I've been wondering who that woman gracing the cover of this year's Point Defiance Flower & Garden program is. The caption only identifies her as Miss Tacoma 1964.

Today I got a call that solved the mystery. The call was from the former Angie Nicholson - Miss Tacoma 1964.

Miss Nicholson, now Mrs. Angie Magruder, is a grandmother and living in Virginia.

She's out West this week to visit her parents in Lakewood. Wednesday morning her mother handed her a newspaper clipping with her picture on it.

"I assumed it was an old clipping from 43 years ago," Magruder said and asked her mother where she found it.

"In today's paper," her mother replied.

"I said, 'What? You've got to be kidding'."

Magruder went to the show today with her mother. "I was like a rock star. It was a hoot," she said. She even signed autographs.

Magruder was a PLU student in 1964 and was running out of money. She thought the scholarship money would be a big help. It turned out though that being Miss Tacoma was a lot of work.

After graduation she married her husband, Bob, who was stationed at Ft. Lewis, and spent 29 years as a military wife and an artist.

So what is Magruder doing in that photo?

"I don't have a clue. It was 43 years ago," Miss Tacoma 1964 said with a laugh.

Enjoy these pictures of the Grand Display Gardens at the Point Defiance Flower & Garden show. They're on display through Sunday. Check them out!

We've returned from blogging live at the Point Defiance Flower & Garden Show. A good time was had by all! Thanks to all of you who stopped by the booth to say hello!

The News Tribune booth will be located in the Educational Vendors area all weekend -- stop by and enter our drawing for Watson's gift certificates and other prizes.

So after spending last night and this morning at the show, I think the coolest thing at the show are the outdoor rooms displays. If you only have a certain amount of time to spend at the show, definitely head to the Grand Display Gardens and take a look.

They are amazing -- outdoor kitchens, outdoor living rooms, comfy looking courtyards and things that will make you want to immediately start renovating your back yard. I loved the courtyard designed by Sue Goetz of the Creative Gardener in Gig Harbor. It was so relaxing. I made fellow garden blogger Craig Sailor sit down while I snapped a photo. He said he looks so sad in this picture because his back yard does not look like this:

I am listening to a class on making stained glass garden art right now at the lecture stage near the Education Vendor booths. The teacher, Karen Seymour, is operating a power tool and showing how to assemble the art. Go Karen!

Other lectures today that look really interesting today:

1:30 p.m.: A class called "The Pattern Garden," by Valerie Easton at the TNT Lecture Series booth.

2 p.m.: Worm composting class at the Franciscan Garden Stage.

3:30 p.m.: A class called "Hypertufa Troughs" by the Tacoma Garden Club.

11 a.m.-2 p.m.: Rose experts will be in the rose garden all afternoon discussing rose care and answering questions about the Point Defiance rose collection.

If you are looking for colorful stones to liven up your garden, check out Just A Step Away.

This Tacoma business creates concrete stones in the shape of vintage pillows. They come in fun colors such as pink and blue and start at $20. They look real from a distance.

While Marce and I were wandering through the children's section of the Point Defiance Flower & Garden show, I found what I hope will become my new hobby: Beekeeping.

The Pierce County Beekeeping Association has a table with kid-friendly information and a real bee colony on display.

They meet the first Monday of every month at the Almendinger Center in Puyallup at 7:30 p.m., meaning their next meeting is this Monday. That also means I have three days to convince a certain someone that we need 70,000 bees in our backyard.

Ebenezer Rhys Roberts was the architect of the gardens at Point Defiance Park – he was caretaker from 1889 to 1908. From where I'm sitting now, I can see the rose garden that Roberts started from cuttings of the rose bushes of Tacoma families. You can read a very interesting story about Roberts by our columnist Kathleen Merryman.

I just ran into Jean Insel Robeson, the granddaughter of Ebenezer Rhys Roberts. She was touring the Lodge - which was built for Roberts and his family (her mother lived there) - with her daughter Sally Long and granddaughter Felicia Turner. It was the first time her daughter and granddaughter had seen the Lodge where Robeson's grandfather lived.

It's amazing who you can run into at the garden show, isn't it?

And speaking of the the Lodge, there is a fantastic floral display show spread around the grounds and inside the Lodge. Be sure to check it out if you're coming to the show.

Be sure to check out the container gardening displays near the lodge. Designers could choose from several themes. One of them is "Treasure Island" and that's resulted in more than one display featuring a skeleton. Check it out before you see the next installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean."

The photo below is one of the more unusual displays. It was made by Jody Stark and Alice Gruenwald. It's called "Enlightened Beings Protecting the Rainforest" in the Super Natural theme.

My first stop this morning was the Ravishing Rarities booth in the Plant Market. Melinda Ramage of Degro Floraculture showed me some plants that would be hard to find at most nurseries around here.

Some of my favorites:

Starlight Flower: A small perennial with white flowers. It sells for $10

Impatients Congo Cockatoo, which looks like a parrot's head. The plant, which must be overwintered indoors, sells for $5.

Black Calla Lilies sells for $14.

The Get Growing bloggers just arrived at the Point Defiance Flower & Garden Show. It's a beautiful morning, get down here! We're in the Educational Vendor area, booth 17 (on your left after the main entrance). We'll be here until 12:30ish, or until our bosses call and tell us to get back to the newsroom.

A few tips if you're headed here today:

PARKING: Avoid the traffic jam on Pearl (eek! ferry traffic!) and follow the signs for a much less congested trip to the parking lots (even if it seems you're taking a weird route, trust us, the signs will get you to the parking lot). Parking is $10 per car. Bring cash!

SUPPLIES: Bring sunblock and water. It's going to be warm today.

PORTERS: If you buy a bunch of plants and you're worried about carting them around, ask for help from a porter. They'll help you get your plants to your car. In fact, I just saw a group of porters roll by just a minute ago.

PRIZES AT THE NEWS TRIBUNE BOOTH: We've got all kinds of goodies to give away for new subscribers. You can also enter a drawing for a Watson's gift certificate.

Stick around for our next blog post. Craig, Niki and Marce are out scouting the show right now.