Spring in Your Sights

Landscape designers, like Discovery Home Channel's Rebecca Cole from Surprise by Design, are artists in the same way that sculptors and painters are, but the landscape designers have to deal with the fact that their media are constantly changing, living plants. And many of them (the plants, not the artists) take the winter off. Which is why the timing couldn't be better for the Saint Louis Art Museum's four-day Art in Bloom celebration (especially since you've got to feel bad for the St. Louis flowers this year, what with all the unseasonably warm-winter-weather confusion). Fortunately, at this festival — which begins with a 6:30 p.m. preview party ($50) on Thursday and runs through Sunday (February 23 through 26) — the buds aren't confused at all; they have confidently exploded, bright as ever, and are ready to be celebrated. So this year, Art in Bloom offers free docent-led tours of the floral arrangements (Friday through Sunday), lectures from experts like Cole (twice on Friday; $10) and St. Louis native Renny Reynolds (Saturday at 2 p.m.; $6), music, dance performances (three times on Sunday; $6) and more. Visit www.slam.org or call 314-721-0072 for more information on the events, times and other prices; call 314-655-5299 to reserve a spot for one of the lectures, the preview party and/or a dance performance.
Feb. 23-26