Far Reaches Farm Part One: Podophyllum Paradise

 

Far Reaches Farm, the last nursery stop on this Bonney Lassie and  Outlaw  Kitsap Peninsula spring Saturday, is plant geek paradise!  In addition to all the wonderful plants that live there,  proprietors Kelly Dodson and Sue Milliken, are equally wonderful, knowledgeable, helpful and in Kelly's case, quite colorful.  One never knows what Kelly's attire will include.  Crazy hats are a favorite as are kilts and other alternatives to dull colored pants.  I love visiting this place and just realized that this is the first time since I've been blogging that I've visited.  We saw Kelly and Sue at the Heronswood sale earlier in the day and confirmed that the nursery would be open.   

 

In looking at my pictures after we got back, I realized that there were far too many  of  Far Reaches for one post and since I'm crazy about Podophyllums  and sorely missed seeing them in the Heronswood garden, I decided to post about the fabulous specimens at Far Reaches.  These are all  Chinese cousins of our Eastern U.S. native Mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum about which you can read more here.

 

Podophyllum versipelle?  Podophyllum pleianthum?  (Mine has more rounded leaves) Confused?  This post from Botanically Inclined may help add to your confusion.  Probably Podophyllum mairiei, a plant listed in Far Reaches' catalog. 

 

 The bold and strikingly patterned leaves of Podophyllum delavayi always make me squeal like a young child unwrapping a particularly special gift.  It's not pretty and since I have these in several parts of my garden, the neighbors sometimes think that I'm keeping livestock when they hear me going from one plant to the next.

I can't stop taking pictures of this magnificent foliage.

The leaves are really quite large.  Here's a hand for comparison.  Well, the hand is not as close to the leaf as it should be for comparison because the other hand is holding a camera.

Fortunately there are places to sit down  in the garden.  After such excitement, one needs a break.

Podophyllum 'Red Panda' is a hybrid of P. delavayi and P. pleianthum which was introduced by Northwest Gardens.

 

 

 P. delavayi hybrid somewhat  resembling 'Spotty Dotty' or maybe 'Kaleidoscope'

And here growing happily outside is a bevy of potted beauties that look like they should be for sale.   Sometimes one needs to inquire about really special plants. Maybe these are part of a hybridization program or the result of a new seed collection. 

Sinopodophyllum (Podophyllum) hexandrum var. chinense.  Here's a description from the Far Reaches Site: "Second generation plants from our collection from a grassy bank above a stream in Tibetan Yunnan where it was growing in moist rich topsoil at around 10000'. This is a choice herbaceous member of the Barberry Family with rich darkly mottled new growth and broad sharply lobed palmate leaves up to a foot across with a crystalline pink chalice of a flower giving way to large red fruits in fall. Gorgeous moist shade plant to 3' tall although we've seen this same collection at a friend's garden pushing 4' tall. We didn't recognize our own plant and they do that to everything - we kinda hate them. Hardy to Zone 5 and best of all - it's easy."

Kelly's plant descriptions on tags and on the website are a great source of entertainment.  Folks have been known to laugh aloud at the nursery reading them.   O.K. It's just me,  everyone else is more refined.   This one with the pink and white markings on the leaf (don't know if that lasts or not but ain't it purty?) was spotted by Alison at the Far Reaches Table at the Heronswood sale.   Fortunately there were two of them so Alison didn't have to mysteriously disappear on the peninsula.

Because one can never see enough of this fabulous group of plants, here is a photograph taken by Ian  Young, published on the wonderful Scottish Rock Garden Club site, and used with the photographer's permission.  These are labeled Podophyllum difformis. 

Dan Heims has written an interesting article in Pacific Horticulture about these fascinating plants which can be viewed here  If you are interested in finding nurseries that carry these plants, be sure to click on the Podophyllum resource guide link at the end of the article. If you are trying to find a source for Podophyllum difformis (difforme,)  I'll keep you in my prayers.  P.d.'Starfish' and 'Kaleidoscope' used to be more readily available but I think that they were fairly demanding and fell out of favor in the industry.