Colvos Creek, Ave atque vale

After almost 40 years of finding and propagating a wide variety of rare and unusual plants, Mike Lee  decided to close the doors of Colvos Creek Nursery.  Mike was a pioneer of growing unusual and especially xeric plants in the pacific northwest and had a mail order catalog that was a plant nerd's delight.  If you see huge agaves or tree sized Embothriums in Seattle area gardens, it's likely that Mike's hands separated the pup, pressed the seed to soil or plunged the cutting into pearlite.  Fans of growing callistemon, manzaneta  and grevillea in this area owe Mike a debt of gratitude for promoting their use in our gardens for years!  For more about Colvos Creek, see Ian's excellent post here.

It has been said that like faded photographs in attic boxes, we are all eventually forgotten but the great horticultural contribution of Mike Lee and his nursery is worth remembering!

Thanks to Ian's post, referenced above, I was able to attend the final sale at Colvos Creek.  Prices were amazingly low and the list of plants still available was impressive!  Over the years, I've visited Colvos Creek Nursery in a variety of Vashon Island locations but it wasn't until recently that I learned that Mike lives in Seattle and commuted by ferry  to Vashon Island.  To learn more about the reasons for the closure, look here.

 

Colvos Creek's growing area has always existed on part of someone else's property.  The landowner of the most current location had lots of interesting objects on the grounds including this bicycle fence.

And these cool architectural fragments.

We had some other stops to make on the island so I didn't spend a tremendous amount of time in the shade plant area. 

There were treasures to be found here but I noticed a couple of cool eucalypti on the list and decided to seek them out.

 So off we were led up the road to the sunny area, a bit of a hike but more than worth the walk!

 

A large clearing at the top of the road functioned as the growing area for sun lovers.

So many plants, so little garden space. 

Believe it or not, I only bought four plants.  Ignore the bulging boxes of plants behind my camera bag, they must belong to someone else:)

 

What a treat to be able to see Mike's plants one last time, to take some home, and mostly to chat with Mike.  As he travels up another path, I wish him well, thank him for his contribution, and look forward to hearing what he'll do next!