Last year for Seattle, San Francisco garden shows

You loved them, you loved them not. Citing declining attendance and the loss of corporate sponsors, the organizer of the annual San Francisco and Seattle garden shows announced that the 2009 events would be his last. The shows’ founder, Duane Kelly, said that unless a buyer comes forward, the final Northwest Flower & Garden Show will be held Feb. 18 to 22. The final San Francisco Flower & Garden Show will be March 18 to 22 in San Mateo. Attendance in Seattle, the second-largest garden show in the country behind Philadelphia’s, was down about 35% last year compared with its peak in 1999. Attendance at the San Francisco show, the nation’s third largest, was off about 37% from its 2002 peak. Kelly’s announcement follows the decision by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society to cancel its Boston show, which had been the fourth largest in the U.S.