Visiting @vasyazub and his fantastic plant collection

On a Wednesday in late August Eric and set out to visit Vasiliy (@vasyazub on Instagram) up in SW Washington. I've followed Vasiliy online for years, but we'd never met in person. I was excited to see his greenhouse set-up, his plant collection, and put a real face to this online persona. I wasn't expecting this however, what a fantastic water garden...

The fountains were relocated from their previous home, where there was a devastating fire a couple of years back. The greenhouse is visible in the background, just down a steep incline.

A better shot of the greenhouse.

We have to pause here to appreciate the spiky plantings...

Pretty fabulous, and very dense. I hope they don't get many weeds.

Now we're inside the greenhouse, and I am in awe...

I wish I would have taken a photo as soon as we entered, but this view comes close. The right side (the side that's up against the succulent plantings we just saw) is planted and jungly. The left side gets more sun and mainly features sun lovers in containers.

On the left...

And back to the right...

This is cool business is a pinecone bromeliad (Acanthostachys strobilacea). I only know that because Vasiliy had recently divided his plant and sent both Eric and I home with a piece, more on that at the end of the post.

Trevesia palmata (snowflake aralia)

I thought about trying to organize these photos so I wasn't flipping back and forth between the jungly side and the dry side, but that became even more confusing. 

Spiny "dry" bromeliads, Deuterocohnia brevifolia and D. lorentziana.

Ginormous epiphyllum.

As we got towards the back of the greenhouse—near the bend visible in the ninth photo from the top—both sides took on a jungly feel, with lots of gorgeous ferns, palms, and plants I can only appreciate but not identify.

Musa x paradisiaca Ae Ae (or something like that, everyone seems to spell it diferently).

I've given up trying to grow that little gesneriad, the round plant growing in the bricks. It just doesn't like me. I still adore it however.

Aglaomorpha of some sort.

We've made it to the end, and are rewarded with this sweet pond/greenwall set-up.

That Ludwigia sedioides (mosaic plant) on the left is one of my very favorite pond plants, it's so fabulous!

The greenwall planting is fairly new, so it's just starting to fill in.

Check out all the different species Vasiliy included...

That's a happy nepenthes!

Retracing our steps back towards the door everything looked new again from a different angle.

The lack of ID/names isn't anyone's fault but mine. I simply could not keep up with all the cool things I was seeing.

Something else I need to mention—there was a whole room in the house devoted to terrarium plant growing, with frogs and insects too. I didn't take any photos in there, we'd just arrived and I hadn't taken out my camera yet. Trust me though, it was amazing!

I wish I could offer my bromeliads a place like this to spend the winter months, instead they'll be hunkered down in the basement, less than ideal conditions as far as moisture and light.

I dream of a greenhouse half as wonderful as this!

I'm back home now and here's the Acanthostachys strobilacea mount Vasiliy made and sent home with me (Eric got a similar one), isn't it wonderful? Tillandsia, a couple of Aechmea recurvata (at the top), I love it! Such a generous gift. Thank you for sharing your time, your knowledge and your plants Vasiliy! If you're reading and want to see more be sure to follow @vasyazub on Instagram.

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