2014 Guide To The Leesburg Flower & Garden Festival

2014

2014 Flower & Garden Festival

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Leesburg Flower & Garden Show Set For April 26-27

Morton

mmorton@leesburgtoday.com

A

fter a brutal winter with its heavy, frequent snow and bitter cold, the arrival of the Leesburg Flower and Garden Festival is sure to be celebrated.

We can almost smell the festival and can certainly imagine the sights and sounds of downtown Leesburg filled with people of all ages out for a great springtime weekend April 26-27.

The six-block festival area each year resembles a giant kaleidoscope of vibrant color as people wander up and down the streets, or move purposefully to their car toting colorful hanging geranium baskets, or hauling a kiddy wagon loaded with shrubs and perennials. At every booth, people eye the horticultural goods with interest, while those looking for landscape tips pepper vendors with questions as they inspect the painstakingly designed displays. Others take a break on the courthouse lawn to eat lunch

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2014 Flower & Garden Festival

from the varied food-booth offerings and listen to some great live music, while their kids do the same thing at the Children’s Stage on Cornwall Street.

In this guide, we show what it takes to mount the event, now in its 24th year, and the people who make it a fixture on the East Coast horticultural scene. On a fine weekend, the show pulls in almost 40,000 visitors over the two days. We also give overviews of the different components of the festival—the vendors, the landscape designers, the performers and the food providers.

A special highlight this year is an appearance by “The Fabulous Beekman Boys,” otherwise known as Dr. Brent Ridge and writer and television personality Josh Kilmer-Purcell. The duo will discuss the operations on their 1802 Beekman Farm in upstate New York, the inspiration and derivation of the legendary empire they have built from the products of the farm.

Whether you come to the festival for plants, for gardening tips, a piece of equipment,

a new hat or a hammock—or whether you just want a day out in a lovely setting with some great music and food, there is something for everyone.

By the time the streets re-open at 9 p.m. Sunday, you’d never know that just hours before those same streets were thronged with thousands of people.

Visitors are encouraged to bring water, if the day is hot, and to wear comfortable shoes as the six-block area can take some walking.

Organizers also strongly encourage pet owners to leave their dogs at home.

A continuous shuttle bus service will operate between Ida Lee Park and the festival area.

Hours of the festival are 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Saturday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. A donation of $3 is requested.

For more information, go to the town’s festival website at www.flowerandgarden.org where you will find entertainment schedules, maps, parking information, and listings of past and present vendors. 2

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Vendors Offer Everything For The Garden » Margaret Morton

mmorton@leesburgtoday.com

T

he heart of the Leesburg Flower and Garden Festival remains the dual components of the landscape exhibits and the assortment of hand-picked vendor booths.

While the landscape plots spark the imagination as to the amazing things that can be done in a small outdoor space, the 100-plus vendors sell the materials necessary to exercise their green thumb at home.

Increasingly over the past few years, the focus of what is available for sale has expanded. Now, it’s not just plant materials that are available, although there is a huge variety of trees, shrubs, bulbs, herbs,

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A booth covered with flowers from side to side. heirloom varieties, perennials, exotics, native plants, annuals and hanging baskets to be found at the Leesburg festival. About 40 percent of the items for sale are non-plant material, more “hardscape” items, including garden stoneware and ceramics, edging and pavers, planters, wind chimes, fencing, hand tools, pottery, bird houses, stained glass, statuary, antique garden pieces, trellises and gazebos, fountains and garden art. It’s also decorative items, garden furniture, lamps, glasses and tableware, hats, clothing and baskets.

Event Coordinator Rachael Goodwin, Leesburg’s special events supervisor, said, “Each year, we make a conscious effort not to rest on our laurels. We want people to come back because the festival is interesting, and it’s fun and it offers things they want.”

Recreation Program Manager Jeremy Payne noted the younger generation, which makes up much of the annual 35,000-40,000 attendance, is more outdoor oriented. “They have a different take on gardening,” he said.

In the beginning the vendors were selling to a pretty knowledgeable market, Payne said. Now, many visitors have as much interest in outdoor living styles as in buying a particular prized specimen. And, as exemplified by the Beekman Boys, who are the guest presenters at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 27, that outdoor living style is “right at your finger

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2014 Flower & Garden Festival

tips,” Payne said.

So keeping the right balance between a wide variety of plant material and all the elements of today’s expanded living styles is key.

Goodwin is excited because “we have a pool, a real pool” among this year’s displays. That’s a first. The company, Perfect Pools of Virginia, heard about the festival from another vendor, as do many, and Goodwin was happy to see that new feature at the event.

Among the trends Goodwin sees is that pottery is very popular and the demand for clay products increases every year. People are also interested in “whimsy pieces,” such as decorative garden pinwheels and flags. Mosaic and stained glass vendors also have appeal. Copper in the garden has a perennial appeal, whether it’s wind chimes or statuary.

Repurposed materials, such as wine bottles and recycled rugs, are also sought after. Among the new items available this year are orchids, jams, pickles and pies.

This year, the planning committee accepted more natural spatype products, including soaps and lotions. “We’ve seen an uptick in applications this year for more naturally produced items,” Goodwin said.

“Vendors think we’re a hidden gem. We get a lot of word-ofmouth interest, with people saying ‘I just heard about your great festival,’” she said.

That may explain why applications ranked at an all-time high this year, with people sending in their entry forms long after the application deadline. Applicants are juried by a team of four. After screening out those who don’t qualify, the “group prioritizes those who best fit the garden theme—and then we see how many we can handle,” Goodwin said.

And vendors come from far away—one even from Seattle this

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year—as well as southern states including North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama; Mid West states such as Ohio, Michigan and Indiana; and more northerly states including New York and Connecticut. Vendors also come from New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania and the entire Washington, DC, metropolitan area. There is a big regional representation also, including Loudoun vendors. continued on page 7

The B&B Guild One unusual first-time vendor this year is the Loudoun County Bed & Breakfast Guild.

For the past several years, the guild has been located in the nonprofit area, which festival organizers offer for a variety of local community organizations, but members decided they needed to get more engaged with the public, so they applied as a vendor. “We’re moving up in the world,” guild representative Georjann Overmann said.

“They suggested that if members of the guild could offer products related to the purposes of the festival, we could apply,” Overmann said. They did, and were accepted.

One member of the guild is a florist and she will make flower arrangements during the festival and then raffle them off.

She also will have a sign-up sheet for people to place an order.

Another member is a photographer and she will have framed prints of the garden surrounding her bed and breakfast, Overmann said. Other members are floral and lavender growers and some make candles and soaps, “so we’ll have several different things,” she said. The guild also will have literature available promoting the various B&B sites, as well as its B&B Guild Open House the following Sunday.

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John Petro is one of the more unusual vendors at the festival. His Aunt Beas Backyard Beehives in Falls Church has been at the festival for the past few years. He likes the show, where he says “we get so much interest.” Because of the size of his hives he can only bring a small amount of inventory, but “we get leads and people contact us later, saying they want to buy one.”

The volume of attendance is good, also, he said.

But he’s mainly interested in promoting “a radically different type of hive,” one that is essentially a horizontal box. He advocates a very simple way of beekeeping. “You don’t need all that stuff, bees can get along fine without you—just leave them to themselves and they’ll do it naturally.”

He does several shows and finds that people are ready for a different kind of beekeeping. “We’re really busy, it’s the height of the season now,” he said. His hive is based on a USAID hive developed to teach Kenyan farmers how to become beekeepers, itself based on a model from ancient Greece.

“They were looking for a very simple hive, easy to make and economical,” Petro said.

One of the hives he uses is 48 inches long, 15 inches wide and 12 inches tall. “There are 30 bars from side to side and the bees go in, start building comb and lay eggs—the queen lays 2,500 a day, Petro said.

He calls the Leesburg festival “a very good show, we’re the perfect complement to that.

And I’m amazed at how well organized it is,” he said.

J&B Herb and Plant Farm

A new vendor this year is J&B Herb and Plant Farm, from Roxboro, NC, located in the Durham-Chapel Hill area.

Burton Edwards and John Wrenn will be bringing their certified organic, heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables to the festival. “We also do a lot of scented geraniums, culinary herbs and I love to plant up funky types of containers,” Edwards said.

The pair learned of the Leesburg show after a festival they had signed up for was cancelled. She conducted an online search for other shows on that date and found the Leesburg festival.

Later, Edwards said, “I heard this was one of the best shows on the East Coast.”

The partners grow all the Belgian mums for Meadows Farms Nursery, so she is aware of Loudoun from having delivered the mums, but is looking forward to a wider knowledge of the town and having “a good, positive experience and getting some of our certified organic herbs up in that area.”

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2014 Flower & Garden Festival

Holly Chapple

Flowers Holly Heider Chapple is an unusual vendor in that she has been at the Leesburg Flower & Garden Festival every single year. She will be in her usual spot in the first block of North King Street, offering her bouquets of cut flowers, many of them from her garden in Lucketts. Her booth is always a focus, with people enjoying picking out various flowers to make their own bouquet. She’s keeping a nervous eye on the weather, hoping temperatures will rise sufficiently to warm up her plants in time for the festival and will augment her supply as needed.

“I’ll bring my usual cut flowers and greens—lilac, roses, delphinium, iris, viburnum, vines, spirea, dogwood, wild mustard, etc.,” she said.

Even though she’s gone on to fame as a bridal flower consultant and educator, Chap-

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ple loves the show. “I’ve never missed one. I had a baby the same weekend, and my children set up the booth and I came on the Sunday on the way home with my baby boy. I had him the Friday of the show,” she said of her now 9-year-old son.

“To me, the show is absolutely tradition, it’s the start of spring, the start of my planting season. I don’t plant anything new and tender until that week,” Chapple said. She considers the festival to have set the standard for the best horticultural show in the area.

As to her longevity at the show, Chapple said, “My mom taught me a long time ago you stay at the dance with the people who brought you.”

Although now she has many other commitments, she says, “I got my start there and I believe I must be there for my community.”

he event’s new website—www.flowerandgardenfestival. org—has been a big success and Goodwin looks to it to be an important resource to attract future vendor.

“It adds a level of information and recognition; it gives us a known face and ups the profile,” she said. It also gives creditability to the town’s claim that it hosts a great festival.

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Friday night, Goodwin and her crew do their best to get everything moving like clockwork, directing vendors and landscapers to their rightful places.

“I color code every street, parking lots and ticket booths, so I can tell someone, ‘You belong on West Market Street—you’re in the wrong place.’w Every block has different numbers, all designed to facilitate as smooth a process as possible, and to make sure access to Leesburg businesses is kept open and easy.

“It takes massive coordination,” Goodwin said of the synchronization needed for the moving parts of vendors and landscapers. But, every year, when Saturday dawns everything is ready.

And vendors need to be, because they have a waiting “early bird” clientele that comes into town well before the 10 a.m. opening. It will be a busy two days for vendors and organizers until the last customer departs and exhibitors pack up their booth and head home. 2

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Downtown Landscape Exhibits Spur Ideas For Home Gardens » Margaret Morton

mmorton@leesburgtoday.com

O

ne of the most popular activites of the the Leesburg Flower & Garden Festival Looking for is marveling at the creative the chickens ... genius of the various landscapers, who have built garden designs to show customers just what they could achieve, with the right ideas, materials and focus.

It takes a huge amount of planning and work—and expense—throughout the top three each year. He’s won four times and also year to come up with the perfect design, a fact the People’s Choice award several times. that’s often lost on vistors as they survey the Last year’s award for Outstanding Technifinished products. cal Craftsmanship went to West Winds Nursery,

Last year, people marveled over Jason from Sudley Springs. The Outstanding Creativity Dengler’s “take-you-back-to-the-farm” charm- Award went to River’s Edge Landscape, of Blueing chicken house, complete with live chickens, mont, for its sophisticated and elegant display. surrounded by a tiny garden. Dengler and his The company also won the People’s Choice Wildwood Landscape team won Best Overall award, in which the public decides to whom it Presentation, with the judges and public alike will award the palm. agreeing the chickens stole the show.

For many, the landscape design exhibit

Dengler, for whom this will be the seventh is the focal point of the festival and a source of year of the landscape contest, has placed in the visual pleasure as well as a mine of informa-

tion, ideas and practical advice on how to design a garden, how to intersperse different plans, shrubs and trees and how to blend them in a harmonious whole with water and hardscape features, such as fountains, pools, trellises, gazebos and stone walls.

For the landscaping team, the effort and expense pays off in the exposure to some 40,000 people and resulting orders down the road.

An added side attraction—at least for downtown residents of Leesburg, is watching the gardens slowly emerge from bare pavement.

“It’s the best free show on earth,” according to one resident, who in previous years watched the evolving sight.

When the landscapers first move in at 6 p.m. Friday night, the intersection of King and Market streets is filled with fork lifts, dump trucks, piles of dirt, sand, mulch, stone and brick, various trees and shrubs and hoses snaking across the tarmac.

But then, slowly, order begins to emerge.

First, the outlines of the garden appear—a dry stone wall rises from the pavement, a huge boul-

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der is levered onto a corner of the garden, or a gazebo is lowered carefully onto the small plot, and a large tree positioned near it with its branches drooping over. Maybe a fountain is placed in the center of the plot. High walls, maybe ivy or wisteria covered, suddenly emerge, and slowly the garden takes shape. A wrought-iron or wooden bench appears—destined to be sunk down onto gratefully the following days by weary festival goers.

Finally, the plant materials are set in place—colorful bulbs peeping out from shrubs and trees—and covered with a pungent smelling blanket of mulch. A last water, and the weary team members wrap it up and call it a day—a long day, that in many cases last well into the night.

The next day, landscapers are on duty at their exhibits, patiently answering the questions by the public, who get a great free horticultural design education.

Doug Fulcher has taken over management of the design competition this year. Awards will be given for Best Overall Presentation; Outstanding Technical Craftsmanship; and Outstanding Creativity.

The cash award of $750 for Best Overall Presentation is given to the landscaper whose garden has scored the highest number of criteria points as determined by the judges’ site visits and discussions.

The Outstanding Technical Craftsmanship award of $500 goes to the exhibitor whose garden shows the finest quality of materials and workmanship as defined by the criteria.

The Outstanding Creativity award, also worth $500, is given to the landscaper whose garden exhibits the most originality and features elements that are unique, provide human interest or humor, and/or convey an identifiable mood or theme as defined by the criteria. Entrants may only win one of the three landscape awards.

Judging happens Saturday morning and the results are posted at the main entertainment stage in the early afternoon. The popular People’s Choice, in which the public gets to agree, or more frequently, disagree, with the judges’ verdict, is posted on Sunday morning. 2

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here have been featured presenters of note over the years at the flower and garden show, but none quite like the duo that will be in town for this year’s event.

Special Events Supervisor Rachael Goodwin and Recreation Program Manager Jeremy Payne radiate a quiet satisfaction over their coup in securing the presence of Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell, otherwise known as “The Fabulous Beekman Boys,” on the Sunday of the festival at a special location behind the Leesburg Today building. The duo will relate the impressive story of their rise to fame—and the horticultural and lifestyle empire they have built using the products of their Beekman Farm in upstate New York. In their other lives, Ridge is a trained geriatric specialist and Kilmer-Purcell a writer and television personality.

“We hope to share our story and get inspiration from being in a new place we’ve never been before,” Ridge said in a recent interview.

It is likely that their audience at the 2 p.m. April 27 presentation in the Leesburg Today parking lot behind 19 N. King St. will draw inspiration from the duo’s meteoric rise to fame.

The story began in 2007, when they purchased the run-down early 19th century farm, initially as a weekend getaway. Their farming operation evolved into a national lifestyle movement that tapped into the public’s yearning for fresh and naturally produced food and beauty and home products, now featured in leading retailers.

The Beekman Boys’ public fame comes from their hit TV reality show airing on the Cooking Channel, their cookbook “Beekman 1802,” as well as the cleverly titled memoir of life on the farm, “The Buccolic Plague.” In 2011, they launched the Beekman 1802 Blaak Cheese. They topped it all off, when, watched by millions, they rose from unlikely underdogs to first-place winners on CBS’s The Amazing Race.

That win enabled them to live permanently at the farm. Both had grown up in rural areas—Kilmer-Purcell in rural Wisconsin and Ridge in North Carolina. As children, they were used to gardening and outdoor activities with parents and grandparents. Then both transitioned to city jobs. They both lost their jobs during the recession, Ridge said, “and that really was the impetus for what happened later; we had to make [the farm] make money. Desperation is a great motivator,” he said.

And that’s what happened as they turned their efforts to earning an income from Beekman’s, focusing on what the land would produce.

When they bought in 2007 it was used primarily for hay production and pasture for dairy. But goats have become their bread and butter. Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell have a goat dairy in which they make all kinds of cheese, including the Blaak cheese, milk, beauty and skin products—all from their mixed breed herd of 120 goats. The Blaak cheese is extremely popular, with a waiting list of more than 5,000. The goats are given grain “as a treat” at milking time, but otherwise their feed is grass and hay. The primary ingredient in Beekman 1802’s beauty products is goat milk. All the products can be seen at the Beekman1802.com online store. Products also are found in the Beekman flagship store at Sharon Springs, NY.

That’s not the only component of their farming, which is organically managed, but not certified. They grow 110 varieties of heirloom vegetables, which they used for creating recipes. The vegetables in grown a raised bed system, and the beds are rotated. Fifty-five acres of hay field are set aside for the goats.

Looking back on how the farming operation grew, Ridge said, “We

2014 Flower & Garden Festival

loved the feeling of expansiveness that you associate with an old farm—its patina, so to speak.”

Today, they’ve grown beyond being just producers. “We’ve expanded to designing products, using local craft artisans,” Ridge said.

Those 48 craftspeople comprise weavers, blacksmiths, ceramicists and woodworkers. And it feels wonderful to have provided four dozen jobs helping to make goods for the home and gardening supplies, Ridge said.

“We get our inspiration from what we’re doing in the garden—you never know exactly where it comes from—different parts of the garden,” he said.

They have learned the values of seasonal gardening. “If you always have access to something, you fail to appreciate it properly,” Ridge said, alluding to one of life’s little lessons. Tomatoes ripen in upstate New York in September.

“We eat them fresh, can them, freeze them and

by March, we’ve gone through all our supply. So from March to September, we don’t eat another tomato. But when you taste it for the first time in months it’s the best thing you ever had,” he said.

Winters are cold in New York, so the farm naturally tends to be run on seasonal lines. The goats are bred and the pregnant dams housed inside in a warm barn during the winter. That’s the time when the two men plan out the rest of their year—the farm, the store, company, design of new products. In the spring, the

physical work starts up, along with budgeting for the year.

Ridge said they heard about t h e Leesburg Flower & Garden Festival by word of mouth. “We found about it from our neighbor, Barb Malera, owner of Landreth Seed Company”—the oldest seed company in the country, founded in 1784. Malera is a frequent vendor at the Leesburg festival.

For Payne and Goodwin, who coordinate the festival, adding Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell as headline presenters is great attraction. Noting

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11 the festival hasn’t had a guest presenter for a decade, Payne said the organic approach and name recognition of The Beekman Boys ties into the event perfectly.

“It’s our hope this is a first step in the next evolution of the show,” Payne said, musing on the possibilities that might including demonstrations on topics including canning, preserving or outdoor cooking.

“After this winter—which was terrible up here—we’re anxious to get there and see some spring,” Ridge said, a sentiment likely shared

by Loudoun residents. They have never been to Leesburg, so they’re looking forward to exploring the town and seeing a bit of the county, Ridge said.

During the April 27 presentation, the two intend to tell their story and how their lives have changed over the years, as well as the influences that guided them, and how much more they appreciate that life “since we’ve returned to our rural roots,” Ridge said.

The event is free, but seating is limited and organizers suggest an early arrival.

The authors will hold a book signing for all three of their books, which will be for sale at the lecture site and at Ida Lee Recreation Center before the festival.

For more information about “The Beekman Boys,” go to www.beekman1802.com. 2

13

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EASt MARKEt

300 River’s Edge Landscapes 301 Barbara Badenhope 302 NOVA Northern Virginia Community College 303 The Parsonage Handmade Soap 304 Rock Water Farm, Inc. 305 Celestial Gardens, Inc. 306 Presentability, LLC 307 Echo Ridge Nursery 308 The Copper Master 309 Weiss Farm, LLC 310 Loudoun Medical Group 311 Putnam Hill Nursery 312 Town of Leesburg Environmental Advisory Commission 313 Leesburg Tree Commission 314 Susanna Farm Nursery 315 Dondero Orchards, LLC 316 The Tin Shed 317 Demca Demonstrations 318 Aaron’s Homestead Products 319 Bartlett Tree Experts 320 Stem Vases 321 Garden Stone Art

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322 Blueridge Kettle Korn 323 Simply Chef 324 Laughing Crab

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100 Wildwood Landscape, LLC 101 Renaissance Lavender 102 Blue Ridge Gardens 103 Radical Roots Organic Farm 104 Gourds by Suzanna 105 Glorious Goblets 106 TW Perry 107 Landscape Associates, Inc. 108 Craig Sundecks and Porches 109 Kris Krafts Stained Glass 110 Hunt Country Iron 111 Fresh Fruit Cup 112 LB Concessions 113 Taste of the World 114 The Randy Radish 115 Chile Man 116 Marc’s Studio 117 Landreth Seed 118 PNC Bank 119 Potter’s Fire, LLC 120 Wind Designs

Lightfoot

001 Melwood Horticulture Training Center 002 Dulles Motorcars Subaru, Kia, CDJR 003 On-The-Rocks 004 SS Fragrances 005 JB Brown and Company 006 Blue Ridge Bonsai 007 Gutter Helmet 008 Loudoun Breast Health Network 009 Nica Art 010 Deerbusters 011 Paige’s Promotion for Wyndham 012 Handcrafted Cedar Bird Houses 013 Onice 014 All Natural Pictures 015 Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy 016 The Orchid House 017 Mid Atlantic Water Proofing 018 J Lynn Nursery 019 Something Earthy Pottery 020 SavATree 021 SOL4R, LLC 022 Frivolous Cottage

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400 Through The Garden, Inc. 401 Holly Heider Chapple Flowers, LTD 402 Leaf Me Alone 403 Deckscapes of Virginia, LLC 404 J&B Herb & Plant Farm 405 Eastwoods Nursery 406 Lightfoot 407 Layng’s Flower Farm 408 Perfect Pools of VA 409 Fly Home Birdhouses 410 Hoffner’s Handwoven Baskets 411 Oil Creations by Gail 412 Aldie Peddler Outdoors 413 Montgomery Shade & Awning, LTD 414 Book Sales 415 Leesburg Today 416 Virginia Hardscapes 417 Carnivorous Plant Nursery 418 Glade Valley Nursery 419 Twin Oaks Hammocks 420 The Cottage of Herbs 421 Princess and the Peony 422 Handcrafted By Us 423 2 Hands In Harmony 424 Bad Boy Mowers 425 Jamie’s Small Engine Repair

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CORNWALL

600 Essence de Provence 601 Unique Bulbs 602 Oatlands 603 Richard’s Seagrass Hats 604 Loudoun County Recycling 605 Murrell’s Mex-Italia Gourmet Salsa 606 The Potting Bench Nursery 607 Natural Bath Spa 608 Aunt Beas Backyard Beehives 609 Betty Jane’s Sweet Delights 610 Uncorked Creations 611 Loudoun County B and B Guild 612 Bedrocks Bounty 613 Slates Ornate 614 Copperman

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I

t takes a lot to produce the annual Flower & Garden Festival—a lot of planning and physical effort—as any member of the Leesburg Parks and Recreation staff will tell you.

Comments made during a recent gathering of staff members around a large table at the Ida lee Recreation Center revealed just how multi-faceted the annual planning and operational exercise is.

Some members present were relatively new to the festival, while others were old hands. Many have taken a turn at different responsibilities.

And, especially for the old-timers who now have their roles down pat, they’ve developed relationships with frequent visitors, landscapers and vendors alike.

And it’s definitely different from their normal day jobs.

It’s a task that requires a fair amount of skill—and experience—in keeping the various moving parts going at both the speed and direction needed. If not, the entire operation can get bogged down.

“You think you have it down pat—you try to keep refining the system to make it better every year. But there’s always something, or someone, that pulls the rug out,” event coordinator Rachael Goodwin said ruefully, noting the time the regular sound and stage contractor went out of the events business at a completely inappropriate time—late January. “We had a mad scramble to get someone else. It’s not simple, there are a lot of guidelines and logistics,” she said.

The six-block festival area—three blocks of King Street, two of Market Street and one block of Cornwall Street—is divided into various areas, supervised by individual staff members. It takes a lot of patience, some firmness and a bit of rolling with the punches when unexpected problems occur. The vendor who didn’t say earlier he needed electricity.

The food vendor who appears on the scene without having announced he was bringing a hitch with his trailer.

Jay Allred is responsible for North King and Cornwall streets.

Allison Hartshorn, now in her seventh year at the festival, has taken on the new responsibility of developing social media—a growing area of importance—after having been a street coordinator. She’s full of creative ideas, tweeting and using vendors’ photos to post and tag.

Linda Fountain over the years “has done just about everything,” but she now is responsible for the load-in and out behind the Lightfoot restaurant. Megan McLaughlin helps with the load-in, and also has responsibility for vendors and the Children’s Stage.

There are some problems with getting people in and out, but “we’re usually able to work with them,” Fountain said. The job requires close coordination with West Market Street arrangements, since the only access is from the street.

Andrew Kim is a street coordinator, the money man and problem solver. “He’s the fire extinguisher,” Goodwin joked. He collects the money from the ticket booths and makes sure issues are dealt with.

Probably the employee with the longest festival experience, closely followed by Allred, is Katey Jackson. She’s been at it since 1997 in a variety of roles. She has responsibility for West Market Street, where there are a lot of food vendors. For Jackson, the overnight transformation

Friday night from town streets to garden as the landscapers toil most of the night to produce dazzling displays of small gardening designs is the most impressive. “It’s completely transformed,” she said of the dazzling landscaped central downtown area as it awaits the arrival of thousands of visitors.

Pam Sullivan is in charge of East Market, while Troy Itnyre takes care of South King Street. Now in her third year, Sullivan said seeing a lot of the same vendors makes it special. “It puts a face to the event,” she said. And vendors are appreciative of the care the street coordinator gives them. Taking an interest in the vendors “goes a long way,” she noted.

Goodwin noted planners like to switch things up a little bit to keep the festival fresh.

“We move vendors around; some request a change and if it fits well that’s alright,” she said.

Some longtime “anchors” love their spot. “We don’t fuss with them,” Goodwin said.

“We try to keep a good mix of old and new vendors,” Recreation Program Manager Jeremy Payne said.

And Friday night is a complex operation, with landscapers setting up displays as well as 60 percent of vendors moving into place.

2014 Flower & Garden Festival “There’s a lot of moving parts,” Goodwin said.

It’s important for an area coordinator to get to know the vendors’ personalities, Kim said. “Then you have a better idea of how to place them.”

At the height of the event, on Saturday when usually the biggest crowds are present, there’s a good 60 staffers present, Sullivan noted.

The type and quality of vendors at the festival has changed over the years, according to Fountain. In the beginning it was almost entirely geared toward flowers and not as focused on outdoor living and gardening as it is today, she said. Diversify the focus has been successful, she said: “There’s something for everyone.”

The vendors are closely evaluated by staff, to make sure they sell what they specified in their contract; to ensure their products are nicely presented and fairly priced.

“It’s a lot of work,” Allred said. “My job is to get them in and set up and ready to go, get them restocked and then home—if I can do that I’ve been successful.”

He finds the cameraderie that develops over the years a lot of fun, even though Friday

17 night can be “tough.”

He is constantly amazed by what the area looks like on Monday morning when he comes to work. “I drive though town, and 15 hours before there were 20,000 people and 100plus vendors, the town was packed. Monday morning, it’s clean, no trash—you’d never know,” Allred said. “That, gives me a tremendous amount of pride and satisfaction.” Heads nodded around the table making it clear those present all felt a sense of pride in organizing such a large event without major impact on the public.

For Payne, it’s a question of being organized, systematic and thorough. “We deliver what the visitors want, we meet their expectations.”

For those who work on the festival, the sense of being a tightly knit group focuses their efforts. And to those in the field, the openness of their superiors is important. After the festival is over, there’s time to decompress before doing a post mortem, finding out what needs changing or tweaking, before taking up the job of planning for the next year. “You guys always listen. That helps make it work better,” Allred said. 2

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Taking The Stage

Live Performances Are More Than Background Music At Festival » Margaret Morton

O

mmorton@leesburgtoday.com

ne of the great pleasures of the festival is the music performed on the courthouse lawn stage.

The pace of the festival is leisurely, and people enjoy mixing it up during the day—checking out the horticultural offerings and garden equipment, then taking a break to sit on the grass to enjoy some of the best music around.

Event supervisor Rachael Goodwin tries to bring in a well-rounded roster of performers, a blend of repeat and new musicians, both local and regional. And, judging by the reception the performers get, she succeeds. “We try to keep the music fresh, and not let it become stale,” she says. The groups perform in mostly 90-minute segments Saturday and Sunday.

The festival will get going Saturday with the inimitable sounds of local band Andy

Hawk & The Train Wreck Endings at 10 a.m.

The group has just released its fifth CD— “Shhh!!! (Live in the Library).” The performance was recorded in the library of Potomac Falls High School last November, and copies will be available at the festival. While playing all originals, the band covers a lot of turf in a style that has been compared to acts ranging from R.E.M. to Creedence Clearwater Revival to Tom Petty to Bob Dylan to the Beatles. The group plays all original music and features Andy Hawk vocals and acoustic guitar, Chuck Bordelon on bass, Paul Bordelon on electric guitar, Pascal Nasta on drums, and Nancy Griffith-Cochran, vocals.

They are followed at noon by The Orphans of

Twang, a lively group that has for performed mix of folk, blues and Americana in bars and festivals across the region for more than a decade. The band is comprised of

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Leesburg Parks and Recreation staff members had some fun compiling some interesting statistics relating to the Leesburg Flower & Garden Festival: 13: ticket booths 11: rolls of duct tape used 60: paint cups for kids’ animal painting 70: pounds of ice hauled in 192: bottles of water for staff 770: ounces of coffee consumed 10.5 miles: distance walked by full-time staff 54 hours: length of the event 2,743 miles: the farthest a vendor will travel in 2014

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veteran performers Rob Remington, Kara Hansbarger, Tim Rumfelt, David Saunders, Mike Breen and Clark Hansbarger.

The Crawdaddies take the stage at 2:30 p.m. Founded in 1995 on a premise of “why not, it might just work,” the group infuses a mix of Cajun, Zydeco, blues, ska, roots, rock and reggae into an unmistakable groove-laden sound unquestionably its own. The group features Kraig Greff on accordion and piano, Chris Huntington vocals and guitar, Javier Rivera vocals, washboard and acoustic guitar, Rod Gross on drums and Dan Hones on bass, vocals. A road-seasoned troupe, the musicians host an impressive résumé, notably a 2008 Emmy award for Greff who toured with Della Reese, Barry White, Joe Williams and Diana Ross.

The intriguing sounding 7th Son of WV closes out the day, beginning at 4:30 p.m. The blues and rock group performs in the panhandle of West Virginia and throughout the Northern Virginia region. The musicians—Dave Mininberg, Tom and Kelly Briner, and Phil Truiett— perform songs that cover a range of blues, country and rock, with just a little bit of other things thrown in. The band has been described as “having music that makes you want to move.”

Sunday’s performances get going at 10 a.m. with Loudoun favorite son Gary Smallwood with his mix of indie classic rock, alt-country and Americana—which he summarizes as “flat out guitar driven music.”

At 11:45 a.m. Bryan Elijah Smith & The Wild Hearts, an alternative-Americana band based out of Dayton, a small town in the heart of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, takes the stage. With more than 500 original songs, eight independent releases, a solid East Coast touring schedule, an Australian tour last fall under his belt, Smith is a seasoned studio journeyman and ready for a national debut with the pending release of his next full-length studio effort: “These American Hearts,” due out in August.

Loudoun Valley High School graduate Josh Burgess follows with his Top 40 and contemporary cover band at 1:30 p.m. and the Gold Top County Ramblers from Sperryville take the stage at 3:15 p.m. to close out the festival with their acoustic, bluegrass sound that is completely their own, reflecting the next generation of alternative bluegrass. 2

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Kids Have A Stage Of Their Own

» Margaret Morton

mmorton@leesburgtoday.com

C

hildren at the Leesburg Flower and Garden Festival have an area all to themselves on Cornwall Street, across from St. James Episcopal Church where they enjoy entertainment acts and games under the watchful eye of Parks and Rec staffers so parents can leave their offspring in safe hands.

The fun of it for kids, whose attention span tends to move around a lot, is they can switch from the ever-popular animal cutout painting, to decorating their own flower pot and planting a seed, to making paper flowers or deciding they’ve had enough of that, and plop down in front of the Children’s Stage to watch some of the entertainers.

Special Events Supervisor Rachael Goodwin said the seed planting is designed to give kids the chance to get their hands dirty and gain a little hands-on experience of gardening. “We have a hand-washing station, too,” she was quick to assure.

The entertainment roster features a number of tried and true favorites as well as a few new faces.

Saturday kicks off at 11 a.m. with Mad Science, a world-wide franchise that brings science education to children through innovative programs that are both educational and fun.

Uncle Pete, who follows at noon, is both a festival and a musical institution. His zany one-band man “Interactive Musical Celebration” has children of all ages entranced. He uses a positive message which he dispenses through a mix of familiar classic tunes, current favorites, family friendly pop sons and originals. Laughter and movement are high on the roster and the kids enjoy the high energy performance.

Urban Evolution, at 1 p.m. gives kids a good workout, but in a way that gets them wanting to exercise. The Sloshing paint around is fun. performers start off by saying “we hate gyms,” citing treadmills with televisions, arrogant trainers etc., and how pleasure has been lost in the fitness craze, before focusing on having a good time while working out.

Bull Run Cloggers, from Manassas, is a longtime favorite on the Children’s Stage, and it’s fun to watch young toes tapping and bodies instinctively standing up in front of the stage trying to emulate the dancers. The group performs throughout the region and love to share their love of the dance, which they will do Saturday at 2 p.m.

A different strain of music follows at 3 p.m. when the Celtic Rhythm School of Dance shows off the dancers’ skill in Irish step dancing—always a draw with young audiences. The group, the first Irish dance school in Loudoun, performs year-round at schools, hospitals, senior homes and local events and parades. The highlight of their Saturday performance will be the Irish tale, “The kidnapping of Mabd,” filled with pixies, an evil fairy, the Wood woman and her animals, mermaids, castle guards, goblins and trolls.

At 4 p.m., the stage is taken by one of the most popular acts to be seen at the festival—Wildlife Ambassadors, a wildlife education program that focuses on teaching kids the importance of the natural world and

2014 Flower & Garden Festival

living in harmony with its inhabitants. It’s an interactive program, in which kids are invited to come and get up-close-and-personal with some wild animals. It’s fun watching a shy child, slowly gathering the courage to approach and pet an animals, then breaking out into a huge smile.

Saturday’s performances end at 5 p.m. with Kidsinger Jim, with his catchy, danceable tunes and captivating stories. A singing class as a senior at the University of Maryland sparked his interest in music, and he later found his true calling in writing songs for children. He was a K-8 music teacher in the 1990s, during which time he wrote educational songs for children. A recent career highlight was composing and recording a song for NASA to teach children how airplanes fly. Last year, he hit a milestone of 3,500 performances.

Sunday’s roster kicks off with a repeat performance by Wildlife Ambassadors at 11 a.m., followed by professional comedian Adam Ace at noon. He has performed throughout the country and abroad, including at military bases, and on a multitude of cruise ships and college campuses. He was named Comedian of the Year three times, most recently in 2012, by a national organization of colleges. With a contagious personality and high energy, Adam Ace’s goofy, silly, slapstick comedy with the amazing flying toilet paper machine is sure to please.

At 1 p.m. Urban Evolution repeats, followed by Bach 2 Rock at 2 p.m. The group stresses that students learn best when they’re playing the music they enjoy the most. So they use special arrangements of today’s music to help students become proficient instrumentalists or vocalists as well as seasoned performers.

More Than Cheer follows at 3 p.m. The group strives to empower its students to be healthy, make good choices and become community and school leaders, through cheer, gymnastics and dance. Through performing at the festival, the school’s students will be able to build their confidence in public performing and show off their skills. 2

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Leesburg’s

TREE COMMISSION

E

stablished in 1995, the Leesburg Tree Commission is comprised of seven members appointed by the Town Council for their interest and knowledge in urban forestry.

This Commission’s vision is to provide leadership to enhance, expand and preserve the tree canopy for the benefit of the community.

They are dedicated to promoting tree preservation and planting within the Town, providing a healthy and diverse tree canopy, as well as ensuring an aesthetic quality of life for all citizens.

The Town’s Urban Forestry Management Plan was approved in 2006 to guide Leesburg’s efforts to recover the loss of tree canopy and enhance all treerelated benefits by recommending strategies and actions to improve their urban forest management in an equitable, economic, and sustainable manner.

At This Year’s

Flower and Garden Festival

O

n Saturday, April 26th, Leesburg will celebrate Arbor Day, when Mayor Kristen C. Umstattd accepts Leesburg’s 25th Tree City USA Award during the Leesburg

Flower and Garden Festival.

This annual award will be presented by the Virginia Department of Forestry on behalf of the Arbor Day Foundation.

An afternoon ceremony is scheduled for the festival’s stage on the Loudoun County courthouse courtyard.

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A

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with a FREE copy of “How NOT to Kill a Tree”

• And get your FREE give-away Norway Spruce (Picea abies) seedling

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2014 Flower & Garden Festival

23

How To Kill A Tree Actually, What NOT To Do To Your Tree

While mechanical damage and improper tree care kill more trees than any insects or diseases, you can avoid making any of these 24 common tree-damaging mistakes.

Do not: 1) “Top” off tree branches.

2) Leave weakened “V”- shaped co-dominant leaders.

3) Leave crossing and rubbing branches.

4) Ignore insect and disease damage.

5) Coat pruning cuts with paint or sealer.

6) Leave broken branches unpruned.

7) Spray unapproved herbicides over roots.

8) Damage roots and trunk with lawn equipment.

9) Rip through roots when digging trenches.

10) Plant too close to house or obstacle.

11) Forget to remove wire or rope left on branch too long.

12) Prune randomly leaving branch stubs.

13) Prune too flush reducing wound closure.

14) Forget to remove tree stake.

15) Leave wrap on trunk.

16) Pile up excessive mounds of mulch. 17) Put non-porous black plastic under mulch.

18) Stack heavy items atop of roots. 19) Leave ball roping on trunk. 20) Plant too close to downspout. 21) Leave top of wire basket in place. 22) Leave treated or synthetic burlap around roots. 23) Dig hole to narrow. 24) Dig hole too deep or fill with gravel.

While a few of these improper practices alone would kill a tree, multiple problems will certainly stress, and could eventually kill, a tree.

Adapted Source: Bonnie Appleton, Extension Specialist. Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech/ Virginia State University This valuable tree care information has been brought to you as a public service by Leesburg Today and the Town of Leesburg Tree Commission.

2014 Flower & Garden Festival

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_.ntedby: LOUDOUN MEDICAL GROUP

One Group, infinite Possibilities.

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