Friday, 5 June 2020
At last we managed to visit Steve and John’s garden by Willapa Bay. Although (due to the second spring clean up at work after our non-essential weeks and to the emergency building of our coyote-proof catio and then the time-consuming plant sale prep) we had missed the peak rhododendron bloom time, this garden has much to offer at any season.
When we arrived a few minutes early, Steve was tidying the garden with bucket and picker-upper.
Let’s walk through through the garden with Steve and John, enjoy the vistas, and give the plants some individual attention…social distancing, of course.
In the upper beds near the house:
Acer platanoides ‘Rezak’, “the only plant on the property with a tag”
Allan’s photo of an unidentified acer
Steve and John (Allan’s photo)
I tried to take good notes, but had forgotten a clipboard, so many rhododendron names were illegible.
As always, Steve and John helped via email with the identifications.
Rhododendron ‘Ring of Fire’
Rhododendron ‘Ring of Fire’
I was overexcited by the purple stems and my photo is blurry…
Rhododendron loderi ‘Venus’ (highly fragrant in its pink bloom)
enviable hostas
Hosta ‘Madame Wu’ (Allan’s photo)
more perfect hostas and proof that we had missed peak rhododendron bloom time
grassy paths down the north side of the property
The rhododendrons with white tomentum, the powdery substance on top of the leaves, are my favourites. Rhododendron sinofalconeri Vietnamese form
emerging into sun on the north side, as we amble westward
left: ‘Orange Rocket’ barberry, which we all expected to be more columnar. Right: Drymis winteri
A few more rhododendrons had kindly waited for our visit.
R. ‘Anna’ in front of R. ‘Leo’
Rhododendron ‘Mango Tango’
Many in this collection had leaves that, to me, are as good as any bloom. Visits to this garden have been a revelation from the standard rather boring rhododendrons that I had been familiar with before.
R. ‘Sir Charles Lemon’ with R. ‘Lissabon’ in foreground
We now cross the driveway to the shady south beds under limbed up trees.
looking back north across the driveway
south side of driveway: a grove of rhodies original to the property, which was a rhododendron nursery at one time.
Allan’s photo
R. ‘Cupcake’
Rhododendron degronianum ssp yakushimanum x R pachysanthum, my favourite of all
Cornus canadensis, a groundcover that I love.
In the ferny beds…
cinnamon fern
Allan’s photo
Rhododendron ‘Jan Dekens’
the cryptomeria grove
Crinodendron hookerianum (Chilean lantern tree)
R. ‘Yaku Princess’
the glorious variety of rhododendron leaves
Allan’s photo
Rhododendron macabeanum
Rhododendron sinofalconeri
Allan’s photo, Steve and a few remaining blooms
R. quinquefolium
Rhododendron lepidostylum
Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’
and its flowers
Rhododendron ‘Starbright Champagne’, Steve’s favourite
R. pseudochrysanthum
Hydrangea ‘Lemon Daddy’ which I love and keep forgetting to look for…maybe I can beg a cutting later this year.
looking north across the irrigation pond
We crossed over there, but I got too busy chatting about plants and only took one photo.
Allan’s photo: Leptospermum lanigerum ‘Lydia’ from Xera plants. Woolly tea tree, comes from New Zealand. Genista in the background.
John had left us to prepare some tea and cake. We walked up the driveway…
…around the south side of the house…
…to …to the sheltered sit spot at the southeast corner of the house, where this was our view:
We had walked here to start our tour and to admire a little rhododendron growing in a stump on the north side of the lawn.
R. keiskei ‘Yaku Fairy’. What a little cutie.
We sat for tea and cake with this backdrop.
Allan’s telephotos of an interesting vessel…
…and of Baby Island.
We had tea from Beach House Teas...
…and observed proper social distancing.
John had baked a dessert of Dutch Spice Bread (Ontbijtkoek, aka Breakfast Cake). Delicious.
(Steve, with a bouquet I brought)
Allan’s photo
It was our first social outing since the stay at home order expired.
We were serenaded by birds…
Allan’s photo
…and visited by Mr. Towhee, a special friend of the family.
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
As we departed, we further admired the entry garden.
Allan’s photo
If you would like to visit this garden in other seasons and earlier years, just put “bayside garden” into our search box, and you will get a wealth of posts.
You can see a drone video of the garden (which also shows inside the house) on this realty listing…which also means you could dream of living here yourself.
Steven and John were organizing the big 2020 conference for the American Rhododendron Society, when the coronavirus reared up and postponed it till 2022. If you live in the US and all these amazing rhododendrons inspire you to become a collector, joining that organization would be a good place to begin.
Tangly Cottage Gardening 
The unidentified maple in the fourth pictures looks like a variegated box elder known as ‘Flamingo’. If so, it would have trifoliate leaves like any other box elder. We grew a few, as well as two other cultivars, but did not sell enough to continue growing them. Box elder seemed like an odd species to plant intentionally into a garden.
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Wow. Your photos of their beautiful garden and the view of the bay made me want to be there. They have certainly put a lot of love and care into their gardens. Your bouquet is stunning, too!
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Oh how easy to lose yourself in the majesty of that garden, from sea to towering trees that canopy over groves of plantings. You know the gardener’s hand is at work here, this is no wild and wooly garden, and yet it is as if nature has agreed to that hand. It is no small feat to achieve that harmony, to have a collection garden that moves you eagerly from plant to plant, yet also has you looking upwards, gazing into distances, then wanting to close your eyes and breathe deep the serenity and perfection of vistas and placements.
Pictures, including mine, do not do it justice.
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We talked about it being for sale and how hard it would be to leave.
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Beautiful garden! I’ll have to remember the term “enviable hosta” as I gaze at all the hostas around my home in the woods.
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I gave up on hostas because cannot keep the slugs and snails off. They ended up laceleaf. Sluggo is even getting a bad rap these days, although I am skeptical. I think maybe the other slug bait companies are behind a disinformation campaign. Steve and John use Corrie’s heavily, but I can’t because of cats and frogs etc. My grandma used Corrie’s and also had a huge perfect hosta. I gave all of mine away except for Blue Mouse Ears. Even the large ones with “heavy substance” got chomped.
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Quite a good outing for a first go!
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