Garden Time invites you to see the show with this special $2 discount coupon. (CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE VERSION)

We paid a visit to some of the booths and we featured… 

Danielle Ferguson of Ferguson’s Fragrant Nursery always packs her YGP booth with tons of great fragrant plants.  William stopped by to see what she has for sale during the show.  We saw a huge variety of plants including, Daphne “Eternal Fragrance’, Acanthus ‘Tasmanian Angel’, Helleborus ‘Pink Marble’, Osmanthus ‘Ron’s Variegated’, Pink Dawn Viburnum, Pieris ‘Karenoma’ and Heuchera ‘Peach Flambé’.  Some of these are new introductions and some are old favorites.  Either way they will all make great additions to your garden.

Creating an outdoor living space has become the goal for many gardeners.  Building a space for entertaining is not hard to do if you have the right materials.  Ron Putz from Mutual Materials showed us around his booth where he has a wide variety of examples of hard-scaping that you can use to build your ‘outdoor entertainment center’.  Mutual Materials manufactures a wonderful assortment of pavers, slabs, natural stone and retaining walls.  There are 100’s of different color and style variations!  One more benefit of using Mutual Material products… no mortar.  If you don’t like what you have, you can rebuild it.  The only thing permanent about this product is the options you can choose from.  Check out some of their different products at www.MutualMaterials.com.

Spring is just around the corner and it is time to get a jump start on your spring and summer garden, and it’s not too early to think about starting your containers.  We stopped by the Black Gold booth to see some of the interesting containers that Donna Wright had put together using Black Gold.  We found out that you are only limited by your imagination.  She had used a variety of different containers as planters, including an old grill, an ice tea jug, muffin tins and even a whole bag of Black Gold!  This year Black Gold will be offering recipes for gardeners to create their own unique containers.  You can check out the SunGro website to find your recipe for success!

Life on the farm is easy and so is finding a great garden container or plant.  Bauman’s Farm and Garden started as a place where you can find the freshest in farm produce.  It has become a great place to find that ‘just right’ garden plant too.  Brian Bauman walked us through his booth and showed us some of the new and exciting things they have available at the farm.  If you like unique planters they had a bunch of cute planters shaped like overalls.  Then there are the limited numbers of flower vase/water fountains.  These are incredible!  Brian also has ‘Gardens to Go’.  These are pre-built containers that you can take home and use around your home right away.  You can find various garden centers that have built these, but the ones from Bauman’s are spectacular.

Nothing says summer like a rose in your garden.  Heirloom Roses holds the promise of summer days to come.  Louise Clements and her staff are at the YGP show to tell us those days will be here soon.  They have lots of information on roses and rose care, plus they have a great display of roses they will be introducing in the coming season.  If you stop by their booth you will also have a chance to win rose-themed prizes including tools, cards and one-of-a kind artwork from Louise herself!  If you have never seen the display gardens in St. Paul, then you don’t know how beautiful a rose can be! 

Water gardening is enjoying a surge in popularity, but a lot of gardeners are afraid to try water gardening because they think it is too hard or too messy to tackle.  Eamonn Hughes from Hughes Water Gardens helped to dispel those myths.  Water gardens take many forms from simple water bowls that you can assemble in a matter of minutes to large scale water falls.  Eamonn and the staff at Hughes are experts at helping you find the right feature for your home or garden.  One of the newest ways of enjoying the sound of water is ‘rain chains’.  These decorative chains are perfect in our Northwest weather.  The rain is carried away and it creates a soothing sound as it goes.  You can also grace your garden with a work of art by using decorative pieces in building a water bowl.  Plus, you can enjoy a wide array of water plants too.  If you have questions, see the experts at Hughes Water Gardens.

Good New for all you nursery shoppers!  The new OAN Retail Nursery maps are here at the Yard, Garden and Patio show.  These maps show you the location of member nurseries from around the state.  Many of these same nurseries are at the show.  You can tour the show; mark your favorite nurseries and then pay them a visit later.  If you can’t make it to the show you can contact the Oregon Association of Nurseries
(1-800-342-6401) and they will send you one!

Time to party!  This year marks a milestone for one of our signature nurseries.  Portland Nursery is celebrating 2 big events!  This year they mark 100 years as a nursery in the Portland area and 25 years as ‘Portland Nursery’.  Jimmy Mack joined us to tell us about the start of this year long celebration.  Starting next weekend March 3-4, you will be able to enjoy seminars from garden experts including Anne Jaeger, Barbara Ashmun, plus Judy and William.  There will also be special sales, events and other goodies to enjoy.  Visit the Portland Nursery website to see the latest events they have planned.  You may have to wait another 100 years to see another celebration like this!