What's Happening at Dragonfly Farms Nursery?

As you may remember from a few posts ago, We visited the Kitsap Peninsula recently (Valley Nursery, Far Reaches Farms.)  Another of my favorite places out that way is Dragonfly Farms Nursery. To see several  previous visits go here.

Here are some random things that caught my eye on this visit:

Still in love with these metal agaves, some of which were displayed last year but not yet for sale. One that's not pictured  came home with me.  I'm so excited to have an agave that I can't kill.

They're even cooler in person. 

For more pictures of Mark's metal agaves, click here.

These rebar and recycled bottle fence pieces are protecting Heidi's beds from her new puppies.  

The fence sections are for sale; the pups, not so much.  Although, there are probably days when they'd pay you to take a dog away!

Oh to have space for a bell like this!  I rang it and the mellow, low sound was beautiful. 

Love this plant stand!  

Of course, it's not all about the art, there were plenty of wonderful plants and a great garden to explore as well.

Pyrrosia lingua 'Hiryu' just in from Japan.  Notice the cinnamon-colored indumentum.  Sigh.  Somehow one ended up in my wagon.

Heidi's is a garden about which I fantasize having someday.  Space enough for lots of trees, full of interesting garden art, great plants, and curving paths that lead you further through the garden to explore what comes next.

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.  My smallish urban garden takes a lot of time so I'd imagine that several acres of garden in the country would take even more time!  Maybe if I quit one of my three jobs...

I'm always thrilled to see my favorite plants for sale and want to adopt more but resisted loading the car with more Podophyllum delavayi. My late winter experiment of dividing a pot of mine that had become quite crowded was successful.  Next year, I'll divide it again.  Meanwhile the specimen in the ground has finally become fairly large.

 Drooling over this Hebe 'Pink Elephant!'  Heidi says that it's been fully hardy for her (Dave's Garden says zone 7b) and that she'll have them for sale later this season or next spring. If you don't want to wait that long, I see that Fry Road  Nursery  has it available now.  A quick search on the web shows it widely available in England.

The color is even more vibrant than the pictures show.  Quite a knockout of a Hebe!

Each spring when I see Heidi's Crown Imperials (Fritillaria imperialis) in bloom, I vow to add them to the bulb order that I usually forget to make.  Seems like a lot of gardeners vow to order more bulbs each year.  Well, not the smart ones who don't bother with the whole spring flowering bulb thing to begin with. Heidi cleverly had these potted up and ready to bring home for instant color. Can't bring myself to buy a plant in the spring that I could have had by simply planting bulbs in the fall.

Great sphere combo!

Further along the garden path.

Wouldn't mind having a driveway that looked like this!

 An English Laurel that everyone can love.  Look at that great marbled foliage!  Mine finally made it into the ground after spending a year in a pot!

Simple blue and gold combination of lungwort and a carex (maybe) is very effective. 

Epimedium grandiflorum 'Princess Susan' is quite pretty.  I've never met an Epimedium that I didn't like.  They thrive in dry shade, have handsome evergreen foliage and once a year produce a crop of delicate flowers that to some resemble orchids.  This plant is nearly indestructible and  needs no care.  You will enjoy the blooms more if each late winter or very early spring you give it a big haircut to make space for the blooms and new foliage but even if you don't do that, the plant will thrive. If you have none, you need some of these in your garden.

You may remember Anemone nemorosa 'Viridiflora' from a previous post.  It came from this visit. 

Finally Primula sieboldii 'Late Snow' caught my eye.  For some reason I didn't get one and kicked myself for days.  Fortunately, it's a plant grown by Xera Plants in Portland so I was able to pick one up when I visited  that city a week or so later. 

I also picked up another fairly large Cardiocrinum giganteum to add to the group. I didn't plant the offsets immediately the last time I had blooms and the plants didn't like being moved later so I had fewer plants survive.  They're truly exciting to watch bloom!   Deep hole, lots of manure & compost makes really happy Cardiocrinums!

Happy Earth Day Everyone!