Garden bloggers, you may as well make your reservations today. The 4th annual national garden blogger meet-up will be held in Seattle, July 22-25, and you will not want to miss it! Think about it: the green, temperate Pacific Northwest is a gardener’s paradise, and Seattle is a beautiful, vibrant city. Check out the official Garden Bloggers Fling 2011 website for the details as they unfold.

Who are the bloggers putting on this fabulous event? The talented and accomplished Debra Prinzing, Lorene Edwards Forkner (Planted at Home), and Marty Wingate (Passports and Seed Packets) are our Emerald City hosts. A big thank-you to each of them for volunteering to host this event.

To whet your appetite, here are our group pictures and links from previous years’ Flings. Follow the links for hundreds of posts about these events.

Garden Bloggers Buffa10, Buffalo, New York, July 8-11

Chicago Spring Fling, Chicago, Illinois, May 29-31, 2009

Garden Bloggers Spring Fling, Austin, Texas, April 4-5, 2008

Can’t wait to do it again. See you in Seattle, garden bloggers!

All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

For my last post about Chicago Spring Fling, I’ll revisit a gem of a garden hidden away in a corner of Lincoln Park, not far from the zoo: Caldwell Lily Pool.

A sign gives you the back story.

Like entering a cave or a slot canyon, you walk down a slight slope and through a layered-stone and steel gate.

A naturalistic woodland-edge garden surrounds the lily pool, brimming in late May with springtime color. The image at the top of this post shows the lily pool and a sheltering structure built on a small peninsula.

Looking back at the shelter from the other side of the pool

One of the pond residents taking a rest.

A stone stair ascends to a council ring that overlooks the pool.

The first council ring I ever saw was at Chicago Botanic Garden on Evening Island. I loved the idea of simple, circular stone walls that double as benches, enclosing a peaceful get-away spot, and have since designed one for a client’s garden with a fire pit in the middle.

Since time was short, I didn’t get to explore all of Caldwell Lily Pool, but I will remedy that when I next return to Chicago. Heading back to the bus with Diana, a lovely flower garden alongside the sidewalk grabbed our attention, particularly these sunny yellow irises.

And bleeding hearts, which I’ve often admired on the blogs of northern gardeners.

Shasta daisies always look happy.

And so was I thanks to a wonderful day of private and public garden tours. Chicago showed herself to be a vibrant, friendly, and well-gardened city. I hope to visit again someday soon.

All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

I’m going to reveal my innate geekiness by comparing the Fern Room in Chicago’s excellent Garfield Park Conservatory to the lush, edenic world created by Project Genesis in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Come on, you know you’ve seen it. Don’t you agree?

A century old, the conservatory opened to the public in 1908 and houses rare tropical plants, including gigantic palms whose fronds press against the peaked roof, as well as desert plants, a small Chihuly display, a children’s play area, and more.

I have never been very interested in glass houses. Who needs them in the Deep South, where winter rarely brings more than a light frost and plants stay green all year? Nevertheless, I ended up seeing two glass houses during Spring Fling Chicago : the Lincoln Park Conservatory and the one at Garfield Park. The latter is huge by comparison, and, frankly, it knocked my socks off. The tropical plants were enormous, and beautifully and naturally arranged, and I felt transported to another world as I strolled among them.

Forest primaeval! It’s easy to imagine a dinosaur poking its head out of the ferns.

Snapping a few pics of his own is Christopher of Outside Clyde, one of the garden bloggers I was most happy to meet, having read him for so long. That’s Christopher in the very top photo as well.

Ferns stood tall and crouched low. Fronds of all descriptions created a mass of intense greenery.

Patterns appeared and shifted.

Kylee was among the small group of Spring Flingers who made this Sunday tour, the last on the official agenda.

I fell in love with silver dollar fern (Adiantum peruvianum ) because of the ginkgo-like leaves and black stems. Beautiful!

And what is this shiny, curly thing rising from the leaves? Is it even from the same plant?

In the Aroid House, a striking installation of Dale Chihuly glass titled “Persian Lilies” lights up a small pool.

Part of a larger Chihuly exhibit from 2001, the Lilies were purchased for permanent display in the conservatory.

How I wish I could have seen the entire exhibit.

Maybe one day Chihuly will have an exhibit in Austin, or at least Dallas or Houston, which are close enough to easily visit.

Hey, these plants look a bit more familiar. The conservatory also houses desert plants, many of which we can grow in Austin.

Austin is, of course, much more lush than this. We’re fortunate in that we can grow a nice mix of both tropicals and desert plants, so long as we’re careful about drainage.

I’m always a sucker for the texture of these spiny plants.

So am I a convert to the wonders of glass houses? Well, I don’t know. Perhaps the Garfield is particularly magical. For magical it was, even with flowers blooming outside. Just imagine what it would be like to stroll those warm, humid paths in the dead of winter, with snow blanketing the world outside.

All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.