Little Prince of Oregon Nursery Tour

I was invited to head down to Aurora to tour the Little Prince Nursery, and rub elbows with some other garden bloggers, writers, and radio personalities.  Who would say no to that?  Not I.

I had no idea what to expect, but was pleased to find that our host of the day, Mark, was as nice as he could be.

And being a random unknown, in a group of some well-known's, I was relieved to find everyone very friendly and I didn't feel uncomfortable in the least.

These are things that socially awkward people fret about before walking out the door.  ;o)

Anywho, Mark spent a good amount of time talking about how the nursery got started, how he ended up there, and some other things about the business that were fun to learn.

It's funny, since going out there, now that I see their tags at the store, I'm like, hey, I know them!

Ha!

We walked upwards of 70 greenhouses that day and I just have to say, I can not get over how immaculate the whole property was.

I've been to nurseries that are complete dumps, with weeds and crap piled everywhere.

This place was spotless, inside and out.

My OCD innards were grinning ear to ear at the sight of perfectly lined rows of plants.

I'll stop talking now 'cause I took lots of pictures.

But first, I want to thank Tamara, of the garden blog, Chickadee Gardens, for thinking of me and inviting me to tag along.

Thar she is, putting her camera to good use.

Apparently this Bleeding Heart, called 'Valentine', is the hot new variety.

I hear it made quite the appearance at several of the garden shows.

It's awfully pretty, but I'm not much of a red flower girl.

Miles of Epimedium.

They were hard to walk away from.

SO many different Heucheras.

Hardy Geraniums.

This was the craziest thing.

TONS of grasses.

The sedum and succulents were the most fun to walk in on.

Rows and rows of Echeveria are soooo photogenic.

Seriously, look at this.

If I had the space, I'd do a living quilt in my yard.

I saw these cute little Planter Poppers at Fred Meyer over the weekend.

I want one of everything.

Then there are the mass planted trays.

They'd be so cool plunked down into a recycled wood box.

Or hanging in a DIY frame made out of old wood.

Love.

More fun things.

The fern greenhouse may have been the hardest one for me.

I wanted ALL OF THEM.

Are you as much in awe over the tidiness as I am?

Fun racks loaded with stuff, of what I assume is, waiting for a delivery truck to arrive.

You know I have a thing for baby trees.

My pictures didn't turn out great, but I loved these feeders and houses with living roofs.

Onto more greenhouses.

You know I was petting all these.

And these.

I have no idea what this is, but it was kinda cool.

More graphic flats.

These looked like pinecones.

More fun mixed trays.

These were the exact color of blood.

Clearly I have a thing for limey green and yellow foliage.

Unfortunately, I've killed every Thyme I've ever planted.

And last, I have a picture of Tamara's haul, as well as my own.

She tried to persuade me into buying my first Agave, but it didn't happen.

Maybe next time.

I ended up with just two babies from the fern greenhouse.

It was SO hard to choose, but I LOVED the lime green of Cyrtomium fortunei var. Clivicola.

Say that ten times fast.

Common name is Arching Japanese Holly Fern.

It's the one on the bottom left of my flat, bottom center of Tamara's.

The other one is Athyrium otophorum 'Okanum', aka, Eared Lady Fern.

Darcy Daniels saw that I picked it and commented on what a great plant it is, so I'm excited to see how it does.

I also ended up with a new Toad Lily, again because of the yellow variegation on the leaves.

This one is Tricyrtis formosana 'Gilt Edge', which you can see on the top right of the tray.

On the top left is Heuchera Heureka 'Season's King.'

Love the purple leaves.

Buried between the Toad Lily and Heuchera is a Meadow Rue (Thalictrum) that I unfortunately didn't get a tag for.  The leaves are a cool brownish color.

Maybe someone else will remember what it was called.

I couldn't leave without one of the Geraniums.  Directly below the Heuchera is 'Miss Heidi.'

On my want list FOREVER was Japanese Forest Grass, but they're so dang expensive in the stores.

I was super excited to bring home two.

I got Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' (which the tag says was the 2009 Perennial Plant of the Year) and Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold.'

Grow babies grow.

Up next, we have Persicaria affinis.
I was eyeballin' it and Tamara said it did really well for her, so figured I'd give it a whirl.

It's at the bottom, center.

Another ground cover I picked, I had never heard of, but of course, loved the limey green leaves.

It's on the bottom right and is called Herniaria glabra 'Sea Foam.'

Above that is an Ornamental Oregano, Origanum rotundifolium 'Kent Beauty.'

And last, the center limey green is a Hosta called 'June', that I'm completely smitten with.

Again, the Chartreuse won me over, but it's rimmed with blue.
Maybe that will ward the slugs off.  Fat chance.

Can't wait for it to get full size.

And that's it for the new babies and our tour.

I'm so glad I made the trek, and after seeing what a great operation they're running, it might hurt a little less to fork out the cash for their plants.  ;o)