Tacoma-grown orchids featured at regional garden show. See if you can spot the aliens
Through Sunday you can momentarily forget it’s winter in Washington and instead enjoy an early spring at this year’s Northwest Flower and Garden Festival in Seattle. In at least one of the show’s display gardens, you can make that spring in the tropics.
Tacoma’s Emerald City Orchids has created a garden that emulates a ravine filled with hundreds of tropical plants and, of course, orchids.
Some 17 terrariums of varying sizes are nestled in the landscape called, “Worlds Within Worlds.”
“We’re showing a large jungle with little jungles tucked in between,” said Emerald City Orchids owner Joe Grienauer. Look closer and you’ll see aliens and a space ship.
“We’re channeling a little bit of ‘Mars Attacks,’” he said.
While this is Emerald City Orchids’s first display garden at the Seattle show, it’s about the 10th Grienauer has worked on. The previous versions were created by the Northwest Orchid Society which no longer creates displays there.
Greinauer moved his nursery from Seattle (hence the name) to 4734 S. Tacoma Way in 2011. For the past two years, his retail operation has been operating from the building.
The 200 or so species of orchids in his display garden are just a small percentage of the 27,000 species that grow nearly everywhere on Earth, he said.
Washington state has more than 30 native orchids. They include the fairy slipper, spotted coral root, hooded ladies’ tresses and rattlesnake plantain.
Grienauer said growing orchids isn’t difficult as long as you keep them in bright light but not direct sunlight and put them in pots with drainage holes. Many plants sold at supermarkets are in pots without holes.
Show highlights
● Traveler’s Tea: Attendees will hear stories from speakers, designers, and travelers sharing their experiences working in gardens around the world, including England, Marrakech and Japan.
● The Plant Academy offers in-depth seminars on popular gardening topics.
● A daily Small Space Solutions seminar will give tips and tricks for maximizing limited space in urban settings including a session on growing food at home.
● Marcus Bridgewater of Garden Marcus will give a talk about tree-based meditation.
● House plant experts Kamili Bell Hill of PlantBlerd, Abby Perry of Abby’s Garden Parties and Derek Haynes of The Chocolate Botanist will speak about house plants and give tips on how to keep them thriving.
● Authors of Atlas Obscura and Gastro Obscura, Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras, will speak about the diversity of edible plants.
● Ornamental grass expert Neil Lucas will lead a seminar on biodiversity and eco-friendly gardening practices.
If you go
▪ What: Northwest Flower and Garden Festival
▪ When: 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday (Feb. 19-23).
▪ Where: Seattle Convention Center, 705 Pike St., Seattle.
▪ Tickets: $23 adult advance and $29 during show. See website for discounts and deals..
▪ Information: gardenshow.com
