

   This show had a distinctly more commercial flavor. Maybe I’m biased because I see through rose-colored lenses rather than dollar-bill-green ones, but in my mind, this Floriade doesn’t quite measure up with other world-class garden-tourism events such as the U.K.’s Chelsea Flower Show or our own Philadelphia International Flower Show.

   Most of our hardy band of 37 travelers thought the same thing. Everyone’s jaws dropped when we visited the 79-acre Keukenhof bulb garden near Lisse, but I got mostly lukewarm feedback when I asked their opinions on Floriade.

   Most of us were expecting to see more gardens, more plant variety and a lot less selling of Asian jewelry, wooden bowls and packs of Dutch clog-shaped slippers.

   The previous 2002 Floriade, held near the Dutch Schiphol Airport, struck me as a sort of Olympics of gardening with countries around the world building gardens to give visitors a flavor of horticulture in their homelands.

   Back then, the Dutch themselves folded numerous Keukenhof-caliber beds throughout the site, spelling out whole words in bulbs in one memorable football-field-sized display.

   For this Floriade, taking place in the southeastern Venlo region near the German border, only a few of the participating countries built gardens. Other than China, Indonesia and Turkey, most set up what amounted to sales booths.

   The U.S. didn’t take part at all.

   Plant-wise, what struck me first was underplanted display gardens, too much bare soil, exposed soaker hoses and even some weeds.

   Many of the plants — especially roses and deciduous trees — were barely leafed out. The bulb displays were just OK — a bit of a letdown to anyone visiting Floriade after seeing what’s possible at Keukenhof or even Longwood Gardens and Hershey Gardens, for that matter.

Floriade 2012 has relative few large bulb displays like this as compared to the last show.

    Yeah, it’s challenging to have everything looking great from opening day April 5 straight on through to fall.

   But given sufficient planning and investment, it’s not impossible.

   Roses, for example, can be speeded along in a greenhouse before being hardened off and set out closer to show time. Row covers can be used if cold nights threaten. Or at the very least, early bulbs can be interplanted to fill the barren space until the roses develop.

   More bulbs and cold-hardy annuals such as pansies, dusty miller and snapdragons would have helped add more color to the bare space between the perennials that will hit their prime in summer.

   Just some tighter spacing alone would have helped. In the case of a show like this, plants need to be packed way closer than in a garden being planned for future growth. The Philadelphia Flower Show is a perfect example of how show gardens can look lush and finished right off the bat.

   Hopefully, the show plans to add massive amounts of warm-weather annuals to beds that are now primarily bulbs or early-spring perennials.

   People traveling halfway around the world to see a world-class garden event don’t want to be told, “Just wait until you see this garden next month!” or “You should have seen what the bulbs looked like last month before we yanked them.”

   I recall hearing a lot of “oohs,” “aahs” and “wows” when I was walking around Floriade 2002. This time, I overheard visitors saying things like, “Well, I guess they have a right to make money by selling things,” and “There are just a bunch of pictures on the wall in there.”

   It seemed to me there’s more of an effort to make Floriade 2012 profitable, both for the participants and the sponsors/organizers (the Netherlands Horticulture Council, the Venlo region and the Dutch bank Rabobank).

   Past Floriades have been money-losers, even though they at least leave behind new parks. When this Floriade closes, for example, the Venlo region will have an earth-friendly 164-acre business park with at least two of the buildings easily convertible into office space.

   For better or worse, this Floriade (www.floriade.com) felt very “theme-parkish” to me.

   Curiously enough, attendance is heavier than expected so far with good reviews and visitor surveys giving Floriade 2012 an average rating of 9 out of 10.

   The new approach is certainly more people-friendly. The layout is roomy, the walking paths are wide and well signed, and food and restrooms are plentiful.

   The educational exhibits and pavilions are very well done, and the huge glasshouse called “Villa Flora” had excellent displays of cut flowers, potted tropicals and the latest in houseplants.

This plant-filled living room was one of the most fun displays.

    There’s also plenty of entertainment in the form of international dance, music and acrobatics — another touch that makes theme parks so popular.

   And play areas and hands-on activities are scattered throughout to make this show more kid- and family-friendly than before.

   One of the things our group liked best was the food samples, including Dutch greenhouse-grown strawberries and — believe it or not — radishes dipped in melted chocolate.

   One of my favorite parts was the “Willowman” display, which was a collection of willow-wood nests, tents and bird cages built into trees in a forest nook.

   All in all, there was enough going on to make Floriade 2012 a worthy visit.

   If you’re a “regular” person interested in a day at a plant-oriented theme park, I suspect you’ll like it a lot.

   But if you’re a hard-core gardener looking to be blown away by floral displays, that’s more likely to happen at Keukenhof or Longwood than Floriade.