A garden lives on for the next generation: Heronswood Open

This weekend marks the 2nd open house for the world-renowned Heronswood garden in Kingston, WA.

Once a famous nursery introducing some of the newest, most unusual garden plants from around the world, it is now in the hands of the native S'Klallam Tribe who are preserving the garden and its botanical treasures.

Created and planted by plantsman extraordinaire, Dan Hinkley, with his partner, Robert Jones in the 1980's, it brought it thousands of gardening enthusiasts world wide, the gardens are being restored with their guidance and input and we are fortunate to have an opportunity to visit a landscape that ignited many people's, including my own, passion for plants and gardens.

So, I got together a team of young friends and avid plant lovers who have never been to Heronswood and made a day of it.

We arrived to hoards of crowds ready to shop from top specialty vendors including Dan Hinkley's selections from his garden Windcliff.

Entering the woodland was absolutely a memorable experience as you noticed one exotic plant after another, left and right.

Fellow garden professional, Meghan Fuller, was simply taken away by the incredible plant palette.

From shade to sun, it has got it all. The former residence had wonderful entry gardens and the rarest of the rare.

With various microclimates that exist, even these luscious tree ferns absolutely thrive!

The formal layout of clipped box makes this edible garden absolutely gorgeous.

Young friends learn about the details of a fern.

Being that it was only May, the gardens, especially these stunning mixed borders, were just starting to put on a show!

The famous Hornbeam hedges and archways were absolutely stunning and leafed out to perfection.

Admiring the fine details of the rare Tetracentron sinensis.

The garden is still chock full of lessons in design; composition, use of color and focal points, etc.

It's all still a work in progress to get it back to its full glory, but there's still glimpses of brilliance and ingenuity.

So there's another open coming up this Saturday, July 6, 2013 and you can learn more about it on their website: www.heronswood.com

Bring your wallet for the most remarkable line-up of plant vendors and I'm sure the garden has gotten even more spectacular since this past trip!

Not only did I get to see Heronswood again, it meant so much to be joined by friends who are avid gardeners and share in the same line of work and are simply passionate about what they do. I'm glad I'm not alone in this endeavor!

Justin Galicic, Terry Huang, me, Meghan Fuller, & Dustin Schulte

Thanks for the group pic, Mary!  =)


R