Great Plant Picks is the only one I know of that is online. Otherwise, for more of an edible gardening focus you can purchase the Maritime Northwest Garden Guide online or through various retail nurseries in the area that carry it.

That's it. Thanks, gg48.

while I'm here...

Does anyone have Azalea recommendations? I hear certain varieties flower pretty much all summer?

I live near the Rhododendron Garden in Portland and have decided to take inspiration from there. I've tried more exotic plants in the past, but they just dont do that well and the garden doesnt dazzle at all. I'm going to go a mix of Azalea, hydrangea, hostas, agapanthus. all apparently do well in acidic clay soils? It also has an old world feel which will work well with my 100 yr old hose.

Any thoughts?

Cheers.

"I hear certain varieties flower pretty much all summer?"

If so, I would like to know what they are :-) Even the Encore or other reblooming azaleas don't bloom all summer - a major flush in spring as typical, then sporadic flowering off and on (more off than on, IME).

I am really picky about colors and prefer whites, so Glacier and Everest are high on my list. I also like Flame Creeper, primarily for its habit but also like the deep coral orange color.

I don't know of any azaleas that bloom all summer, but I do have one that blooms in June instead of April or May. It's called Nakahari. (Nakaharae?) It's almost as low growing as Flame Creeper and has an orange red bloom. It doesn't spread like Flame Creeper though. This plant is over 20 years old.

Picture taken June 1st, 2014.

Yes, it's nakaharae and it's a wild species from Northern Taiwan.

Thank you, Ron. AE and no capital n. Got it.

I obtained cuttings from when I worked at Star Nursery and Landscape in the 70s. This is a cutting from my original cuttings.

Mike

As I remember it Fred used to exhibit at Rhododendron Society Shows then - that there were some events where the group would have planting displays featuring entire Rhododendron plants. And not just cut truss competitions. But the details are foggy now.

Continuing to wander away from the original subject another thing that might interest you is that many years later, in the 1990s I heard about and measured the Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar trained for some distance along a fence at what I think was the Star nursery main office. I believe it ended up in Robert Van Pelt's Champion Trees of Washington State (1995, University of Washington, Seattle).

I remember Star Nursery. And I really remember that weeping Atlas cedar!! That was a very impressive specimen. The nursery may be closed but Google Maps as of 2016 still shows the cedar draped along the fence over a significant distance.

Yes, it's on a Cyclone fence in front on 42nd S and 139th. Not looking so good now. The one across the street looks much better. I was there for two years and learned a lot. Prior to that I worked for a year at a Japanese American landscape company named Takeda Landscape just north of Greenwood on about 102nd. We installed a lot of Japanese themed gardens. Hard work, fun times, both places.

As I remember the longest dimension was 40-something feet at that time - if this particular example is in Bob's book my measurements will be shown there. I don't remember how the overall shape of the tree affected the averaging of the crown spread, if it was very narrow in the direction going across the fence rather than along it then that would have shaved the total down considerably.

(Jacobson, Trees of Seattle - Second Edition (2006) lists one at Kubota Gardens as the biggest (11 ft. by 5 ft. 4 in. by 32 ft.) Seattle specimen).

>Not looking so good now<

Many of these are being hammered by blight and bugs in recent years.

My recollection is that Kay Takeda used to come into the Everett Teufel when I worked there. I also looked at her store driving by, but never went in - not many plants were visible.

There was a pretty significantly sized one at the old Emery's in their 'secret' garden. Not so much in length but in mass. Wrapped almost completely around the koi pond. Kind of sad when these nurseries with established plantings close and the plants are just left to their own devices.........

I knew that tree also. Last time I looked the store had finally been leveled. Photos of what may be the original Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar, in France show something reminiscent of a Banyan.

The leveling must have been recent. The last time I drove by a few weeks ago, the place still appeared intact, if neglected and wildly overgrown. There were some quality plants on that property from some of the display gardens - a beautiful parrotia, a mature stewartia, a Chinese red birch, cephalotaxus, one of the best looking crape myrtles I've seen in the area. And the gorgeous, venerable old Mt Fuji cherry. Too bad none could be salvaged.

Spent some very happy years working that place..........

I knew her as Kay Vara. Perhaps Takeda was her maiden name. I think Vara is Columbian. Maybe her spouse. It's been a long time. She had a lot of bonsai, and I think she taught it also at the University. I liked her.

It was my first job landscaping. I pushed a wheelbarrow, swung a shovel, and leveraged rocks for walls and outcroppings. Only the old timers were allowed to rake out a lawn. I raked out a lot of lawns for Fred at Star Nursery though. He said I did it faster and better than anyone who had ever worked for him. Those old guys at Takeda showed me the value of shape and contour in a lawn. Fun times with a lot to learn. Still learning, thanks to you two. :-)

The one I was talking about was a middle aged woman who appeared to be of Japanese descent, had a Japanese accent. She was represented to me by somebody at Teufel who had prior dealings with her as the owner, "Kay Takeda". This was in the 1980s. If my physical description matches then surely it was the same person, whatever last name she was going by at one time or another.

Early 80s, yes, same person.

Small world. :-)

Cool!