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!