Now that's my kind of Zone 8!

The garden tours that we've been going on with GWA2008 have been amazing, save a few logistical snafus. Yesterday we visited Terra Nova Nurseries, which even had cannas and bananas. Can you guess how excited I was?

Apparently they don't sell much of these -- their bread and butter are plants like echinacea, heuchera, and tiarella--most of which won't do well back home). But I was ecstatic to see Zone 8 plants that would work in my Zone 8 garden. So excited, in fact, that I made Emily take my picture in front of said plants.

I've taken hundreds of photos since I got here, but uploading them has been a tedious process. I promise that I'll blog more about all of the fabulous things I've seen once I get home and have a faster internet connection.

And yes, for you punctuation police out there, I am aware that I continue to use exclamation points in my blog post titles. Can I help it that I'm excited about all these cool plants I'm seeing? Did I mention that I have the coolest job ever?

The other Zone 8

We spent yesterday afternoon touring gardens in Northeast Portland. Our Florida gang really enjoyed seeing the gardens and marveled about all of the plants that grow here but don't grow at home, even though both Gainesville and Portland are in Zone 8. 

I was drooling over all of the gorgeous dahlias that we saw in every garden we visited. If only I could grow these! Every time I've bought dahlias at home they've died before I could even get them in the ground.

I've got oodles more photos, so I'll be posting more later. Stay tuned.

Greetings from Portland!

Landscape bed in front of conference hotel
Originally uploaded by Gardening in a Minute

After a looooong day of travel, our group arrived safely in Portland for the Garden Writers Association annual conference. The air here is decidedly cooler and very refreshing, which I find especially helpful given my post-travel grogginess.

This picture is from the planting bed in front of our hotel. The plant palette here is very different from what we have back home in Florida and wonderful to look at. I'll no doubt have more pictures to share after I come back from this afternoon's garden tours.

The educational sessions also start today, and the trade show will wrap up this evening. Here's a shot of Tom Wichman talking to a conference attendee at the FNGLA booth.

The best job ever!

Deck at McMayhill & Baker home
Originally uploaded by Gardening in a Minute

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my job? I get to do such cool things, like attend the annual Garden Writers Association conference next week. Woo-hoo!

Last year's conference was chock full of sessions that offered great information on garden writing. Plus, I got to attend some absolutely fabulous garden tours. Here's a sampling of the photos I took on the garden tours during last year's conference. If my garden looked like these then I'd be set! You can view the whole set on Flickr.

This year's conference is being held in Portland and promises to be equally great. I'll do my best to blog from the conference so that you can see the great gardens too.

Is anyone else out there planning to attend the conference?