The 2012 Chicago flower and garden show

It's that time of the year again! Spring is here and the best way to start off the spring is the Chicago Flower and Garden show in Navy Pier! It runs from March 10 to March 18. This year the theme of the show is "Hort Couture". So they basically combined fashion with flowers to create this years theme.


One of the photo contest displays.

There were a ton of stuff going on. Seminars for organic cooking, planting stuff, even the cast of Days of our lives were there. There were displays for landscaping, for interior design and the most awesome display was the tulip display. I might have spent like 2 hours just photographing the beautiful tulips in there. The most interesting display was the photography contest display. I won the 1st place for people and plants photo. My fiancee won best of show and three other categories...she basically outdid me this year, but I'll be back next year though...hahaha.




The tulips were a delight to photograph. Make sure you bring a flash.


There were a couple of people showcasing some birds of prey. This great horned owl didn't look happy when I took a shot at him.


This Kestrel looked little, though it's considered one of the best bird of preys around.


This glass sculpture greets you at the entrance. It's a great piece of art!


This is one of the big displays at the center.

This is part of that huge center display too.

The display shows furniture and flower arrangements throughout.

This is one of those glass displays near the vendor area.

I tried shooting this still life behind a rail with my 100mm macro lens.

Great experience! There were a ton of merchants on the west side of the building. They sell anything from seeds to mops. It was a delight to just go around the stores. The mop guy actually asked me if I can trade my dslr for one of his mops...hahaha. There was a ton of photographers walking around. It was nice to chat with some of them. I was even asked if I was a photographer for ABC...I told her I wish I was. I can't wait to see what they have in store for next year!