Yes, friends, there were more gardens at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show -- you can see a list here. Unfortunately, I'm no longer quite sure which picture goes with which garden on the list. You'll just have to enjoy the photos and dream of visiting next year. Above a whimsical fountain with a beautiful stacked wall and basin, which either belongs to the Metamorphosis garden I wrote about in my last post or to the garden that included more whimsy such as this compost bin.
Maybe it's not so practical -- a bit top heavy and prone to tipping when you go in with your pitchfork -- but who can resist the face?
We also enjoyed this garden by Ah Sam Florist, which included clever edging made from terracotta pots, a hanging pot sculpture with bromeliads, and a great hydrophonics setup with large pots of lettuce in a pond-like setting.
I was less impressed with the Lettuce Tube garden, ranted about just today by Amy Stewart here.
Amy actually found this "garden" interesting. I responded on her blog as follows:
I thought the "garden" was truly boring. I've seen front gardens like that, 6x8 bunch grasses, arranged in straight lines. Please...
But others clearly were enchanted by it all, and I must admit I did enjoy the other-worldly quality of the display. The lighting for this garden was actually perfect.
Let's leave the show with two photos from the Filoli display garden. This garden was ablaze with daffodils (Filoli is famous for its football-field size daffodil meadow with a million bulbs), and also included a Dovecote, which was housed in a garden house at Filoli. The garden house was closed for restoration last time I looked, not sure whether it's back. And the dovecote was cleverly dressed up with green walls made from succulents, and with a green roof consisting of bunch grasses. Enjoyable and cleverly done, and quite adventurous considering this comes from Filoli, which deeply cares about tradition.
After we'd enjoyed the display gardens we visited the vendors in that hall. Country Mouse, being a generous soul, bought a sweater for Mr. W. Rat, a shirt for Mr. C. Mouse Sr., and some lovely hand cream for me! I, meanwhile, was lusting for a few more plants, so headed over to Annie's Annuals while Country Mouse was returning to the booth where we had left our jackets. I picked up 6 pots and the cashier said "That will be 13.71." To which I replied "You've got to be kidding!" Turns out they had a SALE! It was close to closing time and most vendors offered bargains so they had less to take back home. So I rose to the challenge and added a few more plants, mostly Nemophila menziesii (Baby Blue Eyes) and Nemophila maculata (Baby Five Spot), but also a few other trinkets. Laden with goods, we walked toward the door, only to have me be stopped in our tracks by a 50% OFF sign at Native Revival Nursery (I picked up a beautiful native red yarrow as well).
Walking back to the car was challenging, that 1 gallon pot especially hung heavily from my fragile little mouse wrist. But together we made it, very glad indeed about such a wonderful outing and looking forward to seeing the beauty we had enjoyed in our own gardens soon.