The Farwest Show

How lucky am I? I was part of a small group of gardeners invited to attend the Oregon Association of Nurseries Farwest Show at the Oregon Convention Center last weekend. The show is normally only open to people “in the industry,” this year they decided to include a few gardeners or “end-users” as I called myself when talking to the vendors. Why did they do it? I was told it was to help build community within the larger gardening public in Oregon.

Sometime ago I signed up for the Random Acts of Gardening email newsletter, in the last issue they asked readers to respond to the question “what does gardening mean to you” and from these entries they selected the people that they invited to the show. Honestly I was pretty excited when I found out I was one of the folks who they were inviting, I am a plant nerd after all, plus the whole idea of going somewhere I wasn’t normally “allowed” to go also held a little intrigue.

I stopped to check out the sign for the seminars being offered. Good to know that the online gardening market is being recognized with seminars titled “Unleash you Inner E-Marketer,” “Who’s Searching and Who’s Buying Gardening Products Online? Your Customers!,” and “Marketing Strategy for the Internet.” The title of the next seminar on the schedule “Save Money Through Spray Efficiency” scared the bejesus out of me and reminded me why I am not a nursery professional. Yuck. During our meet-up and introduction I learned that Oregon is 2nd only to California for the number of commercial nurseries in the state, and we are actually #1 for the amount of acreage given over to plant propagation. Upon walking onto the show floor I was stunned at the size, I am a 5 year vet of the Yard Garden and Patio show, which is also held at the Oregon Convention Center. I thought they would be pretty much the same size. Nope. This was MUCH bigger.

We were formally toured through 4 grower/nursery booths (Terra Nova, Fisher Farms, Blooming Nursery and Monrovia) and something called the ‘New Varieties Showcase,’ before being set free to wander on our own. Each of the 4 grower/nursery booths were prepared for our visit.

The folks at the Terra Nova booth shared information on their tissue culture propagation methods and were very generous, not only giving us our choice of the plants on display but also inviting us to take a few ‘plugs”. I learned that these little plugs (and something else called liners) are the first step in the plants long, multi-step journey from propagation to retail nursery. For my plant gift I chose a Heucherella ‘Golden Zebra’ (below) how could I resist? Chartreuse and burgundy….it was calling out to me.
I also couldn’t resist taking a couple Echinacea ‘Tiki Torch’ plugs, along with a Tiarella ‘Cascade Creeper’ and just for the hell of it an Echinacea ‘Pink Poodle’ – free is the very best price.
On to the Fisher Farms booth where we learned they are now the #1 most “branded” grower with 7 brands signed. I wanted to ask for specifics on this concept and why that was their goal, but could tell I was the only one a little put-off by the concept of branding of plant material, so I chose to keep quiet. This Yucca, Fern and Hibiscus ‘Crown jewel’ (with the fabulous burgundy leaf color) were part of their display.

Branding is an interesting subject and one that I want to learn more about. Reading the show magazine later I came across this quote from the Marketing Director of Fisher Farms “Not all independent garden centers embrace the concept but research shows that the younger generation is very brand oriented.” The amateur sociologist (or is it psychologist?) in me loves to learn how and why people respond to branding and product packaging. Branding doesn’t have to mean trade-marking but often does...Note to self: research this.

Next up was the Blooming Nursery booth.

They had some beautiful Echinacea, Conitus and Bananas. We were also introduced to their Blooming Advantage Plant Finder online. I was too busy staring at/touching the plants to really watch the demonstration, I’ll have to check it out and see if it is a useful tool, click on the link to try it out for yourselves. On to Monrovia. I spent most of the time in this booth mesmerized by this beautiful Agave The striking yellow Crocosmia
And the Abutilon
We did learn that Monrovia has teamed up with Dan Hinkley to introduce new varieties to us, the gardening public. Go Dan.

Tomorrow the ‘New Varieties Showcase’ and the rest of the show…

What to do with your left over beer kegs...

It’s Friday, let’s have fun with beer kegs! I spotted this inventive planter on a sidewalk just off Burnside Street here in Portland.

It appears some creative type is creating a screen to hide the trash and recycling containers from the sidewalk seating for a nearby restaurant. Continuing with the beer theme they’ve got Hops planted and being trained up the chains. Love it! I think the overall look would benefit from a little gravel topdressing though. Maybe I'll have to guerrilla-mulch some night soon.

The power of the flower

My garden is all about the foliage and the spikes. The flowers are a nice color punch, and I do love the exotic ones, but it’s rare that I buy a plant because of the flower. The exact opposite is true of the gardener who created this garden.
I remember she once said to me “If it doesn’t flower then I don’t have room for it.” Because of this decree I have been the lucky recipient of Japanese Blood Grass (Imperata cylindrica 'Rubra'), a huge container of Hens and Chicks and some little grass called Bunny Tails (Lagurus ovatus). She didn't have "room" for them...and gave them to me!Her garden is a true riot of color. There are always multiple things blooming and she does an amazing job of keeping it all fresh and ever changing. She grows a lot of these from seed and somewhere in her garden she also found room for 34 tomato plants!

Pods

These funky seed pods are developing on my Hesperaloe bloom spikes. This is a new one for me, in the past the flowers have just shriveled and fell off, and then I would cut down the spike, after enjoying the flower (and hummingbird) show for months.
These pods are making things a little more interesting. I think I’ll keep them around for a while, let them dry and see what happens. Maybe I’ll even be able to get a few seeds to sprout and start a Hesperaloe farm!

There are also little pods forming on the expired blooms of my Rattlesnake Agave (Manfreda maculosa), shown below. I am woefully ignorant about this propagation from seed thing…does anyone have any experience with these, or Hesperaloes? Is it possible?
And while on the topic of interesting seeds I got brave the other night and visited the creepy house again, the one I posted about back in June with the remarkable collection of Dracunculus vulgaris (Dragon Lily) growing out-front. I could see the colorful seeds from the street and wanted to get close enough to get a photo of them.
I am going to have to keep an eye on these seed too, maybe when they are dry I will be able to work up the courage to return and take a few. If you never hear from me again then perhaps I was sucked in through the broken basement window and I am being held captive. Send help.

Just like flowers – only better

Sometimes I find myself mentally comparing certain plants to flowers; usually they are succulents, but not always. As I was taking pictures for last Saturdays Bloomday, I took photos of several of these plants. Their structure, and sometimes their color, just look so flower-like. Do you agree? Oh, and I say "better than flowers" because they last so much longer!

Aeonium ‘Schwarzkopf’
Aeonium ‘Sunburst’
Aeonium ‘salad bowl’
Echeveria hybrid ‘afterglow’
Umbrella Palm, Cyperus involucratus
I bought these last 2 from the Rare Plant Research booth at the Yard, Garden and Patio show a couple years ago. They had no tags, they were on a table with just a sign and a price. I love them, but have no idea what they are. There was something else fun in the garden to take pictures of on Saturday, meet Loki…
Loki came to stay with us for a few hours, one of our neighbors rescued him from the backyard of a house she was watching for a friend. His tags had a number for a vet in Ohio. No offense to this little guy, but that seemed a bit far for him to travel on his own.
We put a lost dog ad on Craigslist, and he was spotted and returned home. Turns out the dog sitter had “lost” him. His family recently moved here and they were away on vacation. Luckily this story has a happy ending and a good lesson for us all: if you move be sure to update your pets tags with correct contact info right away!

August 15th - Bloomday

How the heck did it get to be August? It was just yesterday that I was watching the first canna tips bursting from the soil - now they are blooming. It goes so fast! This is our Rose of Sharon Hibiscus syriacus 'Red Heart' it's still little, having only been in the ground for this season but it is blooming its heart out.

The yellow Crocosmia is always a late bloomer, the C. Lucifer has started forming seeds before this one even gets started.

This red/orange Crocosmia (unknown variety) also comes later than the Lucifer. It's nice to have them appear just as the Lucifer is disappearingWater Canna bloom in front of Ensete Maurelli foliage

Unknown sedum about to bloom

Eucomis Oakhurst the blooms on this fabulous plant last for months and they make long-lasting cut flowers too. Occasionally a bloom spike will break off and that is my opportunity to bring it in the house and enjoy it there....it lasts forever!

The blooms on the Eucomis Pole-Evansii are also starting to open I LOVE this bright orange/red canna bloom

Another about to open

The Lobelia 'Queen Victoria' are starting to open, they would have been much happier with more water but I was feeling a little stingy and wanted to see how they would do with less.

The Hydrangea is starting to do it's color fade that I posted about in July. It was hurried along this year to to the unusual heat.

Blooms on the ginger mint. The bees adore these little flowers and get quite annoyed with me when I water the corn that is also in this planter.

After languishing in the shade the Datura is responding nicely to being brought into the sun. This small bloom should open in the next day or two. Hopefully there will be more!

My Chocolate Cosmos puts out the most amazing dark flowers, which really do smell like chocolate. Unfortunately the only one I could get a decent picture of was this one, on it's demise. The other blooms were so dark against the white wall you could only see an outline.

This unusual flower belongs to the Caladium plant nearby - but not in the picture. The foliage is a Euphorbia.

The name of these purple flowers escapes me, and since this is an old plant brought to this garden from my house in Spokane the tag is long gone. It's another plant that I grow for the foliage (which you can barely see) and tolerate the flowers.

As always visit May Dreams Gardens for the low down on what's blooming on August 15th around the world.