Nursery Hopping Fun!

"There are few places where we can spend money in the spring and receive as prompt and high a return as in the garden."
Nils Sundquist, Sundquist Nursery

We’ve been having a mild winter here, albeit it a tad wet. But who’s complaining when you look at the rest of the country’s weather woes? It’s an El Nino weather year for us here in the Pacific Northwest. The snow pack in the mountains is reportedly low this year but since there is some and since we love to snowshoe, we packed our bags, grabbed our snowshoes and headed north for a couple of days to see the snowy sights offered by Mount Baker. Lucky us, a sunny day, 10 inches of new snow and the addition of brother-in-law’s company, the snowshoeing was fabulous.

As we often do when visiting other cities, we checked out a couple of local nurseries too. Previously, I scouted out a few online that looked interesting. And naturally I found a treasure. Three crowns of Jersey Knight asparagus, ready to plant next to Mary Washington in the veggie garden. Yep, like a kid in a candy store when I visit cool nurseries. Hubby is such a good sport when it comes to my plant addiction.

I just love nursery hopping road trips! This photo is of the newly renovated antique greenhouse of Christianson’s Nursery in Mount Vernon, WA. We stopped by on our way home from this snowshoeing trip. If you are ever nearby you simply must visit. It is truly one of my favs. The summer of 2007 hubby was going to be gone for a week so I took myself on a solo trip to Oregon just to visit some of their local nurseries. I visited seven, some VERY rural and met the nicest people. What fun! Just me, the Mini Cooper, a modest little plant budget the mastercard, a suitcase, hotel reservations for two nights and the prospect of plants, plants, and more plants. A Mini Cooper can hold an amazing amount of treasures…don’t let the ‘mini’ moniker fool you! Each nursery often has its own specialty, so by hopping around you can find some of the most unusual plants that you may never find if you just go to the same nursery all the time. One of the plants I found on the trip to Oregon is a true Jasmine vine Jasminum officinale “Fiona Sunrise”, unusual in that it is hardy to USDA zone 8 and has golden foliage. Truly, I’ve never seen this vine at any other nursery. The foliage is a great color to draw your eye if you intend to plant it on a fence at the back of the garden where it would normally go unnoticed like I did. There it is a nice backdrop to the darker green leaves of Canna ‘Ermine’, they look great together. Did I plan it that way? Nah, as mostly happens in my garden it just worked out that way, much to my surprise. I saw the plant, had to have the plant, bought the plant….I’ll figure out where to put it later. And Jasmine fragrance…ahhh…need I say more?

As I’ve mentioned before, I save the plant labels in a box. Not only because I like to keep the record of the needs of the plants currently in the garden, I’ve also started to write the year I planted it and nursery I bought it from. That way if I want the plant again but can’t find it locally I know where I bought it. Plus, seeing the location often brings back pleasant memories of past trips. I also write the year I planted it because it’s helpful to be able to tell an admirer (of the plant ;)) how long it took to fill in its current spot in the garden. If I were more organized with the labels I’d do as reader Shari suggests in her comment following that post. As it is, my ‘organization’ consists of a box where I dig through a heap of labels to find the one I want. Shari’s way would be better!

What far and away excursions have you made to find some of your garden’s treasures? If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend it.

In bloom in my garden today: Corylopsis veitchiana (Winter Hazel), Hepatica, Brunnera, Heather, Hyacinth, Daffodils, Daphne caucasica, Cyclamen coum, Galanthus elwesii (snow drops), crocus, primrose (double English), Sarcococca confusa, hellebore

Author’s photo