On Saturday, Nigel and I hopped in the car bright and early (ok, bright and early for a Saturday, a little after 9 a.m.), and headed up to the Kitsap Peninsula. I dropped him off at Daddy Day Care (Clearwater Casino), where the blackjack dealers could look after him for the day, and my first stop was to visit my good friend Debbie Teashon at
Kingston Henery Hardware. She's the nursery manager there, and it's been a few months since I checked out her wares. The last time I was there was with Peter The Outlaw Gardener (he posted about the visit
here). She has since gotten in lots more plants, some I had never seen before. In my opinion, Debbie has turned the nursery section of the store into one of the premier places on the Peninsula to shop for plants, rivaling full-service places like Valley Nursery. And her prices are good too! As you can see in the photos below, the store is packed with planty goodness.
We had a yummy lunch together at the
Axe Handle Cafe nearby, and chatted about her upcoming book
Gardening for the Homebrewer: Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More.
The book will be released by Voyageur Press on September 15, 2015, just in time for you to buy a copy as a Christmas gift for the home brewing enthusiast in your family. (Pre-order it at the Amazon link.) Besides the book Debbie is also writing a gardening column for Kitsap Week, as well as occasional articles for the magazine West Sound Home and Garden, and keeping up with the website and database she created and has managed for many years, Rainyside Gardeners. After lunch, she went back to work and I shopped the store for plants.
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| This Gaillardia is new to me, aren't the flowers fab? |
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| It's called Gaillardia 'Coral Spark.' |
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| The aisles are so packed with racks and racks of plants that it's hard to get a shopping cart down them. |
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| Persicaria 'Red Dragon' |
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| Bunny tail grass glowing in the sunshine |
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| Begonia leaf and fern |
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| The store also has a great selection of pots |
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| I fell in love with this Pelargonium |
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| Red and pink flowers and little, furry, grayish leaves -- it's called Pelargonium violareum 'Violetti' and it's from Little Prince of Oregon, as you can see from the label |
I followed my visit there with another hour's driving to Port Townsend and
Far Reaches Farm. I hadn't been there yet this year, and I had to pay a visit to the shady lath house, where there are lots of drool-worthy plants growing in magnificent splendor.
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| Persicaria 'Golden Arrow' |
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| The lath overhead makes a moire pattern on the plants below |
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| This swath of Nomocharis had me asking at the desk if they had any for sale, but alas, they have some coming on in the greenhouses, but not ready yet |
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| Nomocharis |
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| Pyrrosia shearerii |
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| Mottled Podophyllum |
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| I can't go to Far Reaches without photographing this tall Maianthemum with its pink flowers |
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| That Maianthemum again |
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| A second Maianthemum, shorter with white flowers with pink stems |
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| Gazebo with green roof |
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| Foxgloves and red hot pokers |
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| Purple Euclomis and glass sculpture in the duckweed-covered pond |
So, what did I buy?
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| (In back, left to right) Papaver 'Parrot Feathers,' Gaillardia 'Coral Spark,' variegated Iris, more Papaver 'Parrot Feathers,' (in front, left to right) Nicotiana sylvestris, Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum,' Pelargonium violareum 'Violetti,' Aslenium ebenoides, and a second Nicotiana sylvestris, and far in back: four gallon pots of Carex testacea |
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| 'Parrot Feathers' has lots of fat buds, I need to get it in the ground before it flowers and goes to seed |
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| Lovely stripes on the variegated Iris |
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| One more gratuitous closeup of the Gaillardia |
