The Northwest Flower and Garden Show: Part 2 - The Marketplace

A big attraction for us at the garden show is the over 300 vendors selling everything garden related, from glass flowers to real ones, from art to dirt, linens to brooms, honey and bees, books and tools and candle sticks. 

 Bedrock Industries makes fun things out of recycled glass. 

 Hand blown glass is beautiful but very expensive. 

 Colorful art made of wood. 

 Bob Bowling, whose work I have seen all over Whidbey Island, where he lives, creates wonderful garden sheds out of repurposed materials. 

 Lot's of fun birdhouse ideas here. 

 These glass flowers are beautiful, but then we noticed that the backs of many of the glass pieces were painted. No wonder the artist was able to come up with such matching colors. We overheard someone say they bought some a year ago and they faded to white. Not good. 

 I love the work of the husband and wife team from Oregon that makes these whimsical clay creations. I bought one.

 On the sky bridge between two sections of the convention center are small display gardens. I really liked this container bog garden. 

 Ravena Gardens always has great displays in their booth.

 I want Tom to try this the next time we have something big to prune. 

 The Dig Floral and Nursery booth was jam packed with tempting plants - for a greenhouse or indoors. 

 I thought these glass vegetables were cool, but then I love colorful glass. 

Wonderful nature inspired pottery.  

 More glass flowers, not painted. The vendor and I shared a few remarks about that. 

 More fun ceramics.

 Back across the sky bridge. 

 And into the plant market.

 This was a new one, Medinilla, Himalayan Orchid.  I wonder if Peter at The Outlaw Gardener bought one for his greenhouse. 

Beautiful colors in Hellebore and conifers. 

Tom studied this watering can in the Vintage Market, where there were lots of fun, old things. We resisted. For one thing, coming to the show on the light rail keeps us from buying too many big things.

This was a fun take on "not glass" flowers. 

We did come home with a few things. Tom bought a Frosty Fern. 

This is an internet photo, since he already planted his out in the secret garden.  He also bought four drinking straw like tubes of dormant Mason bees. He hopes to reestablish a colony to pollinate our fruit trees. 

Tom loves Green Man plaques. This is his newest. 

 I bought this rusty metal piece from Black Waters. We have several of their pieces out in the garden. 

 This little clay magnet pot called to me. It is now on my refrigerator. 

 And from that potter couple from Oregon I bought this flower. I love the texture and color. It has found a home in a pot on the patio. 

We attended one seminar, and then as the crowds thinned we went back to the display gardens to do the treasure hunt. Each of the 23 gardens had a wooden arrowhead plaque hidden somewhere in the garden. In some places we needed a clue or two. Like here.

Many of them were well camouflaged. In the photo above, it's that shape with applied leaves and paw prints just off center.  

Anyway, we found them all, got another good look at the gardens, and were awarded with a pretty cyclamen to bring home. 

And that is the wrap up of the big flower show for 2016.