Canada Blooms

This year’s garden show offering in Toronto was spectacular and organizers were very enthusiastic about the various displays, many of which were created in partnership with the Juno Awards. Thus there were people like Jully Black, Sarah Harmer, Carolyn Dawn Johnsons and famous opera singer Ben Heppner who inspired landscapers to create a special garden from their ideas. The family of Oscar Peterson got involved with a garden that reflected the musician’s favorite garden elements. There was a red carpet feeling in the big grand hall of the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto’s CNE Grounds. Gerry Ginsberg introduced a few of the main players on opening day March 16, 2011.

The Opening of Canada Blooms

There was much to see. Echo Germanica chose a few special displays to discover. First we searched out the Bienenstock Natural Playground, a 3500 square foot display of pure delight for children. There was no plastic to be found, everything was made of materials that reflect nature. A big huge snake in the grass was made of grass, of course; musical instruments like a huge Xylophone were made of wood.

The Bienenstock display of a natural playground

Adam Bienenstock and his helpers, several real official park rangers/employees were on hand to answer questions. Mr. Bienenstock was extremely passionate about engaging children outdoors, letting them discover the natural world around them, instead of sitting in front of a TV or computer. In his experience children respond very favorably if they are being introduced to the outdoors early on in life. They will learn easily and enjoy becoming stewards of nature. Going green will not be just a slogan for them; they will naturally tend to choose and be happy with a healthier way of life.

To find out more about this amazing work all over North America go to www.naturalplaygrounds.ca.

Sculptor Extraordinaire

As part of the Bienenstock display Karen Fralich, a professional sculptor was busy finishing a sand sculpture of a bear. Other sculptures appeared to be finished, but she said not. Sand takes time to settle and it takes days to create a huge life size display of bears or people.

She has been all over the world to create amazing sculptures out of sand, snow, clay, stone and polymer. Karen was crowned 3 times as a world champion. She cannot imagine doing anything else but this creative work and if you go to her website at www.sandqube.com you will understand and be amazed.

Karen Fralich's sand sculptures

An Inspirational Tenor

Great artists often look for an inspirational space to feed their own desire for beautiful things. If you are a world renowned dramatic tenor then you likely have sat under a tree or two in your career. Ben Heppner certainly has. Many a role demanded him to sit under a tree and contemplate which gave him the idea for a garden that created a special space, just like the one he remembered from his favorite Wagner opera in Bayreuth, Parsival.

Judith Wright, of Premier Landscaping, created also his private garden where he lives in Scarborough. Thus it was a natural to team up again for this special purpose. She created a small space that is dominated by a tree. The space is not bigger than life like opera, as Mr. Heppner put it to her, but intimates at what one might be feeling in a scene like that of larger stage proportions.

When visiting him in the garden he was seen to be generously posing for pictures with fans and when Echo Germanica spoke with him he proved to be a warm and friendly person, sharing his heritage with us. His family came from Ukraine and spoke German, proper German in school and church, and dialect at home. We spoke of many things, god, the world, religion, children, landscapes…. It was a very intimate discussion, as intimate as the garden that was created, obviously to inspire just such philosophic philandering.

The many beautiful displays