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Last week, the Yard, Garden & Patio Show wrapped up the show season, which began with the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in early February and continued with the Portland Home & Garden Show. After seeing them all, one thing’s for certain: The trend in outdoor living is getting a little makeover.

Garden rooms and cozy seating areas edged out the large kitchens and massive fireplaces so popular over the past few years. Water features calmed down, too. Though there were a few small waterfalls, most designers went for something different, everything from a soundless water wall to an aluminum animal trough accepting water from faucets made of plumbing parts.

At all three shows, sustainability was more significant than ever. My challenge of the season is to figure out how to make a bark edging for one of my beds like the one in the “Abundant Nature, the Urban Edible Garden” designed by volunteers from theAssociation of Northwest Landscape Designers. Like the rest of the display, it was magical.

Some other observations:

• Miniature gardens and terrariums largely disappeared.
• Glass glittered everywhere: bird baths, water fountains, chandeliers and sculpture.
• Edible gardening is way beyond a trend.
• Sustainability is a given. 
• Living walls seem about to fall down.
• Art and arbors come full circle.
• In the realm of plants, gold reigns.

Popular plants

1. OK, I’m calling it. Once again, hellebore is Plant of the Year, with a capital P. Garden displays overflowed with these gorgeous winter-bloomers, and it seemed like every third person walked out of the shows clutching some. With advances in breeding over the past decade or so, it’s no surprise hellebores are getting such attention. Flowers that once were single, nodding and an almost-boring white-green now come in the darkest purple to the whitest white, some freckled or margined in another color. Many flowers turn their faces to the sky, easier to be enjoyed from above.

2. Coming in as Color of the Year were gold-foliaged plants, everything from the up-and-coming ‘Chief Joseph’ lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) to yellow forms of yucca such as ‘Color Guard’ and ‘Gold Sword.’ As one shopper said, “We need the bright color in winter.” She’s right, but it doesn’t have to be winter. The garden can always use a flash of gold. Just don’t overdo it.

3. We don’t have far to look to see moss in the Northwest, but it showed up in garden displays in unusual ways, most notably as place mats in the “Bountiful Feast” garden by Jenna Bayer Garden Design and Showscapes. The soft stuff also appeared in green walls, peeked from hanging baskets and bubbled between path pavers.

Second time around

4. Sustainability has become a hallmark in all three Northwest shows, but “Abundant Nature — An Enchanted Food Forest” at YGP took it to new heights this year. Made by volunteers from the Association of Northwest Landscape Designers, the exquisitely detailed garden included a moss-covered hobbit mound that grew from a foundation of old tires and a ruin garden made of all manner of salvaged material, including bricks and architectural pieces. The highlight for me: two Celtic-styled doors — one for the hobbit house and one for a garden shed — created out of old fencing by Jane Hart of Jane’s Backyard.

Patio perfect

Outdoor entertaining is on a more intimate footing this year. Rather than giant-sized kitchens, fireplaces and big-screen TVs, there were upholstered sofas and pillows in conversational arrangements; tables set for dining; even a massage table surrounded by sweet-smelling cedar and warmed by a nearby fire.

LMeyer Design and JP Stone Contractors worked around a ’60s theme with a curved black banquette; black and white polka-dotted square seats; and a lava lamp.

5. In “Come Alive Outside” by Dennis’ 7 Dees Landscaping and Garden Centers, the style was sophisticated country chic under a peaked glass house.

Circle around

6. It’s too early to tell if it will roll into a trend, but circles were everywhere, especially as entryway arbors made of metal. But there were orbs, spheres, round sculptures and Patrick Gracewood’s laser-cut steel panels, fashioned from his original paper cut art and featuring circles within squares, which signify heaven on Earth.

-- Kym Pokorny

Kym Pokorny covers gardens for national magazines and other media. She can be reached at Madrona29@yahoo.com. Follow her on Twitter @kympokorny