In February, football fans have the Super Bowl. Gardeners have the Northwest Flower & Garden Show.

Seattle’s botanical extravaganza, which opens Wednesday for a five-day run at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center, is the official gardening season kickoff for more than a few green thumbs in Western Washington.

Unlike many other home and garden trade shows, this event, now in its 23rd year, is all about the garden.

Visitors will find not only 350 popular plant and garden art vendors, but also two dozen spectacular display gardens, featuring everything from the latest in low-maintenance ground covers to real trees towering multiple stories high.

“Once Upon A Time … Spectacular Gardens With Stories to Tell” is the theme for this year’s show, now in its second year under the ownership of O’Loughlin Trade Shows of Portland, Ore., which bought the event in 2009 from the show’s founder, Duane Kelly of Seattle.

That means show visitors can expect a variety of storybook puns and themes in the display gardens, including “Alice in Wonderland,” a show garden by designer Zsofia Pasztor, owner of Everett-based Innovative Landscape Technologies.

Pasztor is one of many Snohomish County designers to be featured in the display garden portion of the show.

Susan Browne with Susan Browne Landscape Design of Everett will present “Run, Little Pigs, Run!” a dramatic garden designed to include homes for all three pigs as well an underground lair for a wolf.

The Flower Growers of Puget Sound garden, “Rapunzel,” will feature a floral telling of the classic fairy tale with early flowering annuals and bulbs, colorful perennials, stately conifers and deciduous trees, all arranged around the maiden’s tower.

Some of the other local businesses putting together show gardens include Wight’s Home & Garden of Lynnwood; Fancy Fronds of Gold Bar; Cedar Grove Composting of Everett; Under The Arbor Landscape Design of Edmonds; Christianson’s Nursery of Mount Vernon; and Big Trees, B. Bissell General Contractors and McAuliffe’s Valley Nursery, all of Snohomish.

Thanks to a new partnership between the show and Windmill Gardens of Sumner, this year’s display gardens will feature more blooming and exotic plants, the result of a new, monthslong greenhouse program by the nursery to bring 7,000 plants into full splendor just in time for the show.

Another new feature for the 2011 show is “The PlayGarden,” a hands-on educational exhibit focusing on the story and characters of “Charlotte’s Web,” including a life-size barn, a spider web exhibit, live rabbits and chickens, a worm-composting bin and kid-friendly weekend-only seminars.

Speaking of seminars, that’s another big aspect of this annual event, including more than 120 speakers over the course of the entire event.

That includes Ciscoe Morris and sidekick Meeghan Black, Cass Turnbull, Marianne Binetti, Ed Hume, Lucy Hardiman, Willi Galloway, Mary Robson, and a former Herald Home & Garden writer, Debra Prinzing, who will talk about floral design.

Hot topics include urban food gardening, safe alternatives to invasive plants, container gardening with perennials, designing paths and plants for rain gardens.

Though in previous years lectures filled up quickly, this year that shouldn’t be a problem, thanks to new seminar locations in the convention center’s new conference center.

Now that’s inspiring.

Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037, sjackson@heraldnet.com.

See the show

What: The Northwest Flower & Garden Show will feature display gardens by local designers and landscapers, celebrity speakers, educational seminars, floral displays, retail booths and activities for kids.

When: Wednesday through Feb. 27. Hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., except Feb. 27, when the show closes at 6 p.m.

Where: Washington State Convention & Trade Center, 800 Convention Place, downtown Seattle.

Cost: Admission is $20 at the door, $5 for ages 12 to 17, and free for ages 11 and younger. Early bird tickets, which can be purchased through Tuesday, are $16. Two-day passes are $29, all-show passes are $65.

Group tickets are $15 for parties of 20 or more. Advance tickets are available at most local, independently owned nurseries.

Information: See www.gardenshow.com or call 253-756-2121.