Far Reaches Farm

We were hugely pleased to have Sean and Nathan from Cistus follow us home from the Fronderosa Frolic in Gold Bar Sunday and spend the night. They haven't been out to the nursery before so it was great fun poring over all the little obscure goodies that only a mother and a plant nerd could love and I have to say they didn't miss much. I also have to say that we always like it when folks show up at the nursery in a big U-Haul truck - it is so much more promising than when they ride in on bicycles.

Folks like those two are barometers for us on how we are doing growing and offering interesting and admittedly at times, esoteric flora. "Are they going to see anything new? And are they going to find it all interesting? Is there going to be anything we can send home with them or will it just be a pity plant?" These are thoughts I can't banish but they fairly quickly drove them away as they started making piles here and there. What joy to find someone other than Steve Hootman enthused about a Tupistra sp. from the Cangshan and pausing before the different Ephedra species. They went home with multiple dozens and were happily chumming plants of theirs at us from the back of the truck.

So we're doing ok it seems although I have to admit Sean couldn't keep his eyes off of our bare expanses of soil in our new unplanted display beds.  It has been awhile since he has had that luxury at Cistus.

Sue and I were devastated last week to learn of Peter Wharton dying from cancer.  Peter curated the Asian Garden at UBC and in the words of our friend Ted in Vancouver, he was the Asian Garden.  We had the opportunity (which now seems like an amazing gift) in March to spend time with him in the garden as we were donating some of our Asian collections which he had requested.  This was before he had any inkling of illness.  We walked all through the garden with him and were awash in his enthusiasm for the new plants that were developing in character as well as the grand new plans for the garden.  Peter has been there forever and for a garden to truly develop it is so key to have a consistent vision and direction and Peter's tenure there provided just that.  He was one of our key figures in our horticultural world and we will miss him sorely.

At the other emotional extreme, we were very elated to have one of our Cardiocrinum giganteum ssp. yunnanense turn out to be a very good pink.  We've a half dozen blooming in the shade garden and the pink one is  simply stunning.  To our knowledge, this is at least a very rare occurance if not a unique one.  One of Sue's first comments as we were talking about who we should immediately call about this was "Peter would have liked to have seen this."  

Peter and our pink Cardiocrinum will always be linked in our minds and I can't think of a better association. 

Please don't get me started.    We have just taken leave of our senses.  We have allowed the feeding frenzy of the media and pundits and the b.s. of bloggers ( I know I am blogging) to drive and influence the election process.  We have made the whole thing into a Superbowl of sorts with all the attendant hype and corporate influence and the insane need to be bigger-brighter-faster-louder-longer each time.  We prey, with nothing short of some wierd lascivious intent, on every nuance and dropped vowel a road-weary candidate utters.  This is not an electoral process.  Not when it is fueled by such an ungodly amount of money that would be well spent improving education or health care.  Our candidates are so well versed in navigating the middle that it doesn't matter who we elect.  I suspect they will be remarkably similar.  Gone are the days when we could actually judge a man or woman by the content of their speech.  There is no way in hell that any candidate is going to give you a straight answer.  If they do, why their race is over.  I, for one, would dearly like to know where any of these folks truly stand and what they truly believe in and what they truly want to accomplish.  It all makes me ill.  It makes me jealous of Canada for Pete's sake.  Don't they have a very civilized brief election period?  What do we learn in two years that we can't learn in 6 weeks about a candidate?  And just how in the hell can they do their jobs when they are campaigning for half their term and positioning themselves to run for the other half?  Election Reform.  Please. 

Sue and I just gave a talk to our beloved town on our plant hunting travails and triumphs this last Saturday as part of the Jefferson County Master Garden Winter Lecture Series.  It was so much fun talking to friends and neighbors about what we do and why we do it.  It was such a relief looking out and seeing friends as well as faces you recognize but don't know but still gaining comfort from the recognition.  Thank you all for being there - we were pretty sleepless over this but you made it so easy.

The theme of the series is sustainability and what better than to feature us as local growers with recycle-reuse-and-exhaust every organic option first as a speakers.  Ignorance is truly bliss and we as pro nursery people know way too much.  We know what the conventional production nursery does in terms of prophylactic pesticide applications and it is appalling.  We try to grow healthy plants which largely create their own resistance as we don't do the pesticide thing.  Except for slugs and then minimal slugbait.   We have had to modify our techniques here to accomdate the local biota.  We can't drag flats across the floor but have to lift them straight up as there is a good chance there is a newt underneath hanging out for the winter.  The greenhouses are alive with frogs and the LBJ's (Little Brown Jobs), those homogenous wee birds in the finch-wren-sparrow complex, are simply annoying scratching our hazelnut shell container mulch all over hell and gone in search of stray nutmeats.

Our lecture topic of Plant Hunting in Asia felt right too excepting the carbon downside of getting there.  We know we have saved specific populations of a particular plant from extinction by collecting the seed, keeping careful documentation and growing it on here.  Someday we might be able to offer these plants back to their native country and that will be the best validation of what we do. 

Currently we do distribute plants from our collections to several botanical gardens and arboreta.  This is important to get the plants disseminated as there is nothing worse than having the only one of something and then losing it.  If you have that affliction, get over it.  Give a piece to your best friend at least because life and nature is fickle and it is great to get a new start of a prized plant back after you have lost it.  We are keepers of the flame for a surpising number of gardeners and when we start doing the tally nothing pleases us more than to give back to those who shared with us because it works both ways.  We have gotten Dactylorhiza back from Lee and Carlina back from Linda for example.  Plant people are the best.  With the exception of a few who have perverted plants to their own gain, I believe the world would be a far kinder and gentler and sensible place if it were run by plantpeople.  Except for those of you who keep trying to be Tropicalissimo in a temperate zone.  I mean, the economy can only stand a national party for so long before collapsing.  But maybe Neil is right.  It probably is better to burn out than fade away.  Are your ears burning Brian?

It takes a lot of gold when you are old.  And you still don't get what you pay for.  I have been terribly preoccupied of late (which accounts for the lengthy delay between rants) with managing my mom's health care.  She has been in assisted living here in town and the facility, while nice, is run by a  faraway corporation who has many such facilities across the country.  Their goal is to maintain the minimum staffing possible to avoid being legally liable and so maximize profit.  This causes good-hearted well-intentioned staff to be overworked and generally underpaid with the result that assisted living becomes observed living as there just isn't much assistance to be had. 

Mom worked hard her whole life on all of life's fronts and it just seems wrong that better end-of-life situations are not available.  At least that is the case in our county.  It is just so wearing making critical life decisions for your parents and to have so few decent options shameful.    It irks me mightly that our domestic healthcare dollars are  diverted  to an illegal war and illicit corporate gain.   Mom deserves more than that.  We all do. 

I would refer you to last years blog entry for this date.  My views haven't changed except for a further cementing of cynicism towards the current administration.  Commuting Scooter Libby's sentence following the conclusion of our judicial process is simply that of a bully daring a cowed audience to do something about it.  We are so damned complacent.  A friend recently repeated a telling quote to me: "In Europe the government is afraid of the people.  In America the people are afraid of the government." 

We have forgotten who is supposed to be in charge according to the principles upon which this country was founded.  We the People.   We the People are in charge.  Feel Free to complain.  Freedoms and rights are like muscles.  Use them or lose them.  Call, write or email your senator or congressman.  Write a letter to the editor.  Don't depend on TV or mainstream media for information.  Get news from many sources especially foreign and draw your own conclusions. 

I for one would love to see Al Gore run for President.  I would also like to have a sensible time limit on how early one can declare for office and start campaigning.  It is completely out of hand to start campaigning 2+ years before an election.  How can politicians do any sort of job if they have to be working the campaign trail and diluting every action to avoid alienating voters?  We know who these people are and what they stand for already.  We probably already know who is going to get our vote.  Give them two months to get their message out, have some real debates and then lets vote.  In the meantime they could be doing what we elected them for - working to protect our interests rather than their own.

No wonder I'm tired.  I just typed up a label description for Cimicifuga sp. MD97-074 which is the 1000th different plant that we have offered for sale.  Our sales area is fairly modest but we do run some pretty cool items through it.  I'm just glad No. 1000 wasn't some ubiquitous Heuchera but something not only pretty but botanically interesting.  Cimicifuga sp. MD97-074 is from our seed collection at Bita Hai in Yunnan at 11000' from our 1997 plant hunting trip. 

This particular plant stood out from the others by virtue of an amazingly long and heavy seed head.  We were scrambling along a narrow flat shoulder bordering a shallow stream and marshy area in this very botanically rich valley and cursing the snow on the ground which was covering the interesting little plants when we noticed this big wand of seed capsules arching over our heads from the bank above.  Something that good provokes an almost autonomic reflex of camera, field notes and seed envelope.  This has proved to be a very good garden plant but has not yet reached the lofty heights of its parent.  (We try very hard not to lay the burden of parental expectations on it but may have done so unintentionally which might account for its comparatively stunted growth.) 

Other collections that come to mind from this valley are Potentilla fruticosa - same genus and species as our native and looking just like it.  Malus yunnanensis was a nicely fruited small tree in a damp position and nearby grew a small yellow Phlomis sp. whose specific identity eludes me at the moment.  On the other bank opposite the Cimicifuga was a nice jumble of Primula polyneura and dwarf Rheum likiangense - the latter which is in flower right now in our border.  These were both growing in a partially shaded mossy rumble of cobble-sized rocks at the shrubby base of a steep hill. 

Moments of plant hunting come back to me with such clarity while events of yesterday have all the substantive nature of mist in the mountains.   I get so keyed up in the field that even during periods of exhaustion I think the adrenalin of new plants or of familiar plants finally seen in situ just cements those memories firmly in place.  If only that would happen when I go to the store to pick up 3 or 4 things breezily saying as I leave " Oh I don't need a list."

We should have a Earthday Party but with our current administration's woeful, dismal and gawdawful environmental record perhaps a wake would be more in order.  We all need to be aware and educate ourselves and make better choices when possible.  Even if they aren't as much fun and cost a little more.  We try to walk the talk here at the Farm as much as possible.

We have signed up with Puget Power for our home and nursery to be 100% Green Energy.  Our Tractor is biodiesel.  We cooperatively co-own with some friends our nursery truck which runs on biodiesel and synthetic oil.  We encourage customers to bring our containers and flats back so we can reuse them as well as plant tags.  Whenever possible we try to patronize local suppliers rather than suppliers from far away to minimize trucking.  Our potting soil has no peat moss in it so we are not party to the strip-mining of a non-renewable resource in fragile northern wetlands.  We use no non-organic insecticides, fungicides or herbicides on our nursery plants or in our soil mix.  Our hands are in the dirt all the time and we want that potting soil to be friendly.  You would be shocked to know how much pesticides are part and parcel of typical ornamental plant production.  Our greenhouses are home to tree frogs, newts and birds and we like it that way.  We are potting up self-sown seedlings right now from our display beds which is a benefit of not using pre-emergent herbicides.  We also don't have to worry about toxic runoff from the irrigation which is a concern in nursery operations.  Our greenhouses are all second-hand which fits with our re-use and recycle theme.  We had planned to start work on our vacant display border on the other side of the driveway but that has to wait until the Kildeer eggs hatch as there is a nest smack in the middle of it.  Every year they nest here and usually in a most trying spot.  The topper was in a seed flat covered in granite grit in an area we hand watered.  Every day with the fake broken wing thing!  But the little chicks could hardly be cuter.  We are all on Kildeer watch so when we hear the alarm calls we rush out and scare away the crows.  It is more difficult to protect the Redwing Blackbird chicks out in our Reed Canary Grass wetland.  The heavy snow this winter flattened a lot of the grass so there is less cover than usual and it makes us crazy seeing the crows swoop in to pluck chicks.  Something needs to be eating crows.  The weasel family is doing well in the barn.  Apparently there are no more rodents left in there as we are seeing the parents bringing critters into the barn.  As long as Kildeer isn't on the menu we will all be happy. 

We are trying to do the right thing here as sustainably and as low impact as possible.  It is not always the easiest or the quickest or the most productive or the most profitable in the short term business sense but we think it is all of those things in the long-term let's respect this planet sense.  We go to bed feeling guilty about nothing we have done at work and each day we do good things.  We're growing plants.   Everyone is planting a billion trees to save the planet but a few million cool perennials can't hurt.

Our Nursery Overseer & Greeter position has gotten to be fairly overwhelming for Canela so yesterday we added a new staff member, Calliandra or Callie for short as Co-Overseer & Greeter.  Our friends in Baja who rescued Canela sent us an email with photos of this most gorgeous puppy that friends of theirs rescued in Baja who looks like she could be a sister to Canela and we hesitated not at all in replying Yes! We'll take her!  She was found abandoned under a tree and was flown back to Vancouver BC where she went through all the critical vet treatments and got certified to come into the States so yesterday we drove up and picked her up.  First though we had to go through our favorite garden which is the UBC Botanical Garden.  Magnificent plants of Rhododendron hodgsonii in peak bloom which we had seen out of flower in Arunachal Pradesh in the Fall of 2004.  We always feel like we are visiting old friends when we see plants in gardens that we have been privileged to see in the wild.  We were so relieved to see minimal damage to the gardens from this winter's storms.

Basically the new puppy Calliandra (named for an endemic plant of the Cape Region of Baja commonly known as Fairy Duster) is preventing us from getting really prepared for our first open weekend.  She is way too cute and Canela has taken a shine to her so watching the two of them has taken precedence over pulling more plants for the weekend.  Oh sure we could have pulled a couple more of the Flintoff double Trillium grandiflorum or we might have divided the gold leafed Polygonatum x hybridum but they are only puppies for such a short time!  Can you tell we have no children?  I have many new plant labels to write yet tonight so I had best hurry before I lose my spot in bed and have to nest in one of the greenhouses.

It has taken a couple of weeks to recover from the Flower Show binge we have been on.  The lethargy and mental confusion are improving and the need for dark chocolate, coffee and Zinfandel is lessening.  Which is all I really want is just a lessening.  We lectured last night to the Woodway Arboretum Unit giving a slide program on our plant hunting trip to Sichuan last spring and got jazzed all over again seeing the Meconopsis and Primula and Rhododendrons and Cypripediums and Pedicularis and Corydalis and Arisaemas and on and on.  One of the Meconopsis Sue and I found there - a sweet reddish flower just 5 to 6 inches high - is thought to be a new species and that is just about as good as it gets.  What would be better would be to go back there in the fall and collect seed to introduce it to cultivation.  Any expedition sponsors out there?  It was not that far from the black-foliaged Arisaema ciliatum v. liubaense which is just screaming to be introduced and that is only a half day's drive from that perfect variegated sport on that Daphne and as long as we are on the road it is only 3 days away from that Corydalis with the red-centered foliage which is only a few days away from the Alliums growing on that partially shaded bank which had several individuals with deep red foliage... so many plants!    We have got some pretty cool ones here at the nursery though and most would appreciate repotting so out to the bench while there is still some daylight.