-

-
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, April 6, 2015

Alison Leads Me Up The Road

For a few of days before we attended the Heronswood sale and visited a couple of nurseries,  Alison had been staying near that area had found a new to us nursery (It's been there for thirty years) called Roadhouse Nursery in Poulsbo. (website here) She was kind enough to go back and share it with me.


This is a very orderly, tidy, clean nursery!  Alison was attracted to the orderliness of it all. 

The impeccably maintained lawn paths were impressive.  There was no problem finding prices or names of any plant. Can the the spacing between the signs be this accurate without having been measured? I greatly admire this degree of precision.  My eldest sister is married to a wonderful man who I'm sure, as a child took impeccable care of all of his toys.  It wouldn't surprise me if they're all still in working order and unbroken.  He follows maintenance schedules on everything to a T and his lawn is gorgeous.   If he had a nursery, it would look like this.

A visit to Roadhouse feels more like visiting a private garden than shopping at a nursery.  Perhaps that's because it is the home garden of Jan and George Bahr, Roadhouse's owners.


Every pot standing straight and tall , spaced evenly, well cared for.  This is a degree of meticulousness that I dream about but could never pull off.  I'll be kind to myself and say that I'm simply to busy doing several jobs and having a number of hobbies to accomplish this.  (Much nicer than saying that I'm a lazy slob, right?)  By the way, I'm a spoiled youngest of five children.  My toys were mostly broken taking them out of the packages because I didn't want to gently remove them.


Roadhouse Nursery specializes in water gardens and the lower part of the space is dedicated to row after row of these  display ponds.

Interesting re purposing of an old bathtub.


Large Rhododendron President Roosavelt  in bloom. 

There were lovely huge ponds  at every turn. 

The Bahrs are delightful and hard working folks and their garden/nursery reflect their love of gardening and their dedication to their garden.


Water, water everywhere.

Is Alison gazing at her own reflection, considering a swim or did she drop something?


I've been admiring many of the yellow flowering magnolias lately like M. 'Butterflies' and this one, M. 'Gold Star' which almost came home with me but M.'Elizabeth' is still my favorite of the yellows.  Do you have a favorite yellow magnolia?

Also very tempting was Camellia japonica 'Alexander Hunter'  which looks like a Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide' on steroids.

Thank you, Alison, for introducing me to this place.  I'm looking forward to my next visit already!

24 comments:

  1. I loved it there, it really appealed to me! I remember wondering what the strange, white-flowered plant was that was flowering in the pond. It obviously wasn't a water lily. I found out later it was water hawthorn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know you loved it there and watching you enjoy it was half the fun! I liked it too, nice people, good plants that are well labeled, and a beautiful setting; who could ask for anything more? Water hawthorn is a beautiful and very hardy water plant. Jungle Fever almost always has this reliable perennial in stock.

      Delete
  2. I love this lemon-yellow magnolia flower! My garden is too small for magnolia trees, so I just admire my neighbors' plants! But. nobody has yellow ones; it's mostly pink or white.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think sometimes that being able to see magnolias in neighbors' gardens is the best. I feel this way about the pink flowering cherry trees in my neighbors garden; I can see them over the fence but don't have to deal with the shade they produce later in the year.

      Delete
  3. Discovering a new nursery is right up at the top of my favorite things list!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Someone finally figured out how to repurpose a bathtub without going all kitschy. I like it. The gardens are beautiful...a fun find all around.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like the idea of burying the bathtub. Spray painting it black would have made the "bathtub" away and turned it into just another pond liner. Glad Alison found this one!

      Delete
  5. And...here's ANOTHER nursery on my list. You guys are my official go-to people for my next Washington nursery road trip!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just tell us how many days you have and we'll make you a list!

      Delete
  6. I have a bathroom remod in my future, and have been thinking about what to do with my tub in the garden. I never considered burying it completely...

    I have never seen a single nursery here that has even a tiny amount of lawn, let alone every single path. Nice change!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A bathroom remodel yields so many possibilities! Now, what to do with that plastic shower stall surround...

      This nursery is in the garden of the owners who've lived there for over thirty years. Perhaps it started as lawn and the display boxes were added a few at a time? It's always interesting to see how each nursery does things a little differently.

      Delete
  7. A nursery like that always makes me believe that the owners must be equally careful in caring for the plants they sell. I love the view of the pond with the wood gazebo behind.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good point, Kris! The plants all looked very well cared for! I've always wanted a gazebo in my garden but don't have the space for one to make sense. The gazebo here is placed perfectly as a destination and focal point.

      Delete
  8. She may have lead you up the road, but at least she didn't lead you down the garden path. Or she must have--and the immaculate grass paths there are lovely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. On some properties, lawns don't require irrigation even in the summer as the water table is so high. I wonder if that's the case here. So glad that Alison found this place!

      Delete
  9. Incredibly meticulous indeed. I am not a fan of the bath tub pond, but the rest looks great.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was surprised by the bath tub pond as it seemed not to fit the spirit of the rest of the place. Fun .

      Delete
  10. I can appreciate how hard it is for small independent nurseries to have the resources to maintain the beds to such a high standard. We have one here over in Sonoma County that does a beautiful job with this, and I always try to buy something from them every year to support their endeavors.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wonder if they have any help? Seems like it's just the hard working husband and wife team. I got a great looking hardy fuchsia there. Looking forward to seeing this place again later in the season when all of their aquatic plants are up and blooming.

      Delete
  11. It looks like it will be a lovely place to visit later in the spring/early summer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. The large selection of water lilies will be blooming and quite impressive later in the season.

      Delete
  12. The amount of edging that must be done to keep the lawn around the rectangular beds tidy makes me anxious! Although I'm sure they have a great tool for it. I use a blunt old pair of scissors and end up with blisters every time. I've tried a whipper snipper but didn't like that, and also edging shears, perhaps because they were so old they didn't work as well as new ones would. I must look further into this...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Finding a new, good nursery is a joy, finding one which has your sort of plants must be heaven!

    ReplyDelete

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