2024 Northwest Flower & Garden Festival
Every year when February rolls around it’s time once again for the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival at the Seattle Convention Center. It’s the second-largest flower show in the US (after Philadelphia) and has been inspiring northwest gardeners since 1989. I’ve been to the show nearly every year since 1996 and have photographed the display gardens many times.
This year’s gardens were particularly impressive, including the Founder’s Cup award winner pictured above, called “The Secret Garden” and designed by Nature Perfect Landscape & Design.
As in previous years, the display gardens can best be described as garden theater. They’re full of ideas you can implement in your home garden, but you probably wouldn’t replicate one of them in its entirety. They’re a LOT of work to design and build, including sourcing plants in bloom (or forcing them ahead of season) and integrating the plants with both hardscape and natural elements.
The video below will take you on a tour through all 18 display gardens in about 9 minutes. You’ll enjoy it most if you watch it full screen on the biggest monitor you’ve got.
If you’re seeing this before Sunday, February 18 when the show closes and you’re not too far from Seattle, get yourself down to the convention center to see the show in person. This video is just a teaser. The Secret Garden and The Awakening Dragon really must be seen in their full three-dimensional glory to be fully appreciated.