YARD, GARDEN AND PATIO SHOW

Hello all, well here we are back, but not officially back. This week we are at the Yard, Garden and Patio Show at the Oregon Convention Center. We are not calling this our official start to the Garden Time season because this show is only seen on our new home in Portland PDX-TV. Next week we will be on all 3 of our partner stations. Still, this gives us a chance to stretch our legs and get back on the air again!

The Yard, Garden and Patio show is one of the premier consumer garden shows in the country. At the show you can find just about everything your garden will need to make it sparkle this season. Even though we were only able to visit 6 vendors during this show, there is lots more to see at the show, including the 7 spectacular display gardens! The show runs today from 10:00am to 7:30pm and tomorrow from 10:00am to 5:00pm. Check it out and get excited about spring!

This week we featured...

The Wall

What is a garden without structure? People are always asking us for plants that will help make a beautiful garden, but what a lot of people forget is that structure and hardscaping helps make a garden stand out. This is where companies like The Wall (503-735-9255) come in. We met with Rick from The Wall, and Larry from Borlin Landscape Services at the Wall (booth 437) to talk about how plants and hardscaping go together. Larry mentioned how hardscaping (including raised beds) can help as we get older and if we have smaller gardens. Rick talked about the sustainability of using recycled concrete which works well to not only save resources but to also make a beautiful statement in your garden. If you have questions about how to bring hardscaping to your garden, stop by and see them or give them a call.

French Prairie Perennials

Conifers are not what you think they are. They are not the tall, massive plants that can take over a garden. In fact, there are a lot of different varieties that can fit into any garden and can even be used in a container. Rick from French Prairie Perennials (503-679-2871) (booth 661-663) showed us some of the great ones he has at the show this weekend. We started with a small spruce called ‘Tom Thumb’ that only gets one foot tall by one foot wide. The next one was a small plant as well but the foliage was like a bunch of green strands waving in the wind. This one was an arborvitae called ‘Franky Boy’. Then we saw one that was not only small and cute, it had a cute name too, Cypress ‘Butter Ball’. It not only stays small it gets a golden tinge to the foliage. Speaking of color we saw a Japanese White Pine called ‘Tanima no yuki’ (Snow in Valley) which has candles (new growth) that grow out pink against green foliage. The final plant Rick shared with us was the cypress ‘Chirimen’ which only gets 4 feet tall and sends out branches in all directions! Very unique and very beautiful! If you love unusual perennials (and conifers) then you need to stop by French Prairie Perennials, either at their booth at the YGP or at their store in Dundee.

Oregon Hot Tub

If you are considering a hot tub or spa for your home you probably have a lot of questions, I know we did. So we met with Dave from Oregon Hot Tub (503-643-5002) to see if we could get some of those questions answered. The new styles of hot tubs are really loaded with lots of toys! You can get a bunch of features with tubs these days; from massagers and different seating configurations to cool lighting patterns and wireless music, there are so many things to choose from. The best thing is the ease of installation and maintenance. You don’t need much to install a new tub. Some of the newer tubs just need a secure platform (you can even put them on an existing deck) and a regular electrical outlet. As far as maintenance, you don’t have to load up on chlorine either. There are new products that are safer and easy to use, including salt. If you are just too busy to keep up on the maintenance, the Oregon Hot Tub people will come out and take care of that for you. The best feature to the new tubs is the emphasis on energy efficiency. The newer tubs cost just a couple bucks a month to operate, so relaxing in your tub won’t eat you out of house and home. Take the stress out of buying a hot tub by checking with the experts at Oregon Hot Tub Company. Stop by their booth (1291) at the show for their ‘show specials’. If you can’t make it to the show, they still have all the specials available at their retail locations too!

Garden Gallery Iron Works

Don Sprague of Garden Gallery Iron Works (1-800-423-0158) (booths 123-129) always has some of the coolest stuff. If you stop by his booth this weekend you will be overwhelmed with a huge assortment of great home and garden décor items. To start off with, he has are lots of whirly gigs. These are lawn ornaments that move and bounce with every little breeze. They are great to watch. He also has a lot of planters made from rusted metal sheeting from old barns. The coolest new product are the 'peace poles’. These are poles that started out many years ago to help promote peace and healing. Now they can also bring peace and healing to your garden. Don also showed us some of the wonderful structures that help hold up tall clematis and even small air plants. Garden Gallery is also known for their great custom iron work like their great benches chairs and tables. If you are looking for something to ‘pop’ in your home or garden, stop by their booth or their store in Hubbard.

Out in the Garden Nursery

It all about the plants! That should be the motto at Out in the Garden Nursery (503-829-4141)! Carol has such a great assortment of perennials and we stopped by to see what she has at the YGP show this weekend. All of the plants she shared with us were great for gardens, large or small. First we were introduced to the ladies! These were hellebores from the ‘ladies series’ of plants. These were all blooming, standing tall and looking great. We also saw some from the ‘gold series’ which stay shorter and are a little more sturdy. Carol also shared with us some ferns, cyclamen, beesia, and primroses. These are all looking great in the late winter garden. The next plant was a shorter variation of a tall plant. Euphorbia ‘Tiny Tim’ has great blooms and wonderful red stems, and still stays under 20 inches tall and wide. Another plant that stays low is Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’. This is a plant that a lot of people use as a ground cover. It not only has tiny blooms, it is followed by mounds of silver foliage for the rest of the growing season. The next plant is not a small one but it is a winner in the late winter garden, Edgeworthia. It is also known as Chinese paperbush. Right now it has large clusters of fragrant yellow, pendulous flowers that look spectacular! Our next plant was the pieris ‘Little Heath’ with white tinged leaves and drooping white clusters of flowers. A must have for the winter garden. And finally, sarcococca, also known as sweet box because of its incredible fragrance. If you are going to the YGP you must make a stop at the Remarkable Green Market and see Carol.

Roxblock

This is one of the coolest products we have seen in quite a while. RoxBlock (503-662-7123) are pre-formed, hand colored, concrete hardscape materials. These manufactured concrete pavers and retaining walls are so realistic that it is hard to tell that they are not real wood or stone. Located in booth 769, this is a great place to learn about this incredible product. Each piece is formed using molds of real wood or stone. what makes the difference is the coloring. They are the main paver in most of the display gardens and we thought they had paved everything in real wood planking, but it was the Roxblock material! The retaining wall are just as incredible. You have to see it to believe it. Stop by their booth and learn more and we’re sure you will be looking differently at pavers and retaining walls.