Plant Talk

Northwest Flower and Garden Show 2010

That's right - the show is back on. The Seattle Times announced tonight that Duane Kelly sold the flower show to Portland-based O'Loughlin Trade Shows for an undisclosed amount. Kelly did say, according to the article in the Times, that he had asked for between $1 to $2 million for both the Seattle and San Francisco shows, and ended up with a combined sum less than that amount. But nevertheless, he sounds very happy to have sold the shows, and to know they'll continue. 

O'Loughlin is a fourth-generation family business that produces the Portland and Tacoma Home and Garden Shows. Duane will be hired as a consultant, and O'Loughlin is keeping on several key people on Kelly's team. It also sounds like the sale of the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show is a sure thing.

So mark your calendars - Feb 3-7, 2010, at the Convention Center. The show is a go....congratulations, Duane...

Mid-Summer Garden Party

Friday night I was lucky enough to be a guest of honor at the Vashon Allied Art's Gala the night before the annual Vashon Island garden tour.  VAA threw a lovely party for 150 islanders and off-islanders, who gathered to contribute to the arts and celebrate the fabulous gardens of Vashon. So it was only appropriate that the party was held in the glorious garden of landscape architect David Pfeiffer. The garden faces west, so the evening was warm and long. It's rich in places to gather and relax, as well as in a riot of perennials, fruits and vegetables. David's kitchen garden is featured in my new book, due out this fall....in the meantime here are a couple of scenes from the evening:

A life-sized buddha surrounded by Euphorbia griffithii 'Fireglow' presides serenly over the festivities

The table settings reflected the sunset colors of the garden; in the center is one of the mailboxes by Vashon artists auctioned off to raise money for Vashon Allied Arts

Impossible to resist the beckoning mown grass labyrinth

The labyrinth is a tranquil transition between the highly cultivated and wilder parts of the garden

Virtual Seasonality

The New York Botanical Garden has a new "Seasonal Walk" border, designed by horticultural superstars Piet Oudolf and Jacqueline van der Kloet. The bulk and mass of the elegant sweep will be stunning. As you might expect, the designers have chosen  unusual perennials and bulbs, including Geum ‘Flames of Passion’, Echinacea purpurea ‘Green Jewel’, E. ‘Fatal Attraction’, Salvia ‘Eveline’ and Teucrium hircanicum ‘Paradise Delight’. Can you imagine the kaleidoscope of seasonal change with such a widely varied palette of plants arranged by such innovative designers?

Not visiting The Big Apple this summer? No problem. Writer Tovah Martin and photographer Rob Cardillo are staging a virtual, weel-by-week tour of the border. Watch it evolve through the year at The Seasonal Walk Chronicles. 

I'm reminded of nature's life force when I see how skimpy the border looked when planted in March, and how quickly and gloriously it's come into its June fullness. I'm fascinated by what's blooming 3,000 miles away, compared with what's blooming here on Whidbey Island....it blows my mind how remarkably similar our seasons are progressing in this year of weird weather.

Here are a couple of Rob's photos showing the border in early June....
      

 

Summer Bounty II - Edibles (mostly)

In the spirit of slowing down and reveling in the longest days of summer, this week I'm posting photos from my Langley garden.  Mostly I'm staking up lilies and tying up climbing roses and clematis, for they've grown like crazy, encouraged by the recent rain and sun......I'm also busy harvesting broccoli, beets, pea pods, lettuces, herbs, sweet peas.....

Purple peas ( 'Blauschokker Purple Podded') which have pretty lavender flowers followed by showy pods. They  can be eaten early like snow peas, or left to mature... growing here with 'Westerland' roses.

My first-ever purple Italian artichoke, just starting to show fruit.

 

 

Summer Solstice Bounty

In the spirit of taking time to slow down, enjoy the garden, look closely and appreciate the season's bounty before it escapes us, this week I'm going to post a few photos of my favorite happenings in my Langley garden.....can't believe how productive and flowery this little space has grown in the four years it's been in the ground....

New to my garden this year is this weirdly pretty green coneflower (Rudbeckia occidentalis 'Green Wizard') growing here with edible pea pods.

As common and easy to grow as they are, no flower in my garden (except maybe sweet peas) pleases me more than cheerful nasturtiums. Combined with pumpkins and strawberries they tumble down the side of a galvanized feed trough. In the background are the burgundy, heart-shaped leaves of Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy'

Fragrant sweet peas, an assortment grown from Renee's Seeds

'New Heights' Delphiniums from Log House Plants....these dwarf English delphiniums don't require staking.... the tree in the background that looks like an olive is actually a weeping, willow-leafed ornamental pear tree (Pyrus salicifolia 'Pendula')

Mystery Tree

 Hello Valerie,
We were at Langley, Whidbey Island yesterday and we sighted upon this beautiful tree with upside down bunch of white flowers at downtown Langley . It was somewhere inside the little shopping area, beside the Useless Bay Coffee Company. The tree had a lovely bird bath below it. Attached is a picture of the tree.

I have been piqued by this lovely tree and cannot tell what it is. We asked the local garden store lady, the wine shop owner (Nancy) and the sandwich store owner(Sandy) and none of them could help us. I would much appreciate if you can tell me what is the name of this mysterious tree with such lovely riotous June blooms ?

Thanks much,
Uma Raghavan

Dear Uma,
Your mystery tree (photo below) is a Japanese snowbell (Styrax japonica) a graceful little Japanese tree with fragrant flowers in June, just when we're out in our gardens most to enjoy them. It's ideal to grow where you can look up into it to appreciate the flowers that dangle below the branches; above a bench as you describe, or on a hillside (if you can give provide it adequate water on a slope), or in a large raised bed are all ideal. Japanese snowbells need regular summer irrigation, have few or no pests, and grow and flower well in sun or part shade. It's cousin, Styrax obassia, has larger, bolder leaves and is a bigger tree altogether with more presence in the landscape, but less grace than Styrax japonica.

Photo by Uma:

 

Art or Clutter?

Happy Summer Solstice...

We refine our gardening eyes by looking at and considering art, architecture and all things beautiful. I'm enjoying a gorgeous new book from Rizzoli called "The Way We Live With the Things We Love", which considers what is clutter and what are collectibles...what is meaningful and what is....well, just junk. Gardeners are notorious plant collectors, and we need to remind ourselves that gardens are more than just a hodge-podge of interesting plants. The best and most satisfying gardens use plants to create effects...these gardens become, through artful editing and placement, more than the sum of their plants....

Here's a quote from the book that applies to gardens every bit as much as interiors: "The collecting bug is responsible for an awful lot of clutter. Our attachment to the things we love can become so intensely personal that it becomes difficult to cull or organize them properly..." How often do we get distracted by plant after plant and forget that gardens are habitable spaces that just happen to be outside rather than in?

"The Way We Live With the Things We Love" by Stafford Cliff, photographed by Gilles de Chabaneix, is a beautiful lesson on discretion and discipline in all things visual....

Over the Fence...Virtually

 Alice Doyle, proprietress of Log House Plants in Cottage Grove, Oregon,  wrote me the best blog compliment ever in an email:

I always enjoy your blog and want to be able to shout over the fence things like "So true, it is a good obsession. Right on Joan and DH." (June 15 post "Why We Garden") and 'Don't forget to tell them to blanch their basil so it doesn't color" and "What a beautiful spa!" and "Speaking of chocolate, have you grown the new dwarf choc cosmos?" and so forth. But you're not next door...."

As newspapers shrink and traditional media withers away, it helps to remember the virtues of the virtual world, which include this lovely sense of being right next door, even though we're hundreds of miles away. I encouraged Alice, and all of you, to sharing comments here on the blog so we can all learn about blanching basil and the new dwarf chocolate cosmos...

Garden Parties for Good Causes

The most anticipated garden parties of the season raise money for two of our finest gardens....but you'd never know it by how stylish and fun they'll be. There's nothing fund-raiser'ish about either the Dunn Garden's 2nd ever ArtWalk, or the Northwest Perennial Alliance's Champagne Garden Gala. On Sunday, August 23rd, from 4 to 7 p.m.,  you're invited to sip champagne, enjoy sweets and savories serenaded by a harpist in Denise Lane's Mediterranean-inspired Medina garden. The cause? Raising money for the NPA's ambitious, Withey-Price designed renovation of the Bellevue Botanical Garden's Perennial Border. See the NPA website for more info and to buy tickets.

Every other year, the Dunn Gardens throws an art-studded party and transforms itself into an open air gallery. Works by Northwest artist in bronze, stone, ceramic, concrete, and glass are displayed amongst the mature trees and shrubs of these lovely Olmsted designed gardens. Spend an evening or an afternoon listening to music, strolling the grounds, contemplating (and hopefully buying) garden art....I plan to do my duty...last ArtWalk I bought a trio of pieces by Bob Fairfax that have been the talk of my garden ever since....

 A gala preview party on Saturday night, July 18 ($100) kicks off the weekend... or enjoy a more casual afternoon with music and refreshments from 3-6 p.m. on Sunday July 19 ($20 donation). For more information and reservations, see www.dunngardens.org or call 206-362-0933. Enjoy a sneak peak at a few of the art pieces that will be on display:

Top to bottom: (Top) Ann Morris's leaf bowl; (Center) Bob Fairfax's Passageway Posts and Pods among the hostas; (Bottom) A cast bronze misting toad fountain by Sara Mall Johani

 

 

 

Little and Lewis Garden Art Show

I can't believe it's been four years since Bainbridge Island artists Little and Lewis staged a major exhibition of their garden art....they have a fresh new show opening on July 3, running through August 5, at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts Gallery, 151 Winslow Way East. On Saturday, July 11 you can join David and George in the gallery for a discussion of their work.

The new show is entitled "Transitions". And no wonder - in the last couple of years the pair sold their renowned garden gallery, remodeled the next door house and garden, and have taken to spending months of the year at their home in San Miguel de Allende. The new works are still their signature color-washed concrete, but the pieces are smaller and more intimate in response to the quiet, more private turn their lives have taken....

Top photo is George at work; the bottom is of one of the new pieces in the show....