San Fran Flower and Garden Show: Show Garden highlights

Ok, so it's not the Northwest, it's "different" my colleagues say....

First of all, I want to mention the positives: GEORGE HULL is the man! Hooking us up with comp tickets to the show! He's a horticulturist and plant breeder from Arizona and he was there with his students who built a wonderful show garden display and through the perks of social media, we got in for free!

Having attended the NW Flower and Garden Show for almost 17 years, I couldn't help but have a bit of an expectation when I heard of the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. I've always associated the city as multicultural, cutting edge in terms of design, trendy and would pave the way with the latest in lifestyle.

So, I walked in the halls and saw this:

 

So yeah....

It had an interesting, almost COUNTY FAIR feel to it; a large exhibition hall minus the livestock. Then the photo below just needed a clown and maybe a few rides in the background.

Not gonna lie, this was awesome to see!

The show gardens represented a country with the overall theme of "Gardens Make the World Go Round". Let's see which countries you can identify with just the photos I took.

What I tried to look for in the show were interesting and eye-catching compositions and, of course, wonderful plants!

 

This composition and walk-through garden has these interesting panels and cone-shaped containers. I like the effect the grasses at the base create to make it seem like the pots are hovering just above them. The lighting and the shadows created on the panels were unique. The plant palette....meh.

Now this garden had some wonderful plants! Diverse selection of what appear to be primarily grasses, California natives and, basically, a drought tolerant landscape. It just lacks a little definition and no one plant really stands out. The stone work all around the garden was pretty cool though:

Kudos to George Hull and the students at Arizona State University who put together a display that pretty much swept all the awards!!!  Of all the gardens, it was the most complete and the different rooms show goers were able to experience was pretty well done. Their use of materials, mostly (if not all) recycled, was fantastic. They wanted to demonstrate simple vignettes that the home owner can easily build and replicate in their warm/arid landscape. More photos of their garden and how it was built in this LINK.

These faux stone walls lit from the base were very effective and done to scale very well.

And the architectural plantings of mostly desert Southwest plants were in fine display and wonderfully contrasted with the intensely colored walls.

So this was suppose to be the Philippines.

I can't remember what country they were trying to represent here, but it was both interesting and odd at the same time:

One of my favorite gardens was this simply planted space that was both comfortable and sophisticated at the same time. Wonderful specimen olives with excellent form and the paving materials were very nice. Great use of gabion walls as well.

The true centerpiece of the entire show was this phenomenal globe planted up with succulents! A mighty impressive feat!!

Then there was this:

I'm sorry I didn't have time to read the description of this garden. It was simply a "WTF??" moment.

R

Farwest Trip: Sean Hogan and Cistus Nursery

The highlight of my trip down to Portland had to be my stay with Sean Hogan and Nathan Limprecht. They kindly let me stay over two night while I was down there and I couldn't have been more comfortable, more welcomed, and well, just plain spoiled!

The first night was an awesome party they threw with at least 250 people attending, flowing in and out, with many familiar faces such as garden and writer Lucy Hardiman of Perennial Partners, friends from the Miller Garden Richie Steffen and his partner Pick Peterson, Andre Suske from T & L Nursery, and even well known garden designer and nurseryman Thomas Hobbs, of Southlands Nursery, made an appearance. "Where was Dan Hinkley and Martha Stewart?" I wondered. Gosh...there were many other people who looked familiar and also new faces of wonderful people I had the pleasure of chatting with and getting to know.

After the chaos of plant driven geeks and freaks, I had some down time to chat with Sean, Nathan and a new colleague, George Hull, a friendly and knowledgeable plantsman from Arizona who was also staying with Sean and Nathan.
Sean doesn't need much of an introduction to the Pacific Northwest gardener. His Cistus Nursery has got to be the most sought after refuge for plantaholics worldwide and the vast diversity of plants he's grown and acquired over the years, and the knowledge he has about all of them, is simply astounding! He wrote a great book on broadleaf evergreens called, "Trees for all Seasons" published by Timber Press.

Nathan Limprecht is a fellow Next Generation Gardener who just blew me away when I first met him just a few years ago. A trained floral designer and a keen eye for unique and outrageous plants, he has brought so much to Cistus and to Sean; it was heart warming to see those two interact as it seems they've found a good balance between work and home life (both consumed by plants!). I dubbed Nathan as one of my best customers here at Landwave because of his curiosity for plants, his eagerness to learn, and his desire to purchase a plant that's not even fully rooted into the nursery container, but will still pay full price for it (hahah...j/k)! He must simply be in heaven working at Cistus!


The display gardens are simply breathtaking and easily overwhelming at Cistus, even to the experienced gardener!
Plants from all around the world are represented and upon entering the main sales house, you continue to hold your breath as you witness the wide assortment of choice plants for sale (and the cute guy watering them that morning).

The special treat for me was going with Sean through their production houses and private poly tunnels to see their "works in progress". Wonderful hardy Begonias and Scheffleras made my jaws drop and their selections of my new obsession, Asian Mahonia species, made my trip down to Oregon feel like Christmas!. Check out my Flickr page so I don't inundate this blog with pictures!


I want to thank Sean for his hospitality and his generosity (as he gave me a handful of treasures to grow on and evaluate, which includes this rare Mahonia eurybracteata I'm holding).

While the Farwest Show was kind of a bust, getting to spend time with wonderful friends and fantastic plants was totally worth it.