A Rare Plant Specialty Nurseryin Port Townsend Washington
Sue Milliken & Kelly Dodson, proprietors
Welcome to our online store and hope you
find many of the rare plants offered as fun as we do. We’ve been collecting, growing and learning
about plants all our lives and the excitement has simply grown with time and we
look forward to sharing our phytomaniacal obsession with you. There are worse things to be afflicted with
than gardening.
We have many more plants available here at the nursery that are not listed on our online store. Many are too large or don't ship easily or are in small quantities or we just haven't managed to get them up on the website. If we just didn't need to sleep, we could get more done. The nursery is not open all the time so check our hours and open days.
We propagate and grow most of our plants ourselves which allows us to grow many more impractical species than we should. Many times people shy away from a rare plant thinking it is hard to grow, but more often, it is difficulty of propagation or simply not fitting into a standard nursery routine that makes a plant rare in commerce. Of course, not all of our plants are uncommon - that would be leaving out way too many good ones!
You can start shopping now using the categories on the left, or read our Ordering Instructions first.
We will be adding new plants frequently so do check back. Please note that some of these will be newly potted divisions from this fall and winter and will not be showing much or any root development for early spring shipping but they will grow roots and be good plants.
This is a new online storefront for us and we are going to be updating and improving it right along. You can help us out by letting us know if you run into problems using it or have suggestions on how to improve it. There are some improvements in the works but honestly, we all are good at finding any excuse to be out in the garden rather than in front of the computer!
It is now the middle of May and we have had a very nice response to our online store - thank you! And thanks for the suggestions - we're getting it dialed in and have had good feedback from folks who received our plants. Some haven't said anything but simply order multiple times which we're guessing is positive. Don from WA just placed his 4th order so he must be happy! Here are a few of the comments we have received:
"I unpacked my order yesterday and I'm extremely impressed not only with the size and quality of the plants, but also the care and detail you devote to packaging. I order from dozens of mail-order sources and your performance rates right there at the top. Well done and good luck with mail-order. You are well on your way to great success." - J. L. - New York
"I did receive my order
Wednesday in excellent shape! I was very impressed with how my order has
been handled from start to finish. The packaging was incredible. When
unwrapped, all the plants looked like they had never left the nursery. I also
enjoyed the flyer, which came with my plants, very cute. And thank you for the
Primula.
This is the first time I have dealt
with your nursery, but you now definitely have a new customer for life”.
- S.C. - Washington
"Got my order this week, and everything looks fanatic,,,, I mean FANTASTIC! I'm crazy about the Mahoberberis. Love it!" - R.K. - Washington
Our friend Ian Barclay sent us this link to this blog we hadn't seen and there was a picture of an order we had just sent! We then checked out the posting there for the Northwest Flower and Garden Show Day 1 in case there was some mention of our seminar. There was and it left us a bit speechless - talk about setting the bar high!
Quart Pot This Japanese woodlander is among the very elite of all plants for shade. Slow to propagate and uncommonly beautiful, a well-grown mature plant is a prized trophy which marks you as a gardener to be reckoned with - in fact a microchip ID implant in the crown wouldn't be the worst idea. We have dogs so none of our plants are chipped. Yet. This is a coveted plant. I'm sure your friends are all completely fine but people talk and word gets out - just saying. This is a plant that can catapult a gardener to the next level and as a result formerly rigid moral parameters become a bit more plastic. Broad maple-like leaves are the foil for the large 3" light lavender crepe Poppy-esque flowers. Cool shade and a woodsy soil that doesn't dry out is ideal for this piece of art.
Quart Pot Choice woodland species from Japan where the small bowl-shaped white flowers are much admired and combines harmoniously with the simple rounded leaflets. An easy herbaceous species and one of the few Peonies that thrives in the shade. Looks great with Ferns, Hellebores and Hostas. This species has been submerged into Paeonia obovata by Hong De-Yuan in his extraordinary monograph 'Peonies of the World, Taxonomy and Phytogeography'. This book, along with the newly published second volume (2011) 'Peonies of the World, Polymorphism and Diversity', will remain the undisputed last answer for the foreseeable future. That said, we will retain the epithet japonica to differentiate it from obovata as this blooms much earlier than our pink P. obovata from Japan and has an entirely different horticultural gestalt in the garden. We can hear Hong De-Yuan now "I pour my life into this unrivaled and exhaustive treatment of the genus Paeonia and this what you take from it - horticultural gestalt? AARRRGGGHHH!"
4" Pot Foetid Adders Tongue. How can you not love a plant with a name like this? Trillium relative native to the coastal Redwoods of California, this ranks as one of our most favorite plants. Sure the intricate early spring flowers smell of gym locker wet dog but how cool! And what foliage!
Medium Band Pot Exceptional double Campanula we received via Bob Brown's Cotswold Garden Flowers in England. This has big medium blue flowers like 2 shallow cups nested together. These are on strong stems which don't blow over and we can testify to that living on the windswept Port Townsend Steppe. This is a good performer and one that has the panache to mingle in the trendy garden as well as carrying a classic look that works in the cottage or Victorian garden. Or in our case it shines in our looking-for-a-genre sunny border.
4" Pot Collected in Taiwan by gifted plantsman Steve Doonan, this amazing Fern is hardy to at least single digits. This is a locally famous fern frustratingly slow to propagate and always red-lining the Plant Lust meter. We're happy to have some to share. Hard to imagine this is a fern with these big leathery evergreen leaves up to 18" long and with that glorious underleaf when mature. Likes good drainage and not too wet but gently moist. The Pyrossias we've seen in Arunachal Pradesh and China love to grow in moss on top of rocks and really love a good stone wall. Easy in morning sun or light shade. Mulch in winter first year or two.
4" Pot Nice little clumper for the rock garden or special niche from the late plant guru Steve Doonan. Airy sprays of small red flowers are most becoming. Likes a well-drained soil that gets some water now and then. Not as drought tolerant as Hens and Chicks but then what is? Very nice form of this Saxifraga species which probably came to Steve via Bob Putnam and these are nice full pots. Full hot sun won't be to it's liking but it will be happy in mostly sun here in the maritime PNW or a good eastern exposure where there is real sun. A lot of people don't count our few 78F scorching summer days here as being real sun.
Quart Pot A selection collected by the Lady herself near Algiers in 1937. Oh, to have seen this high-born Englishwoman wresting this treasure from the Algerian scrub! Impeccably dressed and far be it that sweat dares form on that ivory brow. Superb dark flowered form of this winter blooming Iris. These are late 2011 divisions so roots will be still be developing in the spring. They are fine - that's what they do but it won't be rooted out in the pot by any means but will have good new roots happening. If we wait then it will outgrow the pot or we'll sell it here so you see our quandary.
