Sorry I have been gone for so long but I have been super busy. I went to windcliff last week and rachel and Kathy there. This is the only picture I took and I think this was way too cool. I'm sure Rachel and Kathy have more picture. This was a good time. Thanks NHS and Dan and Robert
Wow- now those are some LEAVES. Gorgeous!
Beautiful Heidi! Is there really a blue tint on the back of the leaves, or is it just the pic? Pretty awesome either way!
Oh no there is a blue tink. It was great. I guess it got fried and looked bad, It looked fabulous!!!!!!!!!
Good to hear your voice again Heidi.
We were going to come see you on Roundup Sunday, but time and energy got away from us. Darn. That is a cool plant. I feel like a dummy for asking, but what is it?
It was painted gold on top and blue underneath. Dan Hinkley clearly has some favorites - Gunnera is one of them. Grevillea and Ceanothus as well.
My photos of Windcliff on September 5. Heidi, feel free to id stuff. Do you know what the peony in the first picture is? I think Tori said it was a peony.
http://picasaweb.google.com/katiegirl2u/WindcliffSeptember52009?feat=directlink
Wow I can't beleive how many pictures you took. I took 1. Too busy yacking with people and talking on the phone to vanessa. I can't beleive how many pictures you took with nobody in the shot. Looks like you were there all by yourself. Good job. I have some of the plants and a few I think I need to track down.
Lynn. I know you guys were busy with the roundup and I heard it was great. I'm still open until the end of October if you and Joey would like to truck on up. I still have lots of bamboo and got a whole new shipment of maples and conifers in. Plus most of the perennials are on sale. Off to work Looks like a great weekend. Everyone go plant or weed. Heidi
Well, Heidi, nobody was asking me plant names . . . you were a good resource. Rachel got more pictures than I did, I think. She may load them if she has the time.
FYI, everybody - Heidi has both that Daphne and the huge Eucomis. Both of those would look great in anyone's garden. I'm working on finding a place for them now . . .
Katye, great pictures. Wish I had gone. Darn, let me know when there is a next time.
Lynn -
Since he doesn't really have a nursery anymore, this is just his home and grounds. I'm guessing that if there is a next time, it will probably be through the Northwest Horticultural Society, which is apparently near and dear to Hinkley's heart.
NHS does have lots of good tours and membership isn't terribly expensive. The tours are small and the do sell out, but usually they seem pretty interesting. Here's their site: http://www.northwesthort.org/
Loved the bee picture and the dancing ants and little pigs. And of course all the great plants and the beautiful location.
It's cool to see that he has a sense of humor. I just loved the pigs, too.
I hear than Dan's partner, Robert, is a tremendous cook. How wonderful to be able to cook on that Aga stove just steps away from french doors out to the patio and that view. Sigh. Maybe in my next life . . .
There were definitely a lot more grasses used on the windward and open part of the property than what was used at Heronswood. I can image that it will take awhile to get the sense of that new environment. I did ask Hinkley if he spent a lot of time reviewing yard layouts and planning before he put things in. He said that he recognized that some combinations weren't usual - like Ceanothus and Gunnera (which did appear to be working, but only because the soil was great and there was a watering system LOL), but that he really thought it was just more important to get things in the ground.
And then he added, with a smile, "But I won't say that I'm not one of those people who walks around the yard with a 4" pot trying to decide where to put that plant."
I think Dan can plant many of the plants he has there because he brought in alot of soil that he had specially made with super drainage. Then the sitew has alot of underground water. I was working next door for a while and there was wet spots all over with tons of daiage system to catch all the water. So once the gunnera got the roots down there was allot of natural water there anyways then with a little irrigation they survive. I saw it when it was first installed and it sure has changed alot on the water side. Around the house is still the same just larger. Alot of the melianthus I see died and were replaced with ceanothus and grasses. Fun to see plants that your not familar with. One think I was happy to see was up in back a good size albizia summer chocolate living. There is hope. I have more for next season.
And we saw evidence of a very nice watering system, too. I would think that the winds would dry out a Gunnera, no matter how much water its feet have. But then the other big grasses must give it some protection.
Always fun to see plants you don't know -- like that blue tree. Hey, do you know what the peony is that he has by the front gate?
Just found the thread and thanks for all the photos! Little and Lewis strike again on the beautiful gunnera sculpture. Love the hoverfly photo at the bottom. That's a great shot. They usually don't sit still for long enough to get a shot like that.
We sailed by Indianola and I was looking for his place, knowing it was overlooking the water. Next time I will have a better reference point.
Lovely photos! Great reference library!
So that's a hoverfly. Thanks. I had no idea. And it was sitting at face-height, waiting for me to take his picture. :-)
Gunnera sculpture - you mean the blue and gold one? That was a live Gunnera spray-painted. Cool, huh? Do you know what kind of peony is in the first picture?
Dan was saying that there are these huge ants like that in Australia that they are called jumping ants and they will attack you Jump on you and bite you worse than any bee sting. I'm guessing on the paeonia but peonia obovata since it had big round leaves. I would look in a heronswood cataloge to see if he describes the cool seeds. I'll look in their cataloge it is at the nursery. Heidi
Molbaks sells painted Poinsettias at Christmas. They are cooler than I would have thought with a sparkly dyed-tied look.
Sure enough - Paeonia obovata. It's on my plants want list, but I didn't realize how outstanding the finished blossoms were.
Melissa, he had tons of Agapanthus intermingled with the grasses. Not something I would have thought of.
Picture number 18 is of that Black Daphne - Daphne Houtteana: http://www.chocolateflowerfarm.com/inc/sdetail/9423. Heidi had some when we were out there . . .
Thanks, Heidi!
Cool Pics, I must of missed the invite.
It was much earlier in the year that this was announced by NHS and the spots filled up within a few days. There was an afternoon tour or you could purchase a seat at the dinner table with Dan Hinkley and Roy Lancaster. Gwendalou said she had tickets for that. I'm interested in hearing how that was.
I have a Daphne Houtteana - it sailed through last winter without any problems. They like well-drained soil & sun.
Cool - should have known. Where do you have it? It sounds, actually, like it's easier than a lot of Daphnes . . .
This message was edited Sep 15, 2009 8:44 PM
Well, it's not a fair damsel like D. odorata. Really don't wish to give her a bad rap, but she certainly doesn't like our wet snow whatsoever!
The D. Houtteana is in the left side border as you exit the gazebo into the backyard. I think its neighbours may have muscled into its space. I'll try to get a picture here the next couple days.
They had an Aga? I went into the kitchen but didn't see that! Darn!!!!
Those painted leaves were because the plant was damaged and needed to be removed. Dan decided to paint it for fun and then will pull it out, probably before the rains hit.
The dinner was fun. I told Roy his talk was cruel - it was all about rare plants not available to purchase!!!! It was a great event and I'm really glad I went. I would go again.
Cisco sat at our table for dinner. He started talking about rats and I had to remind him some of us were eating...
Ooooh. Do tell. How many people were at the dinner? Please drop some more names.
Too bad about the Gunnera. It looked fine to me. Most of us should be so lucky to be pulling out one that size . . .
Glad you had a good time, Gwen!
I guess there were between 75 and a hundred. Not sure. I asked and someone said 75 but I think it was a few more. They also said it was the same amt of people as came to the earlier session.
Don't have any other names to drop. LOL I was really surprised when Cisco walked up and sat at our table. I don't know if he knew someone else at the table or not. He just walked up and sat across from me, so I figured he was dying to meet me. ;)
One of the people who is on the board of the organization that put the event on (and they were the ones who paid for Roy and his wife's tickets to fly over) is part of our Whidbey group and is fairly well-known in the PNW gardening circles I think. Her own garden is rather spectacular. As are the gardens of several of the Whidbey people. Most of us are all in the same groups - hardy plant society, NPA, and I believe there is another that I forget at the moment. There are a handful of them that seem fairly well connected to the gardening community.
I guess that gunnera took a hit this past winter. I noticed he had another that looked okay. Who knows, maybe he just wanted to take it out. I trailed behind him as he walked down the drive with a group of people and listened in. It seemed he is okay with planting things that will need to come out sooner or later (due to size or whatever).
Did you get a load of their greenhouse?!? Wowza. And his view was amazing, of the Seattle skyline. I thought the street he lived on had nice-looking houses. Looked like a fun town to live in. Very rural but with Seattle just a swim away.
One of the nice things about the event was that it was small enough that it was like a party, and the 'famous' people were very approachable. Dan would look at your nametag and address you by name. He was really gracious. I was surprised they had their house open. Still bummed I missed out on that Aga. I would have loved to discuss it with him.
You checked out the link to my photos, right? There's a picture of the kitchen and the AGA. And yes, their greenhouse is lovely. It doesn't look nearly used enough yet, though. :-)
I had no idea that there would be a dinner with 75 people. That's a lot. I envisioned an intimate little dinner between 10 people . . . hah!
Hinkley does seem like an easy talker. He knows just what to say. I'm impressed, though, with an easy use of people's names. That's a gift - especially for someone who isn't in marketing, sales, teaching, etc.
I did hear him make mention of ceanothus not being very long-lived, but that he liked the plant anyway. I'm guessing that, at this point, he can afford to replace things . . . so many plants, so little time.
I'm glad you enjoyed the dinner. It sounds like it was great. I'm sure there were a few upper crust in the gardening circles there - that must have been fun to watch. Some of them do tend to take themselves a little too seriously. I'd be honored it Cisco chose my table over that :-)
No, I haven't seen your photos. I saw reference to them but wasn't sure where they are. I'll go in search.
The dinner was catered. The food was quite good. I stood in line with a young couple and the husband was a school librarian. Since I read a lof young adult and kids' books, we had a fun chat. It's hard to find adults who read kid stuff, so I really enjoyed that.
Off to look for your photos!
Holy moly, how did I miss that? Same one as mine only a different color! Did he have another range in there? Or was the Aga his only one?
I see you also took photos of that amazing fire pit. I LOVED that.
The fire pit was almost the coolest thing there. Did they light it up while you were there? I can just imagine having a group sitting around it. I want one . . .
No, because it was still light. Perhaps they did after we left if there were people still there when it started to get dark. But that may have encouraged people to stay later and they must have been exhausted.
I heard they cooked dinner the night before for the 'committee' and Robert and Dan did all the cooking, serving, etc., for an intimate group of ten or so (lucky) people. So I would guess they were ready for some down time!
I also loved the library. Fabulous botanical prints on the wall. I wonder if they have another library for the nongardening books.
Yeah - I think you're right, Melissa. Heidi says he spent hours meticulously placing rocks.
Can you tell how to get there heading north on I 5 from Oregon, sounds like a place I will need in the future.
D
It's in Indianola, which is on the peninsula (across the sound to the west from Seattle), but it isn't open for general visits. It's his private residence and he opened it this time for paid tours through the Northwest Horticultural Society, which he supports.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=indianola,+wa&sll=47.669029,-122.169342&sspn=0.026414,0.077162&ie=UTF8&ll=47.779943,-122.527771&spn=0.843448,2.469177&z=9
I'm hoping there will be another opportunity to see the garden. although the photos are very helpful. A friend of mine has bought a house overlooking the sound. It is at the top of a hill and has a 180 degree view. I was there today and noticed how much wind they have in order to get that view. It reminded me of Windcliffe. She's going to want me to design at least part of her landscape, so I'm thinking I would like to see more of what Dan has done. Part of the yard we'll be turning over to native plants because the deer come up frequently and she doesn't want to completely discourage them.
