• Click To View Slides Click To View Slides
•  

Visitors to this year’s Northwest Flower & Garden Show will be able to view an exhibit that looks like a portion of the Washington Park Arboretum. The 400-square-foot garden exhibit will include a marshland habitat, a woodland edge (the transition zone between a maturing forest and adjacent habitats) and woods, the three elements that make up the habitat for the birds in the arboretum, according to Phil Wood, one of three designers working on the display.

“It will be reminiscent of the marsh walk between Foster Island and Marsh Island,” said Rhonda Bush, the garden exhibit coordinator from the Arboretum Foundation.

In keeping with this year’s theme of “A Floral Symphony” at the garden show, the Arboretum Foundation has collaborated with Seattle Audubon to create the exhibit “Birdsong.” It will teach visitors how to create a habitat that attracts birds, while celebrating the diverse birds and species found in the arboretum.

Though Seattle Audubon volunteers lead regular bird watching tours in the arboretum, the groups have not collaborated on a project like this before. But when the theme was chosen, “The Audubon Society was the obvious choice to best support us in this,” said Bush.

Wood said Seattle Audubon has provided invaluable input about which bird-friendly plants to include as well as bird decoys and models that will be used in the exhibit. Neil Zimmerman, Seattle Audubon’s outreach coordinator, provided a list of birds found in the arboretum so the foundation could locate recordings of the birds’ songs.

“The exhibit will be mostly native plants that you would find in the arboretum,” said Zimmerman. “We are creating a website that we hope people will access with their smart phones by scanning QR codes to read about the birds and plants and how to garden this way.”

All of the garden signs in the Northwest Flower & Garden Show will have QR codes on them, linking each exhibit to a unique bird song that represents the display. The particular code on the ‘Birdsong’ sign will link visitors to a page on the Arboretum Foundation website that will provide individual profiles for each bird and plant found there.

“I hope [the exhibit] will show people that it is important in gardening to consider creating habitat for birds and other wildlife,” Wood said.

Creating a bird-friendly garden

Seattle Audubon gives three steps to create a bird-friendly habitat in any garden.

• Stop using pesticides that kill the food that birds eat, inhibit pollination, and can build up and become lethal to birds.
• Include native plants that attract birds.
• Leave debris under bushes and trees, instead of cleaning it up, so birds can find bugs and nesting material.

The Arboretum Foundation will kick off the Northwest Flower & Garden Show with its annual opening night party on Feb. 7, which is open to the public from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The Northwest Flower & Garden Show takes place Feb. 8 through 12, at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle. Tickets can be purchased by calling 1 (800) 343-6973.