Visiting Valley Nursery

Yea!  It's started.  The time when nurseries are once again full to the gills of plants with new ones arriving on a regular basis.  Luckily, most nurseries in this region are open year round but there are so many more plants looking their best during the growing season!  Come with me to visit Valley Nursery in Poulsbo.

Who grows marigolds anymore? Tagetes perhaps.  The sulphur yellow and orange always make me smile.  My kids sometimes start these from seed for mother's day gifts as they're so easy.  One year someone put off doing the planting project too long.  Magically, the seeds grew to blooming size in only two weeks.  It's so cool working with very young children who actually thought this possible.

Farfugium japonicum 'Auromacullata' is cool but, in my garden, requires a mulch of slug bait to survive those hungry little mollusks.

So much green goodness and the season is just beginning.  

Some rhododendrons have beautiful flowers but  fairly ho-hum foliage.  'Seaview Sunset' has screaming pink buds that open to reveal light pink edged buttery yellow flowers.

Some rhodies have amazing foliage but fairly forgettable flowers, like 'Superflimmer'

Precious are those that posses both fabulous flowers and foliage.  'Unique Variegaterd' is one of those.

In my very limited rhododendron experience, the prize for both showy foliage and drop-dead foliage goes to 'President Roosevelt.'  Of course there is a drawback:  the plants can be a bit weak, like to lean over, and sometimes require staking.

Exciting to see this beauty brought up north by Wehop.  

Fortunately, the price was pretty high otherwise, one would have come home with me and there's no more full-sun space in my garden so something else would have had to be removed.   Saving money and work.  Hooray!

Not a great picture but what in inspired combination, perhaps for a Monday Vase.

Meanwhile, in the houseplant greenhouse...  Why doesn't my greenhouse look like this?

Lots of fun plants!

Interesting idea.  Just saw off part of a bottle and you've got a planter.

Shady ladies.

Cute bug was tempting but stayed at the store. 

speaking of great combinations, the rhododendron in the back has burgundy/almost black foliage in the winter which gives way to chartreuse new growth then purple blossoms.  The Pieris in the foreground has green winter foliage which just finished sending out new orange growth which would have been stunning against the burgundy.  Now the foliage is going through a silvery phase.  Of course there were also pieris blooms in there somewhere.

Let's face it Mildred, this place has everything. 

I'd admired this tuteur on a previous trip and it was 70% off.  Too tall for my car, it would have required the removal of a section.  Not too difficult, just four small nuts...still, where would I put it? What would you do?  Perhaps, if it's still there on my next visit...

Happy weekend and happy gardening all!