February 2013

When I was a young gardener, not at the very beginning of my career when I was in awe of everything, but later, when I had learned a bit about design and plants. I couldn’t walk down a city street without tearing apart each garden I passed and reassembling it as I saw fit. I guess I learned a lot practicing my craft in my head. It took a critical eye and certain amount of educated judgment. But I have too admit there was a lot of arrogant superiority in it.

I knew it all, and they, the hapless gardeners whose gardens I passed knew nothing. It was not a comfortable place to be. And as much time as I spend working in gardens I still think of them as places of comfort: comfort to the senses and the soul.

I have shed a great deal of my “sophisticated “ tastes over the years. And I am more aware of the limits of my knowledge and how to keep them expanding. I have opened my mind and my heart. To put it briefly I make allowances.

But know I have been asked to judge.

I was a bit shocked when I was asked to be a judge for the Northwest Flower and Garden Show this year.

“Who? Me?!!”

Several of my friends, who have much more illustrious and public careers than I, were also shocked. Not that I am not qualified. I have studied botany and design, have been making gardens for years. And have an unabashed passion for plants. I’m just not that famous. And with the garden show theme this year being “The Silver Screen Takes Root… Gardens Go Hollywood”, you’d think they’d be looking for someone famous.

With 2 other judges I will choose the Golden Palette Award. This award is new to the NWFGS this year and we will award the display garden that best…

• Incorporates dramatic color from plant structure/foliage and forced blooms and leaves
• Uses foliage color and structure effectively fro drama and impact
• Uses plants that are culturally compatible, in good health and groomed to perfection
• Brings fresh new plant combination ideas and inspiration to show attendees.
• Brings the plant WOW factor—it’s a crowd-stopper!

That is no small order for the garden designers. It is February after all and it is an indoor garden show. I’ve seen many spectacular display gardens over the 25 years I’ve been attending this show. I cannot shake Molbak’s Tivoli Garden from the early 90s with its carousel and 4-foot tall blue delphiniums from my memory. Nor can I forget Heronswood’s Himalayan woodland a few years ago rustling with fallen leaves and looking truly like a bit of wildness. Nor will I ever forget the wonderful feeling of comfort Christianson’s tousled and quaint farm garden, complete with puddles and weeds, gave me.

As a judge I know I carry these memories. And in all fairness I expect no one to knock them from my memory…

…but then again, maybe this afternoon James Fox and Alex LaVilla and I will be honoring a garden beyond my wildest dreams.

I can’t wait to see what those ambitious and talented designers have been up to. Stay tuned I’ll post the winner tomorrow.

For the past 3 years Michael and I have taken winter trips to warm tropical places: Mexico and  Nicaragua.

This year we’re not.

And I’m getting antsy. The gray rainy weather is getting tiring and the mud, everywhere mud.

The dismal dregs of fall linger among the refreshing greens of spring. Yes, it has been warm and little signs of spring are starting to show. Of course the temperate rain forest we live in can look quite tropical at times, though the temperatures warrant a down vest. I didn’t even have to get into the car to visit this bit of jungle which is the back half of our property that slumps into Carnation Marsh. These large stands of, what I am assuming are, Sitka  sedge (Carex aquatilis var dives), the moss draped cedars (Thuja plicata) and vine maples ( Acer circinatum), and the giant sword ferns ( Polystichum munitum) make it hard for this Wisconsin boy to imagine it is February though I’ve nearly lived half my life here.

This large cedar fell  into the marsh last summer but shows no sign of dying. Even if the tree itself died the moss, lichens and ferns which encrust it would live on.

The one thing I will miss this year are tropical colors, but we have our color here too. This native red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea spp. occidentalis) gladly shares the edges of our property with 2 invasives: reed canary grass and himalayan blackberry. And of course there are fragrantly flowering plants like in the tropics.This Primavera witch hazel (Hamamelis mollis) is living up to it’s description in the Forest Farm catalogue: ” Sweetly-scented and exceedingly floriferous.”

I even picked the tender green leaves of the heirloom  cabbage Couve Trondhuda. I know it’s not a mango or a coconut….

And the first tulips are showing leaves…..

…. spring can’t be as far off as the tropics feel right now.