Tuesday, February 23, 2016

A few of my favorite things from the small gardens at the NWFG Show...

One of my favorite features at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show are the small space displays of the City Living Gardens on the sky walk. The location (with windows behind the gardens) makes it hard to photograph but the intimate spaces usually allow for a greater degree of style and personalization than the large show gardens.

This garden: From Sea to Shining Sea, by Ma Petite Gardens, had a great color scheme. The wall treatment gives me an idea for a free-standing trellis. Food for thought.

This one No Place Like Home, from Third Spring Landscape Design, features a custom built pergola. At first it's easy to dismiss the framework and focus on the furniture and containers. Then your eye adjusts and you realize what you're looking at – an enclosed space. Impressive!

The plantings were pretty nice too, great use of subtle color.

A Maker's Garden, from Mya Kerner. There's a lot going on here!

This little shelving unit was my favorite part...

From Sky Nursery we have Northwest Wild: Celebrating the Beauty of the Puget Sound...

I am reminded that moss makes a great container top-dressing for moisture-loving plants. It doesn't always have to be gravel!

And this seems so obvious, but I've never thought of it. Mossy branches with Tillandsia mounted on them, on a wall. Might have to do this on the back of our garage...

The rusted containers and the dark clay pottery play very nicely together.

Another favorite at the show are the floral displays. I didn't get great photos, every time I stopped by they were swarmed by other show-goers (which is good I suppose).

This one, by Colleen E. Monett Flowers, was called Marking the Passage of Time.

The entire display was built upon a slice of old Douglas Fir.

Tiny labels marked events along the growth rings, this being the last.

So much fabulous detail!

An arrangement by Tiare Floral Design Studio included these tiny woven balls.

Vases Wild created American Beauty. I've never seen Protea blooms so straight and open.

The base container was this simple metal ring.

The Art of Forest Blooms put together this wild thing, Across the Wilderness; 'til Paths be Wrought Through Wilds of Thought...

It was pretty fabulous. Although I'm still not sure exactly what it is!

All material © 2009-2016 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

23 comments:

  1. How fun! And a great source of inspiration. I like the way the glass balls look on the bed of moss. I want to try something like that minus the moss...

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    1. I once saw a container mulched exclusively with marbles, not for me but very fun!

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  2. I think these little gardens look great, and are packed with ideas and beauty! I wonder if I love them so much because of the natural lighting? Love that simple pergola!

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    1. The natural lighting certain adds to the feel of a real garden.

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  3. Some great ideas in those pictures. I really like the mossy branches with Tillandsia planted on them.
    I really like the show, but stopped going because of the parking. If you don't get there early in the morning the Convention Center parking is full so I alway ended up parking blocks away in very expensive parking lots. I like buying plants so that limited what I could buy since it would be hard hauling them blocks to my car. So thanks for giving me a photo tour of the show.
    John
    Aberdeen, Wa

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    1. Your exactly the kind of person I wish were still going to the show...the ones who buy plants! It's so sad how the plant offerings have dwindled over the years. Re: parking I had to be there early (7:30 am) for the "tweet-up", this allowed me a prime parking spot in the convention center complex. I've never splurged on that before, but since I was staying with a friend, and not paying for a hotel, I figured what the heck.

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  4. Thanks for sharing the details - they usually make these shows in my view. I love that Art of Forest Blooms creation - it makes me think of a bonsai-ikebana mash-up.

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    1. Indeed the details are how we hands-on gardeners can translate these shows to our own gardens. More coming up tomorrow (Thursday).

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  5. Loree, little did you know that I hoped you would be my eyes for the show. Thank you! The Skybridge has been my favorite area in the past, maybe because I always look for small space and container inspiration? I've been thinking a lot about potentially interesting new trends lately and you confirmed my thought... it seems to be the 'ground covers', the moss, stones, and variations on those themes. I've been seeing it used effectively for indoor containers for a while, but thanks to you I am seeing it in outdoor containers as well. What do you think? What is niggling at the back of your brain to try this coming season for your containers?

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    1. Glad to help Sheila, although of course I would have rather you'd been there so I could meet you. Indeed I think ground covers, decorative mulches (for containers) and ferns are all about to become HUGE. My containers won't change much, since I use them for non-hardy and xeric things. However the shady bunch might get moss!

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    2. We're hoping for next year, we always have so much fun in Seattle. One way or another we'll meet!

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  6. Small space garden designs usually give the best ideas for domestic gardens as most don't have generous spaces, and there's several there that is inspiring. Love moss as mulch, but birds and squirrels love them too....

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    1. I was surprised how little disturbance the Tillandsia usneoides I spread around the garden last year was disturbed my birds and squirrels - thanks for the reminder I might not be so lucky with moss.

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  7. So much creativity there. Almost more than my brain can process. It'll be fun for us readers to see how many ideas will make it into your garden in the months to come...

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    1. Well even if not many do it's certainly fun to think about!

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  8. What a lot of good ideas. Our local garden expo has more stuff and fewer plants so I have not been going every year.

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    1. Thankfully there are a few shows like this that remain garden focused, although even this one has fewer plant buying opportunities as of late.

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  9. The 'No Place Like Home' display was the standout to me for its clean design enriched by the details you recorded. That may be more due to the fact that it photographs better than the more cluttered displays. I did love some of the details in the next one, especially the mossy bits.

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    1. It was certainly a good one Ricki, not lacking in detail but simpler overall.

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  10. You captured some choice parts of the show. There's always so much to take in that it's great to spend more than a single day there. Of course the highlight for me is always spending time with swell people who I don't get to see often enough!

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    1. Indeed, the people really do make the show!

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  11. Interesting designs, all. What a great show. The Art Of The Forest thing is really cool. Maybe it's an Ent?

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  12. Great job! You caught things I completely missed! Nice lunch with you, Peter and Evan too...come on spring!

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