Northwest Flower and Garden Show Highlights - Three Days To Go and No Lines for the Seminars!

  This year's F&G Show is definitely worth the price and the trip. The seminars have been moved into huge new rooms, so no more tickets or lines - you can just walk right in to hear the speakers.

The display gardens are the best in years. Some  are filled with exciting ideas and innovative solutions to garden dilemmas,  like the "Best in Show" garden by Karen Stefonick Design called "A Wrinkle In Time" (left), that features a clever way to deal with a conifer backdrop.

Hey, it's worth going just to moon about over the white wisteria and delphinium blooming in Christiansons Nursery's garden - such a delightfully orchestrated dream of summer on a cold February day.

And you'll marvel over a clever little garden created as a student project by 17 year old Courtney Goetz of Gig Harbor. The garden shed is a shipping carton with greenhouse atop to soak up the sun; and the entry fence is made of funky old registers painted green (below). The effect is charming, simple and original...

The best energy at the show is in the far back corner of the Plant Market where the Seattle Children's PlayGarden has set up the most fabulous spot for kids to mess about with wheelbarrows, dirt, water and vegetables...there's even a big tractor to "drive". I loved watching kids pick up potatoes from a huge pile and trundle them about....this exhibit should be up front and center next year so we can all enjoy watching a future generation of gardeners having so much fun. Congratulations to Wendy Welch, Liz Bullard and the Seattle Children's PlayGarden for creating the most thoroughy enjoyed exhibit at the show!

Some of the commercial booths are so impressive - check out the rustic structures made of recycled wood, and the chocolate-schented candles at Chocolate Flower Farm from Whidbey Island (left). They have the only chicken I could find in the entire Convention Center...

Ravenna Gardens is the place to buy gorgeous, long-stemmed pussywillows and enjoy owner Gillian Mathew's color artistry - isn't this booth gorgeous?

Garden Shows are performance art, and it'll all be over by late Sunday afternoon.....

 

Comments

[Kathy Abrashi]

Did you happen to see any 'black velvet' petunias?
I can't wait to get some of these.

[valerie Easton]

Hi Kathy,
I was looking for new plants, and didn't see much in that department, including black petunias. But I'm hoping they'll be all over the nurseries in a few months...
Val

[kate]

Hm, is that first image supposed to be the "clever way to deal with a conifer backdrop"? I may be missing something... thanks! (Very curious about ways to deal with drab Arborvitae hedges!)

[valerie Easton]

You can't see the conifers in the photos, as they are at the back of the garden. Behind the patio is a hedge of dark conifers, and between the patio and the hedge is a tall, wide screen in a grid pattern, kind of creating "windows" to look at the conifers. So you see the trees broken up between the different windows of the screen, a kind of fenestration, which makes the conifers look much more interesting...hard to explain...hope this helps...
Val

[LatigoLiz]

There were real chickens in the Children's PlayGarden courtesy of Reber Ranch. At least they were there on Friday. :)

Courtney's garden was my favorite, too.

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[Fuzzi Bunz]

This picture is amazing. You have a lot of fun and enjoyment during the time is very happy looking at this picture. Every little child doing work looks really amazing.