Daniel J. Hinkley

plantsman – author · speaker · horticultural consultant

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You are here: Home / Archives for Plants

Genetic Coning

June 8, 2009 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Picea likiangenis var. purpureaIn September of 1996, I visited the Yulong Shan in NE Yunnan Province in China. It was my debut in botanizing within that remarkable country, accompanied by a talented contingent of like-minded plantspeople, and there is hardly a better place to sample its fantastic flora than in the dramatic mountains northwest of Lichiang. It was there that I collected the seed of Picea likiangensis var purpurea, the Lichiang Spruce, after having previously read titillating tributes to its ornamental appeal.

For the past decade plus, before its inaugural fruiting, I have held this Picea in high esteem. Spruces are, as a whole, a hard sell in the Pacific Northwest. Prone to mites and assorted foliar diseases, the truly blue spruces (Picea pungens) are a miserable landscape choice for our cool, maritime climate. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Plants, Windcliff Tagged With: China, Picea

My Exotic Epiphany

December 28, 2008 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Davidia involucrata, Black BambooToday, as I was carting loads of firewood from the woodshed to the house through the yellow-stained gum of half-melted snow, I was reminded how good and profoundly circular life can be.

While bemoaning the recent climatic assaults on our garden, and belligerently filling my wheelbarrow, I heard a most curious noise. Fearing I had disturbed a winter home of our native Douglas’s Squirrel or even a mouse attempting to survive our lead-weighted temperatures, I paused to find its source. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Plants

The Genus Dyckia

July 19, 2007 By Daniel J. Hinkley

DyckiaOnce again, I recognize my timidity through the discovery of an unexpected survivor within the expanse of safe and boring plants growing in my garden at Windcliff, pondering why I do not more often engage in attempted murder for the sake of luminosity. It is generally through these premeditated crimes and misdemeanors that I have been rewarded by the most amazing new plants. This year, I attempted a serial murder of a genus of terrestrial bromeliads called Dyckia and found myself mesmerized instead.

The genus Dyckia, a conglomerate of 120 or so species, are found primarily in South America. Though perhaps not the most euphonious of generic names, consider the choices available to the botanist who named it in honor of this Prussian botanist; Josef Maria Franz Anton Hubert Ignatz, Prince and Earl of Salm Reifferscheid-Dyck (1773-1861). Personally, I might have gone with Reifferscheidia. But whatever. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Plants

Tropaeolum polyphyllum

June 21, 2007 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Tropaeolum polyphyllum.CR2La Niña, that burly girl that refuses to let go her muscular thigh grip on our winter/spring/winter in the PNW, continues her stronghold in our climate. Robert and I, avec chiens, will retreat to the redoubt of eastern Washington this weekend to wait her out, with some botanizing, biking, enological illumination and political conversation (as they say, a good whine needs no bush). Interestingly, however, it is day length, not temperature, that rules the roost here and things push forward unperturbed.

As has Tropaeolum polyphylum. A vine that I have become particularly fond of in our garden over many years, it is a hardy Nasturtium known, in latin, as Tropaeolum polyphyllum. It is one of the tuberous rooted species found in the same genus as the more commonly come upon, aphid-ridden annual known as the Nasturtium (Nasty-Ur-Shum, as Robert is known to call them). [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Plants

Over the Edge

February 5, 2007 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Edgeworthia-chrysantha-Dan-Hinkley

There is one thing I know for certain about Edgeworthia. No one seems to know what species they have and few seem to know if more than one species actually exists. I include myself amongst the taxonomically challenged and amongst those guilty of propelling improper nomenclature through my writing and speaking.

We grew what we called Edgeworthia papyrifera for many years at Heronswood, having received our first plant from J.C. Raulston under this name. It thrived in our woodland, each year setting enormous quantities of silvery buttons in autumn that would open to yellow, fragrant clusters of flowers in late January. We twice dug a single specimen for use in Flower and Garden show displays in Seattle and it sailed through both insults without harm. Life seemed good. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Plants

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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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