Wednesday, October 5, 2022

New plants from a trip north...

I always hope to make a summertime trip up to Seattle to see friends, but as I get busy the trip gets pushed back and back—September or October are much more likely. This year's trip was last weekend, luckily fellow Portlander Mary DeNoyer posted a link to the RSBG Catalogue on Facebook right as I was finalizing my plans. I was THRILLED to see they were offering the dwarf maidenhair, Adiantum aleuticum var. subpumilum RSBG so I put in a request. Pick-up was arranged at the garden nursery, rather than having it shipped.

A couple of pics from the garden...


And of my plant...

I am so excited! I was pretty sure I'd get a couple of small fronds in a 4" pot, but no... this is a nice hefty half-gallon. Yay!

Another plant caught my attention at the nursery, Xanthocyparis vietnamensis (Vietnamese Cypress). At first I thought it might have been a Cunninghamia lanceolata 'Glauca'...

But then I saw this! What the what?

From Plant Delights: "Eventually to 30'+, the foliage resembles a thujopis at maturity, although the juvenile foliage is quite feathery." Yep. That 30'+ part helped me walk away.

The next day my friend Erin and I visited the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden in Shoreline, WA, just north of Seattle. I'd never been and wasn't sure what to expect, but was intrigued when I learned they had an onsite nursery: MsK Nursery.



I almost had to buy this small Yucca nana, I mean just look at it! It's like the puppy at the pound who has those big sad eyes.

Such a photogenic nursery location.

Wouldn't you know. Dammit. I wanted to go in!

Here's my small haul, minus the Adiantum aleuticum var. subpumilum already shown. On the far right are a pair of Antennaria dioica 'Rubra' from MsK Nursery...

On the far left, bottom corner (above) is a tiny Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Chirimen’/ Hinoki Cypress that I picked up at a plant swap/book giveaway/meet up of people from a PNW Plant group on Facebook.

The event took place Sunday morning at a park in Tacoma, WA. Most of the folks toured the PDZA prior to socializing, but I started out up in Seattle that morning and didn't make the tour, just the post-event party. It was a great chance to meet some folks I only knew from online interactions—like Jerry of the blog Botanica Chaotica, who grew and offered up this adorable little chamaecyparis sprig.

The other plants you see in my haul photo are Lonicera crassifolia. Here's a photo of it creeping around at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden (RSBG).

I've been hatching a plan for a "winter" container that included the lonicera, so when I saw it at the RSBG I grabbed a couple. Then I saw it again when I stopped at the Pat Calvert Greenhouse at the UW Arboretum. Smaller plants, but a smaller price. I grabbed two more.

At the Pat Calvert Greenhouse I also scored another small Lemmaphyllum microphyllum (bean fern). Yay! I am always happy to find this plant which inspires experimenting.

The last part of my haul came from this beautiful display of (mostly) tillandsia at my friends Erin and Matt's place.

I've posted multiple times in the past about the tillandsia and bromeliad riches Matt has shared with me, and this visit may just be the most generous yet. These are the plants once I unpacked them from my car when I arrived home. Pretty incredible, right? 

I've been too busy to take portraits of them all, but here are just a couple images of a few in their new homes. Tillandsia chiapensis 'Giant' behind our kitchen sink...

A big, beautiful yellow guzmania in front of the garden's orange wall...

A pair of ginormous tillandsia in the magnolia tree...

Another angle...

And a curly xerographica on the fence. I know these will have to come indoors soon, but for awhile they're making me very happy here.

All material © 2009-2022 by Loree L Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

9 comments:

  1. A fun shopping/visiting trip. Good tip on the dwarf maidenhair... hopefully they'll still have it on my next visit. The ‘Chirimen’ sprig is adorable. I killed one of those and would love try again if I come across it.
    chavli

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    1. Make sure you email/call ahead on the fern. There were not any in the nursery area, just mine on hold.

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  2. I'm not sure that reading this post was such a good idea. I've been cooped up at home for months and have been itching to go SOMEWHERE. Now that itch has grown even stronger!

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  3. You do Tilllandsias right! I envy you the shopping trip (not that I've even started to plant out any of the items I acquired over the summer months yet).

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    1. It was really more of a visiting trip, but of course there was shopping! ;)

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  4. Wow, what a haul of gems to bring home. Even better, visiting with plant-buddies. Nothing beats that. Glad you had a wonderful trip.

    The Adianthum--what a pretty little plant! Looks fabulous with stone.

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    1. It was a wonderful visit, so nice to spend time with people I've known for a very long time.

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  5. It was nice to meet you in person too! What a lovely event with lots of great plant people. And, I finally got to see the plantings at the Port Defiance Zoo.

    I wish I had your restraint in walking away from plants that get too big for my space. I always tell myself that I will keep them pruned smaller and that, of course, would give me lots of material for cuttings.

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