I've visited The Rhododendron Garden Nursery a few times before (See previous posts
here.) but never this early in the season. Diane Bell, a former teacher, is the one woman dynamo who has run this specialty nursery in a park-like seven acre setting for over twenty years now. There is a great article in the Seattle times about Diane and her nursery
here.
There is a story behind most of the plants that Diane chooses to propagate and offer for sale. She got hooked on rhododendrons when a rhodie hybridizer friend of her father was allowed to use their acreage to plant and grow on his creations. As a girl she couldn't wait to run out and see if buds had opened. They were the first to see many new hybrids bloom for the first time.
One of the hybrids had an exceptionally lovely magenta-colored bloom. When the hybridizer saw it, he just shook his head; he had been working to create a yellow. Diane has since named this one after her father. I'm looking forward to going back in a few weeks to see it in bloom as the image she showed me is stunning.
Erythronium in bloom.
The buds of this one really are this screaming pink color!
You'll see later large swaths of daffodils, a favorite flower of Diane's mother. When you visit the nursery, you may be given a bouquet of daffodils!
Diane is a native of Puyallup, a community and valley east of Tacoma, which used to be a major daffodil producing area. There is still a daffodil festival each spring complete with parades and daffodil princesses. Alas, the last of the daffodil farms closed recently and much of the beautiful, deep, fertile soil in the valley, which cradles several communities, is being covered with asphalt, industrial buildings, apartments.
They call it progress but I sure miss driving to work through that farmland, watching the crops that I'd soon buy at the produce stands growing and ripening.
My first bee sighting of the spring!
R. Daphnoides. You can see where this got it's name!
It's a bit early for the all out carnival of color that is the height of the rhodie season but the show is definitely starting!
During a windstorm this winter, several huge Douglas Firs fell and Diane says she feels very far behind this season.
A few of the aforementioned daffodils. The bushes you see beneath the trees are the edge of a forest of hydrangeas, another specialty of this nursery.
Leucojum aestivum?
Rhododendron stenopetalum 'Linearifolium' I think. Didn't look at the tag. Oops.
R. President Roosavelt (except that one on the lower right.)
Who says that Rhododendrons have boring foliage?
More neon buds!
So much beauty beneath that plastic!
The place just goes on and on!
Adiantum venustum (Himalayan Maidenhair Fern) is evergreen in our climate but I understand that in hot summer areas, it requires ample irrigation. A lovely, tough, and easy to grow ground cover for the forest floor.
A native trillium.
Sweet!
Some neon buds open to reveal neon flowers, others reveal that they have a more demure interior.
And then there's Pres. Roosavelt which doesn't know the meaning of the word subtle.
Great things to come. I'm looking forward to going back in a few weeks to see even more of these beauties in bloom!
If you're from the pacific northwest, you probably take rhododendrons for granted as they're so popular here and planted everywhere. I still remember the first time my family came from Alaska to visit this area during the winter (o.k. so it was still winter there) and there were huge trusses of brightly-colored flowers on plants with huge green leaves. It seemed like the tropics to my eyes.
I love the design of this structure which was made so that the plastic panels create a greenhouse in the winter and can be removed in the summer leaving a lovely bright covered sales area.
Because Diane grows what she sells, prices are low and the plants are healthy and beautiful. It's definitely worth finding this out of the way gem! In addition, it's not far from the Rhododendron Species Garden so you can make a day of visiting both!
Happy new week!
