2014 Northwest Flower and Garden Show: Art in Bloom Show Gardens
As always, the show gardens at this year’s Northwest Flower and Garden Show did not disappoint.
Twenty-one gardens transformed the convention hall into a gardener’s paradise with color, scent and life. This year’s theme was “Art in Bloom”. While it’s obvious a huge amount of work goes into each and every garden there were a few that really stood out.
The Art of Retreat
“The Art of Retreat”
This garden, designed by Sue and Courtney Goetz, featured two sheds back to back. One side represented an “artist retreat” while the other side of the shed featured a video game enthusiast’s haven. The color palette of the plants meshed perfectly with the purple sheds. Who wouldn’t love to have this in their own backyard!
MOFA – Museum of Folicular Art
“MOFA – Museum of Folicular Art”
The MOFA garden was created by West Seattle Nursery. For this garden, the plants were the art! Several trends in gardening and landscape design were represented from vertical gardens to miniature plants in troughs, to air plants arranged as a hanging light fixture. A visual feast!
Terra Cadence – The Rhythm of the Earth
“Terra Cadence – The Rhythm of the Earth”
This garden was designed by Susan Calhoun of Plantswoman Design. While the previous garden was all about bold textures and colors, Susan’s garden featured a restricted color palette of greens and white. The goal was to create a relaxing Zen-like atmosphere for the garden-owner to connect with nature. Mission accomplished!
Art-itecture for Urban Wildlife
“ART-itecture for Urban Wildlife”
Designed by Lisa Bauer of Chartreuse Design and Susie Thompson of Susie Landscape Designs for the Washington Chapter of the APLD, the art in this garden aimed to create a “dynamic interplay between humans and wildlife”. Thoughtful elements included, the colorful vertical forms of the birdfeeders being echoed in the vertical dogwood stems at their base as well as the bubbling water feature that added an element of sound to the experience. All-in-all a very successful blend of art and landscape design.
“ART-itecture for Urban Wildlife”
Darwin’s Muse – Art Imitating Life
“Darwin’s Muse – Art Imitating Life”
“Darwin’s Muse – Art Imitating Life”, designed by Karen Stefonik of Karen Stefonik Design, was a true case of big and bold is beautiful! The centerpiece of the garden was a massive blown glass Darwin’s Orchid display surrounded by a modern glass and metal structure. In front of the structure lay a pool with exquisite glass blown pitcher plants emerging from the water. Live pitcher plants poked their heads from the rocks on the edge of the water feature. An often overlooked element in landscape design is the lighting. In this case, the lighting played an integral part in the overall affect, as you can see below.
“Darwin’s Muse – Art Imitating Life”
Nature’s Studio: AROUSE | EVOKE | CREATE | GROW | CHILL
“Nature’s Studio: AROUSE | EVOKE | CREATE | GROW | CHILL”
“Nature’s Studio” was designed by Kristen Lints of Gardens ALIVE and installed by Rob Boyker of Avid Landscape Design and Development for this joint WSNLA and WALP garden. This garden was the winner of the Founders Cup, X-Factor Award (the garden that best represents new trends in gardening and landscape design) as well as the Pacific Horticulture Magazine Award. This garden invited viewers to walk entirely around it with a pond and water feature that drew people upstream. Every angle provided a thoughtful and eye catching view – exactly what you’d want in a garden designed for your own home. For me, this garden also did the best job of successfully integrating art into it. Large metal and stone pieces didn’t overwhelm, but rather added to the cumulative effect.
“Nature’s Studio: AROUSE | EVOKE | CREATE | GROW | CHILL”
As mentioned, this garden won the X-Factor Award. The trends of edible gardening were successfully represented with a vegetable garden, a wine and canning cellar in a hollowed out stump as well as an old lobster trap planted with mushrooms. Other creative ideas included planting an old log with annual flowers.
“Nature’s Studio: AROUSE | EVOKE | CREATE | GROW | CHILL”
It was such a pleasure to see how designers represented the theme of Art in Bloom at this year’s Northwest Flower and Garden Show. The show lasts for two more days – Saturday Feb. 8th and Sunday Feb. 9th. Be sure to stop by and take a look for yourself!
~Courtney
Organized under Gardens, Landscape Design, Northwest Flower & Garden Show, Trends. Labeled as 2014 Northwest Flower and Garden Show, 2014 NWFGS, NWFGS, Show Gardens Northwest Flower and Garden Show.
