Cuddle Up to a Good Cause

Do you have a new family member in your near future? Now you can buy them our exclusive baby blanket and cuddle the new baby in softness. Pendleton Woolen Mills and the Northwest Flower & Garden Show have teamed up to offer an exclusive, limited edition “Counting Sheep” Eco-Wise Wool^® baby blanket. The regular price of this item is $74, but now you can purchase this blanket at the show for only $64.

 

GREAT GIFT FOR A GREAT CAUSE
Purchase this blanket and support a great cause as proceeds will benefit the Seattle Children’s PlayGarden - a place where children of all ages and abilities can play outdoors and stretch their imaginations. Learn more about the Pendelton Eco-Wise Wool^® - a wool made from the highest ‘green’ standards dedicated to supporting sustainable production.

 

Pre-order now and save
You can now pre-order the “Counting Sheep” Eco-Wise Wool^® baby blanket for the special price of $60.

Simply go to our website and choose whether you would like to pick up your blanket at the show or whether you would like to have it shipped (blankets won’t be shipped until at least Feb. 1). There is a $14.99 flat shipping fee per blanket.

For pickup at the show, please bring your receipt and identification to the show merchandise booth located in the South Lobby. ~ Janet

 

 

Here’s What’s Happening in December

December 1 – December 31, 2011
5 – 10 pm daily
Garden d’Lights
The enormously popular Garden d’Lights festival features over half a million lights which transform the Bellevue Botanical Garden into a blossoming winter wonderland. Inspired by plants found in Northwest gardens and gardens around the world, hundreds of volunteers have been busy making new creations. A new Tortoise will join the list of over 30 “critters” including Charlotte in her web and Willie the Slug. You won’t want to miss the “Aquarium in Lights” in the Visitors’ Center with the pulsing jellyfish and our own octopus, or the gorgeous pond and border display on the main lawn. Our new route through the garden will be enhanced with a flowing river in lights and 2 waterfalls. This year will be an exciting adventure for all ages. Plan now to attend!
Bellevue Botanical Garden
12001 Main Street, Bellevue, WA
Recorded information line: 425-451-6844
Every December, over 150,000 people enjoy this dazzling display, and many of them want to come at the same time! PLAN AHEAD! Advanced ticket purchase is required this year. $5 per person; children under 10 FREE. For more information, to purchase tickets and to find out how to enter free, visit the Garden d’Lights website. 

 

Saturday, December 3
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Treasure Hunt Open House
My Garden Nursery
Go on a Treasure Hunt at My Garden Nursery for FREE goodies. Enjoy a fun evening to get your holiday shopping done, enjoy friends, sample gourmet foods. Buy tickets to the Northwest Flower & Garden Show to go along with a cool plant or tool from the nursery. Bring food for the Volunteers of America Food Drive. (To gnome them is to love them.)
My Garden Nursery
17414 Bothell Everett Highway, Mill Creek, WA 98012
Visit their website for more information or call 425-402-1842.

 

Friday, December 9
3:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Saturday, December 10
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Annual Gifts & Green Galore
Outstanding collections of greens, wreaths and swags for your holiday decorating, along with gifts and wrapping, seasonal refreshments, live seasonal music, complimentary hot drink, free Arboretum tours (especially the famous Witt Winter garden) and more! Bring the kids! Special visit by a round, jolly man bearing treats on Saturday 11 am – 1 pm. Live, seasonal music on Friday. Free admission and parking.
Arboretum Foundation
Graham Visitors Center
2300 Arboretum Drive East, Seattle, WA 98112
For more information visit their website or call 206-325-4510.

 

NOW through February 12
Tickets to Northwest Flower & Garden Show now on Sale!
OK all you Early Birds, act now so you can snatch up tickets for our low price of only $16 (that’s $4 off the price during the show). Tickets are on sale on our website and will be in nursery ticket outlets this weekend. You won’t want to miss the most beautiful garden show in the country, with 26 dazzling show gardens, 116 seminars by the horticulterati, and over 300 garden-related exhibitors featuring plants, tools, furniture, containers, accessorites, jewlery, garden art and more. Our PlayGarden has plenty of activities and musical acts to keep the children entertained for hours and get them in touch with nature. And children 12 and under are FREE!  NWFGS tickets are the perfect stocking stuffer for your garden-loving family and friends. ~ Janet

 

 

Join us for the 2012 #NWFGS TWEETUP!

Join us for the 2012 Northwest Flower & Garden Show Tweetup, a special event for gardening and foodie enthusiasts active in the Twitterverse and blogosphere.

 

The @nwfgs hosted Tweetup will be held on Thursday, February 9, 2012 from 7:30 am – 9:00 am, just before the show opens to the public. Check-in from 7:30 – 8 am, grab coffee and refreshments, a fabulous Swag Bag exclusive to our registered participants, and head off to the garden floor. You’ll enjoy access to the incredible 26 show gardens for an hour before the crowds arrive.

 

With no crowds, getting good photo angles for blogs should be a snap. The show gardens are lit with theatrical lighting for added drama, so for optimal garden photos for our Tweetup guests, the Show will leave the hall lights up until 8:45 am so the gardens are fully lit.

 

At 9:00 am the entire show opens to the public, but you can enjoy the rest of the day, seeing seminars by many well-known garden celebs, and browse our 300+ high quality, garden-related exhibitors.

 

Need a place to rendezvous with your friends, download photos, post to Facebook or write a blog? Your Tweetup name badge gives you access to the show’s Press Room for the remainder of Thursday’s show, until 8:00 pm, and free WiFi.

 

The seminar schedule on our Tweetup day is packed with your Twitter friends, including @GardenWiseGuy, @bwisegardens, @helenyoest, @FitToGarden, @sweetrebecca, @ahamodernliving, @seasonalwisdom, @digginfood, and @alexandrahedin. Visit our website for the complete seminar schedule.   

 

REGISTER ON TWTVITE

All Tweetup participants must be registered on Twtvite, and have a ticket or Thursday wristband for entry. Purchase tickets in advance. Save $4 with Early Bird tickets and print them conveniently at home. To purchase tickets go to our website ticket page.

 

There’s a lot to see at the show, and many people go for the two-day ticket, at only $29. If you want to spend the night in a downtown Seattle hotel near the Convention Center, book through our website for special rates and amenities packages only available through the show.

 

Register for the @nwfgs Tweetup on Twtwite. But hurry, like Twitter itself, space is limited, and registration closes January 4, 2012. I hope to see you there! For more information contact Janet Endsley, Seminar & Social Media Manager, at janete@OTShows.com. ~ Janet

 

REGISTER NOW!

Enter to WIN – “All That Jazz” Grand Prize Drawing

 

The garden show’s 2012 “All That Jazz” Grand Prize is in its last weeks before we pick a lucky winner – chosen from your votes in our “Design a Garden” feature on gardenshow.com.  Each time you vote you can enter to win. The more you vote, the better your chances! But you’d better hurry – there’s only a few chances to vote in the next few weeks. (Vote here.)  

TICKETS, LODGING AND CASH PRIZE

Here’s what one lucky winner will get:

• Two nights lodging at the luxurious Sheraton Seattle Hotel (Traditional Room with single King or two Double beds) for stay between February 7 and February 12, 2012.
• $250 CASH good for a shopping spree at the 2012 Northwest Flower & Garden Show!
• Four tickets to the 2012 Northwest Flower & Garden Show, good for any day of the show.
• $50 Cheesecake Factory gift card (located across the street from the show).
• $10 Tully’s gift card (there’s one right outside the show entrance).
• Two days of free parking at the Washington State Convention Center ($48 value).

 

HOW TO ENTER

1. Go to our website and VOTE in our new “Design a Garden” where you help design a show garden.
2. After you vote, simply enter your name, email address and zip code, and that’s it – you’re entered in our drawing. (We are sorry but the system won’t accept Canadian postal codes.)
3. You can enter every time we have a new vote – plants, designs, containers, hardscapes, and more will all be voted on in the coming weeks, now through December 22.
4. Odds of winning with you don’t vote and enter – zero, zip nada!
5. You can still vote and help design a show garden – you do not have to enter the Grand Prize contest.

 

 READ THE FINE PRINT

1. Only one vote per name and email address each voting week (up to 11 entries over duration of the contest).
2. Winner will be chosen by random selection of the email addresses of all those who voted and entered.
3. Only one winner will be named. Winner is responsible for responding to O’Loughlin Trade Shows with contact information in order to receive prize no later than January 15, 2012.
4. If winner is unable to accept prize and attend the show, the prize in not transferrable. Another winner will be chosen by random selection.
5. No cash value will be substituted for any part of the prize.
6. Transportation to the show by any method is not included.
7. All That Jazz prize drawing will be held on January 4, 2012. Winner will be notified by email as well as Facebook message.
8. Garden Show Tickets will be mailed to winner in advance of the show. Gift cards, parking passes and cash prize of $250 for garden show shopping spree must be picked up at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show Office (Room 401) during show hours: Wednesday, February 8 – Saturday, February 11, 9:00 am – 8:00 pm; Sunday, February 12 9:00 am – 4:00 pm.
9. Lodging includes two nights at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel, including hotel taxes and fees, between February 7 – 12, 2012. Additional charges for mini-bar, phone, spa and WiFi or other services not included.
10. Employees of O’Loughlin Trade Shows are not eligible to enter.
11. For more information contact janete@OTShows.com.

 

 

Design a Garden – Week 8 Containers

Our 8^th installment of “Design a Garden” gives you the chance to choose from 3 sets of containers to go on the patio of our “Here Comes the Sun” garden. Designer Lloyd Glasscock, of Looking Glass Design will fill these containers with lush plantings from Swansons Nursery working with John Stout of Terra Firma Hardscapes to build the show garden our readers have designed.

 

In our last vote our website readers had three design sketches, and choose Option B. The central focus of this design is a 15 x 20-ft. central stone patio using Montana Bronze Flagstone, bordered by a 15-ft. low wall of Montana Slate Ledgestone, all from Marenakos Rock Center.

 

 

 

A backdrop of large sheltering evergreens and deciduous trees provides shelter and privacy. The sides are bordered with plants mostly native to the Pacific Northwest (the plants were chosen in an earlier vote), including Mahonia x media nervosa, and M. media ‘Charity’, Vaccinium glauco-album, Helleborus ‘Merlin’, and H. ‘Silver Dollar’, along with Rhododendron sino-falconari and R. ‘Ebony Pearl’. A stone fountain along the flagstone walk offers a bubbly focal point.

 

Now you have a chance to be a garden designer! Brad Siebe, President and General Manager of Swansons Nursery and Lloyd Glasscock have chosen three trios of containers for the patio. Which do you think will best go with a garden using the chosen hardscape materials? Click here to vote!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!
To vote, go to the voting page on our website. Every time you vote, give us your email address and you are automatically entered to win our “All That Jazz” grand prize – 2 nights lodging, 4 tickets to the show, $250 cash to spend at the show and more!  ~ Janet