Nature, only better: The transcendent Bloedel Reserve
August 18, 2011 The Bloedel Reserve is a place of utter beauty and almost spiritual peacefulness. Rain drips quietly from mossy branches, and the color green wraps you in a soft embrace. I explored the grounds for two-and-a-half hours—not nearly enough time to see all 150 acres, but enough to ...
Color-rich Farley Garden at Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling
August 17, 2011 Kate Farley’s west Seattle garden, which I visited on Day 3 of the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling, is a garden of exploration from front to back. I’m going to start in back, because the Peruvian lilies (Alstroemeria) were blooming spectacularly, a huge swath glowing salmon-orange in the ...
Urban hillbilly chic defines Edwards Forkner Garden: Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling
August 15, 2011 Lorene welcoming 70+ bloggers into her Seattle garden on Day 3 of the Fling In a post on her blog Planted at Home, Lorene Edwards Forkner, a co-planner of the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling, catchily describes her gardening style as urban hillbilly chic: “I love to work ...
Happy people, great views: Seattle’s Bellevue Botanical Garden, Pike Place Market and Mt. Rainier
August 14, 2011 Crocosmia (Seattle’s signature plant during the Fling) and Helenium at the Bellevue Botanic Gardens During the last month’s Garden Bloggers Fling in Seattle I witnessed a lot of happy bloggers and a lot of beautiful views. We 70+ garden bloggers would be delighted to visit with each ...
Woodland fantasy: Lane Garden at Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling
August 13, 2011 Faces upturned to the warm sunshine—that’s how Seattleites greet the sun, when it appears Woodland gardens were expected at the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling last month. But mix in a classical folly dripping with flowers, glass art, reflective water features, a sophisticated outdoor-kitchen patio, and the magic ...
Garden with a view: Epping garden at Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling
August 11, 2011 If you’re lucky enough to live on a hilltop in Seattle, odds are you have a nice view of something, seeing as the city is surrounded by mountains and the sea. In the Epping Garden, which we visited on Day Two of the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling, ...
Nursery tour: Ravenna Gardens in Seattle, a color explosion
August 10, 2011 What could top off a day of garden touring at the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling? A happy hour, complete with swag bags, at stylish urban nursery/garden shop Ravenna Gardens. Located in an upscale outdoor mall just a couple of blocks from our hotel in the University District, ...
Foliage fantasia in Portland’s Danger Garden
August 04, 2011 I’m baaack! Did you miss me? If you thought I’d gone AWOL from Austin’s summer from hell, well, you were right. I left early for the Garden Bloggers Fling last month, flying into Portland, Oregon, on July 20 in order to meet blogger friend, foliage fiend, and ...
Visit to Biltmore House: Walled Garden & Conservatory
June 29, 2011 As always when visiting a beautiful garden, time was short, so the Walled Garden and conservatory were our final stop at Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina, earlier this month. The grounds slope steeply down from the grand house, through the Italian Garden and Shrub Garden, leading ...
Visit to Biltmore House: Esplanade, Terrace & Italian Garden
June 25, 2011 Built by George W. Vanderbilt, youthful inheritor of his family’s shipping fortune, Biltmore House is a 250-room, French-style chateau nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Asheville, North Carolina. The home is still owned by the Vanderbilt family but was opened to the public ...
Visit to Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Garden: Hardy tropicals & pond gardens
June 21, 2011 Not everyone loves agaves as much as I do, I realize (shaking my head in astonishment). For you, then, these flowery images from the Juniper Level Botanic Garden at Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, N.C., which I visited two weeks ago. Pictured above is an orange dahlia, ...
Dallas Open Days Tour 2011: Munsterman garden
May 25, 2011 I think the Munsterman garden, soon to be sold to some lucky buyer, along with the house, was my favorite on the May 21 Dallas Open Days tour. What can I say? I’m a sucker for garden rooms and colorful, inviting seating areas surrounded by striking foliage ...
Dallas Open Days Tour 2011: Rister-Armstrong garden
May 24, 2011 Our second stop on the Dallas Open Days tour last Saturday was the Anglophile garden of Alan Rister and Greg Armstrong in the Knox/Henderson neighborhood. Beautifully crafted formal hardscaping by landscape architect Susi Tompson is softened by lavish plantings designed and maintained by the owners. Anchoring the ...
Dallas Open Days Tour 2011: Blue Lotus Garden
May 23, 2011 As if there weren’t enough garden tours in Austin this spring, I drove up to Dallas on May 21st for that city’s Open Days tour benefiting the Garden Conservancy, accompanied by my daughter. Undaunted by the 3-hour drive, we arrived first at the exotically named Blue Lotus ...
Gardens on Tour 2011: Bee Cave Road garden
May 08, 2011 Yesterday I toured the five private gardens on Austin’s Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour 2011. The annual tour is designed to showcase gardens planted predominantly with native plants. My favorite garden this year? Landscape architect, plantsman, and rock hound Tait Moring‘s personal garden on Bee Cave Road ...
Flowers & spring green at Zilker Botanical Garden
April 04, 2011 From dinosaur gardens to Japanese gardens to the surprise of azaleas in Austin, Zilker Botanical Garden has something for everyone. And yes, they also have mixed beds of flowers in bloom, although thankfully no sweeps of bedding annuals. Here’s some lovely spring color (I’m including green!) brightening ...
