The rite of spring that is the Northwest Flower and Garden Show begins this month
The Northwest Flower and Garden Show is the official start of spring in Western Washington, and this year the show runs Feb. 26 to March 1 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.
You don’t need to be a gardener to enjoy the spectacle of acres of show gardens, fragrance of spring, multitude of seminars and live entertainment.
Changes over the years have turned the show into a festival of fun, with wine and beer gardens along with food tasting and lots of “Pinterest worthy” design and gift ideas. The NWFG festival is a great event for date night, for a family with kids and for everyone who ever wanted to learn a thing or two about growing and gardening.
This year Ciscoe Morris will be hosting “Garden Jeopardy” on Saturday, Feb. 29 at 4:30 p.m. so you can learn more about gardening trivia from two teams of garden experts competing just like you see on the Jeopardy show on TV. (Spoiler alert, this garden columnist will be on one of the teams)
Ciscoe has his latest book available called “OH, LA LA! Homegrown Stories, Helpful Tips, and Garden Wisdom.” The book is full of practical gardening advice along with fun stories and the message that gardening is supposed to be fun.
Here are a few things I learned from Ciscoe’s new book:
▪ Brussel Sprouts are Hard to Grow: Ciscoe loves to eat Brussel sprouts but admits they can be difficult to grow. He offers practical advice, such as not letting the young plants become root-bound in pots, cutting off the top of the plant in September to encourage ripening, letting a frost hit the developing sprouts to sweeten them up and how to soak the harvest in salt water to get rid of the aphids. You’ll have to read the book to find out all the funny Brussel sprout situations Ciscoe has gotten himself into.
▪ Forsythia needs special pruning: Giant, overgrown shrubs like ancient forsythias can be whipped back into shape with proper pruning, and here is when experience counts. Ciscoe explains why you cannot just cut a giant forsythia to the ground and expect it to grow back in a tidy manner. You must eliminate a good percentage of the branches that sprout from the ground as suckers. It will take a full summer of cutting back suckers, but if you leave only a few well-spaced branches, you too can renovate a forsythia and avoid what happened on the Seattle University campus — the story involves wine bottles and a “dead body”.
▪ Squirrels can be outsmarted: Ciscoe explains that the large gray squirrel that digs up tulip bulbs is not native to our area and can often be outsmarted by planting your bulbs 12 inches deep. He also suggests planting snowdrop and daffodil bulbs as squirrels will not eat them. Another idea to protect bulbs is to use underground wire cages. Ciscoe’s final suggestions is to adopt a Jack Russel terrier for squirrel control, but the story of what happened with that suggestion is waiting for you when you buy his book.
Learn from Marianne Binetti
▪ Marianne Binetti will host “Container Wars” every day of the Northwest Flower and Garden Show at 11:30 a.m. Learn the best design and plant ideas from experts competing in a live show. www.gardenshow.com.