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Hellebore Season

it’s prime time!

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Feb 26, 2010 at 02:20AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Three particularly nice hellebores growing right next to each other at Honeyhill Farms Nursery

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Hellebores produce some of the most treasured flowers of winter and early spring. There are many species and hybrids available, each with particular assets in the garden. Breeding efforts particularly focusing on the Lenten roses (Helleborus x hybridus) seen at left are creating ever-richer colors and the forms are increasingly refined every year, with doubles, semi-doubles, more pronounced nectaries and larger, more upward-facing flowers. Other types of hellebores offer beautiful, marbled, sheeny-silver and markedly serrated or plum-infused foliage. There’s even a double Christmas rose (Helleborus niger ).

Yet for all the apparent delicacy of the blossoms, the plants themselves are adaptable and tough garden plants. They are quite drought- and, shade tolerant, deer-proof and – best of all – they flower in winter, when we are longing for color and signs of life in the garden.

There are so many gorgeous hybrids that it can be hard to choose between them. But now is the time to do it – for within a few weeks, the flowers will have faded. And then, sadly, the opportunity to choose just the right color and flower shape will be gone until next February/March.

Local nurseries carry many beautiful varieties, from seed strains (these are the least expensive, as they are very variable in color and form – it’s especially important to select them while they’re in flower) to tissue-cultured varieties that are consistently identical. Helleborus x hybridus cultivars that are tissue-cultured tend to cost more – usually about $20 for a gallon plant. But they are so lovely and precious, you may discover that it feels truly worth it. I adore my plants so much! And pick bouquets from them all winter.

It’s nice to go to a retail nursery where you can find a wide array of hellebore species for sale – the tough, lacy-leaved bear’s foot hellebore (H. foetidus ), the sun-loving, green-flowered Corsican hellebore (H. argutifolius ), the rare and slightly tender Helleborus lividus with marbled silver and green foliage and shell pink flowers, the pure white, very early blooming Christmas rose (H. niger ), and the colorful, exotic Lenten rose (H. x hybridus ), as well as myriad hybrids between all the of the above. But you’re likely to find the best array of colors and types if you head directly to hellebore breeders and specialists.

In the Portland area, my top pick is Honeyhill Farms Nursery in the Raleigh Hills area. Jim and Audrey Metcalfe run this nursery attached to their home year-round but it is only open to the public during hellebore flowering season, usually late January, February and early March (depending on the weather). Jim Metcalfe bred two valuable hellebores, Honeyhill Joy and Honeyhill Peace. (Their photos and descriptions can be found on their website, here.) This lovely hillside is home not only to a variety of hellebores but also a gorgeous array of Cyclamen coum, a late winter-flowering hardy Cyclamen. (See slideshow for a pic.)

Another fantastic Hellebore breeder is Northwest Garden Nursery, which holds open house weekends during hellebore flowering season. Upcoming hellebore open garden days are: February 27-28 and March 5-7 from 10 am to 5 pm. Other open nursery dates are listed on the website. Ernie and Marietta O’Byrne used to sell all variety of woodland plants at their nursery and have turned their focus towards wholesale hellebore breeding in recent years. Their extensive display gardens alone are worth a trip to Eugene. They are responsible for the Winter Jewels TM series of hellebore hybrids.

Last but not least, I recommend a trip to Dancing Oaks Nursery in Monmouth to see the hellebores and many other winter flowering plants. Fred Weisensee and Leonard Foltz’s display gardens are carved out of a scenic hillside surrounded by native oak woods. It’s an extraordinary site. They hold their Winter Bloomers Open House Feb 27-28 from 10 to 4 pm. Dancing Oaks is a retail nursery and is open year-round. But the hellebores are only in flower for a couple more weeks so head out there soon. It’s a great trip and you can visit a winery or two on the way out.

Have fun!

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Tags: Flowers, Outdoor Gardening, Nurseries

Well Hello, Sweet Pea!

it’s pea-planting time in Western Oregon

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Feb 20, 2010 at 08:21AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Black Diamond sweet pea from Fragrant Garden Nursery

Wise old salts say you should plant your sweet peas – and edible peas, while you’re at it – around Presidents’ Day in our region. But there are still many good weeks of planting time. It’s just that, the later in spring you plant, the fewer weeks you’ll have to enjoy the results. Late March is usually still good… but mid- to late February is perfect.

Sweet peas are easy little annual vines. They grow during the cool, wet days of spring and flower in late spring and early summer. By the time the heat of July hits, they usually peter out. But they are so gloriously fragrant and beautiful that it’s all worth it. They are also incredibly easy to grow.

So pick up some packets of sweet peas. I say “packets” because who are we kidding? The pictures are gorgeous and sweet peas really are picture perfect in the garden. Why stop at the Royal Family mixed colors when you can also try the heirloom Painted Lady (hot pink and pale pink bicolor), Cupani’s Original (purple and mauve bicolor) and the indescribably lovely Saltwater Taffy Swirls (white stripes on apricot, purple and pink)?

Chocolate Flake sweet pea from Fragrant Garden Nursery

Fantastic local sweet pea vendors include Fragrant Garden Nursery (Roseburg, OR), Nichols Garden Nursery (Albany, OR), and – a little less local but still fabulous – Renee’s Garden (Felton, CA). You can order them directly on line too but most local nurseries carry a great selection.

You can lightly sand the seed coat and/or soak the seeds for an hour in warm (110 F) water to help soften the seed coat but it isn’t necessary. Also, some people start them indoors. I usually plant them directly in the ground.

To plant sweet peas outdoors, here’s what to do:

* get your sweet pea seeds. Also, a sack of mushroom compost or composted cow manure (or use your own home-made garden compost) and some non-toxic, pet-safe Sluggo slug bait to protect sprouts from slugs.

* grab a shovel and a trowel. Maybe a pair of gloves.

* find a spot that receives at least a full morning of sun and where there’s something for the sweet pea plants to climb. This could be a trellis, chain link fence, or other plants (sweet peas will scramble up a sturdy shrub in a loose, rambly kind of way). If your fence is flat surfaced, drive nails on the top and bottom and tie rough string between the nails so the vines have some thing to climb. Or – after digging (next step) – make a bamboo stake “tee-pee” with rough string encircling it so the tiny tendrils can cling to something.

* dig up the ground at least a foot deep and wide – more if you’re planting a whole packet of seeds. Sweet peas really show off if you enrich the soil – so pile on the compost and dig away! Do chop up native soil clods so the soil feels nice and crumbly and is dark with the fresh compost you’ve added. Space seeds about two inches apart.

* Press the seeds in with your fingers, about an inch deep. They are pretty large and easy to handle. If the forecast predicts rain in the next 24 hours, you don’t even need to water them in.

WIthin 10-20 days, your sweet peas will sprout. Scatter some Sluggo around the sprouts when they come up. It’s amazing to watch how quickly they rise out of the ground so keep an eye out!

This is what my dining room table looks like every February. (Sweet peas are front and center!)

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Tags: Vegetables, Outdoor Gardening, Nurseries, Gardening Tips

plant files

Air Plants

wierd and wonderful pineapple relatives

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Feb 17, 2010 at 09:21PM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

I spied these unusual air plants (Tillandsia ) at the Seattle garden show and made a bee-line for them. Turns out the grower, Owens Gardens from Monroe, WA was at Portland’s Yard, Garden & Patio Show, too.

Tillandias are made up of spidery green to gray rosettes of foliage that can be fine and grassy, spidery and twisted or thick and fleshy like a succulent. Blossoms emerge in flattened bracts that range in color from pale pink or lavender to orange or sizzling hot pink, sometimes with contrasting blue and violet flowers at the tips.

Air plants come by their name because they do not root themselves in soil. Instead, they attach themselves to rocks, trees and sometimes, in urban areas, buildings and phone lines. From these positions, they draw the moisture and nutrients they need from rain, runoff and ambient humidity using tiny hairs growing on their leaves. Air plants are tropical and subtropical “epiphytes” and most come from Central and South America. If you’ve been to the Southern US, you’ve probably seen another type of air plant, Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) trailing from the branches of evergreen oak trees. Air plants’ roots exist solely to anchor them to rocks and trees.

Hopefully this spot will provide all the bright light, good air circulation and humidity these plants need. Tillandsia medusae (center), Tillandsia aeranthos (on right) and Tillandsia stricta (on left)

Caring for these odd little treasures is easy. They require bright, indirect light (no blasting afternoon sun). And they need to be drenched with a squirt-bottle 1-3 times per week (depending on ambient humidity and heat). If you fertilize them 1-2 times per month in spring and summer with 1/4 strength, high phosphorus fertilizer, you should be rewarded with flowers. Since they are tender, they should be protected from frost. While they live indoors all winter, they do appreciate summer vacation outdoors. Just drench them with a hose a few times a week.

I’ve seen them in shops, artfully nestled into beautiful shells and wee baskets, affixed to stones or pieces of pottery, and tucked into small glass terrariums. (This latter idea isn’t so good for very long, as they do require brisk air circulation.) But I just settled mine in the shower caddy in my sunny bathroom next to a window. It required no effort on my part to set up and I get to regularly admire them up close and personal. All I need to do is douse them with water (cold, of course!) a couple of times a week and give them fertilizer a couple of times a month in winter. Easy!

Owens Tillandsia Nursery doesn’t have an online store but they do sell directly at garden shows and plant sales. Call them at 360-794-6422 for more information. Locally, try Artemisia Garden Nursery and PIstils Nursery.

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Tags: Nurseries, Gardening Tips, Indoor Gardening

Yard, Garden & Patio Show Redux

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Feb 14, 2010 at 04:00PM Speech Bubble 2 Comments

One of the Cracked Pots artists made some lovely metal animals

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In case you didn’t make it, the Portland Yard, Garden & Patio Show was a lot of fun this year. We’ll have the numbers soon enough and will know just how well it did… but after my sally around the show floor today, I’d say there was solid visitor turnout and clearly some vendors did very well. It will be interesting to see which types of businesses did best – post-show analysis always provides an interesting reading on current trends.

I was drawn to a few of the displays: particularly Hughes’ Water Gardens’ natural-looking pond garden (view slideshow!) The plants growing around the make-believe pond were well-suited to the (imaginary) water’s edge conditions – a great example of the principles of Right Plant, Right Place. Viewers could look at that display and glean real ideas about what to plant around their pond. That’s my idea of good service! Colorful red-twigged dogwoods grew in delicious clumps at the water’s edge, with sword ferns providing an understory to the silvery-trunked birch trees. Leaves carpeted the ground instead of bark dust. It was a look well worth replicating.

Large, trunked specimens of Yucca rostrata made a dramatic statement in Cistus Design Nursery’s display garden

Sean Hogan’s Cistus Design Nursery display was also memorable for its good looks – and for the good gardening principles it promoted. I loved that the plants were displayed in a layered fashion, with a ground-cover carpet and a “canopy” of drought-tolerant shrubs and trees, much like you’d find in a well-designed garden. No need for a thick layer of bark dust on the ground – plants provided the layering. I also appreciated that the plants on one side of the display were drought tolerant, requiring no supplemental summer water (manzanita, yucca, cypress and such) while on the other side were plants which thrive with only occasional summer water (New Zealand flax – Phormium – for instance). The “take-aways” in this display are that layering works to create a natural-looking garden and that, in a summer-dry climate such as ours, it’s smart to segregate water-needier plants from those that neither need nor want summer water.

This exemplifies the opposite aesthetic:

Primroses floating in a barkdust sea

Everyone I spoke with enjoyed the talks. Rose Marie Nichols McGee’s talks on growing vegetables in containers and new vegetable varieties were enjoyed by all attendees I spoke with.

And of course, there were fantastic plants available, from premium dahlia bulbs from local growers like Swan Island Dahlias to stunning hellebores and lots of sedums and hens-and-chicks (Sempervivum ). Everybody was talking about – and touching – the living walls. Some of the living walls on display were brimming with drought-tolerant succulents (nice ) and others (naughty ) were brimming with a strange combination of grasses and invasive plants like Vinca, which shouldn’t be planted anywhere, much less in a living wall where everyone can see it up close and personal.

So there you have it – my take on the show. Now, what about you – what did you think of the show this year? Did you see anything new? Did anything stick with you as particularly inspiring or motivating? Did you even go?

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Tags: Gardening Events, Slideshow, Places to Go, Garden Stuff, Plant Sale

upcoming events

Yard, Garden & Patio Show

this could be the best yet

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Feb 09, 2010 at 10:55AM Speech Bubble 2 Comments

I’m not usually one to rave about garden shows. In fact, I’ve been a bit garden show-shy in recent years. In a previous post, I had a had a mini-rant about my frustration with the typical, old-fashioned garden show displays – chock full of plants that wouldn’t grow side-by-side in a real garden setting and inevitably buried under oceans of old-school “beauty bark”.

It might be oppositional-defiance or it might be generational, I don’t know. But I was determined to be open-minded this year and having spoken with the organizers and hearing that extra-special efforts were being made to update and “green” the show for 2010, I explored the website for the Yard, Garden & Patio Show taking place this weekend at the Oregon Convention Center.

And honestly, I’m blown away by the quality of the seminar speakers, by the vendors and by the interesting new additions to this year’s line-up. The OAN ’s organizers have gone to great lengths to focus on local products (even down to the booze!) and to bring sustainable products to the show floor. This is going to be a gem of a weekend for plant and garden lovers of all ages.

Here are some highlights:

*A full schedule each day of excellent talks by local favorites like Maurice Horn (Joy Creek Nursery), Mike Darcy (“In the Garden” radio program on KXL AM), and Lucy Hardiman (Principal, Perennial Partners Design) as well as national experts. Top billing goes to Heronswood founder and plant explorer Dan Hinkley, now gathering plants from the far reaches of the world for Monrovia Nursery. His talk on Friday from 12-1 will focus on his remarkable garden at Windcliff near Indianola, WA. I suspect long lines for this talk so get there early and stake out a seat. (Just save one for me!)

*Big display gardens, a group of smaller “vignettes” created by members of the ANLD, and container gardens to provide inspiration and ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing a full-on display garden created by Sean Hogan of Cistus Design Nursery, which will showcase a wide array of plants that are ideally suited to our winter wet-summer dry, mediterreanean climate. To my knowledge, this will be Sean’s first full-on garden show display garden at this event. Get ready – it will not be your typical display garden.

*Over 250 exhibitors ranging from the best of the WIllamette Valley’s specialty nurseries like Joy Creek Nursery, Dancing Oaks Nursery, Northwest Garden Nursery to local craftspeople making baskets, trugs, garden art and tools to various soils and contraptions designed to, well, make plants grow better.

*A brand-new partnership this year with Cracked Pots, an environmental non-profit supporting artists making garden art from recycled materials. Cracked Pots is a fantastic organization and I’m thrilled to see this lively new energy infusing the Show.

*Oregon wine and beer gardens (also selling local spirits this year), with wine tastings and wine sold by the bottle as well as by the glass. I’m told there will be a large-screen TV to watch the Olympics (perhaps if you need somewhere to park your non-gardeny partner while you breeze about on the Show floor) and listen to live music. Even the live music promises to be good this year – Brazilian Choro, Flamenco, Gypsy jazz, some Latin fusion, and more.

*A winter garden display created by the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon showing the diversity of winter-interest plants that grow in the Willamette Valley.

*A kids play area for all ages of children. Native plants, hiking safety and camping basics will be provided by the Cascade Pacific Council Boy Scouts of America. There will also be face painting fun learning activities and play structures for romping.

*Experts. There will be gardening experts milling about, eager to answer your gardening questions. Bring your questions, problems, and ideas. You’re bound to gain some insights or information.

*Give-aways – everybody likes give-aways! Apparently, prizes this year include a garden “make-over” valued at $7,500 by Dennis 7 Dees Landscaping and a pair of diamond earrings… for those of us that like to wear our diamonds in the garden. Also, the first 300 people to arrive at the Show each morning receive a free gift.

Details:

When: Friday & Sat February 12-13 from 10 am to 7:30 pm. and Sun February 14 from 10 am to 5 pm
Where: The Oregon Convention Center, 777 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Portland. Here are transportation details and maps. Note that the maximum payment for all-day parking at the Convention Center lot is $8.
Admission: $11 for adults and free for kids 12 and younger accompanied by a paying adult.
Advanced tickets $7 at Dennis’ 7 Dees locations through Feb. 11
Advanced tickets $9 available at select retailers. See website for locations.
$2 Off Coupons at www.ygpshow.com

For more information: Call 360-210-5275 or go to ygpshow.com

Look – it’s nearly spring!

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Tags: Gardening Events, Garden Stuff, Green

Seattle Flower Show Rundown

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Feb 06, 2010 at 01:00PM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Seattle garden shop Ravenna Gardens created this display titled ‘Urban Nest’

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I had a fleeting but action-packed trip North to the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in Seattle on Thursday. We headed up before dawn and returned after midnight – a non-stop, 18-hour fiesta of total plant immersion. The show runs through Sunday evening so there’s still time to go if you’re inclined. The end of the final day of the show is actually a good time for bargains, as some vendors sell off their display plants at great prices.

My companions and I downed coffee at the nearby Bauhaus Cafe before hurrying back to the Convention Center for an 11:30 am talk by SF Bay Area landscape architect Andrea Cochran. Her gardens are sleek exemplars of modern design, characterized by large swathes of single species of ornamental grasses, shrubs or trees. Rectilinear lines, sweeps of plants (mostly shrubs and grasses or groups of diaphanous white Japanese anemone) and expanses of gravel or stone create planes against which a single shapely tree – often native evergreen oak – can shine. Her images were amazing; I was particularly smitten with her use of large Shoji-like screens that permit light through while blocking a view.

Next up, at 1 pm, was a talk by Fergus Garrett, head gardener at the renowned, very quirky and in some ways “un-English” English garden Great Dixter. I’d visited Great Dixter many years ago and have since often read Garrett’s garden articles in English gardening magazines. To my dismay, the tickets were gone two hours before his talk. We decided to wait at the door, in case there was standing room and – as luck would have it – there was. His talk focused on the ongoing, fruitful editing process that takes place when one maintains a garden over the years – and how valuable it is to rework plantings over time. “Editing is very important – that’s how gardens move ahead and improve,” he noted. Good advice in an era of TV garden make-over shows and insta- garden designs. He is a firm advocate of the idea of “Right Plant, Right Place” – in other words, it’s important to know what your plants need and position them correctly so that they are “not just happy but impressive”. In his words: “you must understand your plants and be creative”.

I liked how he explained his priorities when working new plants into the existing design at Great Dixter:

*Rule #1: Make sure plant is happy.
*Rule #2: Consider shape: contrasting forms of plants foliage and flower heads
*Rule #3: Consider flower/plant color.

It’s all too easy to do it in reverse order, though, prioritizing the look of the plants – particularly flower color – and considering the plants’ needs last. But as he tried to underscore, to avoid disappointment, we must not ignore “basic ecological rules” (ie, Right Plant, Right Place!)!

Garrett’s talk was funny and charming and the images were inspiring, with examples of both successful and unsuccessful plant combinations. It takes considerable gumption to show combinations that don’t work (particularly from your own design files) and I love that he did it.

By the time we got out of two seminars, we had to be extremely efficient to take in as much of the Show as possible in the time we had left. We speed-walked through the display gardens – most of which used far less bark dust than in days of yore and were, in fact, quite creative (click on the slide show for some photographic highlights). Next, the sales areas with suppliers of garden tools, garden art, some plant-themed clothing and jewelry, and – my favorite – plants. There were tons of summer bulb vendors and – a new thing – many vendors sold dormant perennial plants in bags rather than growing plants in pots.

Because the Yard, Garden & Patio Show is coming up next weekend in Portland (Friday Feb 12 to Sun Feb 14), I was restrained. All I bought were three gorgeous air plants (Tillandsia sp.) from Owens Nursery to grow in my bathroom and also a gorgeous little blackish-burgundy hardy garden bromeliad Dyckia (seedling from Burgundy Ice). That was enough to whet my appetite!

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Tags: Gardening Events, Slideshow, Places to Go, Flowers, Garden Stuff

The Chicks Are Coming!

local resources for urban chicken farmers

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Feb 03, 2010 at 10:00AM Speech Bubble 4 Comments

This lovely poster was designed by local artist Joe Wirtheim and is for sale, along with some others, at the Urban Farm Store

View Slideshow »

Ten years ago, when I first kept chickens, there were few places in Portland to buy supplies. Driving out to Foster Feed on Southeast Foster & 103rd (Tel: 503-777-2967) was something of a pilgrimage from the city — there weren’t many of us with chickens yet then – and I’d often ride out with one of the few other chicken-o-philes I knew so we could pool resources and buy big sacks of grit and oyster shell, feed (there was no organic feed available then) or bedding. We chicken people stuck together.

Now, we have numerous small farm stores in the city limits where urban chickeners can buy their supplies. Baby chicks are available throughout spring and early summer, along with the organic feed, bedding and other supplies needed to keep them healthy and happy. You can even buy some rather spectacular pre-fab coops!

Since we’re in the final countdown to the start of chick season (mid-February), here’s a survey of my favorite places to find chicks and all-things-chickeny in Portland:

Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply store, now open for business

First, the brand-spanking new Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply, located at 2500 SE Tacoma St, Portland OR 97202, right on McLoughlin (Tel: 503-517-8551). This store, run by Naomi, her husband Neil and her mom Mary (just don’t call her “Mother Mary” please!!!), sells chicks, feed, soil amendments, fertilizers, books, seeds and plants. Also, some adorable chicken t-shirts and – my favorite – a beautiful little barn and fenced run where you can meet and greet their little flock of farm animals including miniature goats! Naomi has honed her knowledge of soil and organic amendments and fertilizers after managing for several years at Concentrates, Inc., a feed and fertilizer supply store at 2613 SE 8th (Tel: 503-234-7501). Naomi now teaches classes on all variety of urban farming topics but is particularly helpful with chickens, goats, organic gardening practices and soil issues from organic nutrition to soil tilth.

Co-owner Mary helping the new rat terrier rescue dog acclimate to his new surroundings…

The Urban Farm Store opened last year on SE Morrison and has just recently moved down the street. Now located at 2100 SE Belmont, Portland, OR 97214 (Tel: 503-234-7733), this shop sells chicks, feed, coops, straw bales, organic vegetable starts and fruit trees, seeds, beer and cheese making supplies, and more. Owner Robert Litt is well-schooled (literally and figuratively) in the ways of sustainable agriculture and design and is a superb resource for all things chicken, farm, and agriculture.

Several small plant nurseries also sell chicken supplies and sometimes chicks – and are themselves quite “chickeny,” with hens wandering the aisles while you shop for plants and owners and employees who are avid and knowledgeable keepers of chickens. These include Buffalo Gardens at 728 NE Dekum, Portland OR 97211 (Tel: 503-288-0220); Pistils Nursery (503-288-4889); and Livingscape Nursery at 3926 N. Vancouver Ave between Shaver & Fremont (Tel: 503-248-0104). Check before visiting to make sure they have what you’re looking for, as quantities of various breeds wax and wane throughout the season and supplies can sell out during the busy season.

Have I missed your favorite chicken supply shop or urban farm supply store? Let me hear from you!

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Tags: Chickens, Nurseries

upcoming events

The Northwest Flower & Garden Show 2010

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Feb 01, 2010 at 02:00PM Speech Bubble 2 Comments

I have a confession to make: I haven’t gone to the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in Seattle in at least ten years. I simply got turned off by all the garden shows at some point. The shows didn’t seem relevant to me or my garden. I’d find myself in dark, sterile, gloomy exhibition halls packed with people and products, smelling weird chemicals and eating icky hot dogs, when all I really wanted was to be was… well, in the garden, surrounded by my plants, animals (chickens, cats, dog) and trowel. I wanted to see something inspiring – not walk around looking at fake gardens arranged under a blanket of bark dust.

Having gotten that out of my system… I’m actually going this year with higher expectations. There are some speakers I want to hear, some container gardens I want to see, and (of course) some plants I want to buy. I’m feeling some energy around this event and I’m hoping it will turn out to be fun. I’m committing a whole, marathon day to the Show, in fact – leaving extremely early and returning very late – and there will be non-stop activity during those 12 hours or so that I’m wandering the Show.

So what is it all about? Why commit a day – or a weekend – to this garden show?

This year, there will be a strong emphasis on sustainable gardening. There will be a variety of plant nurseries, including some I haven’t visited before, like the fabled Fancy Fronds fern nursery. Plus, Fergus frigging Garrett will be speaking! He’s the clever and wise gardener who worked for many years at Great Dixter in England, a garden that is dear to my heart, in part because of the giant topiary squirrels dotted around the place. (I’ll never forget asking a distinguished elderly fellow working in the garden at Great Dixter what a certain tree was: he merely barked, “EUCRYPHIA!” It was my one and only conversation with the renowned owner of Great Dixter, Christopher Lloyd.) And I am interested to see what kinds of new products and tools will be showing up to make life easier and better for vegetable gardeners, organic gardeners, and people who want to start their own seeds. There will be over 200 nurseries and other exhibitors displaying their wares – and selling them, right then and there. I’ll be looking for unusual ferns, more winter-flowering shrubs, and anything drought-tolerant. I might pick up some new orchids. And I’m relieved to learn that the Show provides free package check locations for stashing your acquisitions while wandering the rest of the Show. Whew.

SHOW DETAILS:
WHAT: The Northwest Flower & Garden Show
WHEN: Wednesday, February 3 through Sunday, February 7, 2010
WHERE: Washington State Convention and Trade Center 7th & Pike, Seattle, WA 98101
HOURS: Wednesday – Saturday (February 3‐6) 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. & Sunday (February 7) 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

ADMISSION:
$20 Adult (regular admission at door)
$16 Early Bird (purchased at participating ticket outlets or online through February 2nd)
$15 Group (per ticket; minimum purchase of 20 tickets)
$10 Half‐Day (purchased online or at the door after 3:00 p.m. Wed. – Sat., 2:00 p.m. Sun.)
$5 Youth (ages 13 – 17)
Free Children (ages 12 and under)
Multi‐day tickets will also available
Buy tickets here!

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Tags: Gardening Events, Garden Stuff

PLANTWISE - February 2010

Hellebore Season

Well Hello, Sweet Pea!

Air Plants

Yard, Garden & Patio Show Redux

Yard, Garden & Patio Show

Seattle Flower Show Rundown

The Chicks Are Coming!

The Northwest Flower & Garden Show 2010

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