My Mother's Day Weekend Trip to Heronswood

This past weekend Nigel and I at first had no plans to do anything special for Mother's Day. But then Nigel sent me this article in the Seattle Times about Heronswood's upcoming plant sale and garden open, and he suggested I might want to go to it. What else could I say but yes?

After dropping Nigel off at Daddy Day Care (The Clearwater Casino), I made it to Heronswood in time for the very start of the sale.  After making the rounds of the plant sale tables, and picking up a few choice plants, I grabbed my camera from the car and paid my $10 entry fee. It's been quite a few years since I was at Heronswood, and the last time I was there, it was still mid-renovation. I was there for the very first garden open and plant sale after the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe bought the property, and it was in a very disappointing state at that time.

I'm very happy to report that Heronswood is looking wonderful these days. I don't know what it looked like in its glory days, but its current state is transportative. We are so lucky to have this world-class garden so close by. Dan Hinkley and the army of volunteer gardeners who have been working so hard to renovate it deserve a lot of kudos.

Map of Heronswood -- I followed a counter-clockwise route through the garden -- wandering first through the shady woodland beds, past the Folly, to the house and the Carpinus hedge, to the potager, then to the 12:00 position and the arbor beds, and then out through the perennial border and the blue and yellow bed.

A brief history of Heronswood

Arisaema, Primula sieboldii(?), variegated Iris, sword fern, Hellebore(?) and strawberry Begonia/Saxifraga stolonifera (so, actually, neither a strawberry nor a Begonia)

Primula sieboldii

Arisaema

A little further along the driveway to the house is this trio of Trillium chloropetalum 'Volcano'

Trillium chloropetalum 'Volcano'

To the left of the driveway are three iconic pillars, looking in much better shape than the first time I saw them (they were crumbling)

Various perennials carpet the area beneath the pillars, including these eye-catching Primulas

Astilboides(?)

Not sure of these ferns, but they were very tall (Royal fern/Osmunda regalis?)

Two impressive clumps of lady's slippers (unfortunately, the flowers were past peak and turning a bit brown in spots, so no close-ups)

Enormous Arisaema

Himalayan blue poppy/Meconopsis

Enormous skunk cabbage growing in boggy conditions

As you wander the shady pathways, eventually the Little and Lewis folly comes into view

The first time I visited Heronswood the folly was taped off from visitors with yellow caution tape

This shot illustrates how Heronswood can transport you to another world -- or at least another country. I wouldn't be surprised here to see a line of Buddhist monks trailing through the woods, or perhaps Dr. Strange floating mid-air, gesticulating towards me from behind the fan of palm leaves.

As you venture towards the house, you eventually catch glimpses of the blue and yellow border through the trees- although right now it looks mostly yellow and green

Trillium

I was surprised to see what looks like rose campion growing near the house -- I have a lot of it and it self-sows like mad

The house

Carpinus betulus 'Fastigiata' aka European hornbeam hedge pruned into cathedral-like arches

Hornbeam hedge and bog

Orange poppy in the potager

Looks like a Verbascum growing the stone wall of the potager, which should make an interesting sight later in the summer when it blooms

Potager beds hedged with boxwood and filled with Marigolds

Each section of the potager has a banana growing in the center

Colorful perennial beds surround the potager (you can see the hornbeam hedge in the background)

Who needs Spanish moss?

In the PNW, we have this growing in the trees

Acer griseum/paperbark maple growing near the house

Arbor beds

Epimedium and hart's tongue fern(?)

Perennial beds

Geranium phaeum and golden grass (Hakone grass? Acorus?)

Hydrangea aspera

Clematis recta purpurea

Arisaema taiwanense

Blue and yellow border

I might copy this combo of golden creeping jenny and Ajuga

Oh yes, there was a sale, and I bought some things, but surely you've seen enough photos? Maybe I'll do a post about my new purchases next week.

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Heronswood is open every Friday and every fourth Saturday of the month through October, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. (last garden entry is 2:30 p.m.). Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for ages 7 to 17, and free if you are a Heronswood member or a Port Gamble S’Klallam Community member.

Wednesday Vignette

I have a lot of self-sowers in my garden, both annual and perennial. I don't actually recall planting this deceptively delicate-looking plant, Corydalis lutea, although I might have. I do remember planting a few other types of Corydalis, with blue or purple flowers, but they didn't return after a harsh winter. This one pops up all over, though not aggressively, often growing right in gravel. It seems to be drought-tolerant, so I've decided to harness it and spread its babies around. It's also called Fumewort or Yellow Fumitory.

Yellow flower, blue pot -- what could be better?

Anna at Flutter & Hum hosts Wednesday Vignette. Check out her post and her weekly ruminations here.

Fool's Gold for Foliage Followup

Here in the PNW we love our golden-leaved plants. Maybe because we spend so much time sun-deprived, we're desperate to see something bright out in the garden. Lately the weather has been doing its own version of the fan dance, teasing us with glimpses of sun and then snatching them away. We did have three or four days of sunshine, which have been followed by days full of what we call "sunbreaks," where the sun breaks through the clouds and the rain stops briefly, sometimes for only 15 minutes, sometimes for almost half a day.

Recently during one of those sunbreaks I ran out quick with the camera and took photos of many of my golden plants. I finished just in time for the rain to return.

Golden Feverfew/Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum'

Silene dioica 'Ray's Golden Campion'

Sedum 'Angelina'

Agastache 'Golden Jubilee'

Carex -- probably Bowles Golden Sedge

Himalayan Honeysuckle/Leycesteria formosa 'Golden Lanterns'

Acer circinatum 'Pacific Fire' -- red twigs and chartreuse leaves

Hakonecloea macra with Sedum 'Angelina'

Eryngium 'Neptune's Gold'

Dicentra 'Gold Heart'

Pam at Digging hosts Foliage Followup on the day after Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, to celebrate the role of foliage in the garden. Check out her post here.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day -- May 2017

I visited Heronswood over the weekend, and briefly considered posting a few photos of flowers from that garden for Bloom Day, but reconsidered. One of the purposes of Bloom Day, after all, is to keep a chronicle of blooms and their differing bloom periods from year to year, and this has been quite a freaky year.

So, as Sammy J says in Jurassic Park, "Hold onto your butts."

Here are my blooms.

The first California poppy

Silene dioica 'Ray's Golden Campion' -- sown from seeds shared a few years ago by Nan Ondra

'Ray's Golden Campion'

Pacific Coast Iris -- one of the first plants ever put in the ground in my garden here, most of the tags have been lost

I do know this one is called 'Broadleigh Rose'

Planted too close to a Dasylirion wheeleri, which on a windy day does its best impression of a weed-whacker, this Pacific Iris's petals are a little chewed

Newly planted Berlandiera lyrata

Linum lewisii/Blue flax

Geranium phaeum 'Samobor'

Centaurea montana (and lady's mantle foliage)

Dicentra 'Gold Heart' -- with one withered heart right smack in the middle, a metaphor for life?

Dicentra 'Gold Heart' -- ignore the humongous pile of gallon pots protruding from behind the shed

Pulsatilla vulgaris/Pasque flower

Vine maple flowers

Camassia

Dicentra formosa/wild western bleeding heart

Ceanothus

Weigela, just starting to flower -- a not very interesting or pretty shrub, but it has pretty flowers the hummingbirds love, which gains it a reprieve from being yanked every year

Geranium renardii -- one of the first plants I ever bought at Dig on Vashon Island

Geranium renardii

Most of my Epimediums are finished, but this little clump is still going

Self-sown patch of Anthriscus sylvestris makes an airy scrim

I don't remember the name of this gold-leafed Brunnera, but the blue flowers seem bluer than 'Jack Frost' -- but that might just be an optical illusion

True Forget-me-not Myosotis alpestris (Brunnera, pictured above, is sometimes called False forget-me-not)

Another airy flower, Saxifrage 'London Pride', flowering from rosettes that I cut off last fall from another clump and simply stuck into the soil to root

Euphorbia self sows all over, into the recycled concrete wall

Euphorbia

Melica uniflora

Aquilegia 'Clementine Red'

Clematis blooming still in its pot -- I've already lost the tag, but I think it's Clematis montana

Saponaria ocymoides/Soapwort -- a sweet little perennial that self-sows and is wonderfully drought-tolerant for me

Lewisia, which I cannot keep alive in the ground, loves the great drainage of life in a colander

Interestingly, moss loves the colander too. Here, fruiting bodies called sporophytes protrude from the holes

Sorry -- you'll have to wait a little while to see my photos of Heronswood.

Carol at May Dreams Gardens hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Check out her post here, where you'll also find posts from other bloggers all over the world also celebrating their May flowers.

Wednesday Vignette

I'm not sure I'd actually call today's photo a vignette, it's more like a Wednesday Vista.

Last weekend, Nigel and I spent the weekend in Portland, having traveled down to attend the Portland Bloggers Plant Exchange on Sunday. We had all day Saturday free, so we booked a morning waterfall tour that took us to several different waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge. The very first stop on the tour,  however, was at Vista House, where we got a good long look at the gorge from atop a high bluff.

You can read about the Columbia River Gorge here, and about Vista House here.

Anna at Flutter & Hum hosts Wednesday Vignette. Check out her post here.

Wednesday Vignette

This little Viola labradorica flowering in the middle of a patch of Sedum 'Angelina' is my Wednesday Vignette this week. I'm kind of amazed how these seeds get around. The original plants started out in a different bed at least 30 feet away from here! It's a good thing I like the dark leaves and the sweet little flowers. Come to think of it, Angelina gets around too, doesn't she?

Anna at Flutter & Hum hosts Wednesday Vignette. Check out her post here.