BLOOMTOWN

It's show time!

Mark your calenders and make your plans! While there are a number of shows and events that will be happening in the upcoming weeks, my time is limited so I tend to hone in on the Yard, Garden and Patio Show in Portland and the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle.

The Northwest Flower and Garden Show takes place February 8th through the 12th at the Seattle Convention Center. All the info you'll need can be found on their website.

Next up on my roster will be Portland Yard, Garden and Patio Show. It takes place February 17 through the 19th at the Convention Center in Portland. All you need to know can be found here.

If I happen to have any show stamina left I'll consider going to the Portland Home and Garden Show the following weekend at the Expo Center. After two shows in quick succession, I usually have plenty of new ideas and inspirations to process so most years I tend to peter out and not make it to this one.

To whet your appetite, here's some photos of last year's shows:

2011 Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle

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2011 Yard, Garden and Patio Show

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HPSO Spring Plant Sale and Garden Festival

It's that time again -- one of my favorite rites of spring, the HPSO Spring Plant Sale and Garden Festival, takes place this weekend (Apr 9 & 10th, 2011) at the Expo Center here in Portland, Oregon. Everything you need to know about this amazing event can be found here on the HPSO Plant Sale info page.

It's a wonderful gathering of some of the best Pacific Northwest nurseries, offering the most interesting and widest selection of plants you'll find in our area. Check it out!

Go By Train! ... to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show

"Go By Train" indeed! At the moment it seems a distant memory, with spring weather now well under way, but a couple of weeks ago, I was planning to drive to Seattle with my friend, Erin for our annual trek to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, but severe weather and snowstorms were forecasted that threatened to muck up travel up and down I-5. So at the last minute, we booked a couple of seats on Amtrak.

As it turned out, we saw very little snow from the cozy interior of the train, but it was nice to know that there was at least some snow here and there, in order to justify our trepidation for traveling by car.

I know, I know, a lot of people take the train to the show every year, so it's not a new idea, but it was a first for me, and I have to say that I'm a convert. Even though my friend is usually the driver, I found this to be such a comfortable and relaxing way to go. Very spacious. Free WiFi. Coffee, drinks and snacks. The only downside was that it forced us to be pretty careful about our purchases once we got to the show, because we had to figure out how to get everything home. In the big scheme of things, having some discipline imposed can be a good thing, at least for my pocketbook. I did still manage to shop -- bulbs, tubers and bare root plants pack quite nicely in a suitcase!

On the way up we took the Cascades route, opting to travel in the more spacious business class for a slight up-charge. On the return leg, we took the Coast Starlight to Portland. It's an especially pleasant ride in the observation car -- light, bright and airy. After a late lunch and a glass of wine in the dining car, voila! we're home.

All in all a great way to go  -- I'll definitely consider doing it again next year. 

Update on Hellebore Open Garden Day at Northwest Garden Nursery

I had a really great time on our excusion to Northwest Garden Nusery yesterday. It was my first time attending this annual hellebore love-fest hosted by Marietta and Ernie O'Bryne at Northwest Garden Nursery, which is located on the outskirts of Eugene, Oregon. My travel-mates, who were veterans of the event, made sure we were on the road plenty early from Portland in order to get there well ahead of the scheduled opening time. Even so, it would be an understatement to say that we weren't the first to arrive, not by a long shot. Shoulder to shoulder in a greenhouse packed with plants, a small crowd was already on site, milling around ogling the myriad of pretty hellebores and jockeying for positions next to their favorites so that when the official word came down that the sale was open, they could snap up their first picks. This crowd of hellebore enthusiasts was festive and good-natured, conducting itself in a very sportsmanlike fashion, in keeping with the spirit of the event.

Seemingly within minutes, the crowd's focus shifted from the frenzy of selecting plants to the forming an orderly queue for processing thier purchases.  

This lovely single is one of the many outstanding hydrids available.

One of the many hellebore hybrids growing in the gardens surrounding the nursery.

The nursery's Hellebore Open Garden Days continues through 5 pm today (Sun, Feb. 20th) and will be repeated next weekend, February 26 and 27th, 10 am - 5 pm. 

Yard, Garden and Patio Show Coupon

The 2011 Yard, Garden and Patio show is taking place this upcoming Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Convention Center in Portland, Oregon (February 18-20, 2011). Garden show season is about to go into full swing and in my mind this show is the kick-off event. 

Save $2 off admission when you print this coupon.

Hellebore Road Trip to Northwest Garden Nursery

It's been several years since I've made it down to Marietta and Ernie O'Bryne's Northwest Garden Nursery.  The photos below are from a trip to the garden in 2005. It will be fun to see the inevitable changes and developments.

Generally open only by appointment, the nursery also hosts annual Hellebore Open Days, the first of which is this Saturday the 19th. You can find all of their 2011 dates here.  I'm heading down this Saturday with friends to see if I can score a few choice additions for my gardens.  They're "it" in terms of hellebore breeding with the masterful hybridizing they've accomplished with this beautiful, garden-worthy perennial. I'm sure I won't have a problem finding a treasure or two to tote home.  

One of their lovely double flowering hybrids

But there's more to see in the garden than hellebores! The overall garden is gorgeous. And it's tops in terms of wonderful wintertime structure too -- as evidenced in this photo that was taken mid-February in 2005.

Chorus of the Goddess Flora: 2010 KXL Plant Nerd Night Performance

The Chorus of the Goddess Flora (and Dead Heading Society) performed at Mike Darcy's KXL Plant Nerd Night Friday, March 5, 2010 in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

In this suite of songs our lyricist, Linda Beutler, has really out-done herself with her adaptions of Good Morning Nerd Night, Seasons Can Be Hard, and The Age of Asparagus from the musical Hair. But we certainly could not pull it off without Steve Peter, our director and Doug McCleary, our accompanist.

Yup, we're having a blast!

Sadly I didn't get video all the way through (camera ran out of memory midway through), but the audio in the video covers our entire performance.

Chorus of the Goddess Flora Performing at KXL Plant Nerd Night this Friday, March 6th

Spring must be on the way. It's that time of year again and Mike Darcy is set to host the 9th annual KXL Plant Nerd Night this Friday night and, bless his heart, he's asked the Chorus of the Goddess Flora to perform again. (He probably knows we'd just show up anyway, so he might as well invite us!)

For the uninitiated, the Chorus of the Goddess Flora is a rowdy group of plant nuts that break into horticulturally humorous lyrics semi-periodically at horticultural events here in the Portland area. If you have no idea what I'm talking about and can't imagine how this would take shape, you can get up to speed here. I've posted some of the YouTube links of past performances on Bloomtown's Facebook page.

People seem to enjoy what we do and I can say for sure that we sure do.

Oh yeah, there will be plants there too. Here's the dirt on the event details:

When:    Friday, March 6, 2009. Doors open 6pm, presentations begin at 7pm
Where:    Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, 2000 Country Club Road/Lake Oswego (across from Lake Oswego High School)

This year's presenters are:

• Dancing Oaks Nursery
• Terra Nova Nursery
• One Green World
• Thompson’s Nursery
• Xera Plants
• Hydrangeas Plus

The event is sponsored in part by KXL, Al's Garden Center, Black Gold Soil, & Meta.

It's a free event. But be warned, if it's anything like past years, it'll be a packed house, so make sure you get there in plenty of time.

Hope to see you there!

Darcy Daniels speaking at Yard, Garden and Patio Show

Garden show season continues with the Yard, Garden and Patio Show that takes place this weekend at the Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. The show will run Friday, February 27th through Sunday, March 1st. Show hours on Friday and Saturday run 10 am to 9 pm and Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm. Show admission is $11 for adults, but print this coupon for a $2 discount.

I'll be speaking Friday afternoon at 3:30 pm. I've entitled my talk, Ensemble Performances ...and the Crowd Goes Wild! I'll be sharing tips and ideas for using plants that make the cut to create show-stopping ensemble performances in your garden.

I'm thrilled to be on the docket with so many great garden communicators, all experts in their field. There are over 45 seminars and demonstrations slated for the three day show. So study the list, check it twice, and strategize which seminars you'll be attending. For the full listing of all the seminar offerings, go here.

Garden inspiration abounds. In addition to the extensive seminars, you'll find display gardens, vendors with plants and other garden goodies and, a personal favorite, the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon (HPSO) will again have its Winter-in-Bloom botanical display where plants that bring beauty to our winter gardens are featured. 

Hope to see you at the show, and if you come to my talk on Friday please be sure to say hello!

Northwest Flower and Garden Show - The Market

I may have to join the seed-buyers support group; had trouble resisting the urge to pick up "just one more" packet of these beautiful seeds from Franchi Old World Italian Seeds, booth #2219.