Whew! GardenPalooza is over and now it is time to let spring begin! It was
another wonderful event and we had thousands of happy gardeners stop by. People walked away with lots of plants and a few even had prizes in their bags. Of course, the large prizes were yet to be given away. In fact, on this week's show we will have a drawing for 2 of the largest prizes!

It is also the time of year for plant sales. April kicks off a bunch of sales and we have a lot of them listed on our 'Events' page. Check it out for a sale in your area, or visit your local garden center. It's always great to add a new plant to your garden. It's also the time of year for festivals to kick off. We will be visiting the Tulip fields shortly, but this week we are visiting the Camellia festival in Newberg.

There is so much to do in the garden, and around the area, don't miss any of it!

This week we featured...

Fuchsia Planting - Freddy's Planting Day

Fuchsias are one of the most beautiful plants in the summer garden and they are easy to get started in a planter or hanging basket. To show you how easy they are to plant, we visited with Donna of Black Gold/SunGro to pot up a couple of baskets. We started with a layer of Black Gold All Purpose. We used the Black Gold product because it has Multicoat fertilizer so we don't have to worry about fertilizing for a while. Then we placed a large blooming fuchsia in the center for immediate color and then squeezed in more, non-blooming plants around the edges. When you are planting new plants remember to break up the roots a little bit to stimulate new growth. This planter will give us waves of color through the summer. Fuchsias are also one of the easiest to winter over on your deck or patio. We've found some in the past that were a little tight in their pots and we decided to clean it up a little bit. For the older plants you want to cut back the branches to the strong new growth. Look for healthy canes and new leaves. Cut above the new leaves to promote new branching. You will also want to break up the roots and shake off the old soil. Use a new potting soil to replant them.

If you are scared about planting new plants you can stop by any Fred Meyer store on Saturday April 8th from 7am-4pm to have them plant up your plants for you. Just buy the plants and the pot at Freddy's and they will plant it with free Black Gold for you.

Margie's Spring Color

Spring is here, at least on the calendar, and if you're aching for color you only need to visit a local garden center. We paid a visit to Margie's Farm and Garden (503-866-6123) in Aurora to see what she had on her shelves. We started with the cute little containers she had at GardenPalooza. These looked like pails and watering cans that were full of flowers. Very cute. Then we moved to the flowers that she used in those containers. We started with the 'Diamond Frost' euphorbia. This is a dainty little plant that is a great 'filler' in your hanging baskets or containers. Bright little bursts of white flowers look really good with those bright color plants, like the coleus. Margie had a bunch of colorful coleus for us to look at. These have great foliage color even if you don't get any blooms! Her favorite was 'Wasabi', followed by 'Pink Chaos'. The next plant was a real firecracker, vermillionaire. Actually, this plant is also known as firecracker plant. Long, bright orange flowers are a favorite of hummingbirds. This is a tender plant, but we included one in our flower beds last year and enjoyed the blooms all summer long! We ended with some early blooming dahlias. These are going to bloom all summer long and, with a little fertilizer, will look great into the fall!

You will see these great color plants at Margie's, just head for Aurora and follow the signs.

Garden Gallery Iron Works Winners

The GardenPalooza event is over but for some the gift of GardenPalooza keeps on giving. We stopped by to help Don the owner of Garden Gallery Iron Works (800-452-5266) draw two names of the winners of Garden Gallery prizes. We will only give the first names here, you will have to watch the video of the story to get the last names. The first name was Virginia, and she won a $50 gift card to Garden Gallery Iron Works. The second name was Gladys. She was the winner of the Bistro Set. Even better news for our 2 winners; if they contact Garden Gallery Iron Works today, Saturday, April 8th, they will get another $25 gift card to the store!

Saturday is also another great event that is taking place at their store. They will be kicking off their 'Swing into Spring' event. From 10-4 you can stop by and enjoy snacks and drinks, plus learn about mole traps, see a fashion show and talk to Linda Beutler about roses and clematis. You will also get 20% off your entire purchase on Saturday. It will be a great time!

Newberg Camellia Festival

We made the short drive out to Newberg to visit one of the fastest growing festivals in the Northwest. Newberg, the camellia city, is hosting their Annual Camellia Festival this Saturday, April 8th from 10-4 at the Chehalem Cultural Center. They are partnering with the Oregon Camellia Society who is having their annual
show at the Cultural Center. If you love camellias this is the place to be. We started our visit with Nana Goto Bellerud from Ikebana by Nana. She told us about this ancient art of Japanese Floral design. It is a wonderful way of design that looks at all the spaces that the display will occupy. It is floral design without the vase! She will be giving demonstrations at the event. Then we moved over to chat with Collier Brown from the camellia society. He had brought in 5 different styles of blooms for us to look at.

It was amazing to see all the different styles and flower types. Varieties included 'Lily Ponds', 'Sawada's Dream' and the huge 'Dr. Clifford Parks' camellia. We then visited with Erin Padilla to learn about all the
activities that they have planned for this weekend. She also told us about the Asian themed events they have happening like the Taiko drummers, a lion dance team and a swing band will be performing at the event. The day starts with a fun run and then people can catch a trolley which will be giving tours of the historic area of Newberg and areas showcasing the camellia, or they can just hang out at the center for a full day of fun. They will have 3 stages full of entertainment all day long. During the festival you can also check out the local art and photography and visit the plant sale. For fans of Hello Kitty, she will be at the festival too. If you are in the Newberg area you really need to stop by and check them out!

TOW - Spring Wasp Traps

It may seem weird that we are putting out traps for wasps and yellow jackets in the spring, but next to the late summer this is the best time to use them. Our friends at Rescue (they make those cool yellow Wasp, Hornet, and Yellow Jacket traps) told us why it is a good time to put them out now. In the early spring the queens emerge from their winter hibernation and look for places to make their nests for the new season. If you get them now they won't be around to create a nest of nasty pests to ruin your summer fun. Take down your old traps, clean and refresh them with the pheromone attractant packets available at most of your local garden centers. To make your hunting more effective, place a couple of traps around the perimeter of your yard and garden.

Spring Pond Prep

The weather is warming and that can create a few problems for your pond or water feature. We stopped by Tsugawa Nursery (360-225-8750) to get some tips from Brian Tsugawa to learn what you should be doing now to get ready for the season. Tsugawa's uses the '4 It's' of spring pond care. They are Kill it, Sink it, Eat it, and Starve it. First you want to kill the algae in your system with a treatment of Algae Fix. Next you want to sink it with Accu-clear. This will drop all the algae to the bottom of your pond or pool. This is actually the bottle of 'instant gratification'. If you are having a party you can use this and your pond will be clear in just a day. Next you want to 'Eat it' with Microbe-lift. This is a bacterial pond clarifier that introduces bacteria to your system so it can eat all the nasty stuff at the bottom of your pond. Finally you can starve it with a good selection of pond plants. You should be cleaning up your plants. Get rid of the dead and damaged foliage; it will just add nutrients to your water that will foster the growth of algae, but be careful of the new growth and the flower buds. Now is also the time to fertilize your pond plants. Use a pellet fertilizer that will release over time. You can also start monitoring your fish. Remember that you need to be careful about feeding them right now. If the temperature of the water is below 45-50 degrees they won't be able to metabolize the food that you feed them, so you will want to feed them a wheat germ product until the water warms up and they can process the protein in a regular food. The warmer weather will also mean a bloom of algae and mold in your system. You can control it with a variety of natural and organic products. For more information on pond maintenance you can always check with the experts at Tsugawa Nursery.

Kindergarden - Cauliflower Tots

Getting kids to eat vegetables is tough. For some, getting them to eat cauliflower is next to impossible. For those picky eaters we may have found a solution, cauliflower tots! We met with Madi Bigej, who was recently crowned the Sodexo Future Chef champion for the Canby School District for her cauliflower recipe. Madi got the inspiration for this recipe from a family friend who owns the Rootopia website. She was busy in the kitchen setting everything up when we got there. She showed Judy how easy this recipe is to make. First you need to grind up 5 cups of cauliflower or just buy a bag of cauliflower 'pearls'. You sauté these in a pan with 2 tablespoons of oil for about 5 minutes. You can cover the pan to help soften the cauliflower. Once this is done you set it aside and move to mixing a bunch of the other ingredients in a bowl. You combine 2 egg whites, ¼ cup of mayonnaise, 10 drops of hot sauce, a little salt and a little pepper and 1 teaspoon of minced onions. While Judy was doing the mixing, Madi had taken the cauliflower and added ½ cup of sharp cheddar cheese and ½ cup of panko bread crumbs and mixed those together. Finally the liquid mixture was added to the cauliflower mixture and then that went into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes the mixture was scooped out with a melon-baller and placed on a greased cookie sheet. These went into the oven for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. After about 15 minutes you will want to turn them so they get nice and crispy! Madi also made a dipping sauce with hot sauce, mayonnaise and ketchup. These little tots were delicious! It was a fun and easy recipe that you can tackle with your little chefs, and soon you will have a house full of cauliflower lovers!

Mason Bees

The spring garden is home to the 'loner' of the bee world. The Orchard Mason Bee is a wonderful, early spring, pollinator. It will fly in colder weather than its honey-making counterpart. It is also a very busy
bee. It can pollinate many more flowers than the honey bee, plus it is much more docile too. It hardly ever stings! The one difference between the 2 varieties? The mason bee is pretty much done pollinating by June 1st and then it heads into hibernation to wait for the next spring to start all over again. We met with Mitch from the Backyard Bird Shop (503-303-4653) in West Linn, to learn more about these little 'busy bees'. He told us about these industrious bees and how they reproduce. These bees will find holes in the wild to lay their eggs. We have found them laying eggs everywhere including cracks in our house. The best part is that they don't do any damage to the area where they lay their eggs. You can watch these bees as a family project with some of the cool mason bee homes that you can get at your local Backyard Bird Shop. For more information on welcoming the Mason Bee to your backyard, stop by and check in with Mitch and the Backyard Bird Shop staff.

Carol's Spring Texture Plants

Spring may bring hope to the gardener, but most people think that spring is all about color. True, color is great, but if you are left wanting for color your hope could lie in texture. Texture in a plant will deliver for a longer time in the garden than color. We stopped by Out in the Garden Nursery (503-829-4141) to
see Carol and to look at some of her favorite 'texture' plants. We started with Actaeas. These plants have a light and airy foliage in a few different colors that respond to the breeze all summer long. They bloom in the fall, but look great in the garden all summer. Then we saw a Tricyrtis. This has lime green foliage that will brighten any dark spot in your garden. This one will also give you a very interesting purple flower late in the season. Another bright foliage plant for the garden is an Aralia. We saw one called 'Sun King'. This one has a flower and fruit, though most people never see it. The foliage is what sells this plant. It gets pretty tall so find a nice big space in your shade garden for this one. We then moved to a 'fern look-alike', Aruncus. These stay lower in the garden and provide the fine texture that softens the edges to your garden. Alliums were next and they are a familiar plant for most people. They are related to the onion. These are closer to the chive family. They have a fleshier leaf and are stand out plants that also give you a delicate lavender flower in early summer.

Sedums are another winner for foliage in the garden. They also have thick and fleshy leaves. Most people think about these sedums, like Autumn Joy, in the late summer when they give you nice pink blooms, but the foliage is great in the garden all summer long. Another fern like plant is the Artemisia. This plant has the same 'fine' foliage, but it also gives you dainty little white flowers in the mid-summer. A favorite of Carol is the hardy Geranium. She had a few different varieties to choose from. The leaf texture is so different between different types, but all were beautiful and then you also get flowers too! Can't beat that! We were nearing the end of her selections with a polemonium called 'Stairway to Heaven'. This plant had tiny little leaves that start out pink and then change to a white and green cream color, with light blue flowers in June. Our final plant was a drama queen, but well worth the performance! Ligularia, 'Britt Marie' has striking dark foliage that will wilt at the slightest hint on dryness. Still, this drama queen, will bounce back with a little water. The great foliage will be accented by wonderful yellow flower during the summer.

These are just a few of the foliage plants that will give your garden some interest even when there is no color! Stop by and see Carol at Out in the Garden and don't forget to wander her Oak Grove while you're
there and pet the animals!

Bauman's Spring Events

Bauman's Farm and Garden (503-792-3524) is a place that is never quite the same. Every year it seems like Brian and his crew are changing something. The place just gets better.

Last year, Brian closed off a portion of the parking lot and added more space to the garden center. It was a hit! This year he has added more plants and made it easier for people to wander, and that includes an additional covered area. The new area is packed full of rhodies and azaleas, plus they are all 40% off this weekend. But the plants are only part of the attraction to the farm. We moved to the bakery for some other
tasty incentives!

Brian had a pile of rhubarb in the bakery to show us that it is rhubarb season! It is a little late, but it is still very tasty. They are using this wonderful vegetable in all sorts of treats like bread! We also had a taste of the Strawberry Bliss Bars, which were amazing! You can also find wonderful slushies, coffee and the always wonderful Bauman Ciders.


Plus this weekend is the opening of Bauman's at Fir Point Farms. After GardenPalooza wraps up, the farm in Aurora converts to a mini-Bauman's for a couple of months. A lot of the same plants from Woodburn can be found in Aurora! Plus, the bakery at Fir Point has their own different, but tasty treats to enjoy! You can't miss by stopping at either location!

Terra Casa Atmosphere

Creating an outdoor living space can begin, indoors! To learn what that means we stopped by Terra Casa (503-577-8242) in Damascus. Diana met William at a table that they had set up in the middle of the store. It was packed with wonderful decorative items. We started with some cute decorative trays with faux succulent. These trays had these all-weather succulents, plus a bunch of wonderful decorative glass balls. They were beautiful. Next to these tray were some incredible candles. They were not your normal candles.
These were battery operated candles that you could actually blow out!!! With just a push of a button they were lit again! This display was finished with a wreath, pots of faux flowers, hanging lanterns and a collection of faux bunnies and birds. All that you would need to create an indoor atmosphere. The good news is that a lot of these items are all-weather and could be used outdoors as well! Even some of the indoor items could find a life on the patio if you just used a little protection when displaying them.

Creating this display outdoors is a great way to get people to extend their homes to the outside! Imagine seeing this display on a deck or patio. Who wouldn't want to take a step outside to enjoy the beauty! If you are looking to create an enticing outdoor display, or even one indoors, then you need to stop by Terra Casa and get the tips to get you on your way!