Just noticed what this forum was for. I garden in Snohomish County, WA and Island County, WA for personal enjoyment, elsewhere for pay. I have been on the first site since 1965. Here we are less than 1/4 mile from Puget Sound, but above a cliff so it is not a beachfront banana belt garden. Record lows are typical for the area (~5 degrees F. in 1990). The other site is cooler and drier, on top of Camano Island. There annual precipitation may only be around 20 inches, perhaps less. Currently I am going through the Edmonds property in stages and replacing familiar plants with more exotic fare, as I firmly believe those of us in the know should make an effort to show others something a little different.
Hello Ron B., welcome to the forums. We have been reading your posts for a while now. You seem to know a lot about plants and have an uncanny ability to identify people's plant mysteries in the Plant ID forum with very little description. I look forward to reading more from you. I would enjoy hearing about the new plants that you are using in your Edmonds garden.
Thanks. I filled a glass recycling tub with liners from Colvos Creek nursery, Vashon, WA, including, if I remember correctly Berberis lologenis* Callistemon sieberi Correa pulchella 'Orange Flame'* Dasylirion wheeleri Escallonia laevis Leptospermum lanigerum, 2 forms L. liversidgii Ozothamnus x Cassinia Pernettya (Gaultheria) littoralis Phillyrea media Rhus integrifolia Thuja plicata 'Aurea' Yucca whipplei *Since given to a friend
What are a couple of the more interesting things you've planted at the Edmonds property since posting this? Just a couple -- I have a feeling you could overwhelm me. I am always looking for inspiration.
Since then I went to Oregon and bought a whole (small) truckload of stuff at forestfarm and another place, as well as added more things from Colvos Creek nursery. Have also picked up a few items at local garden centers. These are all still sitting on the patio, waiting to be planted this autumn-winter (currently having driest summer on record here, trying to keep things watered has been murder).
But Ron, you forgot to mention just a few of the treasures you have planted over the last couple of years. Last year I went back to Colvos Creek a week after I purchased Acer laevigatum, when a friend asked me to pick up the last one. I was told that it left the nursery in your car a few hours earlier, but perhaps it is now in a client's garden. I understand that our neighborhood averages over 45 inches of rain annually, but of course it has been a dry summer, although there was glorious rain overnight. My specimen has probably doubled in size, and is still in a pot so no companion plants. It took me a moment to figure out that a glass recycle bin is a recycle bin for glass, but at first I tried to picture an uncovered terrarium of sorts ...
I lost that maple during the winter, sorry to say. As you know most precipitation in this region is concentrated in winter; even if 45 inches were spread over the year (as in UK) it would actually total less than one inch per week minimum given as what is needed for cultivation of plants not established and drought adapted.
"I firmly believe those of us in the know should make an effort to show others something a little different" A "truckload of stuff" doesn't lead me far. Name one discovery that I should know about. Come on, lead. We have had a dry summer, too, some 9 inches below normal htough over the weekend we caught up by several inches.
None of it is in the ground yet. Don't know what would be appropriate for your area. Forestfarm has a web site with color photos and descriptions. Catalogs come out twice per year. Many hours can be spent with each, same as when Heronswood was putting out its "books".
With that one there you are looking at possibly the biggest retail selection under one roof in the continent, so if you are following it you have your finger on a big chunk of what's out there. Other western sources can be found in PLANT LOCATOR - WESTERN REGION (2004, Black-Eyed Susans/Timber). Eastern ones can be found in SOURCE LIST OF PLANTS & SEEDS (Andersen Horticultural Library).
