Daniel J. Hinkley

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Summer 2022

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You are here: Home / Archives for Plants

Paths to Linnaea

June 16, 2017 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Charming pink bells held in pairs of the Twinflower, Linnaea borealis
The still extant colony of Linnaea borealis in the woodland at Heronswood

In June of 1987, our realtor brought us back to the property at 7530 288th St NE for a second look.  We had been uninspired by our first viewing on a cold, dreary January day earlier that same year.  And besides, the asking prices of $89,000 was appreciably beyond our budget.

On that early summer’s day, however, the skies were crisply blue while from the canopy of Doug firs and cedars came a cacophony of birdsong.  I ventured into the thick native undergrowth of the woodland to get a better feel of the property and its potential for garden making.

On a mound of duffy soil surrounding a rotting stump, I encountered a generous colony of Linnaea borealis in full blossom.  As I kneeled down to admire the plant that had long been a favorite,  a black-capped chickadee arrived to the stump with a fat grub in its beak and entered a hole to a chorus of hungry nestlings inside.  We made an offer on what would become Heronswood that evening.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Heronswood, Plants Tagged With: Heronswood, Woodland Plants

Northern Vietnam, March 2016

April 22, 2016 By Daniel J. Hinkley

I had the pleasure and luxury this spring to travel to Vietnam with my colleague Scott McMahan and staff from the University of British Columbia Botanic Garden.  After so many trips to this country during the autumn months, at last seeing the mountains of this region coming to life was a remarkable and memorable experience.  Just a few highlights of the trip….. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Expeditions, Plants

Three Tree Moments

November 20, 2014 By Daniel J. Hinkley

A spire of limestone rising through fog and mist in China
The hauntingly beautiful karst formations of Hubei Province

I am home again, reunited with family and garden. The dogs no longer growl when I come into the room. Now, after a full week of recovery, I am of sound enough mind and body to download my images and ponder the wonders of this latest voyage; those things that are undeniably wondrous enough in the moment that it might seem to others assured of mental cementation. But, as often happens in life,  when confections exist in such ample supply they often cannot be savored until long after the first taste.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Expeditions, Plants Tagged With: China & Vietnam 2014, Trees

A Rose by Any Other Name

May 28, 2012 By Daniel J. Hinkley

In the autumn of 1996, while approaching Tianchi Lake, at relatively high elevations of the Zhongdien Plateau in NW Yunnan Province, I collected the hips from a tall, commonly occurring species of rose. The stems, rising to nearly 3m in height, were heavily armed in broad thorns to 2.5cm that had bleached on old wood to ivorine.

  • Rosa sweginzowii DJHC 410
  • Rosa sweginzowii DJHC 410
  • Rosa sweginzowii DJHC 410
  • Rosa sweginzowii DJHC 410
  • Rosa sweginzowii DJHC 410

What caught my eye and prompted the seed collection, however, were the crops of hips that varied in color significantly from one specimen to another. My collection under the number DJHC 410, came from an individual with large white fruit blushed with pink. It has settled down into our garden at Windcliff and continues to impress each year during its height of blossom, from May through most of June. I did not capture the white hip genetics in the seedling that I ultimately planted although its fruit are paler than most would associate with the genus at large. Its identity has been recently confirmed as Rosa sweginzowii var. macrocarpa.

Filed Under: Essays, Plants

March, in time

March 13, 2012 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Sassafras tzumu.JPGOk, breathe. Write. Seeds to sow, cuttings to pot, an immense garden to hack and saw and haul. Its sunny and warm, its black as night and spitting sleet, its Puget squalls and double rainbows, its March and madness.

Two interesting plants have blossomed for the first time here, and my personal histories with both are intertwined. In northeast Sichuan in 2003 we came upon the remnants of fallen foliage in late October that could only have come from Sassafras tzumu, from a very small genus of trees with only three species worldwide; the American species, S. albidum, being very common (yet very beautiful) in the Northeast. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Plants

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Journal Archives

Featured Journal Post

Northern Vietnam, March 2016

I had the pleasure and luxury this spring to travel to Vietnam with my colleague Scott McMahan and … Read More

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June 2020 Video Garden Tours

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Daniel J. Hinkley

Teacher, writer, lecturer, consultant, nurseryman, naturalist, gardener.
Above all, he is committed to solid and sustainable horticultural practices, above average garden plants, landscapes of distinction and raising the collective awareness of the diversity of plant life on Earth as well as the magic and mysteries of our natural world. Learn more…

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