My last '24 Fling post; the Sparler/Schouten Garden

Our July 2024 Puget Sound Fling visit to the Sparler/Schouten garden was my second opportunity to take in the fabulousness of this garden. I'd previously visited in June of 2022 as part of the NPA Study Weekend.

Here's part of the garden description from our Fling booklet: "We call it the Garden of Exuberant Refuge, but it’s bound to evoke other “e” words for visitors: exotic, eccentric, erratic or even egregious in the many ways it flouts convention. Design purists beware! If you see anything remotely tasteful, we assure you it’s purely coincidental. Now in its 33^rd outrageous year, this is a collector’s garden in which the wild and wacky plants have taken over the asylum."

The fist time I visited this garden I went through the spaces to the left of the driveway first (taking the pathway shown above), and came up through the plantings on sunny side of the house to finish the tour. This time I reversed my steps.

Sunny side first!

The plants up against the brick house are treated to an enclosure over the winter, during Seattle's rainy season. I wrote a short post back in 2023 that shows the lengths these guys go to protect their plants, if you're curious you can see that here.

Variegated Agave victoriae-reginae.

Stepping into the back garden now, and here's more of the garden description: "In addition to stuffing our 1/3-acre lot with cosmopolitan plants representing upwards of 4700 taxa, we installed a network of pathways to link patios, shady resting spots, an elevated circular pond with dripping columns, a viewing pavilion, and a tiled, tiny Italianate “piazza,” all of which we designed and built with our own hands. Every bit of this garden is do-it-yourself."

I was rather shocked at how perfectly spiraled this spiral cactus (Cereus forbesii 'spiralis') was. I've seen many of these in gardens and nurseries and it's kinda rare that one maintains such an even pattern.

If you didn't click on the post I linked to earlier about how the pair overwinters the containers I'm giving you another chance now (here).

I find their dedication rather remarkable, as one crazy container collector gardener to another.

There are many aeonium in the garden.

And of course several pseudopanax, both P. ferox and P. crassifolius. On the right below is a P. ferox planted in the ground.

At the base of the viewing pavilion mentioned in the garden description, Aloe plicatilis.

A wide-shot of the same area.

There are several tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica) of various sizes around the garden.

I'm particularly fond of this tiled pond at the backside of the viewing pavilion. I believe there is a small leak that means it's not currently able to hold water.

Columns of the "Italianate piazza."

Agave parryi

And now I've back-tracked a bit to take photos of the other pseudopanax in the ground. Apologies to Daniel, as I can't remember exactly what was damaged by winter of 2023/24, but I think what you're seeing here is new growth from the base.

One of two tall plants showing some serious die-back.

And another looking better.

Moving on thru the back garden now, preparing to walk on up the opposite (shady) side.

I wish I remembered what this is. The foliage reminds me of a kid's kaleidoscope that you twist and the patterns drop into place subtly different than what came just before.

More tree ferns...

And one of those rare bromeliad/tree fern hybrids. AKA when your tree fern dies but you want to do something interesting with its trunk.

Colorful pop!

Moving back into the front garden now.

Can you make out those two trunks that were cut back about waist high?

They were once tetrapanax trunks.

I think I told people on the Fling I thought they'd been lost to winter cold, but that may not have been correct. Whatever the reason the make nice perches for the local frogs.

I was glad to see the monkeys were still hanging out.

Begonia bonfire, I believe.

I've almost come full circle now, from my first image.

But there are still a few more vignettes to share.

Here's the elevated circular pond...

With dripping columns...

Up near the house again, these totems are new since my last visit.

They caught my eye, but then I noticed the the large leaves with an outline...Farfugium japonicum 'Kinkan' I believe. What a great plant to wrap up this visit. Thank you Daniel and Jeff for letting us Flingers wander your garden!

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

We Fling at Heronswood

It was great fun to visit Hersonswood Garden last July with my fellow Flingers (the same day we also visited Windcliff, Dan Hinkley's current garden). I think there were roughly 90 of us, but the garden is so large (15 acres) we quickly dispersed and only occasionally would we cross paths. Since I'd been a few times before, I was able to stroll at a leisurely pace and not try to see it all, I felt sorry for those folks who had to rush. Here are my highlights...

I started in the Rock Garden...

So cute, so fuzzy, so dangerous...

Pellaea gastonyi

Polystichum imbricans

Heading over to the Renaissance Garden (ferns!) you pass by some stately agaves...

The perfect wall for drainage and heat.

Lovely purples with the cotinus and acanthus.

This is the first time I've seen the Raining Wall (at the entrance to the Renaissance Garden) complete.

The fern table...

Tiny treasures planted in the table include...Dryopteris affinis 'Crispa Gracilis'

Blechnum penna-marina

Rhododendron valentinioides

Selaginella tamariscina 'Golden Sprite'

Calling out a few ferns planted in the garden; Polystichum polyblepharum.

Adiantum x mairisii

Adiantum aleuticum 'Subpumilum' (on either side of the moss).

Blechnum microphyllum

This was interesting to see. When at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in February I spied a plant that looks a lot like this. I called that one out as perhaps Polygonatum mengtzense. But I had a phone screen shot in my files noting this plant as Maianthemum oleraceum. The plot thickens!

I've taken a photo of this container on several visits. Parts change, parts stay the same.

Okay, here's a confession. I love this...

I hate this...

I've felt the extreme love/hate ever since my first visit to the garden. One seems like an interesting way to raise up planters above the ground level, the other seems overly contrived and out of place.

Moving on...

I suppose you could call this artful hedge contrived, but it's plant based, not artificial. 

Ditto for the potager.

I used to dislike the chanterelle fountain, but it's grown on me.

Imagine rinsing your vegetable harvest here after picking them from the potager...

Lillies, the flower of July...

I loved the dusty hues of this vignette.

Globularia incanescens

Empty pot as framing device, it works. It really does.

A little further into the same planting.

The tree ferns! These have been here for years, surviving the seasons, unlike some newer tree ferns in the Renaissance Garden.

Dryopteris crassirhizoma

I feel extreme plant lust every time I look at a photo of this fern.

A last look at the tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica).

Making my way out of the garden and back to our bus I passed this totem pole that had been left to rest, decay, and return to the land.

It was a great reminder that the garden is now owned by the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and going forward the garden will meld their vision with that of it's famous founder, Dan Hinkley.

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.