Pent-up plant buying needs met with a stop at Christianson's Nursery...

Garden touring and plant peeping in another country is great fun, but it can be a little frustrating too. Looking at plants, but not being able to buy any*, eventually gets old. After nearly 5 days in Vancouver, BC (Canada)—for the 2023 Vancouver Hardy Plant Group Study Weekend—I couldn't wait to stop at a nursery on U.S. soil and buy some plants! Christianson's was oh so conveniently located just of I-5 in Mt Vernon, Washington, north of Seattle.

Evidently I wasn't the only one with a need to shop, in my brief time there I ran into three other people who had been at the Study Weekend events with me. 

Above and below are plants that look to have planted themselves (maybe with a little human assistance?) on wooden posts around the nursery.

While I loved the moss growing in this rotted out post I couldn't help but envision a bit of pyrrosia tucked in there.

Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea' looks good with a yellow back-drop, even if it is a rose. 

Nice Agave attenuata 'Kara's Stripes', with a little bonus foliar fertilizer.

This was fun; I made a trip to the restroom and noticed a pile of bird droppings on the ground just below the entrance. This is what I saw when I looked up...

Feeding time!

So what did I buy? Here's the haul, and since I also stopped at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden there's a flat from their nursery too...

Starting with the haul from Christianson's...

Arisaema concinnum

There were so many gorgeous arisaema in the gardens we toured over the weekend, I couldn't help but grab this beauty when I saw it. Especially with it's green flower.

I also couldn't resist the coloring of Tillandsia 'Spirit'.

A very out of focus Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Chirimen', it was just sitting there looking all cute with it's strange "crinkly, congested foliage" and I had to have it. Maybe because I'm still feeling the loss of my Cornus sanguinea 'Compressa' and this is another odd congested treasure?

Speaking of, how odd is this? Hedera helix 'Erecta', eventually 2-3ft tall and wide, maybe. I saw what I think was a mature version elsewhere in the nursery but neglected to take a photo, here's a good image from the grower.

There were so many (SO MANY!) great saxifrage in gardens over the weekend, I was primed to grab a couple when I saw them for sale. Saxifrage hostii (silver saxifrage)...

And a pair of Saxifraga 'Winifred Bevington'...

Who is 'Winifred Bevington' you might be wondering? Me too. All I could find online was that it's a "British hybrid of obscure origin".

On to the RSBG haul...

Rhododendron orbiculare, that foliage sends me! (I'd be happy if it never bloomed)

Rhododendron williamsianum, ditto. I do already have one of these in the ground, but I saw it doing great in containers all over Vancouver so I grabbed another.

I even got a bonus tag with a bit of it's history. 

Rhododendron nakaharai ‘Mariko’, yep... I already have this one too (shared it in my Bloomday post).

It's a "dense and dwarf" groundcover and those fuzzy leaves are adorable.

And yes... another pyrrosia (identified as Pyrrosia species lingua affinity).

But that's not all! My friend Matt in Seattle sent me home with a fine bromeliad...

And I brought home this pair of Leo wall planters thanks to my friend Todd, owner of Pot Inc in Vancouver.

They aren't colors he normally offers these planters in...

But they are "my" colors, and I happen to have his old-style Hover Dish planters in exactly the same colors...

Yay! I've already got most of the plants planted, but I guess I am going to have to buy some more to fill those new planters...

(*there were some plants available at the Study Weekend plant sale that were pre-qualified for the phytosanitary paperwork needed to bring them back across the border, but none of them called to me.)

To receive danger garden posts by email, subscribe here. 

All material © 2009-2023 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.