SHOW ARCHIVE

Episode 197 • April 2, 2011

VIDEO ARCHIVE

Welcome to the 9th annual GardenPalooza presented by Meta!  This is a celebration of spring and of smaller ‘grower’ nurseries.  At this all day free event you can shop directly from growers and smaller nurseries.  Over 45 different garden vendors have brought out the best plants from their nurseries to share with you.   In today’s show we visited some of them to give you a preview of what you can expect when you stop by.  In addition to some great plants and garden items we will have some great giveaways too.  Meta has supplied us with a bunch of reusable shopping totes that we will be giving away for free.  Plus we will be giving away certificates for a free blueberry plant, while supplies last.  We also have a limited supply of garden gloves to give away.  There are also discount coupons for some of the vendors on the GardenPalooza website.

William and Judy will be there to chat with you and we will even have the hosts from the Fusion home show and the lovely ladies from KOIN’s great afternoon show ‘Studio 6’ joining for part of the day. 

Stop by on Saturday and say hi!  The event runs from 8-4 at Fir Point Farms in Aurora.  Check out the GardenPalooza website for more information, directions and to print out the discount coupons. 

This week we featured...

Edelweiss Perennials

Edelweiss Perennials

Urs at Edelweiss Perennials (503-263-4680) is a great grower of some unique perennials.  He has some great contacts in Switzerland and they have supplied him with some really great plants for his nursery.  Every year he brings the best of the best to GardenPalooza.  This year he showed us some of the rock garden plants that he will be bringing and one that would be right at home in any northwest garden.  He pulled out Gentiana acaulis ‘Holzmann’, Primula auricular ‘Cortina’ and Polygala chamaebuxus, var. Grandiflora and some plants that will do great in a well drained soil.  These 3 plants can be found in some of the areas of the Swiss Alps.  The final plant he showed us was the Epimedium ogisui;  this one was really cool looking and is perfect for the cool damp areas of the NW garden.  Urs has 3 booths at GardenPalooza so you should be able to find lots of these colorful and unique plants.

Ferguson’s Fragrant Nursery

Ferguson's Fragrant Nursery

The spring garden can be fantastic even with out a lot of blooming color.  Dani Ferguson showed us that texture and foliage can bring out the best in your garden and there doesn’t need to be any blooms involved.  Dani owns Ferguson’s Fragrant Nursery (503-633-4585) and has been at GardenPalooza since the beginning.  She always has a ton of color and fragrance plants, and this year she is bringing the texture too.  She pointed out some of the plants like Tiarella ‘Sweet Tea’, Heuchera ‘Electric Lime’ and Euphorbia ‘Black Bird’ as great plants for your garden or containers.  She also talked about Hebes as one of those rare plants that goes well with whatever you have in your garden.  The best part of the day was when she shared with us her ‘plant special’ for GardenPalooza.  3 hellebores for $20!  These are huge, beautiful plants that are in full bloom and they will keep blooming for a few more weeks to come.  Stop by GardenPalooza, buy some plants, and fill your garden with texture, foliage and HELLEBORES!

N & M Nursery

N & M Nursery

N & M Nursery (503-981-9060) is known as a herb nursery and Rosie Sullivan is called the Herb Lady, but the plants she is bringing to GardenPalooza are not all for cooking in the kitchen… some of these are hot for your yard too!  Rosie first talked about the Bellarina variety of a double primrose and talked about how great they looked.  The plant we saw was one that was just a single plant a year ago.  Now it takes over a whole pot!  Then we saw the beautiful Queens Tears (Billbergia nutans) plant.  This one is called the ‘Friendship’ plant, because it just loves to be divided.  You can divide and fertilize it in the fall and then pretty much just water it for the rest of the year and it will thrive!  The next plant we saw was the Abutilon or flowering maple ‘Red Tiger’, this one is a beautiful plant and it is a great one for our area.   The flowers are just outstanding!  The final plant that she will have at GardenPalooza is the Palm Leaf Begonia (Begonia luxurans).  This one has some very interesting flowers but the really interest to this plant is the wonderful structure that the leaves have.  It is a plant for the collectors in our area.  Check out Rosie’s booth for the best in herbs, but also for the coolest of plants too!

Willow Station Furniture

Willow Station Furniture

We love the feeling of sitting in our garden and enjoying the plants.  If you can enjoy those plants in comfort, it is even better.  We visited with Brian from Willow Station (503-897-7387) and talked to him about the great furniture that he will have at GardenPalooza.  Brian finds his inspiration in some very unusual places. Sometimes it is in the forest where he finds branches for the furniture he makes; sometimes it is in book or pictures that he sees.  Either way his furniture is a work of art.  Brian showed William how he goes about making some of this furniture.  He uses a mix of different branches and twigs; some of it straight and some of it curly.  Next he builds a base for the piece he is working on.  The base is important because it creates the structure for the rest of the piece.  Next he forms the top.  He starts with a form that he wants to follow, either a wooden disc or a box, or some other structure.  Then he works the twigs around that form to make it unique and functional.  We saw how he built tables, chairs, mirrors, stands and tables.  If you come out to GardenPalooza you can watch him build some pieces and even get some tips to start your own pieces.  Or… you can check out his website and learn about classes and seminars in your area. 

KinderGarden – Bamboo Chimes

Kindergarden-Bamboo Chimes

Getting your kids excited about anything in the garden can be challenging.   But what if you could get their attention with a little noise?  This week’s KinderGarden segment is a little craft that will let your little gardener ‘raise a ruckus’.  The project is the making of a bamboo wind chime.   Amy from Al’s Garden Center (503-981-1245) in Woodburn joined us to show us how easy it is to make your own chimes.  Amy just bought bamboo from the nursery and cut it to length.  The longer the piece, the deeper the sound.  Next she drilled holes in the bamboo.  Then she ran string through the bamboo and tied it to a pole or other support.  You can even paint the pole or support to customize it… and you are done!  This bamboo project is just an example of what type of projects you will find at the Al’s Kids Club.  Check the Al’s website for the complete listing of Kids Club activities.

Skagit Gardens Plant Pick of the Week – Erysimum ‘Fragrant Star’

Plant Pick-Erysimum

We welcome Skagit Gardens as the sponsor of the plant pick of the week.  This week we featured the Erysimum ‘Fragrant Star’.  For early spring color, Erysimum, or Wallflower, sports bright and often fragrant blossoms. Fragrant Star, a new perennial Erysimum, glows with very fragrant, yellow flowers and has the added bonus of radiant green and yellow, variegated foliage that always looks brilliant even when the plant is not in bloom. It’s very compact and bushy, looking great in beds and borders. Because the flowers are sterile, Fragrant Star has a long bloom season in spring and often reblooms later in the year. This shining star is not fussy about where it’s planted, given full sun and good drainage.  Skagit Garden plants can be found at a large number of local independent garden centers. We found these at the Dennis' 7 Dees (503-636-4660) location in Lake Oswego.  Look for these wonderful plants and try them in your garden.
 

 
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