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CNN Saturday Morning News

Georgia Hosts Annual Foxhall Flower Show

Aired April 20, 2002 - 17:52   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Maybe even Jacqui Jeras can give us a little information on that earthquake, too, as we first talk about the flower show, of course. But Jacqui, maybe we can get you to track the possible earthquake that's going on, too.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I will. I'll get on line, actually, right after this interview...

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Jacqui.

JERAS: ... and we'll see what kind of information we can dig up for you. Absolutely.

Well, we are out here in Douglasville, Georgia, which is just outside of Atlanta. And we are at the first expected to be an annual event, Foxhall Flower Show. And this is actually originally modeled after the Chelsea Flower Show in England, which is probably the most famous worldwide for flower shows. And this is just unbelievable, the largest outdoor display in all of the Southeast, and it is just absolutely fabulous. There's so much color out here and so many idea, and some of this that you can actually do by yourself at home, maybe a smaller scale, as we talked about a little bit earlier.

And joining me now is Michael Burel, and he's with Home Depot, and he's one of the designers of this display that we're standing in. It's 50 feet by 50 feet. And there are how many different gardens within just this one...

MICHAEL BUREL, GARDEN DESIGNER: Five gardens.

JERAS: Five gardens. And describe the one that we're standing in right now.

BUREL: Well, this is our formal garden, and what makes it a formal garden is the formal design -- the center walkway, the center fountain, the four quadrants on the side and the pot plantings, the boxwoods, the magnolias, the classical urns sitting on the wall. And that's pretty much what makes it a formal design -- the nice arbor and -- which we can't see yet, but it's behind us.

JERAS: We'll get a shot of that in a minute.

BUREL: And that's -- that's the -- that's a formal garden.

JERAS: We have a lot of different elements I can see in place.

BUREL: Yes.

JERAS: And so much color here. How important is color? I would think very significant when making a formal garden like this.

BUREL: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. You know, I prefer personally to have a lot of color in my garden, so I like to mix a lot of textures, a lot of colors, the blues, the whites, the pinks. You want to start with your highest plants in the back, kind of -- kind of graduate it forward to the front, with the more low- growing plants around the front. And then these pots make a nice anchor to -- to bring some definition to the whole quadrant.

JERAS: Is there any kind of rule when you're planning something like this, in terms of you want blues and pinks over here, and yellows and whites over there, or...

BUREL: Well, I don't really know that there's a real -- what I like to do is group a lot of like plants together. You know, I don't like to put it all -- you know, all the same plant into the same -- into the same quadrant or into the same bed and then -- because then you get a very commercial look.

JERAS: OK.

BUREL: I like to, you know, use seven or eight of one color and then fade into another color, the purple sort of fading into the pinks, into the whites. And you know, I tend to -- tend to like to group purples, pinks, whites and some reds together, some blues, and then oranges and reds and whites together, you know, in a grouping by themselves, as well.

JERAS: All right, for somebody at home that would like to do something like this, a little bit smaller scale...

BUREL: Right.

JERAS: ... for this spring and summer, what would be the first step? How would you get started in doing something like this?

BUREL: Well, the first step is actually sitting down and have a plan. You know, I -- I tend to go to Home Depot sometimes myself, and if I don't know exactly what I'm going to go for, then I end up buying a whole bunch of stuff that I really don't need. So what I like to do is sit down, take a piece of paper, map it all out, sketch my design and then decide the number of plants that I need. And that's the way to start. And if you have a large area or even an area this size, the best thing to do is to start with one area, so that way you have instant gratification. You know, if you -- I mean, this is a lot of plants. This is hundreds of plants in this one little area. So if you...

JERAS: Right.

BUREL: If you, you know, do three plants here and three plants there and three plants there and three plants there, when you get home, you're going to be totally frustrated because you spent all this money, you've done all this work, and you really can't see the fruits of your labor. So you know, start with one area. Stay in that area until it's completed, and then move to the next area.

JERAS: OK. And you said "all of this money."

BUREL: Yes.

JERAS: Is this an affordable thing? Can you do...

BUREL: Yes. Yes, it's very affordable. The majority of annuals and perennials that we have mixed in this garden-at the Home Depot garden center sell for $2 to $3 a plant, and so it is very affordable. You know, the roses -- some of the roses are a little bit -- a little bit more expensive than that, but you know, we only have three rose bushes in this one area, so...

JERAS: And what about research? Do you have to do research in order to know what flowers for your climate?

BUREL: Yeah. Absolutely. The majority of the plants will be labeled with a tag that'll tell you if it's suitable for the zone that we're in. And the majority of the nurseries only carry plants that are suited for the zone that they sell in. So there's -- we sell several books at our stores, the "Landscaping 1, 2, 3," and they will tell you the -- give you a description of the plants, the growth habit. And that's one thing that you have to really be careful, too, is the growth habit because if you plant a plan -- you know, you buy it in a one-gallon pot, and then two years later, you know, it's grown to...

JERAS: It's huge, right!

BUREL: ... huge, you know, then you've kind of -- kind of overgrown your garden already.

JERAS: Oh, that's great. Michael Burel, thank you very much.

BUREL: Thank you.

JERAS: So you heard it here, Kyra, from the experts. This is doable at home. A beautiful flower show in Douglasville, Georgia, Foxhall farm.

It's going to be a hot and sticky one out here today, though -- 87 degrees with about a 20 to 30 percent chance of some scattered showers and thunderstorms. So it might not be a bad idea to bring the umbrella, as well.

Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui. You going to bring us back some pretty flowers?

JERAS: I will see if they'll let me. I don't think I'll be able to take these home, though.

PHILLIPS: Oh, shoot!

JERAS: After all that work.

PHILLIPS: All right, maybe a few tulips or something.

JERAS: I'll see what I can find.

PHILLIPS: Jacqui Jeras, all right, thank you so much. We'll check in with you again in the next hour. Actually, both hours coming up.

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