Daniel J. Hinkley

plantsman – author · speaker · horticultural consultant

Spring 2023

Order Plants To Go or Visit by Appointment

Order plants online for pick up at Windcliff or make an appointment to shop the nursery onsite

  • Journal
  • Events
    • Lectures
  • Plants
    • Windcliff Plants
    • Windcliff Plants To Go
    • Monrovia Collection
  • Books
    • Recommended Reading
  • Services
    • Speaking
  • About
    • Press & Publications
  • Contact

Sea of Humanity

May 25, 2008 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Sea-of-HumanityIt seems an eternity since last smelling rain falling on warm earth, while visiting this sea of humanity. The latter platitude is more appropriately applied to Tokyo than any place on this earth, at least of those I have visited. I walked around the lake inUeno tonight after dinner, rain be damned, listening to the background buzz of a city overlaid by emotive cries of night herons and the swallowing, hollow gathump of bull frogs. While savoring the fine petrichor, I marveled in the fact that other life forms have successfully jived with such kinesis and infinite lay of (mostly) uninspired but seismically stable architecture and imponderable sprawl of concrete.

It is my sweet 16th visit to this country, the archipelago I fearlessly continue to negotiate by cutting wide and vulgar swaths through its language and etiquette. Yesterday I became imprisoned on the wrong bus that, after a gruesomely long haul, ended up where I had started instead of where I was going. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Expeditions

Taiwan

November 14, 2007 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Landscape Trail Taiwan.JPGThere was something horribly unsettling about the beautiful weather we had thus far experienced in the mountains of Taiwan. It was like finding a child’s room completely and utterly organized or our ill behaved dogs sitting when commanded, as if they had done something very bad or were about to. This was not the Taiwan that I knew from the past, the country whose atmospheric marinade permanently saturates your clothing and prunes your skin before you even set outside. During my last visit in 1999, seeds collected were 4 parts water, 2 parts misery and 1 part embryo.

So I took the first week here with a deliberate daily Thanksgiving, appropriate as it was the week of turkey fest, knowing full well that the irritable child that had unexpectedly said ‘I love you’ would soon again be acting out. The days were splendid and the views sublime. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Expeditions

Looking Forward, Seeing Behind

July 21, 2007 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Dierama.jpg  Daniel J HinleySo, looking ahead briefly. At last, I will be spending this autumn at Heronswood. The original Heronswood, that is. I’ve been there before and anticipate my return. But more of that later.

First, the present. But for a few updates, I have not contributed to this website for nearly 3 months. Shameful. Conventional wisdom says that I should have, in some manner, a presence on the web. I know this certainly to be true. As of 7/21/07, I am told that 67,732 gardeners have subscribed to this site. I am overwhelmed, appreciative of the support and encouragement, and very contrite that I have paid such little attention to the process. Yet still I believe in gardening when I have the time and even stronger, believe in writing when I have something of merit to say. Too often as of late, some horticultural blahgs I attempt to read are nothing but meaningless and embarrassingly concocted twaddle. I am acutely sensitive to contributing to an inchoate heap of words better composted. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays

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

Here’s Lookin’

March 17, 2007 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Trachycarpus fortuneiHello good friends and fine gardeners, or those who I do not personally know at this moment with whom I might someday ultimately become good friends. I am easy.

Let me tell you what I am seeing. This is a good exercise for me, as I am currently attempting to finish a book (Making Heronswood, yes, indeed). It is nearly finished. My cerebrum needs refreshment for I am as bound by words and memories as an aged inactive hen. Thus, I welcome you here to see what it is that I see for a moment or two.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Windcliff

Leaving a Garden, Slowly

March 11, 2007 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Ypsilandra thibeticaYesterday, March 10th, was the first day of 2007 that I sensed spring. It is curious how it happens so suddenly and irrepressibly. I listened to music on my Radio Shack headphones during my early morning six miles through the surroundings of Indianola. While still in the tall wood not far from our house, the unmistakable song of a robin forced its way into my headset. I paused for a moment and pretended to tie my shoe strings while contemplating the degree of emotion that this fetching song has carried. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Heronswood

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • Next Page »

Subscribe

Get Dan's Journal posts via email.

Journal Categories

  • Essays (54)
  • Expeditions (32)
  • Heronswood (7)
  • Plants (16)
  • Videos (4)
  • Windcliff (12)

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

Featured Plant Portrait

Bark-a-lounger Botanists

June 2020 Video Garden Tours

Enjoy virtual garden tours with Dan and Assistant Director Ross Bayton. See what is blooming at … Read More

More Plant Portraits

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…

Copyright © 2023 Daniel J. Hinkley, Heronmedia · Site by LND