Building a Show Garden: Gathering of Plants!

Days leading up to the show we begin to gather up plant material from all of our sources

Here's my buddy Matt helping load up the car with plants from Ian Barclay at Desert Northwest.

They were probably the prickliest plants we had to deal with. Luckily, there was no blood shed!

Here I am selecting a specimen of Rhododendron fulvum at Chimacum Woods. It may not be flowering, but the foliage undersides are absolutely stunning and will add a lot of interest to the garden.











Friends Jeff Benca and Pete Macias load up Pete's truck to get a HUGE Norfolk Island Pine and the hardy banana, Musa basjoo, over to the convention center! My thanks to Linda at Edmonds Community College for letting us use these spectacular specimens!






So, let's get pumped up and ready for Move-In,




R

Building a Show Garden: Representing the little guys: Small Specialty Nurseries

Specialty nurseries such as Mary Fisher at Cultus Bay Nursery are often far-off destinations for most Seattle residents and you'll only see them at a handful of early spring or fall plant sales.

The Northwest Flower and Garden Show can be a daunting endeavor especially for a small specialty grower. The chaos and logistics of move-in, the cost of downtown Seattle parking, and the long days dealing with hoards of flower show visitors have proved too much for the specialty grower and I had hoped to represent them through my display garden by borrowing their plants for my show garden.

The following specialty growers contributed and/or helped grow plant material for "The Lost Gardener":  


Bouquet Banque (Hardy Cyclamen, Dichroa febrifuga) Read about their nursery here  

Sparkling lapis blue Dichroa in fruit

Cascade Cuts (Forced Bulbs)


Chimacum Woods (Species and large leafed rhododendron) I've developed such a fondness for species rhododendrons and the people that raise them such as Steve Hootman at the Rhododendron Species Foundation and Bob Zimmerman and Beth Orling at Chimacum Woods. I went with my housemate Dave to select Rhodies for the display and found some wonderful specimens to really show folks the diversity of this genus.





Cultus Bay Nursery (Hellebores, clumping bamboos) Read about Mary and my history with her as one of my early mentors.  

Desert Northwest (Drought tolerant, succulent plants) Here's a little profile on Ian and his specialty nursery in Sequim, WA.  


Dragonfly Farms Nursery ( Assorted nursery stock including the large Schefflera macrophylla) Heidi Kaster is an absolute sweetheart and has the most random, but cool selection of various landscape plants from many sources! Here's her website: Look out for the stunning concrete eggs.

One of three large Schefflera macrophylla that will be on display. Unfortunately not hardy; however, there will be two other species represented that are for us in the Seattle/Puget Sound area: S. delavayi and S. taiwaniana

Pyrrosia sheareri

 

Far Reaches Farm (Assorted specialty nursery stock)
Kelly and Sue came through for me and let me use some of their fabulous plants including a rare and beautiful Pyrrosia sheareri.

Minter's Earlington Greenhouses (Saxifraga groundcovers)  Read my blurb about the guys!

Windmill Gardens (Official plant forcing facility for NWFGS)


There are a handful of other growers out there that I wish I could have represented in the garden, but I hope you'll consider learning more about them and seek out their wonder selections either at the major plant sales in the Puget Sound area or onsite on their property this coming season!

LIST OF WESTERN WASHINGTON PLANT SALES.



 Riz

A collaborative effort. (PART 2)

So, we did an install last Wednesday here here's are some views before the plants came in and some photos after the first phase of installation.

I have more work to do this week to add just a few more things and then we'll be complete with fall planting. Come spring, we'll include more perennials and ground covers and begin to closely monitor each plant as it gets established.

In selecting plant material for this space, a Himalayan theme emerged as a grouping of clumping Himalayan Birches (Betula jacquemontii) was selected as a focal point. In communicating with the clients, I learned about their close ties to Nepal and I wanted to integrate elements in the landscape that would allow them a glimpse of a Nepalese woodland forest and hillside outside their Bellevue home.
Here's the dry river bed from the street(the magnolia installed in the back will actually be moved):
Underneath these stately birches, assorted Mahonias, Rhododendron yakushianum hybrids, and a trio of Viburnum plicatum v. tomentosum with excellent fall color will compliment the birches very well when they mature and produce their "double-file" white flowers.



Approaching their front door and turning to the right, we see this stunning flagstone pathway installed by Clayton's crew. It is flanked with evergreen Sarcoccoca and an assortment of various clumping bamboos that enclose the space and frame a few of the woodland and dry river bed below.
With Rhododendron species from my friends at Chimacum Woods, including a planned Rhododendron arboreum (the national flower of Nepal), the goal is for these plants to reach their tree like proportions in a few years. Alongside these rhododendrons, a wide assortment of shrubs including Osmanthus, Viburnum, Camellia, Magnolia, Daphne, and stands of assorted clumping bamboos complete the picture.



More plants to come and a few things that need to be tweaked and then it's all up to Mother nature to do her thing. We are satisfied with the work we've done and we are looking forward to watching this landscape mature and evolve.