{"id":104547,"date":"2024-07-29T02:14:22","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T06:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=104547"},"modified":"2024-07-29T02:14:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T06:14:22","slug":"thank-you-garden-fling-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=104547","title":{"rendered":"thank you, Garden Fling 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_9733\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
a beach at Vashon Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since 2008, the garden tour now known as the Garden Fling<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_9793\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Hydrangeas were one of the signature plants on the tour, along with lilies, clematis, ferns, conifers and an amazing array of rare plants sourced from the many excellent regional plant nurseries supported by a vibrant PNW garden culture<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_9652\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_0269\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_0129\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> step in to help grease the tour wheels — thanks to all of you as well! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_0164\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
dieramas and eucomis shine in a complex planting at Heronswood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_9816\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_9701\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_9870\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
a water fern blanketing a pond, Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_9646\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_0106\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_0232\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_0322\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_9867\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_0098\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_0105\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_0192\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
a formal water feature PNW-style, filled with sarracenia\/pitcher plants (Heronswood)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_0296\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
the Heckler garden on the Kitsap Peninsula brought out paper parasols to protect hydrangeas from recent 90F temps. Tour days were warm but fortunately ranged in the 80sF. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[2807,850,112],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-rcf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104547"}],"version-history":[{"count":75,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104623,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104547\/revisions\/104623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}