The Gardens at the 2025 NWFG Festival

There are two types of gardens at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival, the small "city living" gardens and the big expensive display gardens. The city living gardens have historically been my favorite. They're usually much more creative and representative of real spaces. That said, the creativity factor has definitely fallen over the last few years. In past years I always found several to rave about, this year there's only one, and a couple others with bits to mention. My fav was "Entomophiles Studio", by Juliana Bertucci, there was so much detail to discover and soak up...

The duo of Deborah and Richard Bloom were back (their city living garden was a favorite last year) with a great (if slightly pared down) display, "The Library Garden of Curiosities".

They also had a booth selling their windchime creations, that's where I took these next two photos...

This final city living garden ("Magical Victory Garden", from West Seattle Native Garden) was full of color and pattern, but what had my wheels turning was the simple hanging rack for the disco ball planters. I'm thinking on something similar (but with galvanized or rusty metal bits) for some of my hanging pots. Hmmm...

Okay, onto the big display gardens that stood out for me, first up is "Worlds Within Worlds" from Emerald City Orchids. Actually I'm just focusing on a very small part of their garden, the terrariums, which were magical.

There was so much detail! Of course the whole garden was full of stunning plants, but impossible to get a good photo of (and really more of a plant display than a garden anyway).

The greenhouse in "The Garden of Vows" by NW Bloom was off the charts fabulous.

The bug snugs were a fun idea...

But OMG.... give me that greenhouse! (turns out it's from Portland's Versailles Gardens)

Inside is decked out for a gathering and I believe a couple was actually married here during the show.

Next up, "Finding Sanctuary in Evergreen Oaks" from HomeGrown Organics. The plants in this garden were fabulous (many from Portland's Cistus Nursery), but I have to admit it was the shower structure that really caught my attention...

Of course inside it needed about 200 more plants!

Also, I would have sworn that's an Agave ovatifolia not an Agave parryi.

Before we get to my final (and favorite) display garden I wanted to share this orphaned photo. I loved the structure and the planted up top... but neglected to get the name of the garden or the designer. Oh well.

Okay, the best garden of the show was (in my opinion) "Zone 9" by Relish Gardens (with plants from Little Prince). Curious about the name? Most of the Seattle area is now in Zone 9 with the USDA re-worked map released in 2023. Although many of the gardeners I know there think the change is ludicrous—as do many of us Portlanders now in Zone 9. It only takes that one winter storm to kill off those Zone 9 plants, averages mean nothing when the extremes are, well, extreme. That said most of the plants in this garden should do just fine with adequate drainage.

Here's the garden's description: "Combining inspiration from Seattle’s dynamic environment, and Northern California’s vibrant sunkissed landscapes, Relish Gardens blends creative inspiration, a passion for art, and horticultural innovation in their stunning garden. A vivid collection of 20+ year-old agaves alongside various edibles, drought-tolerant plants, murals by local artists, and decorations made from repurposed materials are visually striking yet create an inviting atmosphere intended for relaxation. The space is designed to be inclusive of gardeners and plant lovers at all levels of passion and expertise. Low-maintenance plants and DIY are at the center of this project and its design." FWIW Relish Gardens also worked with Little Prince for their garden in last year's show which was another favorite of mine (in this post).

In addition to the overall design and plant palette of this garden I also really appreciated that we could walk through it. Many of the gardens at the NWFG Fest are only to be viewed from the outside. On the other hand, it's much easier to photograph a garden from the outside looking in, rather than standing in it with several other people. 

In the description they mentioned 20+ year-old agaves and you're seeing a couple of them below. 

These agave senior citizens came from the private collection of Bryon Jones (horticulturist/arborist at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, in Tacoma). I've written several times about Bryon's work at the Zoo (in my book and on the blog). 

I love the use of recycled terra cotta roof tiles!

The center island...

And the other side of the garden...

How much do I love the metal crates used as a retaining wall?  SO VERY MUCH! They turn the whole idea of gabions into something fresh with upcycled possibilities.

The agaves are pretty sweet too...I loved eavesdropping on people's conversations as they talked about them.

I'd happily transfer this vignette to my garden (minus the red crochet business).

There was also a fantastic table and chairs with a planted up center.

The pink panels which gave the garden a nice backdrop (page up and you'll see them) were painted plant images on the opposite side. What a fun concept! (they were for sale as well).

I'll wrap up with a shot of the garden's potting area, they thought of everything!

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Five days of horticultural adventures...

Last week I traveled up to the Puget Sound area for tons of plant related fun—starting with a visit to the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden (oh you know there will be future post!). While there I slipped behind the scenes and visited my friend Emily Joseph, the assistant nursery manager for the RSBG and nursery manager for the Hardy Fern Foundation (girl works hard!). Behold a hoop house full of ferns....

There were many pyrrosia...

Blechnum montanum (I think, and if I'm right Emily mentioned this is going to be offered thru the Hardy Fern Foundation soon, yay!)...

The next day I was honored to give a talk at the Tacoma Garden Club, part of the Garden Club of America. The meeting included a digitized presentation showing a visit of the GCA leadership out to visit Tacoma gardens in the 1930's. No email, no Google maps, travel by train. What a different world.

In the foreground of the photo above you may have noticed the fern bowl planting on the table. After my talk on ferns Camille Paulsen (aka @tahomaflora) had put together a a fern bowl workshop where we (Camille, Emily Joseph and I) got to talk ferns and play in the dirt. The ferns came from Little Prince Plants...

There's Camille in front of one of the tables set up for club members to work at, she organized a wonderful event and thought of everything.

Here's Emily lending her expert advice to one of the workshop particpants.

This was my favorite of planted up containers I saw completed. Camille commissioned an artist friend of hers to paint a few rocks (the stylized mushroom) for participants to tuck into their finished planters.

I spent Thursday and Friday at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival in Seattle. It was wonderful to see so many plants, and people who love them. I remember the tough years when you really had a hard time finding a plant to buy at the show, that's not the case anymore!

Speaking of, I should have bought this, Polypodium fallax from Little Prince at the Christianson's Nursery booth.

The Ravenna Gardens booth had lots of tempting Schefflera.

And it was great to see Oregon's Rancho Cacto rocking the show...

Their booth was always full of people.

At Andy's Orchids I was surprised to see a Racinaea crispa mounted on a stick. I bought one of these from Bird Rock Tropicals when we were in San Diego and have been trying to decide how to "plant" it.

I attended a handful of fantastic seminars during the show, including ones by Teresa Paige Woodard (Garden to the Max), Susan Larder (Moss Gardens: A Winter Super Power!), Doreen Wynja (Strolling the Garden, Camera or Phone in Hand), and Erin Schanen (Embrace the Unusual: Underused Oddballs and Forgotten Classic Plants You Should Grow). The most action filled was from topiary artist Mike Gibson (aka @gibby_siz), "Clipping Time: Exploring The Gibson Technique". Mike worked under the legendary Pearl Fryar and I'd recently listened to Abra Lee interview him on Cultivating Place.

Okay, you knew there was going to be a haul photo or two, right? It's time for that portion of this post. This group came from my stop at the Rhododendron Species Botanica Garden / Hardy Fern Foundation greenhouse...

Polypodium formosanum, which is available in the RSBG spring catalog...

I'm going to have fun figuring out how to plant this one to show off those creeping stems (it's not hardy here in my Zone 8 garden).

This was the score of the trip, Cassiope ‘Askival’. Back when Ann and I visited behind the scenes at the RSBG in 2023 I zeroed in on this plant in one of the hoop houses and fell in love. I am thrilled to be able to add it to my garden. You can too because it's available for order in the spring catalog.

Emily was also able to cross one of my fern lust plants off my list with a little sporeling of Dryopteris decipiens...

And she tossed in an Anisocampium cuspidatum.

Here's my fern bowl from the Tacoma Garden Club workshop.

The tags I came home with are for: Asplenium trichomanes, Coniogramme emeiensis ‘Golden Zebra’, Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance', Dryopteris atrata, and Athyrium otophorum ‘Okanum', although I question that last one. There are many ferns that confuse the heck out of me but yet I thought I could ID that Athyrium and don't see it in the mix. It will be interesting to see what they grow into.

Before we left Tacoma Andrew and I visited a used store with lots of interesting art supplies and other things. I fell for this little copper planter.

It's a little small for garden use, but was only $7. I'll figure out something to do with it...

At the NWFG Fest I grabbed this Eryngium guatemalense from Windcliff plants at the Ravenna Gardens booth.

I bought one last fall from Dan at the fall Fern Fest at it's looked great all winter, I'd hoped to snag a second plant and was thrilled to find it.

Just a couple more plants! From Andy's Orchids, Platystele-repens (ovatilabia). I love those little leaves but if you click through and take a look at the flowers you'll see why I was sold on this one. I've found most of the orchids on a stick that I've bought (I had five before I bought these two) have bloomed pretty easily so I'm hoping I'll get to see those greenish-yellow flowers.

I could not get a good shot of the yellow blooms on my second orchid, Masdevallia crassicaudis, but they're pretty cute.

That said it was the long black stems that really drew me to this plant.

Also at the show I bought a small "prop top" from Arrows Aim. I loved that pattern and for only $3 why not?

On Saturday (our last full day in Seattle) I ventured out and about and picked up this restio, Ischyrolepis subverticillata (aka Restio subverticillatus) at Swanson's Nursery.

It's not fully hardy here, but will look great in a container.

Whew, that's a lot! On Friday I'll be sharing my favorite display gardens from the NWFG Fest...

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