At the edge of the Enchanted Forest…a very long time ago, there lived seven little people, commonly called ‘Dwarfs.’ They were interesting little fellows that worked hard in the silver mines deep in a woodland cave. One day, while marching home to their cottage near a sunny clearing, they discovered a lovely young lady, wandering lost in the forest.

The young lady was a princess known as Snow White. She was happy when they offered her a place in their home, as she had recently escaped from a dangerous situation in her palace. It wasn’t long before the seven little men rebuilt their bachelor quarters into a beautiful cottage for their beloved princess! She, in turn, was happy to mend their clothes and keep the little cottage spotless. The dwarves were busy every day after they returned from the mines, cleaning up the dried leaves and pine needles that were constantly blowing onto the lawns and pathways from the forest behind.

Beauty in the Air

Our little folks loved their princess so much that they pulled out shovels and picks and created a magical secret rose garden just for her in the clearing at the edge of the enchanted forest! Snow White strolled in her rose garden every day when her chores were finished. She breathed in the roses’ fragrances and sighed with delight. She smiled as a beautiful bluebird adopted her finger as a perch.

Our heroes and heroine thought that they were alone, but they were being watched by a wicked queen who transformed herself into an ancient woman bearing the most beautiful apple any of them had ever seen. When Her Wickedness left her apple on their property, it exuded a poison into the air around them and they were all transformed into cardboard figurines…frozen in the moment’s position…unable to move or speak!

Will Prince Charming arrive in time to rescue our lovely Snow White and her seven little fellows? Heavens…we can only hope!

Exhibit fun!

So, this is what your’s truly wrote about our exhibit at the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show at the Connecticut Convention Center, February 23-26, 2017. The theme for this year’s show was ‘Woodland Enchantment.’ When our committee (Christine Randazzo, landscape designer, Tom and Kathleen Fabian, Becky Martorelli, and Bob and myself) began working on this last October, Chris mentioned that she’d like a fantasy theme with a path…like a yellow brick road.

We talked it over and decided that we’d like to choose a different fairy tale theme, and we settled on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Christine designed the layout, Tom designed the cottage, and we met multiple times to go over plans and share lunch. In December, we went to Tom and Kathleen’s house where he mapped out an area the size of our display (33 feet by 44 feet), complete with a cardboard prototype of the cottage. When we saw that, we knew we would love our display!

Over the winter, Tom and my Bob constructed the enchanted forest cottage, including a thatched roof. Becky’s gardening helper built us a footbridge, and an employee of her husband Jerry built us a waterfall. We wanted Snow White to be more three-dimensional, so Becky brought her to the fabric store. She made a wig out of fake fur, matched the fabric in Snow White’s dress and attached it, and made her a cape so we could place her near the front of the exhibit.

Day of

We began setting up on Saturday, February 18. Chris’ design was great and Tom’s engineering was amazing. We had to raise the back of the display by about 3′. The cottage went up first, then came the bales of straw, pallets, and 40 yards of mulch. We built a pond opposite the waterfall, and Woodland Gardens in Manchester loaned us ferns and plants to make the pond feel realistic. The roses arrived from the grower on Monday. All in all, it took us five days to set up. We were an amazing team! The show ran four days, and we had to break it down on Sunday night. Thanks to many Connecticut Rose Society volunteers, breakdown only took two and a half hours. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who gave of their time and muscle to make our display beautiful and also to take it apart.

A posthumous thanks to the Brothers Grimm for starting the whole thing! And, of course, Disney Productions for our cardboard cut-outs. And Prince Charming??? We’re still waiting!