Welcome to Far Reaches Farm!
Sue Milliken & Kelly Dodson, proprietors
Directions:
It's simple—head into Port Townsend and take a left on Sheridan just past the QFC. You will go 3/4 of a mile and find a stop sign on 19th. Go straight through that until you come to the next stop sign which is Hastings. Turn left and go 1/3 mile and you will see the 1818 polka dot mailbox and turn right into our driveway and park out in the field watching out for Canela and Callie, our nursery overseers, who are brilliant in all things except cars. Please come only on our open days or by appointment. We'll have sandwich board signs out on our open days.
What’s Growing On...
White & pink cardiocrinumWe are looking back on the past couple of weeks when we were visited by some of the top plant hunters and explorers in the world. Last Sunday we were treated to a visit by Steve Hootman who directs and curates the plant collection at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden. We've been with Steve on a couple of plant hunting trips and we have seen first hand his significant expertise in the field and his willingness to endure any difficulty or danger in pursuit of plants. He is cut from the same cloth as the legendary plant hunters of old and has been instrumental in bringing many new Rhododendron species into cultivation as well as a large number of other ornamentals. It was a lot of fun to look at some of our babies from our trips and reminisce about our experiences.
And then midweek we get a call from our bud Duane West, (former Heronswood Nursery Garden Manager), asking if it was ok if Dan Hinkley and Robert Jones brought Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones of Crug Farm Plants over to see the nursery and they would be there in an hour and a half. After some hysterical shrieking that we weren't ready to have the Plant Gods descend on us, we relented and dashed out to fix all the problems and blemishes which suddenly seemed very glaring. Fortunately the short notice prevented us from doing anything at all so we just had to go with it "as is." We've always wanted to meet Bleddyn and Sue as they have scoured some truly remote areas hunting for plants and the list of their introductions is simply staggering. Dan and Robert hadn't been here before either so we were pretty much freaking out. They were all quite gracious and straight away we were in the comforting realm of plant babble. It was great fun walking the nursery and gardens talking plants and plant hunting and we were tickled to send them all home with a few goodies that caught their eye. Nothing like doing a little plant trading.
Pink cardiocrinumUpdate July 10: Today's edition of the Peninsula Daily News has a great article about our pink Cardiocrinum and a frighteningly large picture of us - pick up a paper if you are in the area. Our Cardiocrinums are flowering in the shade garden including one which is pink. We've never seen one this color and needless to say are quite pleased with ourselves. It really is worth looking at if you have the chance. Sue is up on the ladder right now (11:08 am on July 1) taking some photos which we hope to post on our website. Update July 3: Bob (the B in B&D Lilies) came over yesterday to see the big pink Cardio and was pretty much high-fiving us.
Shade garden addition.
Our dear friend Jolly who has helped out in many facets of the nursery construction over the past several years outdid himself by designing and building our new lath house addition to our shade garden. This will allow us to triple the size of our shade garden and we can hardly wait to get the soil and irrigation in so we can free a lot of stock plants from their pot bondage and get to planting. We are natural shade gardeners so this will be almost too much fun. We love planting a new bed because it is like getting to shop at this cool nursery with no limit and no restrictions. "Sure—go ahead and take as many stock plants as you want—they are free today." It is pretty much a plant geek's dream.
Some great new plants on the sales tables.
Grevillea australis, Echium rosulatum, Callistemon pallida 'Eleanor' and C. sieberi, Cistus 'Jester', Jenkyn Place' and obtusifolius, Melaleuca ericoides, Leptospermum namadgiensis and L. lanigerum 'Silver Leaf Form', Hakea epiglottis, Ozothamnus 'County Park Silver', Olearia x haastii, Festuca californica, Sedum palmeri, Podophyllum delavayi, pleianthum and versipelle, Corokia contoneaster, Arctostaphylos pajaroensis 'Warren Roberts' and A. rudis 'Vandenberg', Aster carolinianus (a climbing Aster!), Nolina nelsoni, Yucca linearifolium, Hydrangea integrifolia, Myrteola nummularifolia, Glumicalyx goselloides, Salvia leucophylla, Melianthus 'Purple Haze' and 'Antonow's Blue', Kniphofia thompsonii - triploid form, Tree Dahlias and Romneya coulteri to name but a few.
We are carrying a few odd edibles.
Female Ginkgo selections, 3 different Gooseberries, Paw-Paws, a couple of nice Sea Berry varieties (Hippophae), the hardy Arbequina Olive and the mountain Huckleberry, Vaccinium membranaceum in case we don't make it up to the mountains to go berrying.
If you are coming some distance for a specific plant, it is good to call and make sure we have it as we do a lot of plants in small quantities and some folks actually buy plants with landscape design in mind and purchase in groups of 3's, 5's or 7's rather than our usual collector's drifts of one.
For the latest news, read Kelly's blog...
We're glad you stopped by to view what's new. Come back soon!
—Kelly & Sue