I've been to a lot of plant sales, and the Bloedel Reserve Plant Sale is among the best. Dan Hinkley, Far Reaches Farm, Steamboat Island, Desert NW and a lot more...all in one place! Yikes!
On the way to the Bloedel Reserve we stopped by a nursery called Foxglove Greenhouses. They are a wholesale nursery specializing in annuals and perennials. I think they are usually open on Saturdays to the public.
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| Foxglove Greenhouses |
We explored around a little bit, and then met up with the owner, David, who very generously took us on a tour of his greenhouses. He spent half an hour showing us all kinds of interesting and unusual perennials he's growing, about a dozen of which ended up coming back with us (he's a great salesman). He orders many of his seeds from the Jelitto seed company in Germany. I will be checking out their catalog and I will most definietley be back to Foxglove Greenhouses in the very near future.
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| The Bloedel Reserve Gatehouse |
Alright, back to the main event. The Bloedel Reserve is an hour (including a 35-minute ferry ride) away from Seattle, located on Bainbridge Island. This is one of best botanical gardens in the area. So it is worth going to, but when you throw in a plant sale of Dan Hinkley and Far Reaches Farm proportions, it is definitely worth going to.
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| Drimys winteri |
Don't you hate it when you buy a rare plant, such as a
Drimys winteri, a Dan Hinkley collection, and then see the same thing planted right at the entrance of the Bloedel Reserve for everyone to see? Suddenly, the rare has become commonplace. I guess that's why people go to botanical gardens though.
I didn't catch the cultivar name of this hepatica, but I'm sure it's incredibly expensive so it probably doesn't matter anyway. (Update: It's Hepatica 'Cremar', thanks to Riz Reyes & Andy Navage)
Giant expensive-looking trilliums.
Is this a
Paris polyphylla? (Update: Nope. It's a
Lilium hansonii. Thanks again to Riz Reyes & Andy Navage for the clarification)
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| Impatiens omeiana |
Impatiens omeiana shoots up very quickly in the spring and is supposedly hardy to zone 6 (min. -10).
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| Schefflera taiwaniana |
What would a botanical garden be without a few hardy scheffleras?
Now, you want to know which plants I bought at the plant sale, right? Well, you're going to have to wait until tomorrow :)
