The drive from the street to the nursery is a treat as the driveway wends through part of the beautiful garden created over the last few years by Jeff and Celeste. Getting out of the car, I noticed this Magnolia macrophylla, a tree which I love and think is far too underused and difficult to find in the trade. Although last year, Valley Nursery and Flower World had quite a few of them. P.S. Jeff says that this is Magnolia hypoleuca not M. macrophylla. Thanks for the correction, Jeff!
Great plants and friendly people seem to be what this place is about. The puyas below looked so cute!
Persicaria (or Tovara) virginiana 'Brush Strokes' love the markings on this one!
Luma apiculata 'Glanleam Gold' is a stunning plant that would have come home with me in an instant if it could grow in the shade. Likes full sun. Beautiful!
Deutzia crenata 'White Splashed' is a plant that caught my eye at the RSG sale. I'm a sucker for variegated leaves. You know, if there are going to be so many beautiful plants that we can grow here, I should really have a lot more garden space!
Never met an Eryngium I didn't like and this E. venustum is no exception.
Aloe grandidentata somehow ended up in my box along with several other plants. Alison must have put it there as I keep promising myself not to buy any more plants that need to come in for the winter.
Speaking of not having enough garden space, isn't the foliage of this Sequoia beautiful?
Peeking around the back of the nursery at a roped off area, I saw some groovy opuntias and other fun stuff. Didja see that big Loquat?
In the main hoop house. Do you see that yellow flowered plant on the far left?
Why, it's none other than the Azara serrata that greeted us at Heronswood. It's a beautiful sight and says that it has a strong vanilla fragrance. I could smell it if I put my nose to the flower but it's not a fragrance that freely wafts over an area. The flowers are followed by white fruit. Very tempting but it stayed at the nursery.
What follows is a few shots of some of the great plants in the garden.
Fremontodendron californicum is so showy, blooms for a long period in the summer and likes sharp drainage. Great bush/small tree!
Grevillea somethingorother is so vibrant that it stopped us in our tracks!
I wish that we'd had more time to enjoy this garden as there were treasures everywhere! Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea' had me swooning. I've had this before and it's pretty much a large annual here.
However, due to a couple of mild winters and a good location, this one is larger than any I'd seen before. Those aren't blooms but new growth at the end of the branches. The purple new growth contrasts so beautifully with the grey older leaves. I've a feeling that if there were any of these for sale, we would have purchased them.
Dactylorhiza praetermissa. O.K. I know I said that I don't have time to fuss with orchids but this is supposed to be fairly easy. According to Arlen at Keeping it Green Nursery, "Dactylorhiza are among the most rewarding and care free orchids both for the orchid collector and the gardener. They will multiply fast when kept moist and not too shady. Once a plant has settled in it is one of the few that readily self sows seed." AND this one is hardy to zone 2!
Cistus with white flowers but the shrub is truly stunning right now with these pink/red buds!
Clianthus in bloom.
Because we really wanted to visit Far Reaches, we needed to leave so that we'd have time to arrive there far enough before closing to really enjoy the place. I'm looking forward to going back to Celestial Dream Gardens and will certainly plan more time there on my next visit. Alison and I paid for our plants and headed to Port Townsend. We'd already visited 3 nurseries, Heronswood Garden and Sale and were heading out to our last stop of the day, a car full of great finds and ready to discover more. If you are a plant addict, you know how wonderful this feeling is. We nearly started singing.
Lots of cool stuff... I love the creeping Grevillea and that Clianthus!
ReplyDeleteIt's another fabulous nursery! Every time I find another great place like this, I pinch myself thinking that I must be dreaming to live in an area where we can grow so many beautiful plants and where the purveyors of gorgeous plants are so plentiful.
DeleteI don't think I've ever seen a purple acacia! Beautiful! I had a yellow one... it was gone after three or four years.
ReplyDeleteCelestial Gardens is a very interesting place with some difficult-to-find plants. Worth visiting! Thank you and have a nice Memorial Day!
Celestial Dream Gardens is definitely worth visiting! Wishing you a nice Memorial Day too Tatyana!
DeleteMany fabulous plants, especially the hardy orchid. The list of fantastic nurseries in your area is seemingly endless. If you should cover them all it would simply be time to go around again to see what's new.
ReplyDeleteGood thing you explained the acacia "blooms", purple blooming acacia was a surprise until you cleared it up.
You are absolutely right Shirley, there seems to be no end to the exceptional nurseries in this area. As Alison and I were heading out on this trip, we kept passing favorite places that we wanted to visit on another trip.
DeleteI've never seen one of these bloom (probably yellow like the rest of the acacias) but the new growth alone is color enough for me!
I was thrilled to visit Celestial Dream Gardens last June when up in the area, not only did they have great plants for sale and a wonderful display garden but Jeff was a friendly knowledgeable guy to chat with. The only downside? We were starving and it started to rain while we were there....
ReplyDeleteBTW if you're serious about wanting a Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea' I believe you could find one at Cistus...
Dear evil temptress, thank you for the recommendation! Next time I'm at Cistus, I'll look. Jungle Fever used to have them and may again this season, I'll have to check.
DeleteCelestial Dream Gardens is a fun place!
So many lovely plants. You visited a gardener's heaven, Peter!
ReplyDeleteIt's almost embarrassing how many truly wonderful nurseries we have in this area!
DeleteI think that Acacia is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. WOW.
ReplyDeleteIt is a beautiful plant but usually doesn't live long in our climate. Although, it could be hauled inside during the coldest part of the winter while it's still small.
DeleteLovely tour of this nursery Peter, I don't see too many acacia purpurea's growing in gardens these days, but I have always admired it's colourful foliage.
ReplyDeleteYet another beauty from NSW! We really love your native plants here!
DeleteA fab collection of plants there, reminding me of Cornish nurseries. I agree about the Magnolia macrophylla, it is still very much underused.
ReplyDeleteIt's strangely not carried by a lot of nurseries in this area. I don't know why it's not more popular, as it's the plant in my parking strip that elicits the most inquiries from passersby.
DeleteI like the Azara and the Acacia.
ReplyDeleteGold and Purple, the colors of the University of Washington. See, I knew that you really want to move out west!
DeleteThis was such a fabulous nursery, and you managed to take many more wonderful photos of it than I did. I wish we had had the time to see a lot more of the display garden, cause it looked pretty great. I still want a Magnolia macrophylla, I'll have to see if I can find one at Flower World.
ReplyDeleteSo many nurseries, so little time! Flower world has them but they're about 15 feet tall so you'd need a truck. They also deliver.
DeleteI think that one is worth the better part of a day for exploring. Will you ever run out of material? I think not! I don't usually do this much "thinking"...time to go out and weed.
ReplyDeleteOh no! Thinking is dangerous! I wonder about running out of material but so far plants keep doing cool stuff as do those who sell them.
DeleteWow, thanks so much for the great vote of confidence! We really are appreciative to have so many fun plant geeks as customers. I heard from one yesterday about a great review of our nursery on someones blog and had to check it out.
ReplyDeleteIn my plant geekdom, I do have to correct the nomenclature of the Magnolia, as the species is hypoleuca, not macrophylla. The leaves on this tree get around 2' or so in length and are a bit more paddle shaped and narrow towards the leaf petiole. Not that I don't have a pair of M. macrophylla's lurking in the garden...
I do refer to the Acacia as a fancy annual to most folks. Not really hardy below 15-18 F and the species baileyana is really not to great at resprouting from the roots like a number of other Acacia species. Check us out next season for one if you need it as it's in the works for propagation! Also, blooms late February and again in late fall/early winter with small bright yellow poof balls of flowers covering the entire tree.
Thanks again for the great review! Please feel free to check us out on Facebook as I am trying to constantly keep new plant pics listed and let folks know what's new at the nursery.
Take care, Jeff
Hey Jeff, thanks for the magnolia correction and thanks for all the work you and Celeste do to make your nursery possible! It was a pleasure to visit your garden and nursery! Sorry that your comment didn't appear earlier. It somehow got snagged in the blogger spam filter and I didn't check that until just now. Hope you're having a great season!
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