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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Monday, September 23, 2013

When You Come to the End of a Perfect Day; The Desert Northwest

 
Ever think that living in the Pacific Northwest would be great except for all of that rain in the winter?  Have we got a place for you.  Sequim, WA lies within the rain shadow of the Olympic mountains and only gets 16 inches of rain a year, the same as Los Angeles.  It is in this special town that Ian Barclay operates his nursery, The Desert Northwest, which specializes in drought tolerant and rare plants.   I'd been familiar with Ian's great plants from the many plant sales at which he is a vendor but had never had the opportunity to visit his nursery.   Ian was kind enough to stay open late during his September open to allow our fun group of bloggers to see his place full of great plants!  Ian  and his wife were very kind  to have refreshments available for us!  We felt very special!  Thank you both so very much for staying late and your hospitality!
 
Here, Ian and his assistant, Nigel, point out how the greenhouses are organized.

So many unusual treasures that one could spend quite a while investigating each small area!  Alison and I were both delighted to find small and affordable Aloe plicatilis, (among other fab plants) having admired them both in collections here and in the ground in California.

Looking forward to this one being propagated.  This is a stock plant.  Cool, right?

So lovely in the rays of the early evening sun, one is tempted to pat this soft looking opuntia.  At least some of the others have big scary looking spines that let you know that they mean business but these softies will cover you with glochids if you so much as look at them.
 
 
 
 
 
And speaking of the pain of love, Anna is beside herself with love for Banksia grandis.  It's o.k. Anna, we've all been there! 
 
Maybe this bit of wisdom that my niece sent me just today will help:
 
 
 Leucadendrons looking very happy.  I fell for one earlier in the year and am hoping that it will make it through the winter in the little glass room.

 I've no problem with relocating slugs to another area or another life but snails have such interesting shells, that I can't bring myself to dispatch them. 

Ian seems tireless in discussing plants.  Here, Laura and her pirate follow Ian through some unusual conifers.

My dear sister in Alaska saw this plant in my post about the Fronderosa Frolic and decided to give me one for my birthday so I also picked up one of these (among a few others.)






Alison paying for her haul.

Plants loaded (yes we found more space!) some happy garden bloggers head back to our cars after a wonderfully satisfying plant-centered day. 


Of course, there's always room for more plants. 
 
At Ian's suggestion, we headed to the snug harbor café (good food, fun service)  for dinner and a discussion of our day of plant conquests.  See Anna's and Laura's posts  about the day for lots of cool stuff I missed.   Thank you all so much for driving up and over to share this fun adventure with me.  The energy generated by plant shopping/garden visiting with other passionate plant people is a drug that I enjoy and YES, I'm addicted, O.K?   Looking forward to our next adventure together!


24 comments:

  1. I'm reading a very helpful book on gardening in the PNW and didn't realize that there were so many regions and sub-regions with varying weather patterns for each. I'm thinking that the Wilamette Valley region is for me. I don't need any desert region! I have that already.

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    1. btw Mr Oliver could you share the title of the book you're reading?

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    2. The desert region is only a small spot in western Washington which, interestingly enough is not far from a rain forest that gets over a hundred inches of rain a year. The eastern part of both Washington and Oregon have desert areas with very hot summers and cold winters. Separating the east and west sides of the state are gorgeous mountains with winter ski areas. One of the great parts of living here is that we're never more than an hour or two from a major city, costal beaches, inland desert, mountains, and rural areas.

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    3. The book is "Timber Press Guide to Gardening in the Pacific Northwest". I've finished it and now looking for more. If you have any I need to read, let me know!

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  2. And it's a wrap!

    Fabulous final post (gosh when am I going to start posting?) on a wonderful day. I thought that shot of Ian and Nigel was going to be my fave, but then that one of all of us heading back to the car is pretty fabulous too!

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    1. It was a wonderful day indeed. It's funny what we post about when. I still have several things from this summer that I need to post about, including the last day of the fling.

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  3. Oh how I'm overcome with plant purchasing, garden blogging, nursery visiting fun! Crazy how dry it is there!

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    1. I know, right! You will have so much fun at the fling in Portland!

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  4. I love the way you captured the gleeful atmosphere of the gardening gang in this post. Our local paper did a feature titled: where you see snails, I see escargot. Now there's an idea...served in their own cute little shells.

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    1. Yum? I'd heard somewhere that the snails in our gardens are actually the edible kind, and were brought to this area years ago by a french chef who missed escargot.

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  5. Ian's plant collection and nursery looks amazing, full of treasures! And I've just finished reading
    Loree's blog, its great that you both managed to get hold of that lovely plant via Ian.

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    1. It was a stroke of luck about that plant alright! I love the foliage (flowers aren't bad either) and hope that it will prove hardy here!

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  6. What a wonderful end to an epic road trip! That opuntia is gorgeous--any idea which one it is?

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    1. Sorry, I don't know which opuntia that one is although I agree that it's beautiful.

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  7. I enjoyed these posts very much. As a plant fanatic I can attest to the fact that it's a drug. Being with plant people at plant sales alters the brain chemistry.

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    1. It's always nice to hear from fellow addicts! Glad you enjoyed our fun day!

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  8. Snails. Public Enemy #1. Worthy of the bulletin board at the post office.

    My Idyll friends and I have had excellent luck with Nursery owners restaurant recommendations. We've scored on suggestions from Kelly at Far Reaches,Sean at Cistus, and Leonard at Dancing Oaks among others. Plant people have impeccable taste !

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    1. But snails are so cute.

      Gardening and good food seem t go hand in hand.

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  9. Looks like a fun visit. Love the cactus but I don't want to pet it.

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  10. Nice soft-looking Opuntia. Been there, done that. Ouch. As for snails, I used to go out at night in San Diego with a walking stick and a flashlight and crunch like 600 in one night! Once I put some in a box and fed them corn meal, then boiled them up.... then I threw them away. I couldn't get up any appetite for them. I guess I'm not gastronomically adventurous enough for gastropods. Thanks for the nursery tour.

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    1. Wow, we just don't have many snails here. Just as well as I'm with you on the lack of interest in eating gastropod front!

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  11. A snail is a slug in a decent suit. Looks like a fun visit to a unique nursery.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.