Oklahoma City KEY - Cover Story

Spring is in the Air... At the Oklahoma Garden Festival

Tired of the cold of winter? Are you longing to smell spring again? If you're ready for a jump-start into spring, you will want to visit the fourth annual Oklahoma Garden Festival.

Flowers, landscaping, wine and even a mock wedding are all on tap for the fourth annual Oklahoma Garden Festival, beginning January 29 and continuing through February 1. "A Canvas of Color” is the theme of this year's event, which is held in the Cox Business Services Convention Center.

Each day of the Oklahoma Garden Festival brings something new: professional and non-professional floral and horticultural competitions, nationally and regionally known gardening experts, seminars and demonstrations, and a retail area featuring vendors from Oklahoma and across the country. Festival hours are Thursday, 10am to 5pm, Friday and Saturday, 10am to 8pm and Sunday, 10am to 5pm.

Want a sneak peak? Kicking off the festivities is the annual Preview Party, held the night before the festival, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 28. Participants will enjoy food, drinks, music and guided tours of the featured landscape exhibits. Tickets for this exclusive event are $45.00 per person.

The Festival opens to the public on Thursday, January 29. That evening from 5:30 to 8 p.m., the first-ever Devon Energy Downtowner's Party will be held. Visitors and Downtown employees are invited to drop by after work and enjoy the gardens, fun music, drinks and food. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door for $30.

For wine affectionados, be sure to attend the Firestone Wine Tasting, held Saturday, January 31st at the Crystal Bridge in the Myriad Botanical Gardens. Join Adam Firestone, president of Firestone Vineyard in California's Santa Ynez Valley, for a seminar on viticulture (the cultivation of grapes). A wine tasting complemented with a tasty selection of hors d'oeuvres will follow the presentation.

Sunday, February 1, will be "Bridal Day.” Bride-to-be's can come and learn about how to incorporate flowers into their wedding. In addition to floral demonstrations, a "pseudo” wedding will be presented.

Visitors will be amazed with the many beautiful landscape exhibits, provided by some of Oklahoma's finest landscape designers and architects. The Festival provides a glimpse of the new techniques and fresh ideas in landscaping. View the multitudes of professional floral displays and the NEW wedding-themed dramatic table arrangements. In addition to the myriad of exhibits, take time to check out the Festival's seminar schedule… learn about shadescaping, the newest techniques in water gardening, the Secrets of Monet's Garden…and much more!

The kiddos can have some good ‘ol fashioned fun in the dirt in the expanded children's area. Children will have fun making dirt babies, adopt-a-worm, learning about how worms are our natural recyclers, and have fun in our other environmentally friendly activities.

Be sure to bring your wallet to Trochta's Garden Marketplace, Full Circle Garden Bookstore and Festival retails shops, featuring a complete selection of horticultural and gardening books; commemorative items such as t-shirts, visors and totes. From Oklahoma and across the world, the Festival is the place to shop for your unique gardening tools and accessories. New to the festival marketplace is a retail vendor flying in from Holland to sell tulip, lily, and Japanese wonderflower bulbs directly from Holland!

To get a complete seminar schedule and other details of the Festival call the Oklahoma Garden Festival Foundation at (405) 528-2996. Tickets for the Festival can be purchased at www.tickets.com and at the door.

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