Northwest flower and Garden Show, Part 4: City Living and Floral Arrangements

What I like best about the sky bridge connecting the two very large convention halls is the view of the city.

However it is also the location of the "City Living" displays, or what you might do in a small space. I just took photos of a few displays, so this is a sample. 

 Fun use of a shipping pallet, and more macrame. 

The main entry hall is the location of the floral arrangement display, with creations by local florists. Here are some of them.

Grrr. But lovely.

And there you have it. The End! Finished with bold and beautiful flowers, something to help us all survive the cold of winter. 

Northwest Flower and Garden Fest, Part 3: Plants and Vintage

Because it's a garden show, there have to be some plants for sale. While we tend to not buy plants in the winter, we do like to look. There are indoor plants, bulbs, shrubs, and perennials, many with winter interest.

Nurseries, large and small, are represented, but being consistent with my other posts, I don't have the names or credits. We just looked and enjoyed, so you can too. 

 I think Lithops, Living Stone plants, are fascinating, so I included this photo even though it insists on going sideways. There is something about my iPhone photos that causes this to happen in an unpredictable manner, and I have not found a remedy for it. 

But back to these cool little plants, I have never seen them in bloom before. Now I want to try growing one. 

 Succulents in frames and hypertufa planters. 

 Winter is the time to appreciate shrubs. I am amazed by the variety of color and texture in these conifers. 

 Christianson's Nursery is always a must stop when we go the the Skagit Valley for the tulip festival. 

 Hairy Potted wanted to come home with us.

 There are so many beautiful helebores.

 Moss ball planters, Kokedama, are all the rage. We haven't succumbed to their charms, though. 

 More succulent wall containers. We discovered somewhere along the way that this year's hidden object in all of the gardens and displays was an airplane. There is always something different every year, sort of like a treasure hunt. These were obvious. 

One corner of the huge market display hall is devoted to vintage items, especially things you might use to decorate your garden or garden room.

 Yes, Tom has a watering can collection. No, he didn't add to it.

 Bob Bowling creates his Rustic Sheds on Whidbey Island, near our cabin. 

 Long ago my brothers had a John Deere pedal tractor. No wagon though. I think this is a newer model. 

That's enough for now. I'll wrap this up with one more post.

So far we are keeping the snow away. Monday we sent it south to Portland, Oregon. We have been enjoying sunshine, and while it is cold, with the snow piles gone from the shoulders of the roadways, I am back to walking my two miles again. That makes me happy. 

Northwest Flower and Garden Fest, Part 2: The Market

There are so many fun and interesting things to buy in the garden show market. I am always most attracted to "yard art", arts and crafts pieces that can be displayed in the garden. The truth is we don't need any more, so we try to restrain ourselves, but it's fun to look.

Here are some of the highlights, the most photogenic, or the most fun.

 We usually look at everything first, which takes hours, and take a photo of things we might want to come back and buy. We really liked this steal Green Man, and were going to get it, but we talked ourselves out of it when we couldn't decide where we would put it. 

 Besides, we spent plenty of money at the next booth, tools. Kris, who wasn't going to buy anything, came home with this pair of ratcheting secateurs. 

 And Tom, with my encouragement, bought this telescoping tree trimmer, to help keep him off of ladders.

 The blown glass is always tempting, but expensive, which is why we make our own glass flowers. 

 Getting ideas for a bigger faux stained glass project. 

Fancy glass flowers.

Aren't these just the sweetest little elf babies.

 Furniture made out of live edge slabs of beautiful wood were a hot item at the show. Combined with dark resin, these are "River Tables".

 I love the Rusty Birds, rusty or colored, but we already have a bunch of the rusty ones, so we just visited them here. 

We put some in old windows, like this, and we hang them on the trellis on our garden deck.

 These birds are the creation of a master woodcrafter, who does exquisitely detained work. 

 A detail of a table top. 

 This was just decoration at the Butchart Garden booth. 

 I thought of blog friend Peter when I saw these head pots, not to be mistaken for pot heads. 

 One of our favorite craftsmen creates these Green Men and gargoyle faces based on actual English designs. 

 I always check to see what's new at the Nature's Art booth. These are pins made of copper plated real bits of nature. I already own two pieces. 

 BIG bugs,

 and little bugs, made out of fused glass.  We already have a bunch of these too.

 I am always awed at the ingenuity of the machinery art. 

 We liked these "Good Karma Flags". We bought the blue set, second from the top. We're hoping for good karma in our garden when we host several big events this summer. 

 There are lots of food booths too. This is "gourmet licorice". No thanks. But I did get some yummy samples of other things. 

 Apparently macrame is making a comeback?

What we bought: Tom's tree trimmer

 A small green man

 that will join several others we already have. We have room for one more!

 This cute chick holding secateurs, because I liked it, and it was only $3.00. 

And the bargain of the day, these Felco secateurs, that we found in the Vintage section of the show, all grimy and grungy. They were $10.00. I lost my good pair, and new ones cost $45 to $55. Cleaned up and sharpened, they are good as new. 

I will have at least one more post of the NWFGFest. There were actually plants for sale too. :-)