Some Tempting Wares and What I Bought

It's always fun to shop at the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival. Some years I am in the mood to buy everything I see. Other years I know exactly what I want and I make a beeline for it, especially if I know in advance that the vendor I'm interested in is going to be there. Many of them occupy the same spots every year, but others tend to move around a bit.

This year I knew what I wanted, but I still took some time to look around. I missed a lot, though, because of the crowds. If an aisle was too crowded to walk down, I skipped it. People who wander aimlessly or refuse to move at all annoy me.

Sedum Chicks has interesting little succulent tapestries for hanging on the wall. They also sell succulents in four-inch pots in case you want to make your own.

I like those planted-up black patent leather shoes, I kind of regret I didn't buy them

Rusty Birds has interesting art made out of rusty metal, not all of it birds.

This is like a smaller version of Potted's metal city planter

Some are left naturally rusty, but others are painted

Abraxas Crow Company makes steel sculptures of mostly birds. I bought a crow from them many years ago, possibly at the very first show I attended.

My blogging buddy Peter The Outlaw Gardener posted this week's In a Vase on Monday using a vase that he bought from potter Cindy Jenkins. What a fertile, creative mind this woman has!

The birds have holes in the top so they can be used as tiny vases

Her ceramic tiles are a lot of fun too!

I liked these three Polynesian lady's heads

All kinds of animals!

Stone Steel & Heart carves shapes into flagstones, and sometimes adds shapes carved out of metal to flagstones as art pieces for the garden. Very nice work, but expensive.

So....what did I buy? I couldn't resist this vase from Cindy Jenkins, because she reminded me of someone -- me! She's even a little bent in the head, which is also very much me.

Blue-eyed, white-haired lady

And on the flip side, the exotic secret personality I hide inside

For now, this cut-out fern from Rusty Birds is sitting on a table in our living room, but Nigel would like to set it up so it is lit from behind

I also bought the word "Joy" from Rusty Birds. Somewhere out in the garage I have the words "Garden" and "Shed" which I  will put on the side of my garden shed -- some day.

I bought a few plants, of course.

Three Anemone nemorosa from Keeping It Green Nursery

And this Arisaema and the two below, also from Keeping It Green

Three red peonies from Peony's Envy

I didn't realize until I got home that they had misspelled the name on the tag -- it should be 'Henry Bockstoce.'

Four bulbs of an Asiatic lily called 'Mascara' from Mak Lilies & Perennials

A double red Primrose from N & M Herb Nursery

I bought this mushroom from Swanson's to go with the tiny Alice figurine I've had for a few months out in a pot in the greenhouse

I thought this flower frog from Perfect Arrangers might be useful when the cutting garden starts producing cut flowers, although it only fits in a couple of the vases that I've bought

I had fun shopping this year. Now if only the weather would cooperate so I can get those bare-root plants into the ground. So far this week has been sunny and dry but cold, down into the mid-20s at night and barely up into the 40s during the day. Too cold for me to be outside on my hands and knees in damp soil. I was going to pot up the peonies and lilies anyway. Maybe some day this week during that one hour in the afternoon when the temperature cracks 45, I'll get out there quick with a trowel.