Building a show garden: MOVE-IN

It was exactly a month ago on this date that my team and I tackled the ever-daunting and carefully choreographed task of garden show move-in. It's utter organized chaos, but the staff of the convention center and the Flower and Garden Show were so tremendous and very helpful throughout the whole process. It was such a treat and an honor to work alongside such people during such a stressful and tension-filled event.

The teams of contractors I asked to help were absolutely great to work with and the hardscape they installed impressed not only show-goers, but the show managers as well which lead to comments like, "Do they know they're only building for a five day show". heheh





This was the scene when I came in and started scoping out the site as I waited for the first of several trucks to drive in during our allotted time.









It all went so quickly. It was frantic, tension filled, overwhelming, fun and I did my best to keep my cool and made sure to just trust that everything would fall into place. And slowly, it did. It was my very first time placing the rocks Clayton and I selected from Maranakos. Alejandro and his crew at Orion Rockscapes brought in the donated stone to build a striking wall...








...and a very well executed gabion wall at the base of the dry river bed.















One of the funnest aspects of move-in was to get the delivery of plant materials!











The plants brought to Windmill Gardens were absolutely spectacular and so very well grown and cared for. I was overjoyed when they arrived at the Convention Center. My many thanks to their excellent staff!.







With rocks the the most awesome logs from Carter Evans Wood Concepts in place, we stacked recycled pallets, lined them with cardboard and brought in several yards of sawdust fill until we reached the correct level for the plant material to be placed. "Skull Island" was being installed complete with stunning nurse logs Jade let me borrow to give just the right effect.





The carts of plants were wheeled in close by, forced bulbs from Cascade Cuts were delivered and the magic of the Flower and Garden Show begins to unfold as my team and I began placing where plants would go. Student volunteers were so much fun to work with as their enthusiasm for the selection of plants I brought together showed!






We worked well into the evening hours, even past midnight and, to be honest, it was actually a really nice time to actually GARDEN! The awesome lighting guys from Moon Shadow Landscape Lighting were fun to chat with as we all worked at a calm and pleasant pace and, again, the convention center staff were so very kind and understanding.







 During the day, it was mostly smiles during a tension filled move-in, but flowers and plants have a way of making people happy!











Even at night (or when they turn the house lights off to test the theatrical lighting, we easily get lost in what we're doing. Volunteers played such an important role in creating this garden and it wouldn't have happened without each and every one of them.








It all started to come together and the result was what we had aimed for: A wild jungle with rare and unusual species of plants represented that transitioned into a more confined and rigid environment.

 

 The rock that was suppose to look "sort of" like a skull became a skull with the help of Orion Rockscapes who practiced at home and fully went for it! Complete with a dry river bed and an exquisite array of wild alpine flowers, grasses ad succulents.

 The final product.....coming soon

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

Building A Show Garden: Reconnecting with those that helped me start

As the days tick away and I'm rounding up all my materials and resources,  I couldn't help but go through memory lane and reconnect with those that helped me from the very beginning.

Cultus Bay Nursery and Minter's Earlington Greenhouses were two independent nurseries that supported my early endeavors.

Back in 1997, I created a small garden vignette at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show and was sponsored by one Mary Fisher who helped me through that first year of planning for an exhibit that would feature her plants coming from Whidbey Island. I remember meeting her for the first time while we were still living in an apartment back when I was 14 years old and the autumn of 1996, I was hit by a car crossing a crosswalk and had a cast on my arm as we met and discussed details of this garden.

She picked me up and took me to my first ever trip to Whidbey to see her nursery and select plants for the display. I remember it was a very cold, damp day, yet we walked her gardens and I didn't realize it then, but this was my very first foray into plant selections and made me truly understand just what a specialty nursery was. "People come and complain why I don't have petunias and pansies."



Many of the plants I didn't really know then, but it would take years of study, visiting gardens, and garden friends sharing little bits and starts of their plants that I would expand my interest and admiration for all things unique and not commonly available.

I made an effort to reach out to Mary again and have, at least, a handful of her choice plants to feature in my display. During a recent visit, we had an opportunity to catch up and look back at the last 15 or so years since I first visited her nursery. It was a special treat and I couldn't be more pleased to know such a creative, generous, and really wonderful person and a small specialty nursery with a most outstanding display garden to be represented in my garden for the 2013 Northwest Flower and Garden Show.

(Photo to the right) Mary shows me a lovely and very rare willow called Salix fargesii. Known for its lovely red stems and prominent buds during the winter time, it is exceedingly slow to propagate, but it's one she hopes to keep a small stock of for her customers of avid gardeners.

The dead of winter, but things are turning around quickly

Paul Ferrington sparked my interest for all things lush and tropical. Back in those days, Earlington Greenhouses was in full production with plant material bursting at the seams of their poly tunnels. They produced much of their own material and had selections of every Fuchsia, every Geranium, every Impatiens and had things in full bloom that no one else did!

They still produce most of their own plants!

These days, it's a different story. I haven't been back since the late 90's and was surprised to see how much of the original infrastructure still remained. However, production has been cut way back, the selection diminished, and not much was being forced for display and bloom as they are just starting up again for the season. It's been quite obvious that the recession had hit this local nursery very hard.

A rare golden selection of Saxifraga stolonifera from Minter's.

 As rough and dilapidated as the walls may be, the desire to grow and propagate their own materials and still keep an eye out for the rare and unusual was still very evident. The desire to experiment and revive old growing techniques and methods long abandoned by today's gardeners who are all about convenience, low-maintenance and sustainability. At Earlington Greenhouses, a cool and beautiful plant was still a cool and beautiful plant.

Catching up with Paul and chatting with his partner, Ron, after all these years was a treat. I appreciated how things were still the same and the concept of a local community garden center is still alive.


Riz

Building A Show Garden: At the base of it all - Orion Rockscapes & Greencliff Landscape Co.

A basic composition of the stone work to be done at the show.

One of the major elements of any show garden is the construction of the hardscape. I will fully admit that I have very limited experience when it comes to this very important aspect of landscape design and construction; therefore, I’ve teamed up with three main players who will showcase their talents for “The Lost Gardener”. 

You’ve already met Clayton Morgan of CEM Design, and you’ve met one member of the team from OrionRockscapes and then there’s a hardworking guy that’s looking to add to his already full repertoire of experience and skills.

An example of their clean stone work

 Hardscape (rocks, paths, patios, walls, etc.) is probably the most expensive aspect of a landscape, but it’s so incredibly crucial being that it’s the backbone of just about any landscape. You need structural elements that hold a plant collection together otherwise it would just be chaos and you’re left feeling overwhelmed and almost intimidated by a space. 

Hardscapes are familiar to most people because its something they see all the time no matter what and for a show garden like mine that’s more plant focused, I need to bridge the gap with these “hard” structures as to not lose my audience: the general public. 

Informal stacked stone walls and precision cut concrete patio

Wow, I definitely want to live here!

Orion Rockscapes is run by a talented and kind craftsman, Alejandro DeLucio. Along with his wife, Jade Waples, who I profiled on my post on Gardening with Kayaks, they will oversee the materials acquisition and construction of a stone wall on the "cultivated" side of "The Lost Gardener". They've also agreed to transport other materials and my goal is that the public will take notice of the quality of work they do. As the landscape transitions from the will to the confined, they are also constructing a small section of the edge of the garden which includes a gabion wall (a barrier of "caged" rocks) that will blend into a dry river bed. Gabion walls are becoming very popular with property owners who aim for sustainable landscapes and Orion Rockscapes is certainly on top of these types of landscape features.Their rock is kindly being loaned by Rock Mountain Products, LLC in Redmond, WA.

Another member of the LOST team is Crane Stavig of Greencliff Landscape Co. He was a former student of mine when he enrolled in a shade gardening course that I taught at Edmonds Community College. He's been active with a lot of great residential projects and he's a trained pruner! I'm so pleased that he's taken his education to heart and applied it in his work!

Ballard Residence Before

Ballard Residence After

 I've asked Crane to construct the "high voltage" fence reminicent of the fencing used to cage the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. He's also involved in other construction details and materials and will have a hand at install. He does a little bit of everything.

Pine Tree Before Pruning

Pine Tree After Pruning

  
Without these guys on board, this garden would NOT be possible. Their experience, skills and also their ability to work well with others is key to not only a project such as a flower and garden show, but also in their daily work so clients can rely on these companies to do quality work backed up with integrity and heart.

My sincerest thanks for their time and efforts for this show. Click on their links and learn more about what they might be able to do for you (if you're in the Puget Sound Area of Washington)

Riz

Building a Show Garden: Can I getta keis keis.. Leucothoe keiskei

A most fabulous and not commonly grown plant is this stunning species of Leucothoe from Japan called L. keiskei. It's one of the rare and exciting plants to be discovered by "The Lost Gardener" at this year's Northwest Flower and Garden Show.

It's a small, evergreen shrub that has a stunning cascading habit that looks great on the edge of a shady rockery or as a container specimen as shown below. It greens up come summer, but the winter color it takes on is absolutely gorgeous. The glossy leaflets arranged in a zigzag pattern makes it truly unique.

Like most members of the Ericaceae, it prefers slightly acidic, well-drained soils and regular moisture to really thrive.

A stunning container display designed and grown by garden designer Meghan Fuller using the Leucothoe with Aralia 'Sun King'

Building a Show Garden: Bringing in the young guns: Terry Huang

One of my objectives ramping up to the show is assembling a team that reflected my mission in representing the next generation of avid gardeners. It’s so important in this industry to network and gain work experience wherever they arise. Jobs are very scarce so your skill set has to be broad. One of my installation and design leads for “The Lost Gardener” is a young man my former professor, Dr. Sarah Reichard, insisted that I meet. He was taking her plant indentification course and showed the interest and enthusiasm that Sarah saw in me when I took that course 10 years ago! Terence Huang and I shared a similar path as undergraduates at the University of Washington.

We had retail experience working at a nursery, took in any bits and pieces of cool plants we would attempt (and often succeed in) to grow on and propagate and sell and, of course, we made the botany greenhouse on campus like our second home with ongoing projects and volunteering our time when our schedules would allow.

Also coming from a culture that demanded so much that you excel at everything you do, he was able to pursue this strong interests in plants and capitalized on the various opportunities that allowed him to grow both as a horticulturist and as a person. He’s travelled to Iceland, interned at the Smithsonian, grew orchids in a lab in his native Taiwan, and now, he’s praying to the heavens that he gets an interview for a prestigious fellowship through the infamous Kew Gardens in the UK.

Terry admiring the details of a lovely fern at UBC Botanic Garden in Vancouver, B.C.

Terry has a natural eye for placement. His close connection and open understanding of nature allows him to effectively create compositions both in a garden setting and also on paper as he’s also a skilled illustrator.

For my display, not only is he is helping out with installation, writing out the labels for the plants, and creating the artwork for our brochure, his most important role is simply being a friend and sharing in a valuable experience that will take him wherever he wants to go in the plant world.

Check out Terry's blog here.

R