A Spring Parade of Gardens at Seattle’s Annual Festival

Seattle’s NW Flower & Garden Festival dazzled with display gardens, creative design ideas, local vendors, and inspiration for spring gardening.

An annual visit to the NW Flower & Garden Festival rejuvenates the eyes from our dull gray winter palette and sparks the mind with creative possibilities for beautiful, colorful, and thriving outdoor spaces.  “Spring Parade,” the celebratory theme of this year’s 37th annual show, featured over 20 full-scale display gardens, educational seminars, and an expansive marketplace filled with plants, garden implements, vintage antiques, and educational booths. 

Most of all, the show is a sumptuous display of natural beauty, local artistry, and lively interactions with gardeners and skilled horticulturists.

Marie, my fellow botanophile, and I once again attended the show held this year from February 18-22, at the Seattle Convention Center, for our yearly dose of inspiration and garden design.  The large display gardens are the anchor of the show, and our first stop at the festival.  Here are several exhibits that captured our eyes:

“The Jewel Box:  A Moment Preserved,” described as “... captures the fleeting beauty and seasonality of the garden, reflecting both the preservation of the previous year’s bounty and the anticipation of the season ahead.”  “Rivers of jars,” canning jars of preserves, flowed throughout the garden amongst ornamental and edible elements.  This display garden illustrated a cohesive design for a suburban or metropolitan home.

“Choose Your Path” featured three distinctly different design styles: a Japanese garden, a Cottage garden, and a Pacific Northwest-inspired retreat–all sharing common elements.  The Asian garden featured a traditional tea ceremony, a Japanese bamboo fence, and winding wooden walls.  Copper faeries, lemon trees, witch hazels, forsythia, and narcissus–all created an eye-popping theme of yellow and warm pastels.  The PNW section featured native plants and forced hostas.

“Where Stories Take Root,” designed by the staff at West Seattle Nursery, highlighted an outdoor library room nestled among trees, ferns, and shade-loving shrubs.  The cozy reading retreat was illuminated by whimsical paper chandeliers crafted from books.  An extremely artsy endeavor, it also invited visitors to gather, linger, and read in a sunken outdoor circular sitting area.

In “The Gardenmaker’s Atelier,” a modern BC greenhouse was transformed into an art studio where plants became wearable art.  Surrounding the structure were flowers and cottage-inspired plantings. Inside the greenhouse, moss hung from the rafters, and botanical creations by Francoise Weeks showcased the creative act of play with items from the garden.

The Spring Parade continued its successive display as Marie and I meandered through the expansive marketplace filled with vendor booths on the convention floorroom.  We chatted with local beekeepers, mushroom foragers, and specialty nursery owners and purchased seeds, bulbs, and garden implements.  Garden experts demonstrated how to fill containers to create attractive and long lasting planters.

Our final stop, the educational seminars, rounded out our full-day visit.  We attended lectures on planting summer and autumn bulbs and designing gardens that work for your life.  In this seminar, the presenter emphasized, “The beauty of a garden is only as strong as how well it functions.  Design it with real life in mind.”

Spring is about to burst forth on parade in the weeks ahead as the days lengthen and temperatures warm.  Marie and I hope you enjoy the glorious displays in your own garden and neighborhoods.