A little shopping at Seattle’s Ravenna Gardens

September 13, 2024

You can’t buy plants at Ravenna Gardens in Seattle. It would be a shame to bring them back to Texas and have them suffer. But I still love shopping there because of the beautiful displays of plants, pots, garden and home decor. I first visited during Seattle Fling in 2011. 13 years later, when I was in Seattle before Puget Sound Fling 2024, I made a point of popping into Ravenna Gardens.

First, let’s take a look at the plant exhibit. The harmonious colors are beautiful…

…or with bold contrast.

I want one of those metal lattice arches.

This was the first sign of the hydrangea extravaganza that awaited me at Fling Gardens in the coming days.

Bright green forest grass is complemented by cobalt colored ceramic.

The store’s merchandise displays are equally inviting, starting with Zen-style tables adorned with pebbles and grey tillandsias.

Lemon lime plants and potted plants exude summer freshness.

This display exudes an Italian countryside feel.

Yellow and blue evoke the freshness of the coast.

Ravenna also has books available. I found The Hill We Climb by poet Amanda Gorman.

And the three books I reviewed on Digging are Under Western Skies by Jennifer Jewell (Jennifer is my first Garden Spark speaker of season 8, and there are a few tickets left if you’d like to join us), Dreamscapes by Claire Takacs, and Windcliff by Dan Hinkley.

Also, my friend Loree Bohl encourages Fearless Gardening.

I was amused to see that the pot of baby heads was still there.

The baby’s head grows

I love this green pottery mixed with terracotta.

Ready-made plant gifts

I walked around the store twice and bought a few souvenirs. By the way, during my one day in Seattle, I also visited the garden of Gillian Matthews, the founder and former owner of Ravenna. I will introduce her beautiful garden later.

If you missed my coverage of the Puget Sound Fling, which was the reason I was in Seattle, click the link to see all the garden tours.

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Digging deeper

Join us for an evening of gardening community, learning, and inspiration at our next Garden Spark Talks. On October 24th at 7pm, Jennifer Jewell will talk about how gardens and gardeners can be powerful agents of positive change in the world, helping to solve a wide range of challenges including climate change, habitat loss, cultural polarization, and the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. Jewell, host of the national radio show and international podcast “Cultivating Place,” will talk about that power from the perspective of seeds: how they grow, where they grow, who nurtures them, who sells and/or manages them, and who cares for them in every nook and cranny of seed sheds around the world. There are still a few tickets left. Click here for more information.

Learn about gardening and design with Garden Spark. I host in-person talks by designers, landscape architects, authors, and gardeners several times a year in Austin. These events are by capacity and sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance. Click this link to be added. Season 8 will begin in Fall 2024. Stay tuned for more information.