The Virginia Flower & Garden Expo gets back to its roots

Pure gardening. That's what visitors will see once again.

The area's annual horticultural show, The Virginia Flower & Garden Expo, has returned to its roots.

Visitors to the Virginia Beach Convention Center next weekend will find that the all-volunteer Virginia Horticultural Foundation has produced a comprehensive event, promoting horticulture for home gardeners, professionals and anyone in between.

"The really big difference this year is that it's not a home and garden show anymore. It's a flower and garden show," show director Laurie Fox said. "It's all green, all horticulture-focused."

The gray days of January are perfect for the lush plant display.

"Who wouldn't want to be surrounded by beautiful flowers in the dreary winter?" Fox wondered.

Ten landscapers plan spectacular indoor demonstration gardens based on the show's theme, "Creating the Beautiful Tomorrow!" The number of vendors with garden-related products has tripled.

Speakers and demonstrations will educate the public, children can enjoy entertainment just for them and plenty of plants will be for sale.

"There's something there for everybody," Fox said - things to see, to learn and to take home.

One of the most popular aspects of the show - the garden displays - will impress, promised Jane McNicholas, the horticultural foundation member in charge of landscapes.

Rusty Pulley, the owner of Outdoor Artistry and whose specialty is water features, was selected to create a focal point: a 5-foot-tall rectangular bluestone fountain.

"It will be lighted and will be set in a basin of decorative wall block with four brass nozzles that will spray up onto the fountain," McNicholas said. "It'll also have water that cascades out of the top."

Visitors will find the fountain in the area that separates the landscape displays from the vendors.

Designer Shane Symons with Coastal Landscapes will present a display with an earthy feeling.

"It will be comprised of two lush green walls of plant material and a rain garden that will actually rain and include a water feature that's a circular waterfall," McNicholas said.

This display will feature plant material that is zone-friendly for Hampton Roads, including plants such as coral bark maples and weeping Alaskan cedar.

"The Alaskan cedars are way cool - not something you see every day," McNicholas said.

This display garden will also demonstrate organic recycling accented with sculptures and art pieces. The waterfall will empty into a pool filled with spoons.

Joel Vanscoy, an owner of K&D Rounds Landscaping, will have a custom-lighted water feature with 16 colored LED lights. It will include a custom-made, European-style view-through fireplace, an outdoor kitchen, a fan-shaped pergola, and a uniquely built, custom garden wall.

Another fireplace will be incorporated into a display by William Becker, owner of Becker Enterprises. The Harmony outdoor fireplace is paired with an outdoor kitchen with granite countertops, a swimming pool with waterfall, a pergola and a unique open wall.

David Wike is a Virginia Horticultural Foundation member who has volunteered with the expo for 20 years and witnessed its various changes. He said this year's show is nicely balanced.

"This is going to be your best expo for one-stop shopping for landscape contractors, whether it's maintenance or landscaping changes, or landscaping for a new build," he added.

With very few exceptions, the 65 participating vendors are honed right in on the gardening venue, Wike added. He's particularly excited about one vendor's vertical garden - a living wall of sorts.

Garden tools, containers, fences, decks, awnings, outdoor furniture and garden art will be offered. And that's just for starters.

"We have lawn furniture, sheds, compost, garden flags, garden lighting, hanging flowerpots, hot tubs, dog fences, well systems, lawn mowers, garden umbrellas," Wike said. "There's a mosquito guy, sod person, jewelry, hammocks, swings, and a butterfly guy with mounted butterflies."

Visitors will be able to shop an expansive bookstore booth planned and set up by Vicki Bres-lin, another member of the Virginia Horticultural Foundation.

"I tried to appeal to the wide audience. We have children's books, books for the home gardener, books in the subject areas in which we're having speakers, books on container gardening, on black plants, a few books about insect pests, on making concrete and peat pots, an organic lawn care manual, books on herbs, a book on Spanish terms for landscape professionals, and books on vegetable gardening," Breslin said.

Most of the hard- and softbacks are priced less than $30.

Profits from the bookstore, like other proceeds from the event, will help The Virginia Horticultural Foundation to fund horticultural scholarships and grants for horticultural projects in Virginia.

The book shop is an integral part of a show like this, where demonstrations and displays trigger gardening ideas and the desire to learn more about a topic, Breslin said.

"People see things at a show like this and say to themselves, 'I want to get that now while I'm thinking about it,' " she said.

Krys Stefansky, (757) 446-2043, krys.stefansky@pilotonline.com