Visiting Shayne Chandler's Garden

NPA Open Gardens days are something that we, gardeners, look forward to each year. It's a real treat to be able to visit all types of private gardens, big and small, old and new, traditional and contemporary.  We learn from each other, share ideas and inspire each other. 

Visiting the garden of a gardening guru takes this experience to a new level. In this post I'm sharing some pictures from the garden and rare plant nursery of  Shayne Chandler, plantsman and garden designer.

 From his website:

 "Plant LLC specializes in rare and exceptional plants, collected and trialed by Shayne Chandler in his garden design/build work since 1995.  Many of the plants are collections made on international expeditions to such far-flung locations as Tasmania, Vietnam, Ecuador, China, and India.  The nursery shares residence with Shayne’s extensive 5-acre personal home garden, and is open by appointment, as well as during garden open events. Plant LLC can also be found at most of the Heronswood plant sales."

If you like to see plants that you've never seen before in your life, if you love foliage more than flowers, if you like a feeling of being in a jungle, then this is the place for you to put on your bucket list.

Do you like ferns? I do. They are one of the first plants I remember seeing as a child in the Far Eastern forests which host the most diverse fern population in Russia (there are currently 51 species of ferns in the Amur River territory, 21 of them are rare). I have loved ferns since then, and they were among the first plants I noticed right away in Shayne's garden. They soften the paths, serve as focal points, as filler plants and greatly contribute to the textural richness of the garden.

I love flowers. I admire them in public and private gardens. They are bright, cheerful, eye-catching, romantic and exciting, but nothing touches me more than a single or a pair, or a small group of blooms among a sea of green:

Many years ago, I read a legend about an old gardener who had a place full of beautiful lilies (I think they were lilies...). The word about its unbelievable beauty spread wide and far, and reached an emperor. He sent his people to tell the old gardener about his oncoming visit.

When the emperor and his court arrived, they were shocked and then enraged: the big flower bed that used to host hundreds of gorgeous flowers, had freshly dug up soil, and in the middle of it there was one single lily. 

An explanation was demanded. The old gardener told them that he did it to show the emperor the true beauty of a lily bloom that would be lost in a sea of similar blooms. He didn't want anything to interfere with the charm and pure gorgeousness of a flower.

Back to Shayne's garden. Don't you agree that just several marsh orchids surrounded by the green in the above picture, are beautiful?

(Several of them, from the nursery, of course, went home with me).

Saxifraga stolonifera ( Strawberry saxifrage, Strawberry begonia) is a great ground cover which spreads fast thanks to its red runners/stolons. Scalloped leaves have purplish-reddish underside and tiny white flowers on tall flower spikes. 

I use this plant extensively in my own garden, and it's performing great both in shade and part-shade. It overwinters nicely in our temperate climate, and I never noticed any slug damage on it.

But, I took that picture, above, not because of the saxifrage. Look at that colony of Chandler's Begonia!  

The one that I brought home is doing an excellent job near the northern wall of the house. It is standing straight, strong and is indifferent to slugs (mutually)! 

Big-leaf plants, grasses, mossy trunks, lacy ferns, reddish leaves' underside, orchids' candle-like blooms - there is so much to look at in a single vignette!

Fairytale place

I like grasses in pots; they give them height!

A garden room of modern Robinson Crusoe?

Hardy geraniums roaming freely among common and not very common plants.

 Magnolia macrophylla. Such a magnificent and gracious tree!  Huge leaves floating in the air on such seemingly tender branches.

Abutilon magapotamicum Variegatum (Trailing Abutilon, Variegated Chinese Lantern). It attracted everyone's attention with its bright dangling lantern-like blooms and very attractive gold mottled leaves.  I brought one of these Flowering Maples home with me.

And that Yucca...

This Carex makes pretty dense ground cover.

Love Darmera and Podophyllum!   

And Cypripedium, Lady's slipper, too! It's another plant that I remember seeing growing in the wild in the Russian Far East forests.

I hope my Dactylorhiza, marsh orchid, will colonize like these. 

Fantastic, isn't it?

Iris Nada (Butterfly Iris). Such charming ruffled flowers!

Since it's evergreen and doesn't require sun as other irises, I brought it back home.

Beautiful Chandler's Begonia flaviflora. 

 I brought one home and very soon realized that I wasn't the only one who admired it. All its leaves were eaten by slugs in no time. Fortunately, a couple of new leaves appeared. Now, they are guarded by egg shells, Sluggo granules and beer traps, and if they won't help, sandpaper will be the next line of defense :))) 

Tetrapanax papyrifer feels at home near native conifers.

Palm trees, banana trees, rhododendrons, ferns, etc., etc. and many plants that I'm not familiar with. One visit to this garden isn't enough!

Did I mention ferns?  :))

And then, there were these... Simple, charming, absolutely stunning IMHO lilies.  They looked like lanterns in the dark corner of the garden.

I noticed them first from afar, and moved toward them like under hypnosis.

Schefflera  delavayi looks pretty comfortable in this shady spot among other plants.

We got closer to the nursery, and here I stopped taking pictures. Nursery is a serious business; we know that, don't we? Plants, plants, plants...

***

Thank you for joining me on the walk through this amazing lush garden!

Thank you, Shayne, for opening your unique garden and nursery for us and patiently answering tons of questions! You created a place where Northwest natives can embrace a diverse company of plants from many far reaching places. We are looking forward to seeing more of your botanical treasures next year!

***Copyright 2020 TatyanaS