A return to the Farwest Show...

It had been a few years since I'd attended the Oregon Association of Nurseries Farwest Tradeshow—three years to be exact—I was there in 2023, somehow I thought it had been longer.

The show ran Wednesday thru Friday of last week, I didn't make it until Friday, which I heard was a much quieter day, perfect for being able to see the plants and have time to talk with the people—and there were plenty of both. I took lots of photos, I'm starting my coverage with some of the signage that caught my eye...

When watering your plants do you think if ice? I guess it's less messy than slopping water around your tradeshow booth.

Fern. Is that her name? I wanted to know, I wanted to see the front of her t-shirt, but she was deep in conversation with someone and didn't turn around.

Fern! Again! This was several aisles over from where I saw fern the person.

Oh! Yikes.

Crimson was hanging out here, where there's no green thumb required. Where plants text you (?)... "these plants will text you when they need you!" (scary).

Hmmm... should we be encouraging people to eat their shrubs? 

Next up, structure; stacked pots...

Stacked bags (or pouches, if you prefer). 

Ornate and colorful greenhouse...

Freakishly short greenhouse! I've always wondered why greenhouses are so tall, all that space to heat. This however...

Next up, the people! Well, kitties are people too, right? There was a section at the far end of the convention floor where you could spend some relaxing time with adoptable kitties and puppies. 

It was a popular place...

At the Great Plant Picks booth I got to catch up with former Oregonian Garden Writer Kym Pokorny, along with Richie Steffen and Rick Peterson from the Miller Garden and GPP.

Little Prince Plant people out in the wild! Away from their booth and the nursery that is. Left to right: Director of Business Development Mark Leichty, Assistant Head Grower Caleb Reid, and Alexa Patti, Nursery Manager and Head Grower.

More Little Prince people, this fine pair from the sales office was manning the booth; Zen Landis and Courtney Thompson.

Which brings me to the whole point of the Farwest Show, the plants! Naturally we're starting in the Little Prince booth...

Their small stumpery was outfitted with all the cool plants, and mushrooms too! The turkey tail fungus (free pattern here) and mushrooms were crocheted by LPO's Kalin Cook-Saucier, nice work Kalin!

She even made a fiddlehead...

After coming across a fern name in my plant list and not recognizing it as such, I finally decided to group them in their own category, ferns. Little Prince has decided to do that on their availability listings and they were asking Farwest attendees to vote for what that new category will be called. What's your favorite? I voted for Fronds of the Frog. 

Moving on... this Donard Gold Montery Cypress, from Iseli Nursery was stunning. The way the foliage contrasts with the stems... wow.

You've seen green walls with ornamentals...how about a green veggie wall? Basil and lettuces and maybe arugula? I know this was a display piece but I wonder if a vertical veggie wall would work in real life? (from Houweling Nursery)

These Heuchera Fyre Wing™ were everywhere at the show. 

I first saw them at the Blooming Nursery booth, but being Terra Nova introductions they were spread around with multiple nurseries offering them.

Youngblood had some nice plants, and they don't seem to be pulling back from their houseplant offerings either (some nurseries were).

Bailey Nurseries...

Bailey are the folks with the Eclipse® Hydrangea. Truth be told for a moment I thought I'd found the Calycanthus floridus 'Burgundy Spice' I was crushing on during the Buffalo Fling. But no, it's a hydrangea. Sadly I've heard doesn't keep that dark color very well.

At the Kraemer's Nursery booth I drooled over these Boulevard® Nubia™ Clematis (Clematis 'Evipo079')...

And once again admired the dark leaf peach, Prunus persica 'Bonfire' I believe (I saw it in a few booths).

This booth, Plantophilia, was an odd one. Farwest is a tradeshow, wholesale companies bring their products to be seen and ordered by their customers. It's not a place where the general public goes to buy plants. That said there are frequently sales towards the end of the last day, as the show is closing down. People don't want to load up all the plants and haul them home, so they'll sometimes sell the entire booth to the right person, or offer plants for a deep cash discount (wondering if that's why I went on Friday? yep). Anyway, when I was there a couple hours before closing this booth had prices on all their plants...

Their plants were very cool, but the prices were a little high for me (is that really wholesale?).

I watched people excitedly making their purchases, but I just walked on...

Off to the "New Varieties Showcase" now, where nurseries feature their latest releases. There were lots of plants to chose from, here are three of my favorites...

A new Phormium, Petite Indigo® Ruby New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax 'KFPHPM18' PP #36,180) had great color. It's actually closer to the tags, for some reason it was dulled out in my photos. It was hailed for its compact size, but the strange thing to me was how soft and grass-like the leaves were. They had none of that Phormium stiffness (supposedly hardy to zone 7).

Candybox® Chilean Guava, Ugni molinae... "perfect as a boxwood alternative"... and those little fruits are edible.

Coleus scutellarioides ColorBlaze® Pepper Flakes™ was a color-ringer for that Burning Heart' Caladium I lusted after in Buffalo. It's leaves were much smaller though, and featured green flecks rather than orange ones.

So what did I come home with? Another Root Pouch. I've scored 3 or 4 of these as giveaways at the Farwest Show, they're fabulous. I'm thrilled to have another. They're thick and hold up well, I use them as an alternative to a black plastic nursery pot if I'm not planting directly in a decorative ceramic container.

Naturally a couple plants followed me home...

Yes, I scored a dark leaved Calycanthus!!! This is C. floridus var. purpureus Red Zeppelin® from Proven Winners. 

I think the leaves are even darker than 'Burgundy Spice'. I'm thrilled and feel so lucky to have walked away with the one plant Proven Winners had in their display. Thank you!

My other plant score was a pair of Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance' (Autumn Fern) from Pacific Crest Ornamentals. I love how the new fronds have an almost metallic sheen.

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