Far Reaches Farm, stop #6 on our Kitsap Peninsula plant adventure…

Continuing our day-long nursery/garden adventure my garden blogging friends and I piled back in our cars (after wrapping up our visit to WeHoP) and headed for Far Reaches Farm in Port Townsend, WA. True Kelley and Sue were selling plants at the Hersonwood open and sale but that was just a tiny fraction of what would be available at the nursery, how could we not visit?

If I remember the story correctly the husband of an avid Far Reaches shopper paid to have the green roofed pavilion built. He wanted a shady place to rest while his wife shopped. Now the rest of us benefit from his generosity.

The view from the pavilion area...

But let's do what we came here for...shop!

Yay! I've been hunting for this for awhile (I had one years ago, it died). From the label: "Architectural botany. This Mexican Sea Holly brings the exotic right into your garden. From a basal rosette of spined leaves arise tall stems bearing silver-white flowers reminiscent of Proteas. These last for a couple of months and are great dried. Fertile well drained soil."

Ptilostemon afer, a biennial thistle relative. And no, I did not accidentally leave out any letters from that name.

Ah the sexy leaves of the Schefflera macrophylla...

So very beautiful...

So very impossible to find! This one was growing in their display garden, not for sale. Which was actually a good thing because had it been Peter and I might have come to blows.

Super tall Pseudopanax ferox.

I think if I had to spend much time in a lath house on a sunny day I would get a very bad headache!

What a remarkable clump of Pyrrosia sheareri! They say: "Collected in Taiwan by gifted plantsman Steve Doonan, this amazing Fern is hardy to at least single digits. This is a locally famous fern frustratingly slow to propagate and always red-lining the Plant Lust meter. We've cornered the market so get 'em while you can! Easy in morning sun/shade."

Cute! Hakea epiglottis (below), a member of the Protea family and it's hardy (Z7): "So happy to finally offer this hardy evergreen member of the Tasman Protea family. Been smitten with this for years seeing it thrive in the UBC rock garden. Texture like no other. Small curly white flowers with a gentle fragrance. Good drainage and low water. Spurned by deer."

Okay to be honest I wasn't really up on my game as far as photo taking in the nursery was concerned, it had already been a long day. I paid for my purchases and then wandered back to get some photos of the plants we saw on the way in.

I'm thinking that must be Kelly and Sue's house, with the orange chairs on the porch? If not whomever lives there is lucky to have an amazing nursery in their back yard.

Rosa sericea ssp.omeiensis f pteracantha, or as I remember it the Wingthorn Rose.

Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida'...

Piptanthus nepalensis var. tomentosus: "Our collection from Yunnan in 1997 of this cream of the crop higher elevation Piptanthus. Imagine our excitement seeing just 3 plants growing in a rubble outflow at the base of a steep hill after hours of walking across the valley of the Gang ho ba. Great silvery silken trifoliate foliage and large yellow pea flowers.  This makes a multistemmed rounded shrub to 6' tall in our border.  Most folks mistake it for a shrubby Argyrocytisus (Cytisus) battandieri until it blooms with flowers evocative of Laburnum.  We've grown and killed several collections of the green-leafed P. nepalensis but this variety (which we have offered in the past as P. aff. tomentosus and much earlier as P. forrestii) is far hardier having withstood early November 14F with strong winds despite not being hardened off as the previous week had been in the 60's.  Thanks to Grahame Ware for sharing recent research in the genus and hopefully nailing down the correct name.  With botany however, never say never."

Pretty cool right?

Well here's where we transition into what I bought, and I bought one of the Piptanthus. Actually from Far Reaches at the Hersonswood sale, I felt even better about my purchase once I saw the huge plant at the nursery. Here's mine awaiting it's eventual planting in the spring.

I also picked up another Pyrrosia sheareri, my first purchased in the spring at the HPSO Plant Sale has done fabulous and I "needed" another.

Naturally I grabbed a couple of the Eryngium proteiflorum...

And one of the Hakea epiglottis too...

This one, Lomatia tinctoria (center in the photo below) wasn't on the sales tables but I'd seen it earlier that morning in the Outlaw's garden and he'd mentioned they might have it. I asked and just like that one appeared! "Guitar Plant. Choice evergreen Tasmanian Proteaceae family member whose vaguely guitar shaped flower buds open to a wild riff of white flowers that will have you playing the air trowel. Hardy to a normal zero degrees and drought tolerant when established. Needs no fertilizer."

And this plant, Salvia clevelandii 'Alpine Form', I smelled way before I saw it. I grew one of these a few years back but it died after a particularly wet and cold spring. Here it was, that lovely warm sunny fragrance yet again: "From the town of Alpine at 8000' in southern CA comes this selection of one of the most powerfully fragrant of the CA native sages. The leaves on this woody 3' shrub scents the air and begs to be fondled. Whorls of blue flowers in late spring. Hot, sunny, and lean soil. Dry when settled." I grabbed it. However a word to the wise, what's a wonderful scent in the garden becomes a little overwhelming in an enclosed car for a three hour drive...

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