Something for Everyone at the 2025 Northwest Flower & Garden Festival

Whether you live in an apartment, condo or home, or you’re into indoor gardening or outdoor, there was something for everyone at this year’s Northwest Flower & Garden Festival.

One of the largest flower and garden shows in the county, this year’s show lived up to its reputation for garden design inspiration, Pacific Northwest style.  20 display gardens featured an array of styles, ranging from Asian and New Orleans inspired to tributes to indigenous peoples, with each a star in its own right.  Women-owned Relish Gardens, this year’s “People’s Choice” winner, entertained the crowds with its “Zone 9” display featuring agaves, edibles and ornamentals with repurposed materials such as milk crates and roof tiles for smaller spaces.   “The Garden of Vows” by NW Bloom created a Pacific Northwest forest garden with a glass greenhouse from France, staged as a wedding sanctuary, complete with pews, lavish floral decorations and even a cage with doves.

For those with more limited garden space, there were the “City Living” garden displays featuring small space gardens for apartments, condos, patios and balconies.  Set on the convention center skybridge with the city skyline as a backdrop to each display, gardens featured a wide variety of themes with names such as “The Entomophiles Studio” by The Nonesuch LLC, “The Library Garden of Curiosities” by Obsidian Windchimes and “A Dreamy Place to Rest” by Tyra Shenaurlt and Joseph Gabbamonte of the W.W. Seymour Conservatory of Metro Parks of Tacoma.  

For less intrepid or ambitious gardeners, the Festival included a host of plant ideas for those with little or no space.  Fern Grotto showcased an array of mini terrariums - including some inexpensive offerings in laboratory bottles and clear plastic drink cups - for office, apartment or home.  Succulents from Oregon-based Rancho Cacto included inexpensive urns of succulent cuttings that show visitors could take home to root themselves.  Newcastle Fruit & Produce Co. offered a wide range of edible offerings for both indoors and outdoors, including a do-it-yourself potted lemon tree kit, complete with special fertilizer.

As always, local artists were in abundance at the show.  Regional glass art by artists such as Merrilee Moore, ceramics by Kunihiro Pottery and wood art by John Harden Design delighted show goers.

For more information on the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival, including a year round directory of exhibitors with links to their websites, visit https://www.gardenshow.com/.

Image Source (Above): Pete Rowen

Image Source (Above): Pete Rowen

Image Source (Above): Pete Rowen