Posts Tagged northwest flower and garden show

More About Miniature Garden Plants

16/05/2013 at 6:28 pm · Filed under Customer Interaction, For the New Gardener, Miniature Plants, Resources ·Tagged Conifers, container gardening, DIY, garden, gardening, How to's, inspiration, Janit Calvo, miniature garden, miniature gardens, miniature plants, northwest flower and garden show, outdoor plants, plants, trend

Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show

Some of the plants used for our Northwest Flower and Garden Show display were chosen as experiments to see how fast they grow up. The Parahebe, the small plant in front of the big Hinoki tree in the front blue pot, ‘looked’ like a good possibility – until it grew up.

More About Miniature Garden Plants

I STILL do it!

I fall for the cutest little plants, especially when they are in flower. I buy it, plant it and watch it grow – and grow and grow and grow! So not cool if you are a miniature gardener.

So. Not. Cool.

;o)

After all, we ARE looking from them to stay small or grow really slowly.

I’m getting a lot of emails lately asking about what kind of plants to use for miniature gardening – or how to find out what works in your backyard and what doesn’t. So I put this mini-directory together of previous blogs that have touched upon the subject in various ways. If your question isn’t answered here, please do let me know.

How to Find the Plants

This is part four of our beginner series. You’ll find the links to the rest of the series in the post. These are the steps to take for indoor and outdoor plants:

http://minigardener.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/miniature-gardening-104-how-to-find-the-plants/

Examples of What to Look For

The main points of what to look for with a few examples of plants that we like:

http://minigardener.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/miniature-garden-plants-examples-of-what-to-look-for/

Secrets to Success

In this post, I talk about some of the plants that trick us into thinking they would work – until they grow up:

http://minigardener.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/miniature-garden-plants-secrets-to-success/

About the Plants Behind the Winning Gardens

From our annual Miniature Garden Contest – I break down the plants that each winner used in their miniature gardens:

http://minigardener.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/an-inside-peak-at-the-miniature-plants-in-the-award-winning-gardens/

The Meaning of “Dwarf” and “Miniature”

Dwarf and miniature are often used in the names of plants to help sell them – which can be misleading. Here are the definitions and what we mean by “dwarf” and “miniature:”

http://minigardener.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/miniature-dwarf-plants-the-true-meaning/

Signs of the Plants Demise So You Can Prevent It

A discussion on the signals that plants give you when they are not happy.

http://minigardener.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/how-plants-die/

Four months later: the Parahebe sure has pretty flowers – that have overgrown the scale of the miniature garden! I’ll transfer it to one of my in-ground miniature gardens in the fall.

What Can be Grown in your Area?

The very best way to get to know what plants work in your area is your local garden center or nursery – NOT a big box store. You know, one of those cozy, plant-laden stores where you hear a soothing fountain off in the corner, the air is thick with humidity and you have to duck under trees and walk over the hose to get to the cashier – and this is inside the building – THAT kind garden center.

Take some time and walk around and get a feel for where they have the plants at the nursery. You should find the right plants in the right place too. Note the zone info and what kind of soil they recommend for the plant. Then you can retreat home and look again at the space that you are thinking for your miniature garden if you haven’t decided that yet.

Here’s a quick-list of what you are looking for:

Miniature or slow-growing dwarf trees or shrubs
Groundcovers
Rockery Plants
Alpine Plants
Sedums & Succulents (small leafed, of course)

For a complete discussion of the trees, shrubs and plants for miniature gardening, look forward to the first comprehensive book on miniature gardening from Timber Press:

Now available for pre-order through Amazon.com, or wherever books are sold. To pre-order your signed-by-the-author copy, from our online store, click here. Ask your local garden center or favorite book seller to get it for you – it’s published by Timber Press.

Join us for more fun in the miniature garden and sign up for our FREE monthly Mini Garden Gazette newsletter. You’ll get a free PDF, The Best of the Mini Garden Gazette delivered straight to your inbox after you confirm your subscription through your email. Join us here.

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Hobbits at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show

22/02/2013 at 2:54 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, Life-sized Gardening ·Tagged connecting, flower and garden show, garden shows, gardening, Janit Calvo, northwest flower and garden show

A good hobbit is hard to find. Our fellow MG, Steve, fooling around in front of the Arboretum’s award winning display garden. Checkout his shoes! Lol!

Hobbits at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show

And here is our favorite full-sized display garden from this year’s show. Pillow Talk with Doris Day and Rock Hudson gardens.

Pillow Talk with Doris Day and Rock Hudson gardens at the NWFGS

Doris Day’s garden.

And Rock Hudson’s garden. They are both on the phone to each other but you can’t see the figure – only the phone. Too fun!

(Here’s the rest of the series in case you missed it: #1 of the Series, Part Deux, Part III, #4 and #5 from yesterday.)

To see more photographs of the full-sized displays, we’ve left it up to a professional, Mark Turner of Bellingham, Wa. Click here.

Going to a garden show near you this season? Here’s a quick blog of what plants to look for here.

Like these shenanigans? Join us for your FREE monthly Mini Garden Gazette here.

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Miniature Gardening at Your Local Garden Show: Shopping Tips, #5

21/02/2013 at 9:29 am · Filed under Because it's fun, Conifers, Customer Interaction, For the New Gardener, Indoor Mini Gardens, Miniature Plants, Resources ·Tagged bedding plants, Conifers, connecting, container gardening, DIY, flower and garden show, garden shows, inspiration, Janit Calvo, miniature, miniature garden, miniature plants, nature, northwest flower and garden show, plants, shopping, trees and shrubs, trend

Looking for the right Miniature Garden plants at the garden shows this season? Here’s what to look for.

Miniature Gardening at Your Local Garden Show: Shopping Tips

Looking for the right Miniature Garden plants at the garden shows this season? We have some examples from our Northwest Flower and Garden Show that’s going on right now in Seattle. Here’s a quick overview what plants to look for.

(Here’s the rest of the series in case you missed it: #1 of the Series, Part Deux, Part III, and #4 from yesterday.)

Miniature Hostas are usually less than 3″ tall and great for dry, shady spots. If you’re in the PNW and have snails or slugs, they are great in pots too. ~> At the Naylor Creek Booth, (from the Olympic Peninsula) in the NWFGS plant market. Owner Jack said, “Any one called “Mouse” is a miniature!”

Miniature Trees and Shrubs: Look for a growth rate of under 3″ per year. And note the overall shape – upright column, upright broad, globe or spreading. The young conifers will grow to their adult shape after a couple of years. It should say on the tag!

Ravenna Gardens from right here in Seattle, have some really cute Monteray Cypress in 4″ pots. The Monteray cypress is a bit faster growing than 3″ per year but with plants this small, we can still enjoy them in the miniature garden for several years. (Note that there are several common names for this one, Lemon, Wilma Goldcrest, etc.)

You can find an wide selection of ‘miniature bedding plants‘ or ground covers. Look for slow growing, short and small-leafed. Think about layers in the garden bed while you shop – different plant heights create a more interesting garden.

Air plants (tillsandias) are great miniature garden plants for your indoor pots. Easy to care for. Visit Rick and Barb at Owens Gardens in the plant market. They are just north of the city and they have been at every single Northwest Flower and Garden Show since it started 25 years ago.

Several vendors have miniature and dwarf conifers for sale. Think about where your miniature garden will live first, and get the appropriate tree to suit. Full sun plants for full sun, shade plants for shady spots, etc. Canadian shoppers at the NWFGS can get their plants certified by the USDA right here at the show so you can bring them across the border.

Miniature Roses!! They are just the cutest thing in the whole wide world AND they HAVE TONS OF THEM here: http://www.HeirloomRoses.com. Even the leaves are miniature!

Like this? Then you will like our monthly Mini Garden Gazette. It’s free and delivered straight to you inbox each month. Join here.

Can’t get to any garden shows? Stay tuned, we’ll get you some more show-happenings right here!

Wanna start shopping? Visit our Miniature Garden Center now.

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Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show #4

20/02/2013 at 4:26 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, Customer Interaction, D.I.Y. Ideas, Garden Art, Life-sized Gardening, Miniature Garden Accessories, Miniature Plants, The Business ·Tagged Conifers, fairy garden, garden shows, hinoki cypress, hobby, inspiration, Janit Calvo, miniature, miniature garden, miniature plants, moses lake wa, northwest flower and garden show, plants, sagina subulata, small space gardening

Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. This year’s display is called ‘The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette.”

Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show #4

Welcome to the fourth blog of our Northwest Flower and Garden Show series. In case you missed it, here are the first installments: #1 of the Series, Part Deux, Part III.

Aaaaand today was the big opening day of the show and here is our display in pictures – we know you’ve been waiting for it!

We teamed up with Bruce Bailey of Heavy Petal Nursery in Moses Lake, Wa, who did the full-sized plant design and installment, as well as the painting on the backdrop.

A pretty blend of mulberry-reds with a variety of different greens make up the color scheme. We wanted to blend the meadow with the interior and what better way to do that is with a carpet of plants. The ferns, grasses, moss and flowers mix up the textures to make it interesting to the eye.

Hinoki Cypress is a favorite tree for the miniature garden. This one is over 12 years old and is still a great tree for the tiny garden.

Marie Antoinette had rivers and streams built into the landscape so she could have ducks and swans. The green stone sheets available in our online store really helped with the stone wall.

Irish Moss (Sagina subulata) creates an instant lawn. The small bush at the front is a Parahebe that we are testing to see if it behaves this summer. The yellow grass in the river is Miniature Sweet Flag (Acorus griminess ‘Ogon’)

The details lure in the viewer for a closer look.

Lil’ Hameau in HO scale. The gangly Boulevard Cypresses create the illusion of tall trees. The small details, combined with the tiny gravel, deliver the scale of the garden to the viewer.

Teenie tiny! The grounds close to some of the buildings were kept simple while the larger gardens surrounded the palace, like the popular Gardens of Versailles. That’s a Majestic Japanese Holly on the left that has kept its berries from last summer.

Marie Antoinette was known for her shoes and her fashion but she enjoyed the outdoors and gardens too. She built the Hameau on the palace grounds to simulate a small farm complete with sheep and chickens so she could have a place to play with her children.

The Gardens of Versailles are represented by topiary shoes. The classical diamond motif is repeated on the living cushion.

All I need is a tiny dancer! A little pagoda cinches the scale of the tiny Pixie Dust Dwarf Alberta Spruce. That grass is Irish moss that has been starved – it’s small, yellowy and mossy – and perfect for this wee scene!

Must get a better picture! Here’s a close up.

Maidenhair Ferns from Fancy Fronds Nursery are mixed with English Daisies.

Steve layered in the back of the display to look like the outside of the Hameau. Marie Antoinette staged several of her outdoor buildings to look like an old farmhouse and barn. This would be an interesting technique to use for miniatures.

A lovely blend of textures and colors by Bruce.

That small Almond Tree on the right is just about to burst into bloom – just in time!

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Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, Part III

19/02/2013 at 6:13 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, Customer Interaction, D.I.Y. Ideas, Garden Art, The Business ·Tagged dry riverbed, garden shows, How to's, inspiration, Janit Calvo, miniature garden, miniature plants, new, northwest flower and garden show, small space gardening

Moving boulders around in the world’s smallest dry riverbed – it’s tough work. ;o)

Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, Part III

This is the one week in the year that the Washington Convention Center turns into a garden mecca. Perfect timing for winter-weary gardeners just itching to get out and turn some soil. Today was the polish-up-your-display-day at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show that is on tomorrow through Sunday.

In continuing with this series, here are some final prep photos and a couple of sneak peeks of the final display – the big reveal is tomorrow so stay tuned!

PS – I’ll show you how we pack and move the miniature gardens at the end of the show with minimal fuss. With all the flurry and excitement, I forgot to take photos of the load-in!

Little Majestic Dwarf Japanese Holly kept its berries on – thankfully! We needed some orchard-like plants for this display.

There are a number of smaller Saxifraga that make great miniature bedding plants for the tiny gardens. They like sun and well-drained soil. A grower-friend puts a big rock in the planting hole and plants her Saxifrage on top of it with good results in this rain-soaked region.

I cut up the square brick sheets to create the stone “walls” for the wee driveway to the Hameau. Glued them to a piece of border, then painted them the same color as the gravel. The small clips really helped clamping it together until the glue dried, and standing up the piece, so it could dry after painting it. I think we found them at a dollar store.

The brick sides were installed using the Mini Patio Mix Kit (includes the borders too.) The gravel was laid down right on top of the Mix and pressed in ever-so-slightly before misting. There is still loose gravel on top of the patio, but it’s not going anywhere now. We found the crushed mini-gravel at Bedrock Industries, Seattle, Wa.

A mix of accessories – we always bring several possibilities because you never really know how it is going to look until you get everything together and installed. Then you can swap out the accent pieces to see what looks best. Most of these accessories are either discontinued or one of a kind.

SNEAK PEEK – The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette: The Meadow

SNEAK PEEK – The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette: A Cherub in the Daisies

SNEAK PEEK – The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette: The First Vignette.

See the previous blogs in this series here.

Want to follow our journey? Sign up for this blog over there on the right ~~>

Do you love to Garden in Miniature? Then you’ll love the Mini Garden Gazette, our free monthly newsletter. Join here.

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Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, 2013

16/02/2013 at 1:20 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, The Business ·Tagged business, connecting, container gardening, craft, DIY, french queen, Garden Art, gardening, Humour, inspiration, Janit Calvo, miniature garden, miniature gardens, miniature plants, moses lake, northwest flower and garden show, plants, seattle, trend

Preparing for the Marie Antoinette Display at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show this weekend. This is a tiny Hameau for one of our display gardens – the young French Queen sought solace in her faux cottages and farm buildings set up around the palace grounds that make delicious fodder for the miniature gardens!

Miniature Gardening at the
Northwest Flower & Garden Show

I’m taking you with me this year.

We’re going on a visual romp of the Private Realm of Marie Antoinette – and then some!

That’s our theme for our annual display at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle this coming week. This year we are teaming up with the very creative and knowledgeable mind of Mr. Bruce Bailey of Heavy Petal Nursery in Moses Lake to bring you a taste of this young Queen’s inner life.

Did you know what she was a plant-nut as well as a trend setter and fashionista? Neither did we until we dug deeper into her … private realm – ! Lol!

So, this is the first of the series for this long week ahead. I’m going to try to do one a day and show not only our display work, but I’ll take you into show to see what kinds miniature gardening we can find now that this trend is upon us. It’ll be nice to have some company in this niche, it’s our 9th year doing a display and more than not, we were the only ones with miniature gardens – plugging along… Lol! But I bet that changes this year!

(If you’re logged into WordPress, the Follow button is on the top of the page. ^)

And, do join us for our free monthly Miniature Garden Gazettes too – there is nuthin’ else like it. Click here and follow the prompts – you’ll get into the Gazette archives after confirming through your email.

And here’s the start of your visual romp! (I just wanted to say that again.)

Planning, planning, planning. We start with a lot of ideas and the ones that are doable eventually emerge as the deadline draws closer.

Bruce paints the backdrop as Steve horses around. Humor is a required ingredient in doing these shows!

Bruce found the PERFECT chairs – they aren’t authentic Louie XVI so we had no problems painting them to match the display.

Marie Antoinette created a faux farm and had her servants tie ribbons on the sheep, clean the eggs in the chicken coop and even created fake rivers and ponds for her swans. Oh to be a Queen!

Bruce’s painting on the backdrop to bring some Chinoiserie (a fancy word for Chinese-style) into the display. Marie Antoinette was heavily influenced by the new furniture, art and decor from China during the late 1700s.

Moo Poo Tea is a life saver when one tries to revive dormant plants to get them ready for the show in the dead winter. Moo Poo Tea is a soil conditioner to add to your water – so you give the plants a little boost every time you water and it’s 100% organic. While us miniature gardeners tend to shy away from fertilizers, it really helps during showtime.

Like this? There’s a lot more in store for you then! Click here to join our mailing list.

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Miniature Gardening: And the Winner is….

28/02/2012 at 7:00 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, Customer Interaction, Resources, The Business ·Tagged business, connecting, dining room table, flower and garden show, hobby, hobby industry, inspiration, Janit Calvo, joy and wonder, miniature garden, northwest flower and garden show, page layouts

Two Green Thumbs Miniature Garden Center does the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. It is still interesting to see the response after all these years. Miniature Gardening is now old-hat to some people, brand new to others, but everyone got at least a giggle out of it.

Miniature Gardening: And the Winner is…

“It transports you to somewhere else.”

“It puts you in a different world.”

“It ignites the imagination.”

These are loosely quoted snippets from some our top actors, during a video montage played at the Academy Awards this past Sunday night. The actors were talking about the role of movies and the film industry in our daily lives, as if getting lost in a movie was something so unique, so needed by our imagination as a vehicle to transport us, to inspire us, to bring us joy and wonder…

I smiled to myself while watching the familiar faces ooze with such sincerity describing their beloved industry but, in reality, they could have been talking about any hobby under the sun. And hobbies last much longer than movies.

But, let me back this up before we move forward. ;o)

I have spent years in the hobby industry. In fact, I was weaned on it. Hours were spent during summer nights at the dining room table with my father, gluing down page layouts to get them ready for the typesetter. Dad would come out to the farm on the weekends and bring the publishing work with him. He would cut up the old edition of whatever book he was working on at the time, and place the pieces on a sheet of paper in the order that I was to glue it down for him. I think I was about 10 years old and very content to finally have the attention of my father – if it was only for a couple of hours.

For the next few decades, half of the family business was buying and selling gold and antiques, the other half was publishing catalogs on collectibles. I didn’t care for the cut-throat-I’m-smarter-than-you-are-so-I-win world of antiques and, after demonstrating a penchant for the visual arts, I was relegated to working at The Charlton Press.

The Charlton Press is a small publishing company that specializes in collecting and cataloging 20th century collectibles. Coins, medals, badges, hockey cards, Beswick and Royal Doulton Figurines are just a fraction of the subjects they now catalog and publish. The mandate was to create the catalog which would help the build interest in the respective hobby, which, in turn, would create a need for the catalogs.

So, I spent nearly two and a half decades of my life unknowingly learning about the various ways that people approach hobbies. We figured out what information needs to be collected in the first place, studied it, collected it, measured it, called in the experts to help clarify it and packaged in a book form, in order to make it easy for people to access the right information to learn and grow within the hobby.

I think its funny that I’ve found myself
being the trailblazer of the
miniature garden hobby.
I only wanted to do something
that could transport me and
make my imagination spin. ;o)

And in living this hobbified? hobbitastic? life, I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter what hobby it is that you partake in, it will take you to somewhere else. Whether you are collecting plants and creating your own private space, collecting coins and diving into history’s corners, crocheting a new afghan blanket and designing it as you go, or whether you are creating a garden in miniature, you will be transported to your very own world. And that’s okay, they know you there.

Visit our online store to see our new, true miniature and slow-growing plants and miniature garden accessories here.

Join our mailing list here.

Subscribe to this blog over on the right… ~> ;o)

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Miniature Fairy Gardens at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show

23/02/2012 at 1:16 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, Customer Interaction, Fairy Gardening, For the New Gardener, Indoor Mini Gardens, Miniature Garden Accessories, Miniature Plants, The Business ·Tagged amy brown fairy, colorful beads, condo gardening, connecting, faeries, fairy garden, flower and garden show, garden, Garden Art, garden furniture, garden shows, green, hobby, inspiration, Janit Calvo, miniature garden, northwest flower and garden show, northwest flower and garden show seattle wa

NWFGS 2012 - Miniature Fairy Garden Display

This is becoming an annual tradition, it's our 9th year of doing a miniature garden display on the skybridge at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, Seattle, Wa. Here's a tour of our display:

How sweet she is! I started with an Amy Brown Fairy and glued, painted, glued, drilled, painted and glued things on her to make her stand out in the display - since she was to be the only fairy in the scene. I stole the swing off of another piece, glued the driftwood and moss onto to it. We hung it with fishing line so it would appear suspended. The gem sits there and sparkles like a holiday.

Found and broken object were "melded" onto the pots and used as miniature garden accessories helped to create the fantasy. It was fun to create with such careless abandon. I recommend it.

This Zmatlik Arborvitae is roughly 10 years old. A great forest-y looking tree for full sun that's great for in-ground or in a pot. It turns a brilliant amber color in the cold months.

Branches, air plants, and bits of miniature jetsam were tucked in the moss bed, then sprinkled with glitter that twinkled as you walked by it. This pot is 12" wide.

A "concrete" pond sets the stage, the Jervis Canada Hemlock creates an aged look and the colorful beads add interest. That leafy plant around the pond I believe is a type of Soldanelle.

The Cotoneaster came pre-trained for an easy bonsai look. We've had this one for about 4 years now. That's a 1/2" scale or medium sized bench. The pot is about 10" wide.

A young Daphne has the look of a perfect shrub in miniature. I didn't have the heart to limb it up a bit to show some trunk, it was just beginning to bud. That's a tiny angel fairy on the pedestal.

I was fun to create the pot and the miniature garden together for a more complete idea. By decorating the pots, it cinched the surreal, fantasy look. That is a Jean Iseli Hinoki Cypress that we've had for a few years, it's becoming a majestic tree in miniature.

A young couple sought me out at our booth to say, "We are very impressed with your creativity, it was the best display and most creative at the show. We had to come over and tell you that. Thank you for sharing." It was the best compliment ever. Honestly. I should have taken their contact info... it's that kind of encouragement that keeps me going.

We wanted the look of a forest floor. Our backdrop changed dramatically over the weeks leading up to the show. I'm happy with the simple colors, the attention went to the plants and pots where it should be. The colors weren't exactly idea for photography though..

Tiny details were fun to tuck here and there throughout the display. Another person had to stop me and say, "Every time I walk by your garden, I see something different!"

A mini miniature garden. The patio stones are locked in with our Mini Patio Mix Kit, now available at a local garden center near you! The gazing ball is 1 5/8" tall. Look for the new 2012 colors up in the online store next week.

Most of our plants are true miniature and dwarf plants with the occasional exception. These baby Monteray Cypress are a little faster growing than we normally prefer, but the color, and the fact that they can be grown indoors, outweigh the growth rate. They smell great too ~ you may know them as Lemon Cypress.

We nurtured these young Monteray Cypresses just for the show, watering them with Moo Poo Tea from Authentic Haven Brand Soil Conditioning Teas to get them looking their best.

We customized just about every accessory that went into the display. With our passion trending these days, it's our way of staying ahead of the curve. You can find our One-of-a-Kind and customize miniature garden accessories in our Etsy store.

Fireflies in a jar adds a bit of magic...

Our fairy bed made by Georgetown Home and Garden is cute as a button and looks great in any setting. They'll be up in the store shortly

The fairy magic is in the details when it comes to miniature gardening.

NWFGS 2012 - Miniature Fairy Garden Display was a great success. Again, we did something completely different than anyone else at the show and if we made people laugh, smile and dream, our job is complete.

Find the plants and accessories mentioned here, or to visit our online store, the world’s only store solely dedicated to the art and craft of miniature gardening go here.

Subscribe to this blog, up on the right ~>

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