The Paulsen Garden, one of the Puget Sound Fling highlights

Camille Paulsen was a key player in pulling together the 2024 Puget Sound Garden Fling, which has a lot of moving parts, from locating sponsors to keep costs manageable for attendees and selecting gardens to visit to coordinating transportation, hotel arrangements, and meals.  As if those tasks alone aren't enough, she also prepared her own garden to be toured by one hundred Fling participants, which I suspect would challenge even the savviest gardener.  With the support of Fling co-planner, Paula Rothkopf, and the help of her family in readying her own garden, she handled everything beautifully.

Fling participants toured the Paulsen Garden in the afternoon of Day 2.  It was very warm and the sun was intense, which presented challenges when taking photographs.  I moved back and forth in the garden so I can't claim that my photos follow any kind of logical path but I hope they show its beauty.

I'll start at the front of the garden.

View from just inside the Paulsen Garden looking out at the neighborhood

Conifers mingling with Yuccas, oh my!

A lovely koi pond (which I mistakenly attributed to the Risdahl-Pittman Garden in my Postcards from the Puget Sound post.)  Note the red color accents - these were prevalent throughout the garden.

The first of many seating areas

Moving deeper into the garden, we find a Torii Gate.

It was designed and constructed by Camille's husband, Dirk Paulsen

 

There were a number of interesting paths visitors could follow, which kept the group from bunching up.

Creative plant combinations and containers were positioned along every pathway

I came across a smaller pond in a shady area.

There were lots of seating options in the shade too

Unobtrusive artistic touches like this one were tucked here and there

And of course Mount Rainier was visible from the garden

Much as I appreciate natural and landscaped plant vistas, I also enjoy examining individual plants and plant combinations up close.  This garden offered plenty of those.  I'm not even going to try to place these in the locations they occupied in the garden as my memory has already lapsed.

There were a LOT of container plants.  I can't keep up with my own smaller collection of potted plants but I imagine weather conditions make things a little easier on gardeners in the Puget Sound.

Fatsias looking fabulous

Crocosmias and Hydrangeas

Plenty of beautiful foliage mixes

Trees, including Cercis, Acers, and the intriguing noID conifer on the right

This unusual container featuring both a staghorn fern and an orchid sparked a lot of interest

You've no doubt noticed that the Paulsen Garden offered a large variety of seating options.  The one below was located on a deck attached to the house.

Accents included tiny Acers in pots

More containers arranged along the deck's edge

Colorful (and educational) artwork

A large swimming pool was visible from the deck.

The view of the pool was partially concealed by an Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate' here

This view revealed that Flingers had already settled in for a rest

I loved the mix of plants with the 'Angel Wings' Senecio centerpiece in the pot in this sitting area

and the tropical-themed pots in this area

I also liked how the pots and plants broke up what might otherwise be a boring hedge here.  (I have a lot of boring hedges in my garden.)

I was very impressed by the beautiful gazebo too.

There were a lot more people hanging out here a little while later

Several raised planters were positioned nearby

The garden even had neat storage areas.

Back up at the front of the house in the driveway, we were offered delicious fruit ices.

The huge piece of what I assume is driftwood drew attention

A representative for Monrovia was sitting for a photo by someone else when I snapped this shot of her next to plants to be raffled off at a Fling dinner that evening.  I recognized her voice from Monrovia's periodic webinars.  I didn't see the other face poking through the foliage above the bench until after I'd downloaded my photos.  I think the plants on the right were donated by Little Prince of Oregon for the same raffle.

That's it for my summary of the Paulsen Garden.  If you'd like to see more, I suggest visiting Camille's Instagram feed, which you can find here, or checking some of the posts loaded on the Fling site, which you can find here.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party