May is a wonderfully busy time for a native plant nursery. Plant orders are going out, customers are coming in, lots of transplanting is underway… and it is too easy to get wrapped up in the pressing needs to not see and appreciate the beauty that is developing all around. Blue flax (Linum lewisii) It’s […]
Seedlings are everywhere – must be spring!
We sow the seeds for the native plants we grow in the fall and winter of each year; it is with much joy (and relief!) that I greet the new plants arising from them each spring. I want you to share in this joy, so see how many of the seedlings pictured below you can […]
The nursery is expanding… and closing until next year
The fall colors have been outstanding this year, both in the forest and in the nursery; pictured above are one-year seedlings with Garry oak in the foreground flanked by sagebrush. The extended stretch of mild weather and sunny days has been great for fall projects, including removing orchard to make room for more native plant […]
Seed collecting time
I enjoy the cyclical nature of nursery work: sowing seeds, germination time, thinning, transplanting, watering… even weeding! All of these plants begin with seeds or, for some species, cuttings. I mostly grow species native to Central Washington so I need to venture out to the nearby fields, hills, streamsides and mountains to find what I’m after. […]
The oak of Central Washington
There is but one species of oak native to Washington state, Oregon white oak or Garry oak (Quercus garryana). It grows west of the Cascades from Vancouver Island to California, but occurs east of the mountains only in Yakima and Klickitat counties… except for a fairly small population found between Cle Elum and Ellensburg, separated […]