Musings on San Francisco Flower and Garden Show 2014

Didn't catch the name of this one –
probably because I was hypnotized! 

Checked out the SF Flower and Garden Show with a friend on a sunny (and a bit chilly) spring Saturday. We kicked off our visit with fries and a hefty glass of Mondavi chardonnay, which we sipped on as we leisurely strolled the featured garden design exhibits. Does that sound bougie?  I thought the fries kept it real.

Seemed like there were LOTS more exhibits than last year's show. And is it just me, or is the San Mateo Convention Center too dimly lit for such a spectacular event? I felt like the great work of many of the featured designers got lost a little in such off lighting. I think what it boils down to is I'm a bigger fan of garden tours than garden shows.

On the brighter side, this doesn't mean that inspiration and amusement didn't meet me on several points along the meticulously manicured path. I've decided I need to give Clivia a try. (Heaven knows I have enough shade for it.) And Monrovia's new Rock and Roll Peruvian Lily? I'm intrigued. Sorry my photo's a hot mess, but this plant's a hot must!

Here's what else jumped out at me.

Mixing hard and soft. As in agave with asparagus fern. Both have different water and light needs so may not be the best choice for a planting bed. But I do like the unexpected combination. From an aesthetic standpoint, it works beautifully.

Hebe pimelioides. Did I spell that right? AKA Quicksilver Hebe. I've been loving this blue-grey, textured, ground-hugging beauty for a long time now, but have never planted one. I saw it in lots of mixed-planting displays. My gardening instincts are telling me to try it in a pot (perhaps with burgundy and chartreuse companion plants) so it can spill over the side – and make me admire it even more.

The "Old Vinyard Meadow" by John Greenlee and Daniel Owen. This was clearly the stand-out design for me and my Mondavi-sippin', plant-lovin' companion. The grasses that covered every inch of the rolling space ... the gentle pops of color throughout ... the mature grape stumps ... the wisteria in the distance. Love, love, love. All that's missing was sunshine and butterflies.

The Garden Show's showstopper – at least to me. 

Leucadendron argenteum, a silvery sensation!

Cool Fir Sure. The large, upright showy cones of Korean fir (Abies koreana 'Horstmann's Silberlocke') caught our eye (and heard our oohs and aahs) as we meandered around the perimeter of the gold medal-awarded "Sanctuary Steppes" exhibit designed by Garden Hortica of Oakland. The structure was especially adorable to me because it beckoned memories of camping and building tree forts during my Midwest upbringing. So it was too bad we could only peek inside – and not go inside – the yurt and recapture the comforting feeling of being sheltered from the elements (or more like hiding from our parents). I congratulated Jeffrey Lim, Garden Hortica visionary, on the way out. He sat cross-legged on boulder, smiled, nodded, didn't utter a word. Was this to add mystique to the exhibit? I'd just seen him addressing a gaggle of garden visitors. Odd.

Espaliered Edibles. I've espaliered a Western Spicebush (Calycanthus occidentalis) against a fence in my garden and am loving the results. Working with and getting to know the Star Apple Edibles gals, Stef Bittner and Leslie Bennett, has inspired me to try my hand at manipulating other edibles into this method of controlling plant size in a most stunning way. The honeycrisp and Braeburn espalier displays sure were gorgeous. Might try one of those varieties for my next fence-hugging project.

Going Coastal. A nautical theme expressed tastefully in the "Anchored" exhibit by McKenna Landscape offered some cool ideas. A wooden walkway's planks, rather than all be cut the same length, featured different lengths that provided an attractive transition into a sitting area of decomposed granite. This same garden design also had a fence framed in wood but instead of slats, zig-zagging thick sailing rope, tied down with sailboat hardware, provided a see-through yet well-plotted division of one space from another.

Nautical's not really my thing, but I sure loved this. 

Glass Act. Under an open geo-dome made from what looked like the leaf-less, mature branches of a long-lived vine lay a circular mosaic pathway crafted from wine bottles. It was repurposed done exquisitely. I'll drink to that!

These beauties were just begging to be photographed.
Talk about plant porn!

Good Chair Day. We pulled up a chair in front of the large water feature that was surrounded by rhodies and azaleas galore. What we plopped down on was no ordinary patio seating. Each one-of-a-kind chair, masterfully crafted from hearty chunks of fallen cypress, is a masterpiece. Almost too pretty to sit on but we tried all three out anyway.

Hummingbird! On our way to a walkway flanked by olive, bottlebrush and citrus, a spectacular, ruby-throated hummingbird stopped us in our tracks. Wait. Is that real? What? How did it get in here? Regardless. Wow. Amazing.

Bought a basil tree for my boo. Didn't drive away with a truck full of plants this year (Surprisingly!) but I did pick up a Savour Greek basil tree for my man who loves to cook. It's an adorable little topiary in the shape of a lollipop and with teeny-tiny leaves that are so easy to pinch off and add delicious pow(!) to just about everything you can put in your pie hole. I'll always remember how I first learned about this tasty little tree. I was helping out in the test garden during last year's Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend, where the fabulous Johanna Silver, Sunset's associate garden editor, introduced the tree on stage and then proceeded to shear off most of the foliage with a ginormous set of loppers. I could be wrong but I think that very same plant is featured in the April 2014 issue of Sunset, looking a whole lot less butchered.