The Heronswood Early Spring Sale

The famous Heronswood garden is once again looking grand thanks to the excellent stewardship of the Port Gamble S'klallam Tribe, the property's new owners.  Dan Hinkley, the garden's creator, is working with the tribe to lead a team of garden caretakers.  In a later post, we'll roam the garden but today, lets have a peek at the sale!

Unfortunately, I didn't stay for the lectures. Mr Hinkley is always entertaining and has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things plant.  Riz's talk, “The Influence of Heronswood: How I Learned to Travel the World in One Garden,"   sounded like it echoed the sentiments of so many gardeners in this region, myself included, who were educated and inspired by walking the magical Douglas Fir cathedral of Heronswood.

 The morning started out a bit rainy but by the time the sale started, the rain had stopped and later, walking in the garden, the sun, a welcome guest star in the drama of our spring, actually made an appearance.

So many podophyllum, so little space.  The thrill of seeing these leaves emerge each spring is still a thrill.

Podophyllum delavayi transports me to Heronswood where I first saw this, then nearly unobtainable, otherworldly foliage.

In case you were wondering, one called P. 'Galaxy,' not pictured, jumped into my hand and wouldn't leave.

Pleione formosana always make a splash in the spring.

Helleborus multifidus subsp. hercegovinus small leaf form would certainly have come home with me, had I not already noticed my own emerging beautifully from the soil.

Schefflera hoi

Fabulous fern fronds.  

Enjoyable to see so many plant-crazed patrons fondling foliage.  

Cardiocrinum giganteum var. yunnanense.  Kelly's (Far Reaches Farm) description on the tag is worth the purchase price of the plant. "Cardiocrinum is exciting enough but variety yunnanense with its burnished copper new growth causes pulses to elevate along with dilated pupils and flaring nostrils. When this is blooming it is almost as good as sex. It takes a few years but purple flushed white flowers on 12' stalks - oh yes!"

Heloniopsis acutifolia

Such a beautiful trillium.  The sight of this sent me out to my own garden to find my large clump is in bloom.  My poor garden really has been neglected this soggy spring. 

Snake-like Arisaema arising from winter slumber, as if charmed by spring's pungi.

Corydalis quantmeyerana 'Chocolate Stars' 

Sebright Gardens' irresistible mixed and tightly-packed display dripping with abutilon and fuchsia blooms.

A couple more Epimedium will be planted in my garden, due to the encouragement of an enabler.  Who can resist such a tough plant or such an avid gardener?

Leaving with treasures.  Not sure if this is Rhododendron 'Wine and Roses' or R. 'Everred' but aren't the wine-red undersides of the leaves fantastic?

Some New Plants From Our Last Hurrah of the Season

On Saturday, Alison (Bonnie Lassie) and I drove out to Kitsap County for our last plant hunting spree of the summer.  We hit Valley Nursery where we both bought some spring-flowering bulbs.  I didn't place a bulb order this year so it was nice to find everything that I was going to order right there at the nursery. Next up was the last Heronswood sale of the season, lunch with our friend Debbie Teashon and plant shopping at Henry Hardware in Kingston where she is the manager of the garden department, and then off to Sundquist Nursery's fall open.  Here are some of the plants that came home with me:

Vitis vinifera 'Purpurea'  which doesn't often have ripe fruit in our climate.  This one came from Dancing Oaks in Oregon which is quit a bit hotter than we are so maybe that's why it has grapes.  The foliage color alone is worth growing this plant but the little clusters of grapes are pretty sweet too!

A few things for fall color.

Colchicum giganteum, one I don't have but see growing around town in older gardens.  The folks at Dancing Oaks got theirs at a yard sale years ago.  A lady had dug a wheelbarrow of them to sell, and they bought them all and have been propagating from those bulbs. I love a plant with a story!

More winter interest from Henry Hardware.  I'm a fan of ornamental kale and cabbage and this oh so curly one was new to me.  Look at the way it holds water droplets.  Great for our moist winters!

A Lonicera (Honeysuckle) the mother plant of which I've admired at Far Reaches Farm.  How could I resist it's fragrance and beauty?   The plant on the right is Alstroemeria isabellana that we picked up for a pal who couldn't come to the sale with us.

Exciting new Cyclamn coum and  hederifolium from Bouquet Banque to add to the collection. 

I usually kill heaths and heathers but this one with three colors in one pot was so pretty that it'll get a spot in a pot for fall.  We'll see what happens after that.

Heuchera 'Fire Alarm' is so red and glows in the sun.  Maybe I'll make an effort to divide it when it gets to looking awful (the reason I don't love heucheras - who needs all that lifting and dividing?)

There were also some great ferns from Sundquist but those will have to wait for a future post. When the patio table and chairs are full of pots (the official plant ghetto/pot holding area is full,) I always wonder where on earth they'll be planted and when I'll get around to planting them all.  This Saturday will be a busy one with continuing to get the greenhouse ready for the fall migration and planting, planting, planting!

Hortlandia 2015

Hortlandia is the name of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon's spring plant sale.  To find out more about the sale, the vendors, and the HPSO, checkout the website here.

What could be more fun than going to Portland to experience the largest plant sale west of the Rocky Mountains?  Going with two knowledgeable, kind, and downright funny plantspeople!  It's funny how people who are passionate about plants and gardening never run out of  things to discuss.  While our time at the sale and visiting nurseries (posts to follow) was enjoyable, my favorite parts of the day were the rides down and back.  (Thanks, Alison, for driving!)  We didn't stop gabbing and laughing for long, especially when we were driving to a nursery and  the lady in my phone said, "Your destination is on the left."  On the left for probably a mile was a large cemetery.  Was the phone trying to flout it's superiority to organic life forms by pointing out that we'd end up in a cemetery?

We arrived at the sale thirty minutes early and got a great place in line.  

I didn't take a lot of pictures this year as there were so many plants to see and once we'd made our rounds for an hour and a half, the crowd became quite dense making it difficult to photograph things without being in the way.

Solanum quitonse seedlings.  I've got a couple older plants in the greenhouse that look a bit bedraggled after the winter.  They usually bounce back once they get their roots into new soil and spend some time outside. The plant with orange thorns on the right is Solanum pyracanthum.

Interesting combination.

Gentian.  One of the few true and beautiful blues of the floral world. 

Watch out, these are carnivorous plants!  Luckily, thy prefer smaller snacks than humans...for now. 

 Succulent treats.

This Haworthia pretty much glowed.

Labeled "Milk Cactus," it must be a Euphorbia.

Another Podophyllum beauty.  

 Trillium grandiflorum flore pleno.  A thing of beauty!  I'm still nursing along my 4" pot!

Can you believe it?  The Bovees have been at this since 1963!   What a grand way to spend fifty-two years of one's life!

Acres of Acers.  Don't remember the name of the vendor but think that would be a good name for a nursery specializing in maples.

Hardy palms and a couple of yuccas.  One of the plants jumped off the table in an apparent suicide attempt.  One wants to look away but can't stop looking.  Soil, pearlite, broken limbs.  Although it looks horrific, a full recovery is predicted.

Epimedium something or other.  Wikipedia says that common names include  horny goat weed, rowdy lamb herb, and  randy beef grass.

The educational tables containing foliage and flowers from local gardens are a favorite part of many sales!

 Other highlights of the show included running into and chatting with a lot of Portland area bloggers!
Here's my haul this year.  I was especially happy to find Aeonium tabuliforme, that flat as a pancake Aeonium on the right, as I'd not seen it for sale in the area before.