Tilting at Windmill

Well just visiting Windmill nursery in Sumner really.  Why, you may ask, would someone who has too many plants as it is go to a nursery?  Because it's fun!  Candy stores aren't usually visited by thin people who are hungry, right. Also, because it was there or rather, I was very close, at my pal Alison's house to pick up lots of her plants to take to the plant swap this weekend. While Windmill remains open year round, they have a lot fewer plant offerings in the winter and shut down some areas to customers.  Mother's day is the day when more sales are made in the horticulture biz in this part of the world, than any other day of the year so most nurseries are stocked floor to ceiling.

Well, okay, let's.

Windmill (more info in previous posts here. ) is owned by the DeGode Brothers, a huge and long established wholesale grower that supplies Fred Meyer and other retail customers with great plants, especially fuchsia baskets so it's no surprise that Windmill is dripping with these beauties right now.

These are huge plants taking up four or five feet in all directions.  The fuchsia basket has become an ubiquitous mother's day gift.  In the ground, I prefer the more diminutive flowered varieties, as porch ornaments, these huge overblown flowers which dwarf hummingbird visitors are quite the sight.

Having a smallish front porch, one of these would have been more than enough for the Outlaw Garden.  After considering that it would mean daily watering, weekly applications of some sort of food, and picking up spent flowers all summer, the tough decision of which one is most beautiful was eliminated.

So pretty!

Don't have a place from which to hang a fuchsia?  Fear not, a standard is just the thing!

So much color!  Surely something to please every mother!

In addition, there's  a great selection of perennials, annuals, trees, shrubs, cut flowers, supplies, and gifts.

Nice arrangement featuring our native Lewisia.

Agave 'Mr. Ripple' with a Delosperma.  One would need good gloves and a steady hand to under plant an agave!

Looks like we just missed a big flush of blooms on this jasmine.  There were still enough unspent blooms to send a powerful and lovely scent through the space.

Medinilla magnifica have been blooming since February.  

Ah, the tropics with big bold foliage textures that remain year round. 

It's nice to have a cool green visual rest from all of that floral color. 

All ready for July!

I usually get a few New Guinea Impatiens with variegated leaves each season to throw in pots on the back steps so these came home with me.

The sweet little double flowered variety of wax begonias (not my favorite begonia usually)  tempted me briefly.

If you celebrate Mother's Day now (U.S.) did earlier as they do in the U.K. or celebrate your mother's love every day of the year, I hope you have a great weekend  and do something nice for or in memory of your mother.

The Northwest Flower and Garden Show - A Pre Preview

The Northwest Flower and Garden Show is only days away and excitement is building.  What will the demonstration gardens look like this year?  I visited Windmill Nursery last weekend and sneaked a peak in one of the back greenhouses where seasonal plants are located in the spring and summer. Windmill is one of several places where plants are kept before the big show.  Here several houses are kept fairly warm and given special additional lighting to trick plants into thinking it's summer.  Here are some of the plants we might see at the show.

There were even larger trees so tall that they were stored on their sides.  These should start showing  color just in time for "A Taste of Spring," the theme of this year's show.

I know which exhibitor many of these plants are being held for and they are located quite far from Windmill.  I wonder how people choose where their plants will be held.  Do you suppose it's a matter of which houses have space with the right conditions for particular plant effects?

I asked a very nice Windmill employee , fellow plant addict, and fan of the show but she wasn't quite sure either.   She did mention that there was a great demand for forced bulbs this year.

Blooming calla lilies and beautiful brugmansias are not easy to make happen in February in this area.

Healthy and happy looking abutilons. 

Look at that great foliage!

 Impatiens.

Columbine 

Pelargonium (geraniums)

All bound for the show!  I'll be looking closely to see how many of these  I can spot there. 

I'm so looking forward to playing spot the plant!  

Winter Visiting

 

A couple of  weekends  ago (before the fog took over) I decided to take the advice of many of blog pals and go visit a nursery (like I need any urging) to enjoy the many green offerings and see what's blooming this time of the year.

 

So, did we go to Holland?  No goofball, we just visited Windmill Nursery in Sumner.

 

There are a few interesting shops housed in the block of homes that the nursery bought and incorporated into their space and a cafe in a newly constructed building. I'd never wandered all the way to the back of the garden but was glad I did for there was this interesting green-roofed garden shed.  I can almost hear Miracle Max and Valerie (Princess Bride) arguing inside. 

 

       "Ever since Prince Humperdinck fired him, his confidence has been shattered." 

       "Why'd you say that name? You promised me you would never say that name!"
       "What, Humperdinck?"
       "Aahaahh!"
       "Humperdinck! Humperdinck! Humperdinck!"
       "I'm not listening!"

The garden is only MOSTLY dead. Besides, spring is a miracle and you rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.

Acer griseum is beautiful but I'm always tempted to try and clean it up.  

 You never know who you might meet in the bushes.  Geeze, put a coat on man, it's cold outside!

Windmill often has a nice collection of pots at fairly reasonable prices.

What treasures did I see?  Well quite a few and this Grevillia juniperina 'Lava Cascade' from Xera would have come home with me if it hadn't been in a huge section of the nursery filled with plants that weren't for sale.  Maybe these will be part of Windmill's display at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show?

Although Hellebores are everywhere this time of year, they still catch my attention.

 

 

This agave has grown considerably since last I visited it but I really don't need another big plant to haul inside in the winter.  Sigh.

 Echiveria 'Topsy Turvy' is a favorite.  This one is quite nice but I already have a few wintering inside my little glass room. 

This opuntia santa rita 'Tubac' is one of two that were at the nursery in June.  One came home with me and I'm leaving it outside as an experiment.  Mine looked fine until the latest few days in the mid 20's.  We'll see what happens.

Staghorn ferns look awsome in other people's collections.  They never call out to me to give them a ride to my garden though.

 There was another area  behind closed doors (unlocked though) with NFS plants.  It's always a good, if frustrating, thing when the lens of your camera gets foggy from the warmth and moisture of the greenhouse.

 Through another set of doors is an area, usually filled with vegetable and herb starts, which now contained quite a collection labeled "Wholesale Only."  gorgeous Aeonium 'Cyclops' had me wondering how to get a wholesale account.

 This Schefflera  grove from Monrovia gave me hope that there would be wider planting of these gems in our area.  By the way, all three of my Scheffleras have survived our week and a half of mid 20's weather without a blemish (so far, knock on wood.)

 

 

 

 

Hooray, I'm not the only one who doesn't vacuum the leaves from his plants as often as he should.

The part of Windmill that I always visit during the winter is the houseplant section.  This little water feature, surrounded by large specemins of tropical plants, always makes spring seem not so far away.  And on the bright side, there are no huge snakes hanging from the branches in this mini tropics.

 

Oh well, out into the cold.  This is an interesting sphere planting.  Topiary without the nearly constant trimming.  Hmmm.

This lion table base (I'm imagining) made me smile.  It was almost as if the cats were stretching to reach the sun.

 

Spring is only 54 days away!