Thanks for the review...if I ever got out to Seattle in the spring (my brother and his wife live there, but I hate flying) I want to visit there. It's good there are still some "destination" rhodie nurseries in the PNW with display gardens, now that Hammonds and Greer are gone. (and wasn't there another big mail order one that closed in the late 1990s?)

Oh, yeah I remember. "A Sandy" aka rhodo.com was the first to sell rhododendrons online, but I don't know for sure if they had display gardens. I still have some pictures I downloaded from them in the late 1990s, but I stupidly didn't name the files after the varieties. They actually appear to have closed in the mid 2000s, but I think by then they had been curtailing their operations for some time.

It's not exactly a "nursery" although it does sell plants, but the Rhododendron Species Foundation display garden in Federal Way is definitely worth a visit as well, if you have not already visited. Haven't been in awhile as my business often keeps me from regular visits to local botanical gardens and specialty nurseries in the area......of which there are many :-) They have some stunning mature hydrangeas in their collection as well as rhodies and other woodland species, including one the largest asperas I've seen. Living on the other side of the Sound makes it more difficult to get to some of these gardens as much as I would like.

David, I would encourage a visit if you can get over your dislike of flying :-) A visit to both Whitney and Far Reaches is doable in a single day if you got an early start, although it would be a long one!!

Gardengal: It's Ellie Sather rather than Ellie Whitney. The Sather family purchased the business from the Whitney's in the 1970's (?). Anne Sather ran the gardens and nursery for many years until her daughter Ellie took over. I have spoken to her on the phone several times and no one could be more gracious or helpful. There's also a rhododendron variety named Ellie Sather in her honor.

Several trees that were present there in the 1990s are in Champion Trees of Washington State by Robert Van Pelt (University of Washington, Seattle, 1996). One year when they were having a sale I bought a block of 'Sir Charles Lemon' rhododendrons from their field and sold it to a design and build landscape company in Seattle.

Thanks for that correction, maine :-) I neglected to get her business card (although my contractor did) and I just assumed, since the nursery IS family owned...........She was entirely charming and very knowledgeable about her plants.

And thanks for making that point about mail order and shipping of plants. Apparently one mail order customer was looking for a large specimen rhody - one of the field grown biggies - and the nursery dug it, pieced together a large shipping carton and off it went to somewhere on the east coast where it arrived safely. Size appears to be no object :-)

"For those of us who regard a cross country flight as about as desirable as 12 hours worth of root canal surgery,"

Yes, that's me, particularly these days with the imposition of TSA security theater. One 'trick' I've read about and used, was to fly at odd times, and to small airports. This spring I had to go to northern California one more time in my life...the call was irresistible...so I left BWI very very early in the morning, and flew to Sacramento not SFO. I left Sacramento at noon, but the line for security wasn't too much of a hassle. It was worth it though!

Now that 99% of my family is located up here within an hour's drive or so, I seldom fly anywhere anymore. Plus, I need to be able to take my dog with me if I can so easiest to just drive wherever. But when I routinely flew to SoCal, I always booked through the smaller airports - either Long Beach or Orange County. Even OC (John Wayne) was often too busy! Unfortunately leaving the Seattle area was not easy as we are pretty much limited to just SeaTac and that place is a nightmare no matter when you travel!!

I've been to Whitney Nursery several times. They have a real nice garden.

Ellie was working the counter the last time I was there. A very nice lady.

Here's a picture I took of a Eucryphia in bloom there.

Mike

It's a Nymansay eucryphia and it is somewhat interesting that cold mountain winds coming across the open property east of the nursery (and right behind the tree) during Arctic periods haven't stopped it.

Probably has to do with the nursery site being right across the highway from salt water.

Also if the internal branching structure of the eucryphia were peered into it might turn out it has frozen down and then grown back at least once.

Most seen here - including this one - aren't half the size of the one on the Bremerton residential property that Olympic College eventually took over. The same site also had a tree sized sasanqua camellia, the college had a big Armenian oak, and the same town is where the church was with the acacia that was shown on Garden Web. So apparently there is some kind of banana belt condition going on there.

Yes, Ron, I was facing west when I took the picture.

The large Cryptomeria Elegans bordering the parking lot is gone. Apparently it got wiped out by a recent winter storm. I saw a few in and around Mendocino, Ca. on a recent visit.

Mike