What better to do on a rainy spring day than edit down the 100+ photos I took at
Dan Hinkley's home, Windcliff, last summer? It's pretty ideal to have a stash of photos to dip into whenever the mood hits. This visit to Windcliff was on Sunday, July 21st, the last official day of the 2024
Garden Fling, it was wonderful.
Our arrival was a little chaotic as we tried to decide if we were supposed to be walking around the garden, waiting for Dan, maybe touring the
Brindley Garden garden next door first?
But then Dan came out to talk to the group and all was well.
The dogs were very entertaining.
What a handsome schefflera. love those deeply cut leaves.
Oh look at that...
I want to call it a fern table, but there are more "other plants" than there are ferns.
Some Marcia Donahue ceramic fungus does class the whole thing up.
The last time (the only other time) I'd been to Windcliff Dan wasn't inviting people into his greenhouse or plant propagation area. However, since that area was open for us to wander through that's where I headed first.
Just a sweet little dish full of moss and maybe an impatiens?
Sarracenia for days...
So many plants, what to look at!?
Curculigo sp., I was tempted, I had one in the garden for a few years that I'd purchased at Far Reaches Farm.
I loved this dark-leaved Saxifraga, but it wasn't available for purchase (yet). In the end I selected a couple Pseudopanax crassifolius and a native ginger, Asarum hartwegii HSIS 20045 (
photos in this post).
Then I was off to see the garden! Daphniphyllum...
And the variegated version...
Up against the house was a fern bench, with pyrrosia planters lounging underneath.
Turning towards the Sound (Puget Sound that is). Like many of us in the PNW Dan experienced extreme plant death after the storm of January 2024, he opted to kill off what remained and start new, hence the plastic sheeting down on the ground to the right side of this photo.
Dustin Gimbel's totem sculptures looked quite at home in the garden.
Melianthus major
Salvia argentea
A few shots of Flingers, the garden and the house.
And like a magnet the Sound draws all eyes back towards it...
Dierama pulcherrimum
It was a clear day, so we could see Seattle off in the distance.
Layers and layers of plants.
Trachycarpus (the palms) and Yucca rostrata.
Lots of sarracenia...
Oh how I'd love a rill running between my arctostaphylos and sarracenia.
Containers up on the patio area off the back of the house.
Agave Aloe (my bad, thanks @Cistus for the catch) and ferns in the same planting!
Working my way back around to the front of the house now.
But stopping to admire more of Marcia Donahue's work.
What a garden! On Friday we'll visit Heronswood, Dan's "other" garden.
Those of you who live within driving distance of Nehalem, Oregon (on the coast) might want to attend a talk Dan Hinkley is giving at the Performing Arts Center on April 25th,
more info here.
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This is such a magical garden. You didn't show many pictures from the prop house. Anything interesting in there other than all those very cool sarracenias? It will be interesting to see how the soon to be renovated area turns out.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I photographed in the prop house (if I am even remembering correctly) were the dark leaved saxifrage.
DeleteWonderful photos, Loree. I did a much poorer job of covering this garden. (I really should have prepared for the visit prior to arrival!) I envy you the extensive archive of photos you have at your fingertips too. I don't get out and about as much as I'd like these days ;)
ReplyDeleteI am lucky to get to see so many great gardens! Sometimes I look at my photos and feel anxious, will I ever get to share them all?! But most of the time I just look at them as a savings account of beauty.
DeleteWow, that is a lot of photos, and the ones you show here are fabulous. I'm sad that I had to miss last year's Fling. Thanks for sharing so many great highlights.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you missed it too! Are you going this year? I will be missing this one.
DeleteThe rill photo is, hands down, my favorite. I've seen a many of photos of this garden taken during the fling, none is as lovely, full of opposites: sun and shade, hard cement and flowing water...
ReplyDeleteDoes your sarracenia bloom?
Chavli
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the photos. You've been to Windcliff, I hope? My sarracenia do bloom. They are very interesting and long lasting.
DeleteSo interesting to see Windcliff through your eyes. You found things I totally missed. I would have liked more time to explore, both the gardens and the nursery.
ReplyDeleteFor sure, more time would have been great. I shortchanged the Brinkley garden and would have loved more time to wander there.
DeleteSeeing that beautiful purple wall made me chuckle because I just published a Post on "Shades of Purple" this morning.
ReplyDeletehttps://m2labs.wordpress.com/2025/03/26/glamour-shades-of-purple/
And all those sarracenias are making me swoon...
So many sarracenia!!! (love your purple car!)
DeleteI'm looking forward to Hinkley's talk, and maybe a return visit to Windcliff this summer to see the progress of the solarization project. And maybe I'll spend more time in the garden instead of the nursery!
ReplyDeleteDenise? Good to know you know about the talk, wish I could be there!
DeleteOh, this is just everything. I don't know where to look, it's truly miraculous. I love the fungus by Marcia Donahue, I've been meaning to visit her garden - I'm kicking myself that we haven't fit it in. And, you've introduced me to something I hadn't heard of, Curculigo.
ReplyDeleteOh you definitely MUST visit Marcia's! My curculigo lived long enough to bloom, then POOF! Dead.
DeleteI really liked the way Dan used sculptural pieces resembling living plants throughout the garden. With some, like the Donahue fungi, I was almost not sure if they were real or not. Dustin's totems are fabulous. And that steel ring focusing the eye toward the Sound -- simple perfection.
ReplyDeleteEven with the winter damage, there were so many wonderful plants and vistas in Dan's garden. I'm glad he and Robert opened it up for us and that Robert was so patient in selling us plants!
ReplyDelete