Not everyone knows what a heliconia is — but Fellsmere nurseryman John Goss gladly will tell them about the plants he raises.

For instance, they can grow from rhizomes, a thickened section of the stem, sprouting roots out one end and shoots out the other.

But they don’t all grow at the same rate.

“Some take about two months,” he told customers Jeff and Diane Mieras of Sebastian at Saturday’s Gardenfest. “With the Irish red, though, you can almost blink and you’ll see roots coming out the end of it.”

The Mierases are orchid fanciers, they said, but found heliconias interesting enough to try growing.

Goss, owner of JG’s Tropical Plants, is one of almost 70 vendors, mostly from Florida, who are selling their plants and gardening accessories this weekend at the sixth annual Gardenfest in Vero Beach’s Riverside Park.

Kelly Farnham, who moved to Vero Beach from the Florida Keys in 2004, said she was scouting for landscaping to bring back the plant life she misses.

“We’re slowly converting our yard into the oasis we want,” she said.

The vendors are showing off a variety of orchids, native plants, ferns, palms, bamboo, roses, herbs and young trees.

Throughout the weekend, co-chairwomen Bonnie Veron and Barbara Russell — from the Garden Club of Indian River County — say they estimate about 20,000 visitors will have stopped at the plant festival.

The Gardenfest continues today, beginning at 9 a.m. and closing at 4 p.m.

That’s an hour earlier than Saturday’s 5 p.m. closing.

“This is so people can go home and watch the Super Bowl,” Veron said.

GARDENFEST DAY TWO

• Organizer: Garden Club of Indian River County Inc.

• Time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today.

• Location: Riverside Park, south of Beachland Boulevard, Vero Beach.

source : www1.tcpalm.com