The 36th Southern California Spring Garden Show continues to bloom at South Coast Plaza through Sunday. Among the region’s premier garden events, the botanical showcase transforms the Crate & Barrel and Macy’s Home Store wings at the Costa Mesa shopping destination into a lush landscape.
“It’s the largest garden show in Southern California,” said Debra Gunn-Downing, executive director of marketing at South Coast Plaza. “People come from all over Southern and Northern California to attend.”
Lee & Company Orchids for sale at the 36th Southern California Spring Garden Show in South Coast Plaza.
(Sarah Mosqueda)
Rare plants and flowers from 47 garden vendors take over each floor, along with meticulously styled outdoor living spaces that highlight seasonal offerings at South Coast Plaza’s home stores like CB2, Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, Sur la Table, West Elm and Williams-Sonoma.
The centerpiece of the show is a 25-foot botanical installation, inspired by this year’s theme, “Nurtured by Spring.”
“Spring nurtures babies, flowers and plants, so when you see the centerpiece there are some baby animals and beautiful flowers, including some orchids that came from Thailand,” said Gunn-Downing. “And the entire centerpiece is made from natural plant material.”
A botanical instillation from, built and designed by Fiesta Productions, with swans and foxes.
(Sarah Mosqueda)
Built and designed by Fiesta Productions, an award-winning Rose Parade float builder, the installation features a flowering tree crafted from pink Mokara orchids and pink leptospermum branches. A mother swan and her cygnet, finished with coconut flakes for feathers and orange lentils for their beaks, float past foxes, covered in marigold petals, pampas grass and red corn silk.
The horticulture haven presents unique and interesting garden vendors too, like Casey’s Carnivores, which specializes in carnivorous plants.
“I have some Venus fly traps; some sarracenia, or American pitcher plants; some pinguicula, also called butterworts; and we have some sundews,” said Sandy Casey of Casey’s Carnivores. “They all eat bugs.”
Succulents and cacti line the walk ways at the Southern California Spring Garden Show at South Coast Plaza.
(Sarah Mosqueda)
Casey is also a board member of at the Southern California Carnivorous Plant Enthusiasts, a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting fellowship around carnivorous plants.
She offered advice on carnivorous plant care to shoppers on Thursday afternoon.
“The care depends on their types, so they have wildly different care requirements, depending on which genus or species they are,” Casey said. “Fly traps and sarracenia do best outside for full, direct sunlight all day long.”
Rare orchids are also a popular offering during the event. Lee & Company Orchids brings over 500 orchids from the family farm near Mauna Kea in Hawaii to the show. Run by Lee Nishimoto and his son, Casen Nishimoto, Lee & Company Orchids has decades of experience cultivating rare varieties of the flower.
“These are rothschildianums, they call them the king of paphiopedilum. They are the most sought after, hard to find species of paphiopedilum,” Casen said. “That’s why they are so expensive. These ones here are about 10 to 15 years old; they take forever to grow.”
Alex John Franco III of Plumeria Papa specializes in plumerias, exotic hibiscus and tropical plants.
(Sarah Mosqueda)
Over at Plumeria Papa, plumeria and hibiscus grower and hybridizer, Alex John Franco III specializes in tropical plants. Franco is a professional horticulturist and one of the few to grow and sell plumeria and hibiscus commercially on the West Coast. He said the bright colors are what make the flowers so popular.
“Everybody likes big and bold and they are big and flashy,” said Franco, holding up a ring of hibiscus flowers.
Visitors will also find nine home and garden vignettes, like the Boho Book Nook. Designed by Urban Ecology Studio with home furnishings supplied by Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Outdoors, the space is a secret garden reading corner with a cozy window seat and built-in bookshelf.
The four-day event wraps with a docent guided tour of the South Coast Plaza Palm collection, led by a horticulturalist from Sherman Library & Gardens, at 11 a.m. Sunday April 26. The tour will offer an educational look on the diverse palm collection that dates back to the 1940s.
For more details about the 36th annual Southern California Spring Garden Show, visit southcoastplaza.com.
Comments are closed.