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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, March 30, 2015

Springing Over to the Rhododendron Garden Nursery

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!

23 comments:

  1. The place looks huge, great space to grow all those woodland beauties! May her good work continue, passionate plantspeople like her do us all a favour :)

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    1. It is a great woodland garden space. Isn't it the truth!

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  2. What a dramatic place to visit! Your area gets to grow the large leathery true Rhododendrons. We have the flimsy leaved Azaleas, including the native Alabamense which is coming into bloom.

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    1. we have flimsy leaved azaleas too. I didn't realize that Rhododendrons weren't happy there. In Sunday's sermon, there was mention of cotton requiring 90 days over 90 degrees to do well and I thought of you and what your summers must be like. Here, if it gets to 90, we start melting. The air conditioning in my house consists of opening a window or two. Interesting how different our zone 8's are!

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  3. What an amazing variety of rhododendrons ... I like that one with skinny leaves and red petals very much. We have three species of Adiantum here, two native and one worldwide. They grow in weeping walls, steep rock faces with cascading spring water and snowmelt gushing in early summer and “weeping” in the drier season.

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    1. These are just the tip of the iceberg. So many more to come! Weeping walls of Adiantum sound lovely!

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  4. I think I may finally pay her a visit this year, soon. I've been looking for a specific Hydrangea. And if she sells Trilliums too, even better. Looks like a great place!

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    1. It's also the least expensive place to buy Sanguinaria 'multiplex'. I love to go later in the season when the Hydrangeas are all in bloom!

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  5. Yup...that's what I saw! I should have taken more time to peek at her hydrangeas, but I was on a mission...and a bit leery of schlepping around in the mud (I wore flip flops--not great for garden exploration.)

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    1. The paths/roads were a little soggy! The hydrangeas are just leafing out so not much to see but at bloom time, yowsa!

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  6. Looks like an amazing collection...if I get up that way I'm definitely stopping. Thanks for introducing me to another great nursery, Peter!

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    1. It's a fun seasonal place with lots of great plants!

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  7. Whaddya buy? I do need to visit the Rhododendron Species Garden someday...

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    1. Are you sitting down? I had so much fun talking with her that I didn't buy anything. I do want to go back and look at that rhododendron that she named for her dad and some of our native and very fragrant azaleas. I'd gone back looking for R. polyandrum which I saw there last year. It was so fragrant that the scent wafted around seductively. Unfortunately, it's not entirely hardy here but now I have a place to winter it over. Unfortunately, she only had the mother plant left.

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  8. We usually buy rhodies on the basis of their leaves (that narrow-leaved one got my attention), but I could go for that purple one. All of these look so healthy. Maybe you could ask her if she does anything to combat weevils and azalea lacewing.

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    1. I do the same thing. The flowers may be nice but the foliage has to be interesting for the other eleven months of the year. She mentioned something about "a fellow who sprays for me." I'll ask next time I go as I'm having a horrible problem with weevils for the last three years or so.

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  9. Thanks for the eye candy! Let me know when you plan to go back. I've been wanting to check this place out and i'd love to join you!

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    1. It's about 15 minutes from where I work and not all that far from where I live so I could go anytime. Are you planning to go to Hortlandia in Portland on April 18? It's a pretty impressive sale!

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  10. What beautiful blooms! I love all the flowering bulbs, too! Rhodies are very popular here, but I usually only see the evergreen ones with the big glossy leaves that I don't particularly care for. I do like the smaller leaved ones, though. I had no idea there were ones with variegated foliage. Beautiful! No matter what the leaves look like, though, it's hard not to want one when they are completely covered in such beautiful bunches of blooms. What a great place to visit and shop at!

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    1. The Rhododendron family is so large and varied that there's something for everyone! It would be a dream to live on acreage where lots of rhodies could grow in an out of the way cutting garden.

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  11. I was not aware of this nursery. Might have to check it out!

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  12. Oh, to be surrounded by Rhododendrons! There's only one species that can survive here and it still needs too much water. So many plants - so little water!

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  13. Rickii and I had the same question... how is she faring with the Azalea lace but, I wonder. Thanks for the tour - I still cherish the memories of our 2013 whirlwind nursery tour you arranged for us. It was so much fun! :)

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