And finally, The Desert Northwest...

A couple days before our Kitsap Peninsula adventure I got an email from the organizer, Peter (aka The Outlaw, but you probably already knew that), asking what time I needed to be back to Tacoma to meet up with Andrew. He'd hatched a plan and wondered how late was too late. Then he told me he'd emailed with Ian at The Desert Northwest, who just happened to be having an open nursery event that day in Sequim, just 45 minutes or so beyond our last stop, Far Reaches Farm. Ian was willing to stay open a little later and Peter proposed visiting. YES!

To say I was excited was an understatement. The highlight of the day just went from seeing Heronswood for the first time to visiting The Desert Northwest, and I am not exaggerating. In fact I was so excited to be there I took very few photographs. No pictures of the overall greenhouse set-up. No pictures of the sign, as I usually try to do. That's why I stole borrowed the DNW logo from their website to use at the top of this post. It just seemed wrong to launch right into the plant pictures without any sort of introductory photo. Hopefully Ian won't mind and do something crazy like ban me from ever purchasing plants from him again.

So enough chatter, let's get on with the visit! Here's Anna checking out some fabulous plant treasure. I hope she won't mind when I say watching her see these plants for the first time was great fun. I heard her exclaim "oh what's that!!?" several times.

Naturally there were agaves...

Some of my favorites even.

I'm thinking a puya? I emailed Ian to get specific names on a some things but forgot to ask a few, like this one.

Pseudopanax ferox crassifolius (thanks Ian, for the correction), I never tire of the colors.

Alison and Peter shopping in the background.

Banksia pilostylis...

I should give you a little background on The Desert Northwest, in case you're not familiar with them. From their website: "We are a specialty nursery located in Sequim, Washington, dedicated to the production and promotion of noteworthy water-wise plants! Here you can find a wide range of interesting and hard to find treasures, such as cold-hardy desert plants, plants from the Southern Hemisphere, Mediterranean plants, dryland native plants, and more. Founded in 2005, Our aim is to show Northwest gardeners how to make plant selections that require little or no summer water once established. We specialize in mail-order, as many of our plants also offer excellent performance, or potential, outside the Pacific Northwest! We propagate and produce all of our own stock here at our nursery in beautiful Clallam County, Washington, without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. We also offer seed of some plants."

There is also this: "Our web site is also intended as an informative resource for those who wish to learn how to grow various kinds of unusual plants, especially xeric plants and others adapted to our summer-dry climate. Please enjoy the photo galleries, blog, and plant articles on the site! We hope you learn something interesting while browsing through our pages, whether it be about rare plants, gardening, or our climate."...it's true! The amount of information available on the website is amazing.

Here Anna is holding Banksia grandis. I bought one of these from Ian at the spring Hortlandia sale in Portland. I think he plans to return to the sale this April.

Grevillea 'Poorinda Royal Mantle'

And a flower...

Banksia blechnifolia

Banksia cunninghamii...

Pure madness, in a good way of course!

Another Leucadendron jester, I believe.

Protea punctata (dried flower) with Leucadendron laureolum (narrower leaves, on the right).

Grevillea lanigera 'Mt Tamboritha'

Ficus afghanistanica 'Silver Lyre,' I don't think this one was for sale - I saw a tag from another nursery (one I frequent) in there. I'm glad I took a photo though, it's a beauty and one Andrew Keys introduced me to during his visit to Portland last summer.

Okay finally what did I buy? Well not as much as I would have liked to. The fact this trip was done in September not May had a dampening effect on my desire to purchase. Plus there was the budget, always the budget (and as you know if you've been following along I had been buying plants ALL DAY LONG!). So I picked up a Banksia blechnifolia, I bought one last spring but it sadly turned crispy when I (stupidly) left it in the hot sun while it was still in it's little 4" container (my excuse is I was stuck in jury duty). It's spending winter in the shade pavilion greenhouse.

My second purchase was a happy coincidence. Remember when I saw this Microcachrys tetragona earlier in the day at Celestial Dream Gardens but couldn't buy it because they didn't have any?

Well something possessed me to pull out the scrap of paper the name was written on and ask Ian if he had one. He did, sold! His description: "Microcachrys tetragona - STRAWBERRY PINE - From the windswept heaths of Tasmania's rugged highlands (I say that whenever I get a chance) comes this unique coniferous shrub that doesn't really look like anything else. It is thought to be a relict from a larger group of plants that was once widespread throughout the Southern Hemisphere. Making a low shrub to an eventual 2' tall and perhaps 3 - 4' wide, its fine, whipcord-like branches are a rich shade of deepest green. In the garden it tolerates sun or partial shade, and while it is easy to grow and moderately vigorous, I would not expect great drought tolerance since it comes from a region of high rainfall. The common name alludes to the female strobili which are bright red and resemble little berries."

So ends our day-long plant buying adventure. Judging by the car it was a very successful day...

But wait there's more. I shared the back seat with a few plant passangers...

This eucalyptus was particularly friendly.

We wrapped up the day with a lovely dinner before Laura, Charlie and Anna had to hit the road back to Portland. Peter, Allison and I just had to trek to Tacoma. If I recall it was about midnight when my head hit the pillow, a very long day having left Portland at 5:30 that morning, but oh so worth it!

All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Far Reaches Farm, stop #6 on our Kitsap Peninsula plant adventure…

Continuing our day-long nursery/garden adventure my garden blogging friends and I piled back in our cars (after wrapping up our visit to WeHoP) and headed for Far Reaches Farm in Port Townsend, WA. True Kelley and Sue were selling plants at the Hersonwood open and sale but that was just a tiny fraction of what would be available at the nursery, how could we not visit?

If I remember the story correctly the husband of an avid Far Reaches shopper paid to have the green roofed pavilion built. He wanted a shady place to rest while his wife shopped. Now the rest of us benefit from his generosity.

The view from the pavilion area...

But let's do what we came here for...shop!

Yay! I've been hunting for this for awhile (I had one years ago, it died). From the label: "Architectural botany. This Mexican Sea Holly brings the exotic right into your garden. From a basal rosette of spined leaves arise tall stems bearing silver-white flowers reminiscent of Proteas. These last for a couple of months and are great dried. Fertile well drained soil."

Ptilostemon afer, a biennial thistle relative. And no, I did not accidentally leave out any letters from that name.

Ah the sexy leaves of the Schefflera macrophylla...

So very beautiful...

So very impossible to find! This one was growing in their display garden, not for sale. Which was actually a good thing because had it been Peter and I might have come to blows.

Super tall Pseudopanax ferox.

I think if I had to spend much time in a lath house on a sunny day I would get a very bad headache!

What a remarkable clump of Pyrrosia sheareri! They say: "Collected in Taiwan by gifted plantsman Steve Doonan, this amazing Fern is hardy to at least single digits. This is a locally famous fern frustratingly slow to propagate and always red-lining the Plant Lust meter. We've cornered the market so get 'em while you can! Easy in morning sun/shade."

Cute! Hakea epiglottis (below), a member of the Protea family and it's hardy (Z7): "So happy to finally offer this hardy evergreen member of the Tasman Protea family. Been smitten with this for years seeing it thrive in the UBC rock garden. Texture like no other. Small curly white flowers with a gentle fragrance. Good drainage and low water. Spurned by deer."

Okay to be honest I wasn't really up on my game as far as photo taking in the nursery was concerned, it had already been a long day. I paid for my purchases and then wandered back to get some photos of the plants we saw on the way in.

I'm thinking that must be Kelly and Sue's house, with the orange chairs on the porch? If not whomever lives there is lucky to have an amazing nursery in their back yard.

Rosa sericea ssp.omeiensis f pteracantha, or as I remember it the Wingthorn Rose.

Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida'...

Piptanthus nepalensis var. tomentosus: "Our collection from Yunnan in 1997 of this cream of the crop higher elevation Piptanthus. Imagine our excitement seeing just 3 plants growing in a rubble outflow at the base of a steep hill after hours of walking across the valley of the Gang ho ba. Great silvery silken trifoliate foliage and large yellow pea flowers.  This makes a multistemmed rounded shrub to 6' tall in our border.  Most folks mistake it for a shrubby Argyrocytisus (Cytisus) battandieri until it blooms with flowers evocative of Laburnum.  We've grown and killed several collections of the green-leafed P. nepalensis but this variety (which we have offered in the past as P. aff. tomentosus and much earlier as P. forrestii) is far hardier having withstood early November 14F with strong winds despite not being hardened off as the previous week had been in the 60's.  Thanks to Grahame Ware for sharing recent research in the genus and hopefully nailing down the correct name.  With botany however, never say never."

Pretty cool right?

Well here's where we transition into what I bought, and I bought one of the Piptanthus. Actually from Far Reaches at the Hersonswood sale, I felt even better about my purchase once I saw the huge plant at the nursery. Here's mine awaiting it's eventual planting in the spring.

I also picked up another Pyrrosia sheareri, my first purchased in the spring at the HPSO Plant Sale has done fabulous and I "needed" another.

Naturally I grabbed a couple of the Eryngium proteiflorum...

And one of the Hakea epiglottis too...

This one, Lomatia tinctoria (center in the photo below) wasn't on the sales tables but I'd seen it earlier that morning in the Outlaw's garden and he'd mentioned they might have it. I asked and just like that one appeared! "Guitar Plant. Choice evergreen Tasmanian Proteaceae family member whose vaguely guitar shaped flower buds open to a wild riff of white flowers that will have you playing the air trowel. Hardy to a normal zero degrees and drought tolerant when established. Needs no fertilizer."

And this plant, Salvia clevelandii 'Alpine Form', I smelled way before I saw it. I grew one of these a few years back but it died after a particularly wet and cold spring. Here it was, that lovely warm sunny fragrance yet again: "From the town of Alpine at 8000' in southern CA comes this selection of one of the most powerfully fragrant of the CA native sages. The leaves on this woody 3' shrub scents the air and begs to be fondled. Whorls of blue flowers in late spring. Hot, sunny, and lean soil. Dry when settled." I grabbed it. However a word to the wise, what's a wonderful scent in the garden becomes a little overwhelming in an enclosed car for a three hour drive...

All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.