Northwest Flower and Garden Festival: Display Gardens, Part 2

Bee Simple, designed by Susan Browne Landscape Design, is a salute to honey bees. A bright yellow cottage is surrounded by garden beds filled with bee-attracting plants and blooms in yellow and white. 

The first photo gives you an idea of how it was looking during the Tuesday preview when everything was still a work in progress. 

 These photos were taken on Thursday, when everything was finished and the "show lighting" was on, making photography more difficult. 

Choice Landscaping LLC presents Celebrate and Reflect, a garden ready for a serene lunch in a back-to-nature setting. 

Celebrate Form: Art Imitates Nature is the work of Fancy Fronds and ALBE Rustics. Here textures of natural foliage blend with man-made geometric shapes echoing forms found in nature. 

 Plant stands are crafted from stainless steel bowls and sewer pipe. 

 Fancy Fronds specializes in ferns, and there are lots of wonderful varieties in this garden. 

Dan Robinson is a northwest bonsai legend, and he loves to go big. Presented by his company, Elanden Gardens, LTD, here is Living Art-fully! It's in our Nature. 

Large stones define this garden, which include a cedar root and nurse log, a stately, 98-year-old Japanese Black Pine, a wonderful old Japanese lace-leaf maple, and a dramatic basalt sculpture

The rock and plank table is pretty remarkable too. 

The Washington Park Arboretum is a public garden operated in connection with the University of Washington. Their presentation, Arboretum Carnavale: Wonders of the Winter Garden, reflects the array of colorful plants now attracting visitors in the winter garden at the arboretum. 

West Seattle Nursery and Devonshire Landscaping created Wabi-Sabi, Embrace Flawed Beauty. I know nothing about Wabi-Sabi, but my hand-out says it is a Japanese tradition embracing three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. That pretty much describes gardening. The garden shows a spa-like setting, but it was the plant details that attracted my attention. 

 There were still people and power tools here during the preview.

 The "chandelier"was draped with Spanish moss. 

 Green and white and silver and burgundy carpeted the foreground. (Remember that you can click on photos to embiggen them)

The back wall was "papered" with Tillandsias, or air plants, the plant group of which  Spanish moss is a member.

 A wonderful striated stone fountain carried out the color scheme. 

It was only later that I discovered my favorite part, the back wall!

A wonderful old twisty maple, under planted with ferns and frillilarias stood in front of a rustic wall covered in moss and fiber pot "fungus". 

Contained Excitement, by Issaquah Landscaping , featured a garden shed made from a shipping container. 

Vanilla beans come from orchids, hence Vanilla Farm, presented by the Northwest Orchid Society. 

The Apple Cup is our state's cross-state collegiate football rivalry game. Avid Landscape Design & Development LLC designed this garden, For the Apple of My Eye,celebrating our state from east to west. 

Old mill stone fountains bubbled up and "Wheat Glass" anchored the eastern section representing the agriculture of the rolling hills of The Palouse.

 The forests and stones of the central mountains give way to the city scape of the patio and grilling kitchen. Unfortunately I didn't think the flat stone court was very photogenic, so I have no pics of the "west". 

 But I sure did love this "Wheat Glass"!

The last garden, Mother Nature as Muse - Mixing Magic and Materials, by Millennium Landscape & Constructive , Inc., was a wonderful riot of color and texture and great plant selection. 

OK, if you are still with me, that is the end of the display garden tour. Of course there was a huge Marketplace to visit, which is what we spent most of our time doing on Thursday. I'll try to be a bit more brief there.