You guys!!! We made it, it’s February!

I am so excited! Yes I know, it’s technically still winter. But February is garden show month up here in the Pacific Northwest and it’s the last full month of winter, heck it might as well be spring!!! My garden hasn't suffered much winter damage and there are even signs of things starting to wake up. Let’s take a quick look around…

Having listened to Lisa I left my Melianthus major 'Antonow's Blue' alone last fall, just mulching the base. So far this looks to be paying off!

The first Hellebore flower! Helleborus x ballardiae Pink Frost.

The Echium wildpretii is a little worse for wear, a few nights in the mid (and perhaps low) 20's look to have singed it's leaves a bit. Still it's alive!

This is the first year I haven't wrapped my Musa Basjoo (against the house, behind the Schefflera). Once the leaves got zapped I just broke them over to provide a tiny bit of cover, so far so good. In fact a new leaf is pushing out of one of them!

Brown leaves, green leaves and tiny green nubbins of new growth on the Clematis tibetana var. vernayi.

I kind of forgot about this "should be hardy with good drainage" Mangave 'Macho Mocha' during my get ready-for-winter prep...it's got a couple of sad leaves but all in all it's still solid.

Finally, as I mentioned, it's officially garden show season and Portland’s Yard, Garden and Patio Show opens just one week from today! I am so looking forward to wandering the show floor…looking to the display gardens for ideas (or to ask myself "what were they thinking?"), being tempted by plants from our fabulous local nurseries and best of all listening to hours of inspiring free seminars (really and truly free, you don't even have to pay to get into the show to attend the seminars). The line up this year is excellent: Willi Galloway, Lucy Hardiman, Dan Heims, Dan Hinkley, Sean Hogan, Maurice Horn, Matthew Levesque, Ciscoe Morris, Debra Prinzing, Ritchie Steffen and Marty Wingate are just a few of the speakers, woohoo!

The display gardens (always a mixed bag) have potential to be really good this year. Remember the fabulous display I discovered at Bauman Farms last summer (here) well the designer responsible for that has got a whole garden to work with at the show...could be good! Kym Pokorny (from The Oregonian) did a nice write up about what to expect from the gardens, read that here. If you're local you really should check out the show. If you're not, well...plan to visit! (you've got a whole week to work out the details).

And just think...there are only 48 days until spring!