Floramagoria Shines in the Rain

I'm back from attending the Garden Bloggers Fling in 

Portland, Oregon.

After three plus days of garden and nursery tours, I'm going to file this blog under the category of eating my dessert first. I think it's fitting since this garden had plenty of eye candy. Wink. Wink. I didn't see that dollar when I first arrived, so I think one of the bloggers tucked that tip into the waistband. Cheeky monkey.

For the first two days of the fling, we had experienced hot, sunny weather, but on the last morning, the weather took a turn. We arrived at Floramagoria to cracks of thunder. With our lunch bags in hand, we headed for a large covered patio with fabulous views of the back garden.

After lunch, the rain let up and I ventured off to experience the exciting colors of the garden.

I don't use words like, stunning, just willy nilly, but this tile mosiac is simply amazing. Dare I say, stunning! Yes, I dare!

When it rains in Portland, the temperatures drop significantly. Us poor Texans were a little nippy to say the least. I even had a few goosebumps, so this fire was very welcome. It was surprisingly very toasty and I spent several minutes warming up by it.

The plants in this garden were lush, abundant and artfully arranged. Honestly, what can I say about this? Just wow!

Some plants I recognized, like this luscious, fuzzy pink poppy,

but others I just admired without ever knowing their names.

This blue nigella is a plant I grow here in Central Texas. It's commonly called love in a mist and it never looks like this in my garden. It does self seed though, so maybe some day mine will spread enough to produce a larger display.

Dahlias were a common sight in the gardens of Portland. I'm so jealous because they do not grow well here. A reasonable person would substitute zinnias and move on, but I've tried to grow dahlias several times over the years. My best effort was in a container where I managed to eke out a few large red blooms.

The carnivorous plant collection at Floramagoria blew me away. These pitcher plants growing in a bog were downright amazing.

If I ever took a stab at growing pitcher plants, it's good to know that they do well in containers too. 

These very realistic blown glass pitcher plants are more my speed. I must find out were to buy these. They're gorgeous!

The gardeners who live at Floramagoria clearly have a great sense of humor and whimsy.

A giant sequoia at the back of the lot supports a machine which slowly propels little bubbles out into the garden. I've never seen that before! How fun!

No ceiling, window sill or container planting was left unembellished in this garden.

A raised pond echos the garden's theme colors of blue and orange adding color to a part of the garden rich with tropical foliage.

This concrete leaf slowly drips water as if it were the morning dew. Moss willingly covers many of the surfaces in Portland giving them that antiqued look I love.

Tucked away in the side yard was an adorable potting shed with the tidiest collection of tools and pots I've ever seen outside of a magazine spread.

The vegetable garden and bee hive filled the remainder of the side yard. The gardeners of Floramagoria fit an amazing amount of wow factor into their 100' X 175' foot lot. Very impressive.

Thanks for sharing your garden with us! Floramagoria was definitely the cherry on top!