Plant Farm Poinsettia Tour

 

Welcome to Red Couch Recipes!  Today I will take you on a little tour of a nursery in Spokane Valley, Washington, The Plant Farm.

This year the Plant Farm has grown over 74 varieties of poinsettias, with 28 of them being red-colored.  They have grown 40,000 poinsettias; it is a large operation.  This photo highlights the reds.  



 They have the pinks.  Most of their starts come from Equador.

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While you are on a tour of their operation, you can pick out a poinsettia, and they will hold it for you until the end of the tour.  That is unless you happen to pick out one that has been previously sold, which many have been preciously sold, as they sell to wholesalers across Eastern and Southern Washington, Northern Idaho, and Western Montana.

 

 

They have the whites.  There is an incredible number of varieties of poinsettias.

 

 

They have the pinks.

 

 

 

They have the pinky reds.  This year they have many more varieties than usual.  It is an experimental year to see what customers like.

 

 

This is called Orange Spice.  It is really a lot more orange in color than my picture shows.

 



 

The cute ladies on my tour were in love with this Dark Red Carousel variety.  It has been cultivated for curly leaves.

 

I thought the Jingle Bells Rock variety was particularly cute.

 

If you cannot make up your mind, you can always go for the tri-colored variety.

 

 

As your probably realize, poinsettias are really kind of a finicky plant.  They do not like too much sun or too much shade.  They do not like too much water.  If you buy one, if it is a cold day, go directly home. 

 The Plant Farm is a family-owned business.  It is owned by the Creech family.  They have nine acres of greenhouses.  It all started back in the sixties with some tomato starts and has grown into a huge year-long operation.

 

 It was such a fun place to be on a cold day.  If you are interested in going, they are only holding the tours November 20th and 21st.  Click here for their website.  Soon most of these will be shipped away for sale at retailers for Christmas. 

In their retail operation they also sell some of the colored poinsettias.  They can die a poinsettia in any color you like.

The resident cat's name was fluffly.

 

 



 We also were able  to go through a couple of their greenhouses that held houseplants.  They showed us their planting operation.

 

 

The tour is very interesting, and they hold a drawing for tour participants and I won a little table top poinsettia.  It is so cute.

Thanks for dropping by Red Couch Recipes.

Gardner Village Witch Fest

 

 

 Every year for the past, I don't know how many years, we make the Trek to Gardner Village near Salt Lake City where the witches gather for Witch Fest.   Even though my children are older now, they love to go. The first place we hit is the Sweet Afton's Candy Store.  We always buy some sort of candy.  My kids love junk candy :).  This store can get quite crowded on the weekends.

 

 

Each year they move the witches around and occasionally acquire a new witch.  Most of the pictures are from this year, but I added a few from previous years,

  

This witch is playing baseball -- who knew that witches have their own League?

 

 

This witch is directing traffic, and there is a lot of traffic around this area at Halloween, especially at Witch's Night Out.

 

 

These witches are always prepared, there is even a firefighting witch.

 

 

Of course there is a "Peek-a-Boo" witch!

 

 

Glad this one is on water!

 

 

 

She is a beaut!

 

 

 

 She has been a fixture here for years.

 

Need to rent some ghosts?

 

This old gal never stops doing her hoola hoop.

 

 

A lot of people dress up as witches or wear their costumes.  Sometimes there are "house" witches rambling about.  They have a Witches Night Out,  That is something to behold.  We went one year and didn't have witch costumes on, and we totally felt out of place.  We peaked in the bakery and there were all these people with witches hats on.  Can you say alternate reality?  This is my youngest daughter Talley when she was about five years old with one of the "house witches."

 

 

 

A vintage shot of my children.

 

 

 

Most of the stores are decked out with Halloween witches, pillows, signs, and other goodies.

 

We like to ramble through the stores,  I bought the glittery subway-type sign that says Candy Corn.  We also bought a scarf and three pairs of earrings (all non-Halloween) this year.

 

 

There are pumpkins everywhere, which of course makes me smile.

 

 Hope you have enjoyed our visit to Garner Village.  It is quite close to Salt Lake City.  If you ever are there in October, it is well worth a visit.

 

Zoulah thanks you for dropping by Red Couch Recipes.



Tablescaping at the Smithsonian and Awestruck with Washington D.C. and Virginia

  

Welcome to Red Couch Recipes, where I bring you kind of a different post from my travels back east this summer.  I haven't posted a tablescape in months!  I miss the society of all the wonderful tablescapers.  Some of you know my husband was working in Northern Virginia this past year, so this June I was able to go back to visit him two times in June.  On one of the trips we took our three children who had never been back east.  On the first day in town we took the Metro into Washington D.C. and went to the Smithsonian Air and Science Museum. 

 

Beware...there are only a few tablescaping pictures and lots of back east pictures. 

 

 

 My husband was thrilled with the museum, and my kids less so after our three hour visit :).

  

 My husband is a mechanical engineer and loves aircraft. 

 

 

  

The day we visited, the Air and Science Museum closed early as they were hosting a private party.  I snapped some pictures of the tables.  I loved the green glass plate; it was gorgeous.  I would like to have some like these.

 

Most of all I liked the unusual centerpieces.  The greenery was bended to look like ribbons.

 



I love the purple and white tables.  I wonder what they served for dinner.  I was not invited :).
 





A trip to the Smithsonian without seeing the Hope Diamond?  I think not!

 

 

 

We loved the energy of the city. We come from a very small town, so my children always love visiting a big city.

 

 

No White House Tours for us!  it amazed me how since September 11, you cannot get very close to the White House.  No President Obama sightings either.

 

 The National Zoo is not located near the other Smithsonian Museums.  We took an entirely different train and had to walk quite a few blocks to get there. 

My kids loved going to the National Zoo.  We even saw the little red panda that became an escape artist after we left.  I wonder if my kids had anything to do with this?

 

Our son Skyler outside of the Jefferson Memorial with the Washington Monument in the background.  The Washington Monument is still being fixed up after the 2011 earthquake in the D.C. area.

 

 

I would have loved to have some time to contemplate while visiting the Lincoln Memorial, but it was crowded with people.  If you have seen Jimmie Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," you will understand how I feel about Washington D.C.  -- awestruck and gaga for monuments and history. 

 

We ate ice cream (Ben and Jerry's) as we drove around the monuments at night.  The Jefferson Memorial at night is fabulous!  Sorry, I didn't get a photo of that.

 

 

 

While my husband worked I took the children to Arlington National Cemetery.  It is very sobering.  Military funerals are held here every day.

 

  

On a hill at Arlington is the Arlington House, the pre-Civil war home of Robert E. Lee and Mary Custis.  The interior furniture of Arlington House is being refurbished right now, but it is still worth a visit.  The view of the Potomic River and the Washington Mall is exquisite.

 

 

Of course we went to Georgetown. We loved the architecture.

 

 

I am thinking that this Red Couch home deserves a red door like this.

 

 

 

 

 Of course we had to try out some famous cupcakes.



 

 

We fought the crowds and got our own pink box.

 

 

Our pink box.  A little bit too much Key Lime Pie going on here.  The cupcakes were a bit roughed up in this picture:  it was hard getting the pink box out of the bag :).

 

 

When I came back to Virginia with my husband, we went back to Georgetown and visited Sprinkles.  As for the DC and Sprinkles Cupcakes, I guess I am a homemade cupcake kind of gal.

 

 

 

My husband's landlord thought it was so odd that we came back east and tracked down eating places. 

We went to Astro Donuts and Fried Chicken too, because their crème brulee donut is ranked number 1, by the Washington Post.  We even made a special trip into Washington D.C. only to be disappointed by a sign outside that said their donuts were sold out.  This was at about 11:00 in the morning.   

 

A little bit off the beaten path, but very fun is watching planes land at Reagan International Airport from Gravelly Park.  The planes fly right over you.

 

 

 

We went to Fredericksburg National Battlefield in downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia.  It was raining (think the kids were glad), and I gave them an abbreviated tour of the important points of the battle.  I had been there in February, without them.  It is such a moving place.  This is the tale of the Union forces losing badly to the Confederates because of geography (the sunken road) and delays.  Someday I will do a post on it.   

 

 

 

We were able to visit our son, daughter in-law, and two children in Richmond, Virginia.  Our son has one more year of medical school there at Virginia Commonwealth.

 

Aivi loves the outdoors.

 

 

Sydney was about seven months then. 

 

 

Loved our day at Virginia Beach.  This King Neptune statue is amazing.

 

 

 

My girls taking selfies (I think that is what they call it!) at Virginia Beach.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed our visit to the east coast and the tablescape at the Smithsonian.

 

 

Thanks for dropping by Red Couch Recipes.

 

Posted with the following:

 

Let's Dish, Tablescape Thursday