The Ultimate Garden Field Trip

It's only a month away!

From the title, you may think that I'm referring to a trip to the Chelsea Flower Show and that certainly would be nice but schlepping plants across the Atlantic is a tedious affair and most of your finds will probably wind up being taken away by U.S. customs. 

What could it be, you may ask, this field trip of which you speak?  What if I told you that you could shop at Cistus in Portland, Dancing Oaks in Monmouth, Bloom River in Eugene, Far Reaches in Port Townsend, Steamboat Island in Olympia, The Desert Northwest in Sequim, Courting Frogs in Stanwood, Fancy Fronds in Gold Bar and a handfull of other specialty nurseries, have time for  a lovely picnic lunch on a sandy river beach, see some cool garden art for sale, take a nice drive in the country, stop at farm stands and buy fresh produce, visit an acres-large bamboo forest,  and still have time to visit Molbaks or Flower World  all in one day?  Impossible?  Private jet?  Helicopter?  Nope!  Can you guess?  It's the Fabulous Fronderosa Frolic 2012 which takes place Aug 11 - 12 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  The Frolic is in a seriously gorgeous setting in the woods and one is free to wander around, play and picnic by the beach and explore the garden.  It's sort of a last hurah of summer plant shopping for me. 

What's with the pictures?  These are all varieties of Aspleinum scolopendrium  which have come, along with lots of other plants in my garden, from the Frolic.  The host nursery, Fancy Fronds, specializes in ferns.

As an added bonus, you can peruse the vendors' websites and ask them to bring your latest plant lusts to the sale; they'll be waiting there with your name on them & you can have the fun of seeing the envy on the other shoppers' faces as they declare, "I want one of those!  That's the last one? RATS!" Schadenfreude! 

Will I be seeing any of you at the Frolic this year?  Sure hope so!