A quick trip to Seattle and its surrounds

After several trips in June and July I was home for the entire month of August, I was going a little stir crazy. So in addition to the trip to Yakima, I planned a quick September Seattle adventure to see friends. And plants. I suppose that's obvious though, right? Plants are always involved. 

My friend Erin and I visited a pair of nurseries I'd never been to; NW Garden and Stone, and Sunnyside Nursery. Then because we still hadn't had our fill (Erin is a very good sport) we ventured on to Christianson's Nursery in Mt Vernon. I hadn't been to Christianson's since 2023. That's where I finally had to break out the camera (phone) and take a few photos... because there were ferns growing underneath the plant tables...

Everything was so lush and overgrown (in the very best way).

Get out!!!

You can have the cute bike, I'll take the staghorn.

This was puzzling. I thought those fronds looked like they belonged to a Dicksonia antarctica (tree fern).

But they were growing from a crack in the table.

That's some strange nursery magic right there.

Mossy perfection.

It wasn't all moss and ferns though. This is Yoko, a Trichocereus terscheckii. Read about Yoko's journey to Christianson's here.

The spines of these Agave parryi var. huachucensis were showing off in the sunshine.

So that was on Saturday. On Sunday I headed back to Portland, via the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden (RSBG) where I stopped to wander the garden, shop, and drop off a few plants for my friend Emily, who also gave me an impromptu tour of the Hardy Fern Foundation's hoop-house. So many fabulous ferns!

Pyrrosia drakeana

Blechnum novae-zelandiae

I know this as Pyrrosia lingua 'Cristata' or 'Corymbifera', but I didn't see a tag to verify that's what the HFF is calling it.

Lepisorus pyriformis MD 15-09

Pyrrosia sheareri

Dryopteris erythrosora 'Radiance'

Woodwardia unigemmata

Dryopteris scottii

Another Dryopteris scottii shot.

Pyrrosia, maybe P. sp. SEH#12547.

Osmunda regalis 'Cristata'

Orders from the HFF Fall catalogue grouped and waiting to be picked up or shipped to their new homes.

Pleopeltis lepidopteris 'Morro dos Conventos'...sexy! 

Close up

So you knew there was gonna be a haul, right? I meant to photograph my new plants before leaving the RSBG, but I forgot. So when I stopped later to get gas I took this photo...

Then I saw this picnic table and thought, why not!? So I unloaded the plants for a little photoshoot. I would have loved to hear what people were saying to themselves (look at that crazy lady!).

Rhododendron maoerense, grown from hand-pollinated seeds from the plants at the RSBG (so says the tag).

Here's a photo I took before leaving the RSBG nursery. I was looking for a plant with large leaves, but wanted something different from my current line-up of large leaved rhododendrons. Plus that color on the new growth was pretty fabulous.

Adiantum aleuticum var. subpumilim, those stacked leaves send me!

From the fall RSBG catalogue offerings, a Pyrrosia lingua with "a slightly undulating form with fronds that grow larger once established." This is definitely different from my other Pyrrosia lingua.

And because I could not resist it when we came face to frond in the RSBG nursery, Pyrrosia lingua sp. SEH#15113...yes I already have one. Yes I needed another. 

Since this was an offering in the fall RSBG catalogue I thought there was a chance there'd be one (or two) in the nursery. I was playing a little mind game with myself as I wandered around the garden, would I, or wouldn't I? There was no way I could refuse it when I saw it though. It's just SO GOOD. 

This next one was an impulse purchase at NW Garden and Stone, labeled as Schefflera alpina (love those dark petioles!). Online I found mixed information about it's hardiness and so I asked in a PNW group on FB if anyone was successfully growing it outdoors. That's when I learned it may not actually be a Schefflera alpina. I've got messages out to a few friends there to see what they say. 

This bromeliad was a pass along from my friend Matt (he's the one who has given me several tillandsia in the past). It came to him via mail order and wasn't what he was hoping it would be. I was happy to take it off his hands.

Finally, from Sunnyside, Platycerium superbum. A new Platycerium species for me to play with, yay!

The Bit at the End

Laura Fenton of Gardenista recently asked me to share a few of my favorite places to buy plants. Here's the resulting article; Get Thee to a Nursery! 14 of the Best Independent Nurseries, According to Garden Pros. I thought it was a good share for this post because the nursery at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden made the cut. I wish more folks new what a great place it is to buy plants!

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An afternoon on the island

Oh for f&ͻ%'$ sake, blogger has done it again. I played by their rules and did all the special witchcraft and salt-tossing to upload photos and yet it uploaded them backwards (after several rounds of refusing to upload at all). All righty, I'm playing along and reporting in reverse of what I experienced. Starting at the end. Ain't this fun?

So last Saturday was a terrific planty/gardeny day. I spent the morning visiting a renowned local garden that I'd wanted to see for quite sometime. I took a lot of photos, so many that it will be awhile before I tackle going through them and editing them down for a post. Later in the day Andrew and I set out for an open garden event that we'd been invited to on Sauvie Island, Linda Wisner's garden. I always enjoy wandering her large garden and this time it was made even better because I knew friends would be there, including Tamara who had asked about bringing me plants (all I offered in return was empty pots for her to reuse). My haul included Dorycnium hirsutum (hairy canary-clover), Agave parryi ssp. neomexicana (progeny of the plants at Joy Creek Nursery which I visited every time I was at the nursery), and Mimulus aurantiacus ‘Jeff’s Tangerine’... thanks Tamara!

Now to wander Linda and her husband Chet's garden... 

In addition to fantastic sit spots like the one above, there was also a huge quantity of photographable crops; vegetables and flowers...

And then there was the tree with nails...

I asked Linda for the backstory... "That was my beloved Damson plum tree, which died of some mysterious disease. The nails went in to give the clematis I planted at its base something to grab onto. But then the clematis died. So now there's an ornamental kiwi from Windcliff that's struggling to take hold. I hope it eventually grows to cover the tree."

 Lots of buzzing and pollinating creatures moving about the garden.

Love the arching allium drumsticks...

Such a super tall gunnera, easily 5ft tall, if not more. I should have asked Andrew to stand next to it for scale.

The "old vegetable garden"...

Brassaiopsis hispida, Linda bought this from me last spring when I was selling at the Dirty Diggers plant sale.

It was so nice to see it happy and know it was living it's best life out on Sauvie Island with a real greenhouse where it would spend winter.

Courtyard tables with food and drink under the grapevines. I love this location so much!

Linda has several large potted plants in the courtyard area, this Manihot grahamii...

A couple of interesting coleus with a dwarf nectarine.

Maybe Begonia T REX® ‘First Blush’?...

Now we're out in the very shady front garden, the first area Andrew and wandered though. I think this is maybe Rhododendron sinogrande?

Plums!

Another sit-spot.

Schefflera delavayi

And the first photo I took upon our arrival at the garden.

Before the garden visit, since we were on Sauvie Island, we swung by Cistus Nursery. I missed their big Summer Extravaganza back in July, since I was in Buffalo. Tree fern! Dicksonia antarctica I assume? Everybody's doing it...

Andrew looked up to the ceiling of this corner pavilion and said "that's art"... I don't disagree.

Several large Hedera canariensis 'Sulphur Heart' for sale. I've long appreciated this plant growing out in the Cistus display garden along the driveway, but don't remember ever seeing it for sale in the nursery. 

I'm growing it under the name Hedera colchica 'Sulphur Heart' having been lucky to receive several rooted cuttings from a friend (AI says: "Hedera colchica 'Sulphur Heart' and Hedera canariensis 'Sulphur Heart' refer to the exact same clonal cultivar of large-leaved evergreen ivy. Botanically, it is correctly classified as Hedera colchica 'Sulphur Heart' (Persian ivy), though it has historically been mislabeled in the nursery trade as a form of Algerian ivy (Hedera canariensis)." Take from that what you want...

Love the combo of swirly metal and serrated Melianthus leaves.

Ferns and cactus! It's a winning combination.

And finally to wrap up this backwards post; I was in awe of this multi-headed Yucca rostrata I saw at the south end of the parking lot upon our arrival. Major plant lust...

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.