A quick thanks, a few photos, and a short introduction to the Garden Fling, in the off chance a reader of AGO has never heard of this special garden tour.
Since 2008, the garden tour now known as the Garden Fling has changed names and broadened enrollment, but its basic premise remains the same. A tour of a region’s gardens, plant nurseries, and botanical gardens is developed, curated and hosted by those that know them best, the local gardeners. As far as I know, this grassroots familiarity with a region makes these garden tours unique.
Last weekend (July 19-22) our two buses visited 23 Tacoma/Seattle gardens in four days, and included the PNW twist of a ferry ride to visit gardens on Vashon Island. Thanks to the hard-working local hosts, the logistics and travel details were handled cheerfully and flawlessly.
This entirely volunteer-led effort is an outgrowth of a deep love of gardens and plants and the desire to share them with other enthusiasts, via blogs and other social media (and, through the tour, IRL). Sponsors step in to help grease the tour wheels — thanks to all of you as well!
The Pacific Northwest continues to loom in the public imagination as an eternally overcast land of misty forests, which is true for some of the year, but it also contends with very dry summers and, now, record heat waves. And increasingly winter brings uncharacteristic, zone-regressing cold events, like last winter’s January ice storm. If the tour gardens sustained winter losses, it was apparent only to the owners — it all looked glorious to me.
To me many of the gardens, intentionally or not, evoke a wander through the coastal forest. Narrow paths instead of broad walks, changes in levels, switchbacks, carefully layered understories, hidden pools — garden-making in response to, and inspired by, living in the world’s largest temperate rain forest. There were plenty of sun-loving plants and spaces allowed for them, but the forest was an undeniably magnificent presence in the gardens we visited.
Because I traveled by car, I was able to indulge in some ferocious plant shopping at Windcliff, and the bus handily absorbed my flat of plants thanks to our friendly bus driver. Many of us have attended several Garden Fling tours, but there’s always new faces aboard the bus. And meeting online friends for the first time is so much fun — printed words can’t compare to freewheeling conversation with observant, sardonic, witty, opinionated plant people. It was such a good time, many thanks to all who made it happen!
What an experience! Gardening in Washington is so completely different from here. It was great spending time with you!
You’ve got such a great eye, your photos are fantastic. I enjoyed seeing so many plants I could have no chance with here at home. How lucky you could drive home with new plants!
Oh I would have loved to see a photo of your plant haul! I am so glad you were part of this action packed Fling.
Great photos, Denise! No matter how thorough I feel I’ve been in taking photographs, I’m always surprised at the number of wonderful vignettes I missed. Of course, each garden visit always seems too short as well! I’ve already located a source for the ‘Zeba’ lily and preordered bulbs. I’m also seriously considering trying a Hydrangea in a large pot, something I’d previously told myself I wouldn’t do in my very dry garden.
It was good to see you! It’d been too long.
Buying plants is a great benefit of living close enough to drive to Fling ! I only bought one -what was I thinking ? I’ll do better if I go to HPSO Study Weekend next summer. Excellent photos as always-I’ve been spending every day back so far doing triage in my own garden and have yet to sit down and and process mine. Being away from a garden for 10 days in mid summer takes it’s toll . It was great to see you again Denise!
@Gerhard, I wish we could get together more often, but at least there’s a yearly Fling!
@Tracy, it’s hard to take a bad photo when the garden designers are that smart and lead you right up to it. Coming home with plants is always icing on the cake of any road trip.
@Loree, I did get that varieg stachyurus and a Euphorbia xantii-type shrub, Carmichaelia australis, another olearia and a few other impulse buys. I haven’t shopped like that in a while, just really letting go!
@Kris, good job finding that lily! I’m pretty sure hydrangeas will grow well for you in a pot in a shady area — seems I remember them in the ground in my childhood neighborhood in Carson, LA County…
@Kathy, just one plant! I don’t think I’ve shopped like that since Western Hills, so absorbed I missed the group portrait, interrupted a lot of people to ask questions — what a scene! I don’t have enough info to do each garden justice so wanted to get an overview out quick — maybe I’ll do a deep dive on one or two gardens later.
It was so lovely to see you again, Denise. I’m glad you were able to snag a bunch of plants at Windcliff. And well said about the gardens and their celebration of the great PNW forest. It made for a magical tour experience for this Texas gardener.
I am very happy to have finally met you in person, Denise! The forest theme was definitely a strong presence in many of the gardens we visited. There is a lesson there, that it felt much more authentic and probably took far less energy to complement the surroundings, rather than trying to mangle in a garden from another place and time far removed from the ecosystem we inhabit here in the PNW. I can clearly see how I lack design basics, much to my chagrin. I’ve got more of a collector’s garden. Still, I am hoping I can incorporate some of what I saw so that my next 16 years in the garden aren’t as much of an uphill battle as the last 16. That’s all I can ask, in the end. You, by the way, asked the most incisive questions of anyone else on the tour. Thank you for the mental stretch and new perspectives. Nothing like a good mental yoga practice to keep us limber for what life tosses our way.
@Pam, I loved bumping into you as we wandered through the gardens, the essence of the Fling. Looking forward to doing it again!
@Jerry, I felt immediately at ease with you, and when I wrote “observant, sardonic, witty,” I had you in mind. What a pleasure. Funny you should mention my “incisive” questions — I felt at times I was more annoying than incisive! So sorry you returned home with the dreaded Covid and hope you’re on the mend.
Annoying, no. I remember worrying the same thing, suspecting I was the annoying one. Funny little inner dialogues, always leading me astray. Glad I made it into the observant, sardonic, and witty category!