newest addition

to my garden

hey, it's sideways, but beautiful!! did you make it? How about more photos of your garden. I'll bet it's lovely.

Hi Pixydish,

No, I didn't make the gunnera fountain but I posted a picture of a gunnera leaf casting I made. Got this one at Jungle Fever. They have them at Vassey Nursery in Puyallup and at Peninsula Gardens in Gig Harbor. JF had the lowest price and also delivers.

Herpst

THAT's where I saw it!! I knew I had seen it somewhere. Must have been Jungle Fever. Interesting place, lots of fun plants.
I'm going to be doing some casting later this summer, but I don't think I'm ready to make something like that. It's really a lovely piece.

Does JF have a website? Where are they located? I just love that fountain!

Jungle Fever doesn't have a website. They are too busy (just the two of them) making amazing artwork & keeping their plants alive. They have purchased the house behind the business and you can see much of the garden from the sidewalks outside - very cool!

Anyway, JF is in Ruston, right next to Tacoma. The address, so you can mapquest it is: 5050 North Pearl Street, Tacoma, WA 98407. A really great day of garden shopping would be to plan on getting to Jungle Fever when they open, shop there and then continue on Pearl Street until you get to the Point Defiance Ferry (about 1/4 mile), board the ferry & when you arrive, turn left and drive through Burton, keep driving (about 15 - 20 mins. from the ferry) until you see Mom's deli on the right side of the road. Just beyond that you'll see a sign that says DIG and a wonderful garden. Dig is way cool & the owners are wonderful. By now, your vehicle is probably full of plants but don't let that stop you. When you leave DIG, turn right and about 2 minutes up the road is Kathy's Corner Nursery. This is more of a traditional nursery but I usually find some fun things there, too. Now you can stop for a late lunch (downtown Vashon is just up the road from Kathy's and there are several good restaraunts there. After a full day of plant shopping you can turn around and catch the ferry back to Tacoma & stop back at Jungle Fever to buy those two plants and that cool piece of art you've been wishing you'd gotten when you were there earlier.

Have fun!

Pixydish - I want to encourage you to work your way up to doing a Gunnera. They are awesome - and the outcomes are so rewarding. If you have already done leaf casting, it is the same kind of thing - only more and bigger - and with a little more reinforcement recommended.

Thanks, wannadanc. i actually did a 'practice and learn' gunnera last winter, and it turned out okay but will never be 'hardy' because the weather was already way too cold to be playing with cement. I don't know that I'm up to the fountain, though. I'm going to do more gunnera leaves this year, and use what I learned last year.

Oh good, Pixydish. When I did mine, I caste them as late as October and let them cure through winter until the next spring. Mine were so big that I could not turn them myself and I had to wait until there were man-type muscles available to make it happen - so waiting wasn't a problem. I do agree about the mechanics of a fountain being a little daunting - I haven't gotten that bold myself!

I'm hoping my gunnera leaves will be a bit larger this year, although i did have to move it so I set it back some. But I'm looking forward to doing it!

It is "said" by some that Gunnera will increase by 2 ft each year - and that has pretty much been the case here .......of course, they do have determinate growth. Mine is putting up offshoots now, now maybe I can get brave and move those "pups" this fall. Hopefully yours will get over the moving issue and get nice and big for you!