11 July: Garden Bloggers Banquet

Friday, 11 July 2014

Garden Bloggers Fling: Portland

Now here is a post that will probably be of interest only to memembers of the GBF or those who wish to go in the future.   Oh, and CPNs (Certified Plant Nuts).

We arrived about ten minutes late and thought we might find everyone else sitting down.  Instead, there was a bar and…a plant sales room! We went there as soon as we had picked up our meal cards from Loree of Danger Garden.  I finally connected her face with Danger and had one more person memorized (which is very hard for me because of a slight case of face blindness).  My apologies in advance if I get any of the plant photos under the wrong vendor.

plant sales room with three excellent vendors

Gossler Farms:

an eager hand reaching into the selection of Gossler Farms plants, with Roger Gossler in background

A rhodo for Steve and John

and some conifers

and an acer

Sebright Gardens:

In retrospect, I can tell my head was swimming because I did not snag any of the catalogs.

hostas

Hosta ‘Oreo Cream’

Hosta ‘Curly Fries’; what clever and appealing names!

the Seabright table, with the Dancing Oaks table at the back

Dancing Oaks:

Dancing Oaks plants

What stopped me from buying plants was the anxious feeling that I had been physically unable to plant my new selections from the Hardy Plant Study Weekend, some of which require the making of a new shade bed.  I thought I had better not add to my stash of unplanted darlings.

but so tempting as I do thrill at airy wiry plants

I think this one will also appeal to Steve and John.

Allan did buy himself a couple of ferns from Sebright Gardens.  We discovered that there was a raffle, so we put our free tickets on assorted items.

Allan saw this box of buttons, which I somehow missed.

I put most of my eggs in one basket: this bench, which would be delivered to the winner (not me).

And I put a few tickets on the plant table in the corner.

and we then went into the banquet room.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo; I sat next to Kristen of That Bloomin’ Garden and managed to memorize her, as well.

the food: yummy (my salmon dinner)

Allan’s steak

After dinner, Mike Darcy, whose former televison gardening show In the Garden I still sorely miss, presided over the raffle. Then, to my delight, each nurseryman gave a ten minute talk.

Dancing Oaks

speaking of yummy

delectable

Roger Gossler had plants rather than slides. (Fling organizer Scott of Rhone Street Gardens is to the left with rapt attention.)

Sebright Gardens

I Want! If the slideshow had come first, I might have 😉

Curly Fries again

And then as we left, we all got a swag bag..

filled with goodies

unpacked, at home, with “lifesize” teak horses and lots of cool seeds

After the plants talks, we were given three free plants each from Monrovia, one of the fling sponsors: Disporum cant ‘Moonlight’, Wiegela ‘Crimson Kisses’, and Lavender ‘Phenomenal’.  By ten thirty, it was time to collapse and recuperate, for another day of garden touring lay ahead.

 

 

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24 June 2007 — The Big Revelation

Thank you, Tom Fischer! (photo from his website)

Hardy Plant Society Study Weekend

Seven wonderful lectures and the touring of about 22 gardens in three days led to a moment of revelation during a wonderful speech (one of the best I have ever attended) on Sunday morning by Tom Fischer.  He told (with exquisite slides and great humour) about his new garden in Portland, and sitting in that audience surrounded by plant nuts who gasped at each glorious plant photo, I had tears in my eyes and said to Sheila afterward that I am indeed going to phase out all non-plant-nut jobs.  I will keep work that falls into either of these categories: The clients are plant nuts, or the clients allows ME to express my plant nuttiness their garden.

 My thoughts coalesced on the coach/bus back to the coast with resolve for the future:

•  Spend more time and a little more money on my garden. (A balance must be struck between working enough to make money to buy plants!)
•  Join the HPSO so that I can get to the Old Germantown garden.  (Allan and I belong to Washington’s Northwest Perennial Alliance, but garden tours in Seattle are an extra hour away.)
• Work only at jobs allowing free expression of plant lust. This is a tough one as it might involve quitting some clients that I like but into whose gardens I have no creative input. All jobs must let me be a CPN (certified plant nut) and hortaholic.
• Go to more garden tours (as offered by HPSO membership); supposedly they even have some tours on the coast!

 And I have already marked the calendar to get together with Sheila for next year’s HPSO study weekend in Eugene.

[2012 note:  It has taken me years to implement this revelation, but I think by 2011 I had it fully ingrained.  By then, I had amicably quit several jobs: one private garden where the very nice client said she did not want any new plants, and Raymond Federal Bank because the new owners did not want a tangled and (as Tom Fischer’s website puts it) overplanted garden.  I turned down any new job that did not entertain my passion for plants.  I quit all jobs that were just maintenance with no creativity (Shorebank, Subway).  In every case but one (which I quit in a right royal huff over the plant & materials budget being ridiculously tiny…$80 a year!…in comparison to the lavish indoor budget!), I quit amicably and kindly and found the client a good replacement (usually Ed Strange!).  We still have too many jobs, but I love them all.]

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