We are hosting our 4th annual benefit for P.E.O. – a philanthropic organization that provides scholarships for women.  This is a fun evening event here at Farmington Gardens, and once again our featured guests will be Mike Darcy and Kym Pokorny.   Mike has been the Garden Guru of Oregon for many years, first with his television show, and now with his KXL radio program ‘In the Garden’.  Kym is a garden writer for the Oregonian, as well as numerous other publications.  We are thrilled they are able to be with us again this year!

Enjoy wine or beer, as well as seasonal hors d’oeuvres, while you stroll the garden center and take in our selection of informal demos on a variety of topics.  There will be an extensive silent auction, featuring great items for home and garden, as well as Mike’s and Kym’s program, “Our Favorites in the Garden.”

This is a ticketed event, and advance purchase is required.  P.E.O. is handling all ticket sales:  tickets are $25 (not available at Farmington Gardens); call 503-645-6401 or email purdyjb@verizon.net to purchase.

Date:  Saturday, July 24  6-9pm

Location:  Farmington Gardens

Food and beverages provided by: Wild Currant Catering, Barefoot Wines, and Hopworks Urban Brewery

We are happy to be sponsoring this first annual Orenco Station community garden tour – it sounds like it will be lots of fun, and as a bonus is supporting the Oregon Food Bank and Loaves and Fishes.  You are invited to stroll through twelve lovely small, private gardens, all within a 10-minute walk.  They will have special garden information booths about gardening and sustainability as well.  (The Orenco Station community is located in Hillsboro off NE Cornell Road between NW 229th Avenue and NW 61st Avenue.  Use the Orenco Station Max stop.)

Saturday, July 10th, 10am-4pm

Tickets $10 – can be purchased the day of the event at the Orenco Station Main Park Pavilion.  Your ticket allows you participate in a drawing for a number of great gifts (one from Farmington Gardens!).

Succulents possess the admirable trait of maintaining their cool even on the hot days of summer – no wilting or whining or high maintenance for them – which is why we love them so!  Being the home bodies that they are, they are more than happy to be planted in a container garden and left behind while you vacation.   Besides that, they are just cool looking plants.

If you love succulents like we do, then this is the workshop for you.  We will be helping you with your selections, and then you can pot them up (bring a container or buy one here) to take home a finished project!  We will provide the know-how and the soil.

This is a free workshop – except for the materials you select.  Space is limited and registration strongly suggested – call us at 503-649-4568, or email events@farmingtongardens.com.

Interested in less time maintaining your garden?  Want a smaller water bill in the summer?  Xeriscaping is a way of gardening with nature, to reduce or eliminate the need for supplemental water from irrigation.  Native plants are emphasized, and plants with similar needs are grouped together.  This is a strategy for gardening which many smart gardeners find fits their needs and priorities.  Marinda will share tips for converting your garden to a less thirsty version of itself. 

This is a free class; please call to register – 503-649-4568, or email us at events@farmingtongardens.com.

I must admit this week’s Grower’s Choice is a shrub I don’t have first-hand experience with – although after reading up on it, I think I may need to give it a go!  The first thing that caught my attention is that it is a Great Plant Picks – which means it is great for the Pacific NW; long-lived; hardy for zones 7-8; easy to grow and maintain; reasonably disease and pest resistant; non-invasive; and has a long season of interest in the garden… all attributes I look for in a plant!

Enkianthus campanulatus ‘Showy Lantern’ is a deciduous shrub producing large cherry-red bell-shaped flowers in the spring, and showy scarlet/orange foliage in autumn.  It is easily pruned to the shape or size you need it to be, and at maturity will reach 5-6 feet in height.  Its width depends on how it is trained or pruned, but left untouched would be about 3 feet wide; this makes it a great addition to a mixed collection.  It is in the rhododendron family, and so is a great companion in the garden with rhodies and other woodland plants like sweet box (Sarcococca), bleeding heart, and Solomon’s seal.

This Grower’s Choice, Showy Lantern, 1-gallon size, is normally $9.99, on sale thru July 1st, at $2.49.  You will probably remember that we are having our awesome Summer Solstice Sale this week – everything is 40% off (with a few exclusions) – sale ends Sunday, June 27th.    Naturally, at these prices, the 40% off sale won’t apply to this week’s Grower’s Choice.  Subject to stock on hand.

Just in time for outdoor summer living – Marinda is giving a class on her favorite summer perennials which will perform great all summer long.  Not all perennials are short bloomers – with some careful selection, you can have perennials blooming for months.  Marinda will also share her favorites to use as cut flowers.

After the gloomy spring we’ve just experienced, we are going to need a summer of color!

This is a free class – please call us to register, or email us at events@farmingtongardens.com!

sale has expired.  SUMMER SOLSTICE SAVINGS DAYS  ~ We have reached the point in our calendar when our daylight hours are as long as they will get – a time of celebration for thousands of years.  To mark the occasion, we are celebrating with a week-long summer solstice sale: 

• 40% off ENTIRE Inventory (this excludes delivery, installation, bulk soils, & purchase of gift cards)
• Sale Tuesday 6/22 through Sunday 6/27
• NOT VALID on previous purchases and cannot be combined with other discounts and offers.
• First come, first served!

This sale is on-going:

PARKING LOT BLOWOUT SALE ~ This is also the time of year when garden centers need to clear inventory to make way for more.  Let’s face it: our products are living and perishable, and in order to keep up to our high standards, sometimes we need to ”thin the herd.”  We have set aside plants of all sizes that fit this description – some will be simply overstock or untagged items; others will be slightly tired items that would perk back to life with a little extra TLC.   All will be priced at huge discounts worthy of the slight gamble.  After all, nothing is more fun to a true gardener than the chance to try something new at a terrific savings!

• Price as marked – HUGE discounts
• ALL SALES FINAL
• and again, at these prices, this offer cannot be combined with other discounts.

Both sales limited to stock on hand.  Shop early for best selection!

If it’s Friday, it must be time for another Grower’s Choice plant pick.  Each week we are selecting another top-quality plant which we grow ourselves, and offering it to you at substantial savings.   Since these Grower’s Choices are all grown right here in the neighborhood, you have the assurance they will thrive in your garden too.  Local is best!

 This week’s Grower’s Choice is another very showy  shrub: Spiraea ‘Goldflame.’  This deciduous shrub has golden leaves, but the new growth emerges red, creating a bronzy contrast which turns golden as it matures.  It blooms in the summer (we have some blooming now) with a rose red flower.  It reaches heights and widths of 3-4 feet, and thrives in full to partial sun.  And best of all, it is hardy to minus 15 degrees.  After the winter we had this past year, hardiness is a desirable trait!

It is definitely a trend these past few years to add lime or chartreuse foliage colors to the garden landscape.  These bright colors add pop and interest even when the shrub is not in bloom.  They also are extraordinary during grey days – they really shine even when the sun doesn’t.  Last year I realized my own garden needed more color contrast with the foliage, and so I added just a few new bright things to the mix – I was amazed at the improvement it made to the overall appearance – everything seems brighter and more interesting.

This one gallon Spiraea ‘Goldflame’ is a Grower’s Choice this week at $2.49 – regularly priced at $5.99.  Prices good through June 24th.  Subject to stock on hand.  Naturally, this special price cannot be combined with other offers.

We’ve got three items we need to move to make way for others:

• 15 gallon Cornus florida ‘Rubra’ ~ this spectacular pink flowering dogwood has finished it’s bloom for the season, but it still has outstanding deep red fall colors to come!  This deciduous tree will reach about 20-30 feet in height at maturity, and will provide you with years of spring blooms and autumn color.  Red berries give even more fall interest as well as attract birds.  40% off while they last.
• 15 gallon Cornus florida ‘Cherokee Chief’ ~ this is another beautiful pink flowering dogwood which has also finished blooming this season.  Give this one good drainage and a little protection from the hot afternoon sun, and you will enjoy it’s ruby red blooms in the spring and it’s fall color.  Clusters of red berries also attract birds to your garden in the fall.  This tree will get about 20-25 feet tall, and would add the perfect vertical element to a mixed bed.  40% off while supplies last.
• 10 gallon Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’ laurel ~ this smaller shrub makes a perfect short hedge, or a friendly divider between neighbors.  It will only get 3-4 feet tall, and is easy to maintain without frequent pruning.  In the spring it will bloom with fragrant, white blossoms, and since it is an evergreen, it will keep it’s glossy leaves all year.  50% off while they last.

Is this crazy cold weather slowing down your veggie garden?  Will it ever end?   The warm weather crops, like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and melons aren’t looking all that happy right now; and  I’ve had a few conversations recently with folks who haven’t even tried to put in their warm season stuff, because of night-time temperatures. 

This got me to wondering today what we have left in early-season tomatoes, so  I went searching for all the tomatoes we still have in stock that will ripen in less than 70 days.  That gives you a very reasonable chance to still get a good crop before the season is over.  I came up with a pretty impressive list (those with an asterisk are available in gallon size); the numbers are days to maturity:

So, don’t despair of not having your own tomatoes this year – it’s not too late!

What fun it was last Friday to sample new-to-us local wines!  Thanks go out to Morgan Meadows Winery for sharing their great wines with our customers.  All agreed this new winery has a promising future.  We hope to feature them again later in the summer, so watch here for that opportunity. 

Beat the Saturday rush, and visit FG Friday after work!  Our second Happy Hour is this Friday from 5-7 pm, and we will be featuring another local microwinery, Provincial Vineyards, who is located in Forest Grove.  Neil Frederickson will be here to share his handcrafted Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir, and to share the story of his new passion.  We’ll have some tasty bites to accompany the beverages – hope you can join us.  We’re finding these gatherings a great way to ease into a relaxing weekend!

Just in time for summer vacation – something fun to do with the kids!  We are partnering with Radio K103 and Oldies Radio 106.7 for a fun day for kids here at Farmington Gardens.  It will be next WEDNESDAY, June 23, from 11 am-1 pm.

Parents of kids 12 and under are invited to enter their child for a chance to win this exclusive VIP Invitation. Fifty winners will be chosen from K103′s and Oldie’s 106.7′s Loyal Listener entries to receive a special Bonsai Tree from Farmington Gardens for your child, plus a ticket to spin the prize wheel to win one of many Gift Cards - including Mt Hood Railroad, North Clackamas Aquatic Park, OMSI, Applebee’s Restaurant, to name a few.

Lunch will be provided by On the Border Mexican Grill and root beer floats provided by Crater Lake Root Beer & Umpqua Ice Cream.  How fun does that sound?!

Now here’s the important stuff:  to enter, you must go to one of the radio stations’ webpages – 50 winners will be drawn to attend with their families.   Here are the links to enter:

http://k103.clearcontests.com/front/OpenContest.asp?Action=Login&SurveyID=78103&zx=680 

or

http://oldies1067portland.clearcontests.com/front/OpenContest.asp?Action=Login&SurveyID=78515&zx=781