Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The 2012 Portland Yard, Garden and Patio Show: chapter 1

Whew, two garden shows in back to back weekends, I’m wiped out!

I’ve started this post several times, each time fighting the urge to make this a comparison between the Seattle NWFG Show and the Portland YG&P Show. But you know what; sometimes you’ve just got to go with it.
I had a whole list of comparisons but I’ll stick with just this one:

NWFG Show = Broadway production
YG&P Show = Community theatre

And I don’t mean that as an insult. From the “remarkable green market,” to the seminars and the vendors booths…this show felt more like it was from the local gardening community, for the local gardening community. And if you could overlook the hot-tubs (prominently placed right inside one of the entrances…so it wasn’t easy), scarves, and wine-slushy vendors this show was really much more about what matters…the plants.
For example…the “Remarkable Green Market,” this is a good sized corner of the show floor with mini-shops set up for area nurseries, some of the nurseries also have booths elsewhere on the show floor in addition to a table or two in this area. When I was there on Friday (and frequently throughout the weekend) the booths were staffed by the nursery owners themselves…Roger Gossler (Gossler Farms), Burl Mostul (Rare Plant Research), Greg Shepherd and Paul Bonine (Xera Plants), Leonard Foltz (Dancing Oaks) and others whose names I do not know. You could shop a fine selection of their plants and get their expert advice, all in one spot.

Not enough plants for ya? Then visit the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon display just across the aisle. There you can touch, smell and photograph cuttings of plants that look good in the garden now, all fresh from area gardens. Plus there were HPSO volunteers there to answer your questions (more on this tomorrow).
Those educational seminars I mentioned…free! Totally free, always free. You do not have to pay to get into the show to hear these experts talk about what they know best. How cool is that, it’s a free education! Lucy Hardiman and Nancy Goldman pull together and run the speaker seminar series and get this…it is an entirely volunteer effort! I can’t even imagine the hundreds of hours they must spend on this, thank you ladies! This show would not be the 3-day community event that it is if not for your work on the seminar series.

Finally let’s talk about the display gardens, the images thus far in this post have all been from the gardens. The theme for the show was “Think global. Garden local”…and the gardens were all based on traditional garden styles from around the world. While I thought this was a great premise for the gardens, in reality they fell a little short of their potential.

Most of the gardens were extremely heavy on the hardscape, but then you could actually walk through these gardens (in Seattle it was more of a look don’t touch atmosphere). Some were quite large and empty (empty of plants), perhaps the *wow* factor could have been bumped up a bit if they had been smaller and thus less expensive to fill? The display garden area was better lit and featured less annoying (and stinky!) bark-dust than in previous years. And from the comments I heard many people thought they were very inspiring, however I couldn't help but feel it could be better.
Here’s the catch. The gardens are designed by Garden and Landscape Designers (yes there may be a few Landscape Architects in the group…I’m generalizing here), they are expensive and a lot of work to create. Don’t you suppose they are designing for their perceived client? For the person they think will look at the garden and say “I need to hire this company!” Well, that’s not me. I don’t have the money or the desire. So maybe it doesn’t matter that I wasn’t taken with the gardens at either show?

Maybe. Yet the fact that I’m not going to be hiring a designer doesn’t keep me from looking through garden design magazines, and books, and coveting the gardens I see on their pages. If they’re publishing these images then others must like them too, others who do hire designers. So where’s the disconnect? The actual, or perceived, level of design savvy in the local market? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just the budget. The match between the funds required to “do” a garden in the show, and style of garden that the person with budget that affords a garden from the show wants (I think that makes sense?). Maybe there need to be smaller (and less expensive) display gardens? Maybe there needs to be an urban-chic theme to the display gardens? Or maybe I’m just destined to never feel like the display gardens are speaking to me and instead find my inspiration in the container displays and nursery displays? I obviously don't have the answers.
Moving on...to the ‘Remarkable Green Market! Where there were several plants that caught my eye. A couple disappeared almost as soon as I snapped the picture. Look at this Arctostaphylos (Manzanita) hookeri ‘Ken Taylor’ from Dancing Oaks, that bark is almost black!
The Rare Plant Research booth is always a draw and the blooming Aloe dorotheae were pulling people from yards away (of course as soon as I got home I took a look at my plant, hoping to see a bloom starting to emerge. No such luck).
I wasn’t the only person admiring the twisty succulent in this mixed planting.
This trunking Yucca linearifolia could have been yours for only $149…
Several of the nursery booths on the show floor also had a selection of plants you could shop from. The Bauman’s Farm booth is always a favorite, although this year they really changed things up on me.
I’ve gotten used to heading right for their small bargain Agaves, but this year they were bigger and mixed in with the other plantings.
Once I got over the fact that I wasn’t going to be buying an agave from them I really enjoyed the new look of their booth.
It was very colorful and full of Tillandsia and sexy succulents.
Did you notice the little metal tripods holding the Tillandisa on the walls?
They were also being sold in the Little Prince of Oregon Nursery booth, who had them built based on the design available at Flora Grubb Gardens (in San Francisco), only these are much more affordable.
The Bamboo Craftsmen booth had some fun garden décor…(I think I take pictures of their booth every year!).
And the lanterns hanging in the palms of this display for a landscape services company had me dreaming of summer, and a Trachycarpus fortunei tall enough to stand under.
Tomorrow we’ll look at one of my favorite features of the YGP Show, the Hardy Plant Society botanical display and I’ll let you know if I bought anything!

39 comments:

  1. W-w-wine slushies?

    Also:

    The theme for the show was “Think global, Garden local”

    Shoulda been "Think global, garden local, write agrammatical."

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    1. Yes indeed...they were selling a pre-made mix that you could use to create your very own wine slushie at home. They're out there making the rounds, saw them in Seattle the week before.

      I got the theme slightly wrong. Rather than "Think global, Garden local" it was "Think global. Garden local"...correction made.

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    2. It's still wrong (that wasn't even what I was thinking of when I wrote that): because "think" and "garden" are being used as verbs, they need adverbs (globally, locally) to modify them, not adjectives (global, local).

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    3. Understood. I just felt bad that I had misquoted them, thus I needed to make the correction.

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  2. I was surprised by how much booze selling was going on. And by how much wine-slushy drinking was happening at 11 in the morning. I love all things alcoholic but that one made my stomach turn.

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    1. Ha, I know! I'm all for enjoying a (plastic) glass of some new-to-me wine with my lunch (which I finally had after 3pm) but it was before 11 on Friday morning when I first walked by the wine booths and people were already tasting!

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  3. oooh! love the big stones!

    http://www.designsponge.com/2012/02/wearable-planters-for-your-bike.html
    Thought of you Miss Danger! xoxo! Andrea

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  4. I just have to say…I love the Tillandsia and sexy succulents! That picture gives me so many ideas! Thanks for sharing!

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  5. I agree with your assessment of the display gardens. It was most uninspiring. I felt that they were catering to the dreams of someone living in a McMansion way out in suburbia who was not interested in actual gardening, but just wanted to soak in a hot tub and drink wine slushies (surrounded by hardscaping). I nearly lost it when I saw that the inspiration for a privacy screen was to plant 30 arborvitae! Ick. At least the whole experience didn't cost me an arm and a leg like Seattle and I bought some cool plants and heard two speakers.

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    1. Yes exactly! (catering to the dreams of someone living in a McMansion way out in suburbia who was not interested in actual gardening) Good to know you agree. What did you buy and who did you hear speak! (you can't leave out the good stuff!!!)

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    2. I bought yet another pineapple lily from the Rare people, and from Xera an interesting blue/green semperviven and a tiny-leaved osmanthus with steal/gray foliage. I heard the speaker about weather in the garden (forgot his name) and learned that I live in a thermal belt (yeah!), and then Mike Darcy with his wonderful slide show. BTW, I tasted a sample of the wine slushy in Seattle - it's a wine flavered cup-o-sugar!

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    3. Hey I was at Paul Bonine's talk too! Wish I would have seen you.

      Nice purchases, you can never have too many pineapple lily's or Sempervivum! So there's no booze in the wine slushie?

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  6. This is more on scale with the St. Louis Home and Garden show (starting this week), but you probably had more plants to go along with the hardscaping than we will. Hoping I'm pleasantly surprised.

    (BTW, one of your photos reminded me that I took some photos this summer specifically for a blog post... then never wrote the post! Thanks for that.)

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    1. Sorry to have left you with that opinion. I do think this goes above and beyond the standard "Home and Garden" show, but then it has been years since I've been to one of those. The overall qty of plant vendors has decreased over the years (their spaces filled by the fluff). But thankfully the show goes on and hopefully those vendors will be able to return in the future.
      (your welcome!)

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  7. Loree, I so appreciate the way you often help me re-see what I've already seen but from a different perspective. I thought the display gardens really were rather disappointing (IMHO, the bar was set high with the Cistus display garden at the YGP couple of years ago) and there were fewer plants (or more paved space that ever before.

    I lurved that big black wire netting flower with the tillandsia center at the Bauman's Farm booth, too...didn't even dare look at the price.

    But I think the real stars of the show are the Green Market vendors. Thanks for giving them shout-outs. It IS a wonderful opportunity to quiz them about the plants they have there, or ask questions about their plants you might already have in your garden.

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    1. You read my mind...I wanted to reference that Cistus display, turns out 2010 was a banner year for the display gardens. Thank god the Green Market carries on...and it was nice to see you at the show!

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  8. Looks like the booths were much more inspiring than the display gardens. I think there is a "landscaping" mentality that shows up even in the ANLD tours (with a few notable exceptions) that are far different and less interesting than the passion projects we see in the HPSO open gardens.

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    1. Excellent point...the HPSO gardens are really where the plant passion shines. I'm going to be better about going to the open gardens this summer!

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  9. Reading how you personally responded to the various displays is much more interesting than just a recap of the show. I have a feeling I would have agreed with you 100% if I had been there.

    I'm planning on going to the SF Flower & Garden Show in March (my first time) and I can't wait to see how it will compare to the Seattle and Portland shows you just covered.

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    1. I can't wait to see how it compares too, I have a completely biased idea that the display gardens might be more hip than either Seattle or Portland. We'll see!

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  10. Thanks for the info about this show, I've been wondering how it compares to Seattle. I'm glad to hear there is more of an emphasis on plants. I used to do community theater, so I like, and understand, the analogy. I'm thinking next year I might make an effort to attend the Portland show. Love the Tillandsias on the wall, that display gave me ideas...

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    1. Alison you really should. And make sure you leave time for the seminars. I only went into the show on Friday, but came back on Saturday and Sunday just to attend more of the seminars.

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  11. Beautiful pictures, you've inspired me for my own garden. Thanks for sharing these kind of pictures!

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  12. For me the shows are about having all kinds of cool plants congregated under one roof. The display gardens are a bonus if they're interesting. The shows do seem to be catering to the mainstream, weekend warrior, mostly gardening-averse public rather than us, the rabid plant and design geeks. Does makes you wonder which is the wisest business strategy.

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    1. Yes it does...and they'll never know unless they try catering to the rabid plant and design geeks will they? I do believe they could do that and still attract the drive-by gardener too!

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  13. Those large succulents in vertical displays are inspiring. I might just do that with my agave pups for a few years.

    Our Home and Garden show is either this week or next. It seems to be mostly an advertisers road show so I will skip it (again).

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    1. I know what you mean, that's why I've not gone to one of the H&G shows in awhile. Carpet cleaners, knives, termite protection...no thanks. It's good to keep them separate!

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  14. I can't believe you showed that Arctostaphylos at the Dancing Oaks table...I literally picked it up and put it down about 3 times (I guess I was tempted by ONE plant, after all)! I did a search on my phone, however, and realized it wouldn't work for me...so the search for The Perfect Manzanita For Scott continues. It's a very good point about the show being more directed at the more casual "gardener"...really more for those who just want an outdoor space for entertaining and relaxing...not for the few, the brave, the plant-crazed :-)

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    1. Ah they must have re-stocked! (assuming you weren't there on Friday?) I went back at the end of the day on Friday and if they would have still had one of those Manzanita I would have probably gotten it (no I don't have room)...I thought about it all day!

      We will find "The Perfect Manzanita For Scott" someday!

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  15. Oh I want all of those very beautiful palm trees at the end there! It is soooooooo a dreaming of summer kind of plant!!!! It looks like they had great design going on there

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    1. Aren't they fabulous? Mine seems to be suck at about 3ft tall. Perhaps I should break out the fertilizer.

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  16. Loving that Edgeworthia. I have to see if those will be happy growing here on the coast. I've been coveting them lately.

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    1. Me too. For the longest time I didn't care for them at all. Oddly it was their foliage that finally won me over, not the blooms.

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  17. I was going through this blog post yesterday and trying to take in your photos as there's lots of inspiring things in them, and much like you more on the planters and the creative display of Tillandsias. In a way it's good that these two shows are in February which is traditionally a quiet time for gardeners.

    Thanks for sharing photos of your visit, I never get tired looking at photos of garden shows!!

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    1. February is indeed "the" month to have shows like this. January and you'd be all pumped to get outside but in reality have too long before you can. Wait until March and by then you can be outside and have to tear yourself away to be inside for the show. I just wish there was a weekend in between the two...feast or famine!

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  18. very nice!
    Thanks for sharing your photos!

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