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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Summer Lovin' at Far Reaches Farm

Okay,  it was more plant lust than love but in any case, I got to spend a lovely warm summer day poking around nurseries and gardens on the Kitsap Peninsula and Port Townsend, home of Far Reaches Farm.


Even if you can't stroll by the sunny sales tables or meander through the greenhouses containing shade-tolerant treasures, you can still order plants online.  Truth be told, I just got a plant in the mail from this nursery yesterday.


Monardella macrantha 'Marion Sampson' is lovely growing in this boat-shaped pot. 



Like Maurice Chevalier, I love Paris.  Hopefully someday mine will become this full and happy.

Sunny weather makes the plant mobile want to hit the road.  Unfortunately, mid day in bright sun isn't the best time to take pictures in the striped shade of the  Far Reaches lath house.



What a sweet hydrangea!

"Coveted hybrid Mayapple nearly impossible to find.  'Red Panda' is a seed strain from the O'Byrne's with some variability but this form from Nita Jo Rountree is the best that we have seen.  Large copper leaves in spring which become infused with green as the summer wears on and very good red flowers in spring.  Moist shade in rich soil = Pandamonium."  Kelly Dodson 

This is the plant that arrived at my house yesterday.  


Speaking of love, check out  those deeply incised Schefflera delavayi  leaves.  


I know the name of this one, really I do.  Hopefully it'll come back from the far reaches of my mind before the "publish" button gets pushed.  If not, feel free to remind me. Diphylleia cymosa!  Thanks Alison.




Angelica 'Ebony' "The darkest foliage on any Angelica.  I googled it and got an interesting hit on an escort in London with ebony skin named Angelica.  The plant may actually be darker, costs quite a lot less and I'm sure easier to keep happy.  Biennial so plant the seeds that form after the lovely pink flowers." K.D.


Frolicking fancily with Ebony's foliage is this beautiful Clematis.  ('Alionushka'?)


With a spokesbird like this, the Impatiens rothii practically sells itself!

Sales pitch.


Kelly and Sue were excited to share the story of their discovery of this glorious polygonatum.  This globe-trotting pair of plant explorers were on a little road trip near Leavenworth, not all that far from home, and were exploring an area slated for excavation of some sort when they found this solitary specimen.  (They'd cleverly distracted friend and fellow plant explorer, Sean Hogan, who was with them.)  It makes one wonder how many living things exist that we've simply not encountered yet.  Hopefully they'll be able to propagate this and it'll be offered for sale at some later date.  They already have that grape-purple polygonatum and now this...  What was that tenth commandment again?

Briggsia speciosa

Gesneriad


Far Reaches open days are winding down for the season and will cease by the middle of this month but there's still a bit of time to take advantage of the 20% off sale at the nursery.  

19 comments:

  1. Lucky you! I have been ordering from them a few years now and am very impressed with the quality and size of plants they ship. (Also impressed with shipping charges but that's life if you want the cool plants). I did a planting on either side of a path based on one of their web photos. I think I need to check out their catalog again. It is so warm here, I can keep planting . . .

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    1. Have fun planting! Have you ever considered a trip west? Talking with Kelly, who writes the tags, and Sue is, as you can imagine, fun and highly educational. I so admire people for whom botanical Latin seems to be a first language.

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  2. You seem to be soaking up every last bit of nursery exploration as you can before the season is up. I actually quite like the light and shadow play in the photographs. I made a note to research Monardella macrantha 'Marion Sampson' online; it's a fine display in that oval pot.

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    1. It surprises me how much I crammed in this summer and still have many posts worth of pictures in my camera.

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  3. Yes that Polygonatum is lovely, and I'm quite thrilled you finally got a red panda of your own!

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    1. I only wish that this panda would eat that unruly bamboo grove for me.

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  4. You managed to get some nice photos from your visit. I visited Far Reaches the day before the Heronswood open last month, on a sunny day, and got similarly moire shots inside the lath house. I've been debating their publishing worthiness. The name of that plant is on the tip of my tongue too, in fact, I have it growing in my garden as well. It has large split leaves, doesn't it? Wait, it just came to me -- Diphyllea cymosa. I hope they have great luck propagating that gorgeous Polygonatum.

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    1. Thanks for the plant ID! One of these days we'll have to head up to Far Reaches on a cloudy day!

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  5. I'm off to check what they have available by mail order. That hummingbird is an excellent salesbird!

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  6. I see a Gunnera in a picture! I want one so badly! but I think there is no room for it in my small garden.

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  7. Oh that Mayapple! I would be ordering that one too! What great treasures they have. I like their sense of humor on their tags, too!

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    1. One of the fun things about visiting Far Reaches is hearing random peals of laughter from customers reading the plant tags.

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  8. That little flower-edged walk is really lovely.

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  9. I love your enthusiasm for plants and specialty nurseries. We are reducing our plant shopping and taming our plant lust now, as we look to downsizing sometime in the not so distant future, so I will live vicariously through you.

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  10. I'm like Linda, not buying so much these days so enjoying it vicariously through you. And with Maurice C. thrown in too!

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  11. Lots of love, indeed. That multi-colored green roof (can a green roof be multi-colored?) on the pergola is fantastic.

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  12. That must be an amazing garden to visit. I've stopped looking at their catalog since the cross country shipping is so brutal, but every now and then I break down and take a peek. It's an amazing world out there once you get past black eyed Susans and azaleas.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.