Eighteen years ago, Lois Plummer was contemplating moving the Maryland Home and Garden show from downtown Baltimore to the state fairgrounds in Timonium.

She wasn't sure it was such a good idea.

"No show had ever done well out here except for the RV show," the Glen Burnie business woman said.

Sitting in her office at the fairgrounds last week just days before Saturday's opening day, Plummer said the Baltimore County location allowed the show and her company, S&L Productions, to grow.

The company got its start in 1981 with about 100 exhibitors at the Baltimore Civic Center, now 1st Mariner Arena. Everything had...