Monday, November 30, 2020

Mail-order plants from Far Reaches Farm, in November!

On November 11th I watched an NHS presentation by Kelly Dodson & Sue Milliken of Far Reaches Farm on a collecting trip they did to Argentina last spring. One week later, on November 18th I was the proud owner of a couple of the plants they talked about that night ...ain't life grand in this internet age?

I ordered three plants, look at them all cozied up in the box.
The first one I pulled out is this treasure...Alstroemeria isabellana.
Readers with amazing memoires might be saying, but don't you already have that plant? Yes, I did. I scored it from these same folks when they came down to give a talk at Joy Creek Nursery back in, oh, 2012 it looks like.

I loved that plant for years, but it eventually disappeared. Too much shade and competition from other plants, I suspect. And it's not just one you can dig up and move, it kinda moves around on it's own. I was never sure where it would come up each year, and if a stem would just be foliage, or if it would be a floral producer (they're on separate stems). I'll be thinking long and hard about where to plant this one out in the spring, and of course dreaming of seeing these flowers again...

My other purchase—two of the same plant—stayed within the Alstroemeriaceae family. 

I got two Bomarea cf. edulis, from seed Kelly and Sue collected on the trip the presentation I watched was based on. 

These are quite healthy looking plants, especially considering my one bomarea here in the garden has already died down for the year.

Mail-ordering plants is something I rarely do, thanks to the wealth of local nurseries here in the Portland area. However, the prospect of scoring a couple more bomarea vines—ones with blooms like these—had me rushing to my computer to place that order.



Photo above and below credited to James Steakley via wikimedia.

Weather Diary, Nov 29: Hi 52, Low 37/ Precip 0 

All material © 2009-2020 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

16 comments:

  1. The UC Davis Arboretum has several large clumps of this Alstroemeria. I never knew exactly what it was. Now I do.

    Great plants. I'm tempted...

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    1. Do it! You'd be supporting a great nursery and getting cool plants. Where's the downside? ;)

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  2. Cool plants, especially the first. Wonder how A. isabellana would do in a pot? Flowers are reminiscent of aloe blooms. I too attended Far Reaches webinar and am envious of the all the cool plants that you can grow

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    1. That's an interesting question. It sort of traveled around the garden area I planted it in, so I imagine it would bump up against the side of the pot a lot, but that's not a bad thing.

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  3. Ooh, nice! And I've found with Far Reaches you have to order quickly because they sell out fast. Also, that special brown packing paper is a cat's dream. They love playing with it.

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    1. Andrew's hinting that maybe we need to adopt a cat. Too bad I didn't save the paper.

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  4. I've admired that Alstroemeria for some time. I think Annie's offered it at one time but it's not available there now so perhaps I'm mistaken.
    I'll try Far Reaches. The Bomarea vine is interesting too but, for whatever reason, I don't have a great record with vines in general.

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    1. If you ever make it up to visit your brother in law you should definitely plan to continue on up to Pt Townsend and stop in a Far Reaches.

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  5. Such a beautiful bloom, great score!

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  6. Oh, you lucky girl! Those look fabulous. I love everything I've ever bought from Far Reaches. The biggest problem is finding what I want in stock!

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    1. Indeed, that's why I jumped! It would have been much more like me to wait until spring.

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  7. Oh , maybe I need that Bomarea for my new pergola ??

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  8. Those are great plants, so mail order was worth it. Mail order and a wealth of local nurseries...is there a down side?

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