Coloradans desperate for relief from consecutive snowstorms can get a sorely needed blast of spring this weekend at the 48th annual Colorado Garden & Home Show.
More than 60,000 people are expected at the Colorado Convention Center over the nine-day event beginning Saturday. It is billed as the state’s largest home-improvement marketplace.
“You get a real strong feel for what is possible,” says home show fan Susan Perron of Castle Rock. Last year Perron and her husband, Sanjoy Dasgupta, contracted a show exhibitor to complete a $110,000 dream landscape at their Castle Pines Village home.
The couple wanted their backyard to be an entertaining oasis. The Greco-Roman “Tuscan Villa” entry garden at last year’s home improvement show inspired them to create 6-foot-tall cascading waterfalls where once there had only been dry foliage. They hired Lone Tree’s Town and Country Landscaping for the job after finding that company at the Garden & Home Show.
The “Tuscan Villa” garden design was more formal than most chosen by nature-loving Coloradans, says company co-owner Laura Heath. Usually, built-in barbecues, patio extensions and fire pits are high on wish lists in this region.
Perron and Dasgupta spoke with 10 firms at the show before they chose Heath’s company and landscape designer Chris Leinster to create their outdoor room. Within months, a boring backyard was transformed.
“The show is a great place to go if you are on a mission,” says Perron. She plans to mine this year’s Convention Center floor for contractors to work on upcoming kitchen and driveway projects.
She will find 15,000 flowers specifically grown to bloom during the throes of winter, 600 companies hosting informational booths and exhibits, 17 expertly landscaped gardens, and 50 free educational seminars on topics ranging from growing roses to buying insurance.
This year’s wow factor is a new entry garden dubbed “Dinosaurs in Our Backyard.” Also completed by Town and Country Landscaping, it features four life-size robotic dinosaurs.
Energy efficiency will be a central theme at the show, says Jim Fricke, executive director of Colorado Garden Show Inc., the organization that hosts the show.
Several of the items featured in this year’s “Hot Products Zone,” for instance, will offer property owners cool ways to care for the environment. Make sure to check out the infrared home energy testing product and the insulated paint additive, Fricke says.
“People still see their home as an asset to invest in,” he adds. “(They are) spending money to give themselves creature comforts such as basement remodels and kitchen upgrades.”
Last year’s show admission fees and sponsorships helped Colorado Garden Show Inc. donate $375,000 in educations grants and scholarships. Over the past 48 years, the organization has donated $2 million to promote the state’s horticultural industry.
Staff writer Sheba Wheeler can be reached at 303-954-1283 or swheeler@denverpost.com.
Colorado Garden & Home Show
Where: Colorado Convention Center
When: Saturday through Feb. 11. Show hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays; 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; and noon to 9 p.m. on Thursday and Friday
Admission: Admission is $12 for adults and $10 for seniors; children 12 and under are free. Information: 303-932-8100 or gardeningcolorado.com
