Plant Talk

F&G Show Wrap-Up

 

  Sounds like the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, under new ownership and in a difficult economic climate, did surprisingly well.... Unofficial attendance (tickets sold at nurseries haven't been counted yet) is around 53,000, which is pretty much in line with the last few years. The owners are encouraged, and the rest of us are relieved...

People definitely enjoyed the show, especially the vegetable-planted truck (left) which was impossible to walk past it was so surrounded by fans with their cell-phones out, snapping photos...

Low, horizontal gabion walls were everywhere. And no wonder - these rock cages can look modern or rustic, and are inexpensive, sturdy, handsome and fit the current utilitarian aesthetic. Photo below taken in the Family Farm garden, which won the coveted People's Choice award because of great details like the cob oven and gabion walls. Not so attractive are these sandbag (?) walls that are too dark, limp and unfortunately slug-like.

 

Green walls are trendy; the sedum wall in the Hardy Plant Society of Washington booth was simple and elegant; these other two examples, not so much...and we won't even talk about the wall of invasive English ivy...

Then there were inspiring hardscapes, as in the Founder's Cup winning garden (left) and some less-than-exciting examples...

There were vegetables everywhere...

 

Including in the Family Farm in the City garden (by Jessica Bloome and Seattle Tilth), the crowd favorite that won the Pacific Horticulture magazine award.

 

Trend-Spotting: Color Blasts

The  Northwest Flower and Garden Show gives us a sneak preview of what's going on in gardening...while the show ended today, some of the  trends on display in gardens and booths will be more lasting...

The most obvious trend, and one I hope sticks around, was blasts of brilliant color. Paint, pots, fabric, trim-work, garden furnishings and accessories were brilliantly colored, sometimes to lovely effect and other times in combinations that made my teeth hurt.

There was nothing shy about the cacophony of shades enlivening many of the gardens in bolder and more varied shades than in past years. Colors were used not to compliment flower color, but to compete with it, and the effect was sometimes fresh and fun, other times garish.

Lively color play in Judith Jones' fun board game of a garden:

 

Too many different colors jumbled together, no place for the eye to rest...and the lavender background is just so wrong...

  Gillian Mathews, owner of Ravenna Gardens and master colorist, created this gorgeous blue and green vignette. She used the same palette in her  booth, leading me to believe these watery shades will be popular this spring...

My top pick of trends? The orange, gold, chartreuse and yellow that warmed up so many of the show gardens.  Even in the gloomy, poorly lit Convention Center this rich palette, ideal for our all-too-often chilly and dark climate, was inviting and welcoming.

 

 

Pots & Plants - F&G Show, Take Two

Pots, plants and scenes not to miss at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show...it runs through Sunday at the Convention Center in downtown Seattle...

Green wall at the Hardy Plant Society of Washington booth..made of easy-care, drought tolerant plants. See their web page for a full description of how they put the wall together...

 

Edgeworthia chrysantha, in full and fragrant bloom, and a weeping pussywillow, at Molbak's booth. The edgeworthia, a.k.a. Oriental paper bush,  is winter-blooming and hardy in the Northwest; the Woodinville nursery surprised with their plant display but no retail booth this year.

 

 

Swanson's Nursery's lust-inducing display of unusual plants, includes this great succulent/green glass checkerboard in a cluster of metal vases (I always wondered just what to do with those cool vases...) and a tender begonia (B. luxurians) with exotic foliage....

 

 

Be sure and stop by Monrovia's orange and lime green display to pick up their free handout "Incredible Edibles"

 

Can't remember which display has this very cool ligularia generously trimmed in white - consider this shrub, ideal to light up a dark corner of the garden, worth the treasure hunt...

 

Some of the most innovative, stylish scenes are on the skybridge, including this fabulous colorist display by Ravenna Gardens.... 

And a product I plan to track down are these lightweight illuminated pots, urns and stools, in vivid colors, made of 100% recyclable materials, from Rotoluxe. Visit this Edmond's company's web page to find retail outlets - they're offering a show special 10% off through Feb. 28.....

 

Show Gardens

Here's my first report from the F&G Show - stay tuned for inspired details, the disasters, and trends to watch for....

It was bustling at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show this afternoon, with goats bleating, designers putting the final touches on their creations, and vendors scurrying to stock commercial booths.  It was great to see the Convention Center alive with garden energy....

What one thing did I most want to take home with me? The moss recliner, left - you can lust after it too when you cross the skybridge to pick up this year's free stunner of a Great Plant Picks poster....

I was judging gardens for Pacific Horticulture magazine, but I'm not sure when the winners will be announced... so I'll just tell you about my favorite gardens. Loved the Family Farm In the City, right inside the main doors, with darling goats (one escaped while we were there -it doesn't seem right that live animals should be on display in that place!!! PETA where are you??). A collaboration by designer Jessica Bloom of NW Bloom EcoLogical Landscapes and Seattle Tilth, this is a utilitarian garden, full of good ideas, yet so attractive and comfortable. The garden feels real, personal, with water catchment, a covet-able outbuilding, a hogwire fence, gabion walls, stream, cob oven, edibles, cold frame, patio and dining table...it's really an inspiration of a garden, and right on trend. How Jessica squeezed so many elements in such a little space and kept it feeling harmonious I don't know, but she did.  I predict this intimate little garden will influence more show visitors than any other..

Top to bottom: one of the goats, stream, and path lined with hay bales & one of several raised beds:

The cleverest garden uses an old pick up truck as a container; "Crops for Clunkers" by Seattle Urban Farm Company is a transportable vegetable patch that uses every inch of truck to house chickens, and grow a  mini-orchard, vegetables and plenty of salad greens.

The Washington Park Arboretum's "The Garden In Winter" shows what we can do right now in our own gardens, with effective design and gorgeous plants...especially the peeling bark birches, camellia 'Yuletide' in full bloom, hellebores, and a fragrant little grove of 'Arnold's Promise' witch hazels. 

 

It's Show Time...

Hard to believe the Northwest Flower and Garden Show opens this coming Wednesday....it's a couple of weeks earlier this year, and since when did winter fly by so quickly??? Anyway, the show is bearing down upon us, and I think everyone is a little skeptical of this first year with new owners...but it sounds to me like the seminar series remains strong and most of the vendors, plants and paraphernalia, will be back, along with fun non-profit booths like Great Plant Picks.

I'm speaking at 11 a.m. on Friday morning in the Hood Room on a topic near and dear to my heart - how to simplify your gardening life - hope to see you there. And on Tuesday afternoon I'm part of a team judging gardens for Pacific Horticulture magazine, so I'll be among the first to see the show gardens. Watch for a blog post on Tuesday night with garden highlights, and no doubt low lights as well....in the meantime, although as a judge I'm going in without preferences or knowledge, I'm liking the buzz about Seattle Tilth's Urban Homestead, dubbed "A Family's Little Farm in the City".  Nothing could be more timely than a garden showing how to grow food and live sustainably on a small city plot, integrating native plants, recyclables and rainwater harvesting. The trick will be making all this earnestness visually attractive, and if anyone can do that it's the innovative young designer Jessi Bloom. I'm excited that the garden features mini-goats and chickens ....let's hope the other display gardens prove as smart and timely. Stay tuned....
 


 


 

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...

Flower Show Fate

So now there is word on the fate of our annual February show, although perhaps not the final word. Washington State Nursery and Landscape Association, which was trying to raise money to buy the show, has dropped out of the running. It's not easy to raise money from nurseries in this cold, recession-burdened spring.

More fatal to owner Duane Kelly's hopes of selling the show was the vote last night by the board of the Northwest Horticultural Society.  NHS was the leading contender, and eager board members were ready with a press release and fund-raising strategy. A tentative agreement had been reached, based on board approval. But negotiations broke down over the down payment, and the board voted last night to abandon efforts to purchase the show.

There are rumors that Kelly, who laid off his staff more than a month ago, has a couple more interested buyers....stay tuned.