I’ve been milling over what I thought of the Seattle Flower and Garden Show.  Mom and I blazed the show in a little under 3 hours with a 4 year old in tow.  I’m trying to factor the short attention span in.

In the end I felt that the designers, vendors and other people involved in putting on a show of that magnitude went out on a high note.  My experience was a little like herding cats around a crowded room, but somehow we managed to see most of what was offered.

What impressed me most this year was the simplicity of it all.  Mom felt that it would take hundreds of thousands of dollars to create gardens like that in a typical backyard.  Oh how wrong she was.  When you broke the display gardens into their simplest parts it wasn’t that difficult.  Of course, my job was to do just that.  That is the mark of a good designer.  Make is look so complex when it is truly simple.

I also felt the designers did a good job of not going over the top with forcing.  Traditionally, designers will go out of their way to force hundreds of plants into bloom that typically bloom much later in the season.  It is not uncommon to go to the show and find sad little pink Dogwoods and flow blown Magnolias lighting up the room.  This year the gardens showcased the best of mid winter Northwest style.  Primroses provided blankets of color, Dawn Viburnum hinted of spring’s coming and Witch Hazel delighted us with her aroma.  There were a few forced Rhododendrons, but not a single wilted Dogwood in the bunch.

As far as vendors are concerned… Smith & Hawken took the show.  I saw hundreds of S&H bags pass by me and the crowd around the beautiful booth was enough to leave this people phobic woman at arms length.  I did manage to pick up my first pair of Felco pruners (#6 to be exact) though.  I’ve always gone for the less expensive Coronas, but I have since lost every pair I own.  I felt it was time to treat myself to something nice for the garden.  The pruners were only slightly less expensive than my 6′x10′ coldframe.  Yikes!  Well worth it if you ask me.

All in all we had a good time for our first outing.