2012 Northwest Flower and Garden Show – Miniature Gardening Craze February 21, 2012

The Miniature Gardening craze is finally getting the recognition it deserves. You must know that I am quite biased on this topic as I have connections to THE BEST in Miniature Gardening in the form of my friend Janit Calvo, owner and designer at Two Green Thumbs Miniature Garden Center.

Janit and I partnered on our Container Garden Display at the 2011 Northwest Flower and Garden Show. Our theme, “Eat, Pray, Love” was a big hit! Janit displayed all three parts of the book/movie in Mini-Container Gardens! I designed the accompanying tropical themed larger containers for our backdrop themed in Thailand.

This year at the 2012 Northwest Flower and Garden Show, Janit took the Fairy Themed Gardens in her display to a whole new level of fantasy! Many of you may not know that Janit is a trained artist far beyond what anyone would guess-she’s amazing! She had some great fun embellishing the containers in her display. Little gems and glitter were everywhere in this cheery display on the Skybridge of the Seattle Convention Center. This lovely little spot was a magnet for people to spend few minutes, admiring and analyzing new details with every pass. In the evening was when it really came alive, with twinkling lights and sparkle bits, though I had a  hard time capturing that light with my camera to show you here.

Janit and her husband Steve ran a delightful little shop booth at the show too! They sold a serious quantity of everything you can imagine needing to create your own Mini-Garden of ALL shapes sizes and style. From plants to miniature Robots, if you couldn’t find something to fit your gardening personality in small form at this booth- it isn’t out there!

 

Be sure to look for Janit Calvo’s book on Miniature Gardening to come out from Timber Press in the Fall of 2012. Janit is THE authority on the topic and has been an expert for over 10 years. This book is going to be a huge hit! Until then, if you want to talk Mini-Gardening with the GURU, you can find Janit’s wonderful Two Green Thumbs Page on Facebook.

Northwest Flower & Garden Show-Trend Watch 2011 March 2, 2011

The 2011 Northwest Flower and Garden Show has just closed until next year and we already miss the colors, fragrance and warmth we got to experience for the 5 day marathon of Seattle Gardening-Palooza! Of course the gardens were wondrous with the inspired show theme “Once Upon A Time”, how could they not be?

Everyone's favorite image of the show theme from the display "Alice In Wonderland"

But what about the garden design trends? That’s what I want to see for 2011!

The trend watch for 2011 gardens is in full swing. Some of the things I noted at the show were already at ground swell point in a few places last year, but they went really big this year.

Night gardens and moodiness in the garden were HUGE at the show. D-4 Collective

Of course sustainable and Eco-friendly gardens are still a big deal! Re-characterization of old pieces, such as antiques and building materials were all-stars of the show.

Paradise (to be) Regained, Courtney Goetz

The Lusher Life Project

Cottage and Asian style are still trending, and they were very popular at the show!

Christianson's Nursery

Arboretum Foundation

I can’t let this post go by without a shout out to my Container Garden display! I partnered with Janit Calvo of Two Green Thumbs Miniature Garden Center. We are SO proud of the fact that we NOT ONLY participated in the show theme, which is NOT easy on a small platform, but it represented the trend shown in the movie “Eat, Pray, Love” of Indonesian style mixed with colorful world themes.

Many show attendees came to me and said that the container displays were their favorite part of the show. They felt like we really kicked it up a notch and showed what can be done in small spaces.

"Eat, Pray, Love, Garden" A little bit of Italy, India and Indonesia!

Garden art was abundant at the show in all of it’s myriad of forms.  Glass, ceramic, wood, metal were the big formats for art this year, where as a few years back I noted LOTS of mosaics as the big highlights.

The simplicity of this little glass piece had me entranced!

The tones of pomegranate in this glass by artist Barbara Sanderson of Glass Gardens NW, paired with the rich plums and purples in this garden design were magical.

Succulents and verticals were another couple of really big trends that I saw amped up this year. A few more posts may be necessary on those!

For a an overall review of the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, please take a look at these great blog post from garden writer Susan Morrison on her Blue Planet Garden Blog, Timber Press and another wonderful garden writer, Rebecca Sweet on her blog Gossip In The Garden. I’m sure there are a tidal wave of more fantastic blog posts coming out soon about the show. Meanwhile I’ll be working on more posts on  the trends I saw!

I hope you enjoyed my take on it, leave a comment!