This year, I finally attended Seattle’s Northwest Flower and Garden Show. It ran February 17th-21st where I attended one day and learned a lot to take back home and implement in my own yard and garden spaces. It was also my first festival event with my 4-month-old baby in tow. I figured the gardening crowd wouldn’t be too wild and crazy for a baby 🙂

As with most festival-type events, I like to be prepared and research my topics of interest before a show so I don’t wander aimlessly among the crowds. I was really excited to attend a couple of seminars and view the show gardens for some landscaping inspiration. We are currently in the middle of a small backyard landscaping project at home, so the timing of attending the NW Flower and Garden show was perfect. My plan was to attend Ciscoe Morris’s seminar, get some landscaping ideas incorporating hardscapes, small columnar privacy and flowering trees, and finding some special plants to bring home.

Ciscoe Morris’ seminar titled, ‘Be A Garden Thief: Steal Ideas From Other Gardens’ was informative, engaging, practical, and most importantly, attainable. Some takeaways and trends I learned from his 45 minutes that I will use for my own gardening goals:

• Start small, near an entryway, add scents. There’s nothing more welcoming that coming home to a lovely scent outside your front door.
• Planting fruit trees in espaliered forms – trained to grow flat, such as against a fence or wall. I went out and purchased a Honeycrisp Apple espalier tree at Squak Mt. Nursery the very next day!
• Add camellias to attract hummingbirds
• It is more common more than ever to create and grow your own vegetable garden. Even a small 8×16 vegetable garden can work, and can be made by using a variety of materials such as paver stones and faux stone walls, or raised beds.
• Hummingbirds love tomato cages.

After Ciscoe’s seminar, I went back to the skybridge to admire the patio landscaping displays which really wowed in all the natural light. I wish the entire flower and garden show were displayed in natural light. The show gardens in the convention area felt a bit strange to navigate and view in the dark with the staged lighting.

Back to the skybridge, I loved the form and function of this landscaping to create an intimate and zen-like patio.

Another favorite skybridge display by Third Spring. I’m obsessed with the turquoise hanging planters from Pot Inc. Love everything about this little patio set up: the use of a pergola, the hanging string lights, the planters in various forms and sizes, and the added textiles to soften up the space.

My favorite indoor garden display was ‘From Sea To Shining Sea – Coupeville, WA.

The garden was inspired by the charming coastal town of Coupville on Whidbey Island created by Fancy Plants Gardens, designed by James Sprague CPH.

The take-home idea for my own garden: Enticing paver walkway, new sod, and hardy low maintenance plantings. How fun would it be to host a bocce ball bash in the backyard? 

Lastly, you can’t leave a flower and garden show without picking up some sort of planting for your yard/garden. I passed by a Dutch vendor in the marketplace selling “Japanese Wonderflowers.” The vendor pitched me and sold me at 50 flowers to one bulb that last from May – September. One bulb costs $5.00, or $20 for 5 bulbs. Not bad for the hope of 250 bulbs come spring. More to come on these said “Japanese Wonderflowers”.

It was a day well spent and I’m am glad I prepared before we made the trip. The trick is to know what you are looking for, find it strategically, and pace yourself.

Happy Gardening!

Jilli