Le Tour des Plants, September 13 -21

Hello and welcome

Le Tour des Plants is a free, fun, self–guided excursion for gardeners, created to inspire fall gardening among new and seasoned gardeners alike. Explore the area’s garden centers, specialty nurseries and display gardens. Soak up new ideas from some of the Northwest’s leading gardening experts. Gather friends and family to tour with you and see Oregon at its best!

To entice you, look for an email every couple of weeks with contests, tips, tour routes, and coupons from participating nurseries. Feel free to forward this to friends and family!

Container recipe
Coupons:

Farmington Gardens
Madrona Hills ACE Hardware

The Le Tour des Plants Magazine will arrive in participating garden centers in early August with dates, activities and discount coupons at participating garden centers.

Enter and Win Photo Contest

My containers could use some inspiration, so this week, let’s start with a container photo contest. Send in your pictures of your favorite pot o’ plants, and our panel of judges will pick one or two for a $20 gift certificate at your favorite Le Tour des Plants garden center. Maybe it’s a food crop, cute conifers, fabulous flowers, or some dazzling combination you’ve created. Show everybody! Email your photos (jpegs no larger then 2MB please) to:

letour@oan.org

Container Recipe

Since we are on the subject of containers, here’s a season-spanning container recipe from Ellen Egan, owner of Egan Gardens

"This arrangement alternates the foliage with the flowers, and the trailing with the bushy. I stuck some holly and snowberry branches in it to fill it out around Christmas. It was beautiful all fall, and when it came back with fresh leaves and flowers in March, it was prettier than ever."
Ellen Egan

Ellen’s Favorite Fall Basket Recipe: Blue and Yellow Mix
Use a 14- to 16-inch diameter hanging basket. I prefer to use pots from Western Pulp that are made of recycled paper and have a nice textured surface. Sharing the center space, plant an Acorus Ogon, a variegated sedge grass that keeps its foliage all winter, and a Sundaze Golden Beauty Strawflower, which blooms all fall, but eventually dies out in winter.

Around the sides, plant in this order:

  » 1 Heuchera ‘Key Lime Pie,’ which keeps its bright lime green foliage all winter
  » 1 bright blue pansy, which blooms all fall, lives through winter and reblooms in spring
  » 1 Golden Creeping Jenny, which keeps its trailing lime foliage all winter
  » 1 Euphorbia ‘Faded Blue Jeans,’ a bushy powder-blue foliage perennial
  » 1 golden yellow pansy, for fall and spring blooms
  » 1 Verbena ‘Superbena Dark Blue,’ a big trailer that’s nearly always perennial, for fall and spring flowers

A Tip from Farmington Gardens

We love using conifers – both in our landscapes and in container gardens. They provide the structure to a garden, and keep it looking full and interesting during the winter. A single conifer can also make a dramatic “thriller” as a focal point in a container, with a few “spillers” falling over the edge. Even something as simple and inexpensive as a dwarf Alberta spruce, when planted into a dramatic pot, can look stunning when coupled with a few spillers. And the great thing is, it will look great all winter long. Farmington Gardens has a coupon special for conifers, just print and shop!

But Wait! There Will be More!

Want to plant a container for fall, food, or fun? How about creating and decorating your own pots? Look for container gardening classes and demonstrations at Bauman Farms, Larsen Farms, Tsugawa Nursery, Madrona Hills ACE Hardware, Garden World, Garland Nursery, Drake’s 7 Dees, French Prairie Gardens, Nichols Garden Nursery, River Rock Nursery, Al’s Garden Center, Shorty’s, Smith Berry Barn, and Ferguson’s Fragrant Nursery.

Get going

Who will be on this year’s tour? There are almost 50 locations, from Woodland, Washington all the way down to Eugene, along with several display gardens, wholesale nurseries and other special interest stops like OSU’s green roof research site and student-run organic farm. For convenience, garden centers are grouped into three general areas, Portland/Vancouver area, Mid-Willamette, and South Willamette. Here is a preview of the Mid-Willamette group.

Coupon special

If you are in the neighborhood, Madrona Hills ACE Hardware in Salem has a coupon for you! Just print this off and enjoy!

Stay tuned for more:

Activities
Contests
Tour suggestions, with restaurants and local highlights
Tips
Coupons
Destination display gardens

Find out more about Le Tour des Plants, including a list of participating garden centers, at www.letourdesplants.com.

Garden centers have lots of activities going on NOW! Classes, workshops and specials are listed on their Web sites .

Final Tip! To have color year round in your garden, visit your favorite garden centers regularly and see which plants are looking their best, then take a few home to mingle with your other plants and decorations. Easy!