MUM’S THE WORD AT GAGE PARK
MORE THAN EVER, A GAGE PARK EXTRAVAGANZA FOR THE YOUNG AND YOUNG AT HEART
Katherine Venasse artfully inserts flowers into a piece of Lego. It’s part of a display at the annual Hamilton Fall Garden & Mum Show at Gage Park Greenhouse. The theme this year is called “Once Upon A Toy,” and like every great toy, it’s a joy for all ages. Spectator gardening columnist Rob Howard tells us all about the Gage Park extravaganza in GO:
THIS ONE’S FOR THE KIDS.
And the inner child. But mostly for the kids.
I’ve written about the annual Mum Show (officially the Hamilton Fall Garden & Mum Show) at least 20 times. Mostly, I’ve written that the show is good for the whole family.
But no Mum Show has ever reached out to engage with kids as thoroughly as this year’s edition of the Gage Park extravaganza.
This is not a “look but don’t touch” event. The show, titled “Once Upon a Toy,” invites youngsters — and their parents or grandparents — to get involved.
See the giant Snakes and Ladders board made up of thousands of individual chrysanthemums? There are actual Snakes and Ladders games to play on picnic tables in front. The Lego floral display has Lego blocks to build with. The massive floral Rubik’s Cube (the biggest prop of its kind ever built for a Mum Show) has a collection of real Rubik’s Cubes for kids (or grown-ups) to amuse themselves with.
The organizers and designers and builders (all city staff working out of the Gage Park greenhouse complex) have changed it up from the past couple of years by going for an open concept. I love it.
When a visitor turns the corner into the main greenhouse area, it is a sea of blooms.
The numbers are always impressive: More than 200 varieties of chrysanthemums, 10,000 cut blooms set into florists’ foam to make up the props, part of a total of about 80,000 flower blooms.
There are a couple of spots in the greenhouses from where a visitor must be able to see most of them at once. It’s glorious.
It was the usual rush when I visited. Blooms can’t be put into the florists’ foam too early or they won’t last the run of the show.
Tanja Vlahic, a city gardener, has worked on 15 Mum Shows. She and her colleagues are under pressure to get all 10,000 cut blooms and a hundred other tasks done for the gala opening Thursday evening and for the public on Friday.
“You can’t work too far ahead,” she says. “The last two days (of the set-up) are the hardest.”
So, a walk-through. Visitors will be greeted at the greenhouse area by a familiar face: Ralph, the playful plant puppy that crouched in front of City Hall through the summer, reinvented here as Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Visitors who saw him from the “bum end” on Main Street West can now see him face-on.
There’s the usual impressive landscaping with mums, ornamental kale, grasses and other fall plants around the courtyard area.
Inside, there’s a display of chrysanthemum types (from metre-high pompoms to compact mums with heads like spiders).
Then visitors enter a gallery of classic, vintage and current toys. The single most-asked question from visitors in this area is going to be: “Whatever happened to my old (enter name of toy here)?” Parents have a lot to answer for, I think.
The main exhibit area, sprinkled with toys large and small, is that wide-open view I mentioned. Beach balls and kites are suspended above visitors as they take in the displays. Here is where some kids are going to insist on stopping to play.
There’s a board-game gallery, a vendors area, an onsite café, Sesame Street-themed children’s play area, seminars, talks and workshops throughout the show’s 10-day run. More information on them at www.hamilton.ca/attractions/festivals-events/fall-garden-mum-showevents-workshops
For the chrysanthemum aficionado, there’s lots to see.
The lovely classic chrysanthemums always impress with their wide variety of colours and forms, from tiny daisylike blooms to tall, spectacular flowers.
The colours range from white and cream to flame-like reds and oranges, purples and mauves. The mums are beautifully accented by other plants, both in pots and hanging baskets.
Go. Take a child. Unleash your inner child.
The Hamilton Fall Garden & Mum Show runs to Nov. 4, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. all days. It is wheelchair accessible.
Admission is $7, seniors (55+) and children for $6, and children under five free. Parking is free; the entrance is off Lawrence Road.