Gardens, Pools and Spas
Imagine that!
The Southeastern Flower Show’s new design director is out to wow the winter-weary.

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Chuck Henry has always made magic with flowers, but nowadays when he pulls a rabbit out of his hat, he gets paid for it, too.

After 14 years of volunteering his talents for the Southeastern Flower Show, the Atlanta floral designer recently was hired as the event’s first director of show design. He’s responsible for developing a theme and look that tie together the hundreds of garden and floral displays featured in the annual horticultural extravaganza. Yet the most critical part of his job is to visually blow away winter-weary visitors from the moment they enter the doors to the Georgia World Congress Center.

“If you don’t grab them at the entrance, where you have that one chance to make that first impression, you lose them,” says Henry. “The entrance has to wow them so that they say, ‘Ooh, there really is something here!’ ” Henry recently took AH&L behind the five-day show’s scenes:

This year’s theme is “Imagine That!” What should visitors expect?
Henry: After years of concrete themes involving French, Italian and English gardens, we thought we would challenge the exhibitors by asking them if they’ve ever had a dream, no matter how wild, of creating something and what would that look like. We asked the landscape designers what was the one idea they’ve always wanted to do for a client that would knock their socks off. The point is to do the totally unexpected but at the same time create something with ideas that visitors can take home and try.

For last year’s French theme, you created an entry garden around Marie Antoinette. What were some of the challenges? And what do you have up your sleeve for this year’s entrance?
Henry: Hall’s Flowers donated 5,000 flowers to the show, and I thought, ‘What can we do with that many flowers?’ So I came up with the idea of Marie in a courtyard of roses behind a scrim that would slowly reveal the garden as the lights went up. But on the morning we opened we quickly realized that unless visitors stood there a moment they would miss the displays, so we removed the scrim and did more general lighting. This year’s entrance will be a dream garden that will lift your thoughts, literally, off the ground, because 75 percent of it will be suspended in air, including a bed with linens made entirely of flowers.

How is the drought affecting your plans?
Henry: Our landscape designers are taking the challenge of dry conditions and still creating great Southern gardens but surprising us with new twists. This spring we know that visitors may not be able to plant the flowers they’ve had in the past, but at the show they can get great ideas for smaller displays like container gardens or for a gravel pathway or for getting creative with mulches and ground covers instead of lawns.

What advice can you give visitors who come seeking decorating and landscaping ideas?
Henry: If there’s an area of your garden you would like change, be open to different ideas but remember why you are there. Otherwise, it’s easy to get distracted. Also, revisit a section of the show you like. Show the design professional on hand what you like, even if you don’t know why you like it. That will help point him or her in the direction for helping you determine your needs.

Southeastern Flower Show: Jan. 30 – Feb. 3, Georgia World Congress Center, Building A. (404) 351-1074, flowershow.org.