Good morning friends welcome to Gardening with Creekside today we are on day uh two three
four I don't really know what day it is here at the grand garden show on Mackinac Island and
Jerry and I just wanted to stop for a minute pause all the fun activities and just give you a little
bit of a behind-the-scenes uh tour of what has been happening here at the Grand Garden Show
we of course are at the Grand Hotel and we are on the front porch this is the largest front porch
in the country the world 660 feet has filled with rocking chairs on the whole length of the
porch it is nice and early this morning the sun is coming up it's nice and cool and crisp and we
just wanted to take you on a little bit of a tour of the different fun things that have been going
on when we showed you in one of the earlier videos we talked about the different containers that Jack
and his crew had put together they are now all placed here on the porch and inside the hotel
and absolutely spectacular i mean look at this combination you've got this incredible saturns
and you've got the brand new supertunia mini vista scarlet we've got lantana in here of course
lots of hydrangeas if you've ever been to mackinac you know that hydrangeas are absolutely huge here
they love the environment and just do spectacular here on the island nice cool nights and they just
flourish here of course the grand hotel is known for their geraniums this is definitely
their signature flower everything is decorated with a geranium there's over 1400 geraniums
planted in these containers along the porch all of these containers that you see here
these are for the show so they have come in and placed them here along the porch and inside
some of these we had seen before but just look at this view so this is what you get to see when you
are on the front porch of the grand hotel just an amazing view out there over the water i told jerry
i was like man it's going to be a rude awakening when we wake up at our house in north carolina on
friday morning thursday morning it definitely is an absolutely stunning view now what happened
yesterday was we had lots of fun it was the first official day of the show that was monday and had
some keynote speakers jack barnwell spoke kind of told the history his story how he came to be
such a big huge influence here on mackinac island and then we had some breakout sessions so i am
one of the breakout speakers so i got to talk with all the folks about fun um pollinator plants
that are coming out onto the market in 2023 that they can add to their garden so we did
that and then lunch and then in the afternoon there's like 13 different gardens here on the
island that have been opened up for the guests to come and tour and they are absolutely magnificent
and stunning so we got to do that we'll we'll walk and talk because i'm going to show you some of
these containers um so we got to do some of those tours uh unfortunately we had a rainstorm come
through so i think some people we got a little got a little wet and had to cut it short but
again this afternoon we will finish up those tours and we just get to go through and just see these
stunning gardens hear the story and the history of the cottages and how they have come to be
and how jack and his crew have worked on them so this morning laura and i are going to give the
keynote address at the garden show proven winners asked all the guests if they had a question for
us to submit questions so she and i are going to do kind of a q a back and forth with one another
and just have a great conversation answering people's questions so we're going to do that
i have another breakout session and then people get to have we get to have lunch with some folks
it's going to be a very fun filled day look at this more of the sun credible saturn the truth
of pink the gum freena this will be the annual of the year next year and then there is some
double super bells in there and the safari let's see which one was that no yes safari
dawn but look at just beautiful the vertigo grasses with the plum dandy
next to the white foxes and the banana creams just gorgeous so we're going to take you um on
a little bit of a little bit of a hodgepodge today just to kind of show you some of the
behind the scenes things from yesterday and today i never know where the day is going to
take us so it'll be a great fun day but i've got to get in there and get with laura so that
we can get ready for our keynote address we will see you all back here in a little while
all right friends it has been an absolutely fantastic day we have um it's been quite a full
day shall we say so laura and i did our keynote address together at the grant garden show we did a
q a back and forth lots of fun with that i did my other breakout session talking about pollinators
and the new plants that helped support pollinators in their gardens then we had a private lunch with
some sweet folks uh yeah so it has been a very full day it is a positively beautiful glorious
afternoon here on mackinac there is nothing but blue sky a beautiful breeze coming through and i
was just telling some folks here we are at the end of august and i am wearing jeans and a sweater i
mean hello can i just have this mackinaw weather in north carolina when we come home tomorrow it
is going to be a a slap in the face now here we are at the hotel iroquois going into one of the
proven winners signature gardens of course jack varnwell has designed this garden and he and his
staff have installed it and maintained it it is just a glorious garden so we're just going to walk
through and give you a little bit of an overview of this space if you want really good details just
go to jack's um youtube channel but beautiful tough stuff hybrid loads and loads of colors
notice that here on mackinac they use tons of impatiens so you will see in patients all over the
place on the island clearly they love this climate in this environment so it is just a beautiful a
beautiful area in here hydrangeas on mackinac just absolutely thrived whether it is a paniculata or
it is the mountain hydrangeas loads of color but with coleus and impatience double impatient this
beautiful water feature right here um the carriage house hotel iroquois just gorgeous gardens
there's the berry so scheffler's is um one of the main fairies that's what we wrote over here
every time they get ready to take off they toot their horn so that is what you've heard
but look at these cards i don't know for sure but i'm gonna say this is probably godzilla
godzilla is that gorgeous cross with a painted turn and a japanese card
yeah japanese painted in a lady fern rather so you get the height of a lady card that
you get the color that japanese paint is from beautiful gorgeous colors and then of course
loads of containers um and then as we come to this where you're going to go
into the restaurant the carriage house as we come back through here you will see um
but just to give you a bit of an overview of this whole area is just a gorgeous space of
course there are aqua pots here at the urethra and you can just see there's the ferry again you can
see how huge these impatiens are along dahlias that has that beautiful little bubble bee on it
prince tuck aqua pots even here in mackinac just thrive right because it's the self-watering
containers that do a great job but just look at this it's probably i don't even know what
time it is maybe 5 30 in the afternoon and just a beautiful the sun is starting to set
back here it's nice and in shade and you can just see this whole area where jack has worked so hard
in this space of course the doc right now they're serving cocktails and kind of light smacked
appetizers getting people kind of ready for that last push for the evening before dinner but just a
beautiful space and he has outdone himself we have had the absolute most fun going through and just
walking through mackinac the thing is is that the whole island all the way around is only
eight miles so you can easily walk from one point of the island to the next point of the island
not a hard wall whatsoever especially when you have weather like this that is nice and dry and
cool and there's a beautiful breeze it just makes um for such a pleasant afternoon in the
garden we've got lots of the alliums that are going of course i think if i saw this
was like tiny tough stuff and then we have regular tough stuff throughout i could be wrong on that
um but just beautiful spaces and it's just a beautiful space if you ever get the chance to
come to mackinac i know that it is a very remote place it is not the easiest thing to get to
um but if you are just a gardener you love to see beautiful things beautiful architecture it is just
such the wind is blowing janie's hair i'm facing the wrong way um it's just such a really unique
environment as the whole culture of this island it is um it is a one-of-a-kind trip and that i would
highly recommend if you have the opportunity to come here you definitely need to do it it has been
a wonderful time for us and we have really enjoyed our time here of course the grand garden show has
been wonderful and seeing all of our sweet folks who watch our videos faithfully is has been a nice
encouragement as well so without further ado i am going to say good night we are going to be
headed home tomorrow it is going to be a long journey for us but we are excited to get home
even though jenny is not looking forward to entering back into the heat and humidity
of north carolina as september approaches but coming to places like this you get inspired
you get tons of ideas that you're thinking how can i take this idea and tweak it and make it fit
in my environment whether you're assigned three or eurozone seven or you're a zone nine or 11.
you can always take inspiration from other gardens you tweak it and you make it your own
and you make it work in your garden so as always i want you to go out and visit different places
so that you can be inspired and take those ideas back to your garden
and make it to the space that you love and enjoy every single moment as always
we appreciate you thank you so much regarding the creekside see the next video bye friends