First up is a new one: Indianapolis Home & Flower Show steps off in the Lucas Oil Stadium, 500 South Capitol Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana. Admission is $10 for the event, showcasing 15 professionally-landscaped gardens plus a light & water show. It’s today through Sunday (March 5-7, 2010).

The “big one”, though is the Indiana Flower & Patio Show — it started in 1958! This year’s dates are March 13-21, 2010, and it’ll be in the West Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, 1202 East 38th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana. Admission is $12.

Theme this year is “A Novel Idea”, and each landscaper has chosen a book to interpret in his or her garden: there’ll be 29 Showcase Gardens. One featured landscaper ,Cheryl Jacques of Brower / Jacques Designs, went one step farther: not only has she designed her garden around a book, she also wrote the book — The Magnolia Principle: How Seeds, Weeds and Needs Bloom Inner Peace.

Among the presentations on the Crumplex Theater Stage is this one, at 1 p.m. and again at 4 p.m. on all four days of the show: Pat Sullivan and Jo Ellen Myers Sharp will talk about plants that are new for 2010, what the top five over used and under used plants are and the most common lawn care mistakes…all sprinkled with humor. (Insider tip: This segment is always the hit of the show.)

Pictured (above, left) is one of the gardens from the 2009 show, by William H. Brown Landscape.