It took a few days to get caught up on work and columns before I could organize my photos and my thoughts about my recent trip to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. To attend the show, I flew from Los Angeles to Seattle and returned in just over 24 hours. So as you can imagine, I felt a bit jet lagged when I returned. That, and my feet hurt from all the walking!
First, let me tell you that it was just as inspiring, informative and creative as it has been in any of the previous years. We all walked away with more than a years worth of ideas and could not wait to get home and start planning the spring garden.(The succulent photo was taken at the Smith & Hawken vendor booth)
There was a definite sadness in the air among attendees that this may be the last show and certainly we all realized that even if the show continued with a new buyer, it would be different as the new buyer would have to put their own spin on it. There was a sense that we had to absorb as much as was humanly possible because we didn't know when there would be so much gardening information under one roof in Seattle again. One person said that if they cancel the show it would be like canceling Christmas for gardeners. So true!
Over 54,000 gardeners from the around the world attend each show every year. This year, the overall attendance was up by 4%, due in part to the publicity that the show was ending. The theme for the show was “Sustainable Spaces – Beautiful Places” with a focus on gardening materials and techniques that are good for the environment. There were many ideas on how to better conserve resources such as water and soil while, at the same time, making the gardens more self-sustaining and easier to care for.
I have so much information to share, I am going to have to do this in several posts. But, I will start with the display gardens as they are the most asked about feature of the show. For the uninitiated, walking into one of these shows can be overwhelming. The display gardens are full-scale, meaning that they are the same size as most of our Southern California front yards. Some are larger. These display gardens are designed and build by some of the best in the business.
Nurseries, landscape architects and commercial gardening businesses team up to create magical and creative living displays with real plants, boulders, waterfalls, small rivers, 20 foot trees, sheds and even cars. All of these gardens are assembled in just a few days inside of a downtown convention center with a cement floor. It is a bit surreal.
As usual, all the display gardens showcased interesting concepts and plants, but there were several gardens that really captured my heart. The first was was a garden designed by Rebecca Cole (designer and host of Surprise by Design on Discover Channel) and the Smith & Hawken Company.
It was a simulated roof garden with rusted planters filled with wind-resistant trees, hardy bamboo, drought tolerant grasses and lots of lovely succulents. The idea was to show how someone with just a tiny space could have something fabulous for entertaining. Every inch of space was utilized for either function or beauty.
Even the cement end-tables surrounding the seating area had planted openings filled with succulents. A home gardener could recreate an end table like this using hyper-tuffa.
But the most innovative use of space was on the shed. First, it had a planted roof with a solar panel for power.
Then, two of the outside walls, were covered top to bottom with plants...
These living walls were laid out in a patchwork pattern and they were stunning. Here is a close up of the steel, upright planters that they had attached to the wall...
An outdoor dinning table was also planted in alternating squares, creating a tabletop landscape.
Of course, most of us will not plant a living wall. But the idea behind a garden like this is to inspire and offer ideas that we could perhaps do on a smaller scale. It did that for sure! I have many more display gardens to discuss! But I will have to cover them in the next posts. Discuss amongst yourselves!
