Winter Jewels Hellebore party at Little Prince...

Over the weekend Little Prince of Oregon held their first annual Winter Jewels Hellebore sale, I ventured down to check out the action. LPO is a wholesale nursery and rarely open to the public, so I figured this event would be a large draw, and it was.

There were tables with companion plants on offer, such as Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’.

Asarum splendens ‘Quicksilver’

Tricyrtis formosana ‘Gilt Edge’

Agave schidigera 'Royal Flush'

And Agave potatorum...

There were also, of course, hellebores. As usual at Little Prince this event was well orchestrated and the staff had everything running smoothly...

After checking out the goods there, I snuck off to another greenhouse where the behind the scenes magic happens.

I was thrilled to be in the right place at the right time to get this shot of the key people who’s work made the day possible, from L-R: Alexa Patti, the head grower and hellebore breeder at Little Prince, then Marietta and Ernie O’Byrne the founders of the Winter Jewels Hellebore collection, and finally the founder of Little Prince of Oregon, Ketch de Kanter. 

I also ran into these two characters friends, Riz Reyes (assistant director at Heronswood Garden), and landscape architect Caleb Melchior. There were many other people I wish I would have gotten a photo of (like Mike Hicks general manager and director of production at LPO), but as usual my camera was focused on the plants.

Winter Jewels 'Jade Tiger'

A hellebore Riz and I were admiring for it’s foliage.

Maybe Helleborus x ‘Golden Sunrise’?

And this one I didn’t get the name of...

Once I ran into Mike we were off to look at ferns, like Woodwardia unigemmata…

Doodia media

And this insane creature, Microsorum thailandicum, aka blue oil fern. Yes those leaves (fronds) really do have an iridescent blue sheen. 

The first place I saw this fern for sale in real life was at last year's Northwest Flower & Garden Fest, where it was fetching ridiculous prices ($88 for a plant exactly this size). Little Prince is wholesale not retail but I can tell you they're not marking this baby up ($) just because they could... nope. They make the cool plants available to the people! (ask your local nursery to order these!)

I’ve never been a fan of Actiniopteris australis (eyelash fern), but I love it here in combination with the Phlebodium aureum—a greenhouse accident, or an experiment?

We looked at a few other things too, like begonias. I think that’s ‘Red Fred’ in the front, and I have no idea what the magical levitating begonia in the back is (which is actually in a huge pot, but from this angle you’d never know it).

New to me, Medinilla sedifolia…

It’s a perennial from Madagascar that’s often used as a terrarium plant or, an epiphyte mounting (oh yes please!).

I was thrilled to spot this carnivorous bromeliad, Brocchinia reducta, part of an employee’s collection…

As was this gorgeous Agave macroacantha.

I'm a little embarrassed to share the riches which I came home with...

Look at that fern color!

I'd regrated not purchasing a Polypodium fallax at the NWFG Fest, but now I have my own.

And check out that adorable carnivorous baby, Pinguicula 'Aphrodite'...

I have lots of new plants to play with, thank you Little Prince!

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Five days of horticultural adventures...

Last week I traveled up to the Puget Sound area for tons of plant related fun—starting with a visit to the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden (oh you know there will be future post!). While there I slipped behind the scenes and visited my friend Emily Joseph, the assistant nursery manager for the RSBG and nursery manager for the Hardy Fern Foundation (girl works hard!). Behold a hoop house full of ferns....

There were many pyrrosia...

Blechnum montanum (I think, and if I'm right Emily mentioned this is going to be offered thru the Hardy Fern Foundation soon, yay!)...

The next day I was honored to give a talk at the Tacoma Garden Club, part of the Garden Club of America. The meeting included a digitized presentation showing a visit of the GCA leadership out to visit Tacoma gardens in the 1930's. No email, no Google maps, travel by train. What a different world.

In the foreground of the photo above you may have noticed the fern bowl planting on the table. After my talk on ferns Camille Paulsen (aka @tahomaflora) had put together a a fern bowl workshop where we (Camille, Emily Joseph and I) got to talk ferns and play in the dirt. The ferns came from Little Prince Plants...

There's Camille in front of one of the tables set up for club members to work at, she organized a wonderful event and thought of everything.

Here's Emily lending her expert advice to one of the workshop particpants.

This was my favorite of planted up containers I saw completed. Camille commissioned an artist friend of hers to paint a few rocks (the stylized mushroom) for participants to tuck into their finished planters.

I spent Thursday and Friday at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival in Seattle. It was wonderful to see so many plants, and people who love them. I remember the tough years when you really had a hard time finding a plant to buy at the show, that's not the case anymore!

Speaking of, I should have bought this, Polypodium fallax from Little Prince at the Christianson's Nursery booth.

The Ravenna Gardens booth had lots of tempting Schefflera.

And it was great to see Oregon's Rancho Cacto rocking the show...

Their booth was always full of people.

At Andy's Orchids I was surprised to see a Racinaea crispa mounted on a stick. I bought one of these from Bird Rock Tropicals when we were in San Diego and have been trying to decide how to "plant" it.

I attended a handful of fantastic seminars during the show, including ones by Teresa Paige Woodard (Garden to the Max), Susan Larder (Moss Gardens: A Winter Super Power!), Doreen Wynja (Strolling the Garden, Camera or Phone in Hand), and Erin Schanen (Embrace the Unusual: Underused Oddballs and Forgotten Classic Plants You Should Grow). The most action filled was from topiary artist Mike Gibson (aka @gibby_siz), "Clipping Time: Exploring The Gibson Technique". Mike worked under the legendary Pearl Fryar and I'd recently listened to Abra Lee interview him on Cultivating Place.

Okay, you knew there was going to be a haul photo or two, right? It's time for that portion of this post. This group came from my stop at the Rhododendron Species Botanica Garden / Hardy Fern Foundation greenhouse...

Polypodium formosanum, which is available in the RSBG spring catalog...

I'm going to have fun figuring out how to plant this one to show off those creeping stems (it's not hardy here in my Zone 8 garden).

This was the score of the trip, Cassiope ‘Askival’. Back when Ann and I visited behind the scenes at the RSBG in 2023 I zeroed in on this plant in one of the hoop houses and fell in love. I am thrilled to be able to add it to my garden. You can too because it's available for order in the spring catalog.

Emily was also able to cross one of my fern lust plants off my list with a little sporeling of Dryopteris decipiens...

And she tossed in an Anisocampium cuspidatum.

Here's my fern bowl from the Tacoma Garden Club workshop.

The tags I came home with are for: Asplenium trichomanes, Coniogramme emeiensis ‘Golden Zebra’, Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance', Dryopteris atrata, and Athyrium otophorum ‘Okanum', although I question that last one. There are many ferns that confuse the heck out of me but yet I thought I could ID that Athyrium and don't see it in the mix. It will be interesting to see what they grow into.

Before we left Tacoma Andrew and I visited a used store with lots of interesting art supplies and other things. I fell for this little copper planter.

It's a little small for garden use, but was only $7. I'll figure out something to do with it...

At the NWFG Fest I grabbed this Eryngium guatemalense from Windcliff plants at the Ravenna Gardens booth.

I bought one last fall from Dan at the fall Fern Fest at it's looked great all winter, I'd hoped to snag a second plant and was thrilled to find it.

Just a couple more plants! From Andy's Orchids, Platystele-repens (ovatilabia). I love those little leaves but if you click through and take a look at the flowers you'll see why I was sold on this one. I've found most of the orchids on a stick that I've bought (I had five before I bought these two) have bloomed pretty easily so I'm hoping I'll get to see those greenish-yellow flowers.

I could not get a good shot of the yellow blooms on my second orchid, Masdevallia crassicaudis, but they're pretty cute.

That said it was the long black stems that really drew me to this plant.

Also at the show I bought a small "prop top" from Arrows Aim. I loved that pattern and for only $3 why not?

On Saturday (our last full day in Seattle) I ventured out and about and picked up this restio, Ischyrolepis subverticillata (aka Restio subverticillatus) at Swanson's Nursery.

It's not fully hardy here, but will look great in a container.

Whew, that's a lot! On Friday I'll be sharing my favorite display gardens from the NWFG Fest...

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