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Happy Friday GPODers!
Today we’re starting another incredible garden tour series courtesy of Cherry Ong. While she frequents incredible public gardens across North America, she also connects with other avid gardeners and plant collectors and gets to tour their special, private spaces. At the end of October Cherry visited the garden of Nancy Heckler in Indianola, Washington.
Nancy is a former general manager of Heronswood Garden (which was the last tour series Cherry shared, check those out here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4), and an absolute plant legend in the Puget Sound area of Washington. She might be most known for her incredible collection of hydrangeas, but her space is a true gem of the Pacific Northwest on all fronts.
I feel privileged to visit Nancy Heckler’s garden for the very first time, much more grateful to meet her in person as well as her dog Fergus. I have admired her garden and plants on many of her posts on Facebook. Photos do tell a story but never the full story since your senses aren’t fully immersed.
Some time ago I asked Nancy if she could post long views of her garden and she said it would be difficult to do so. After experiencing the magic of her quarter of an acre deeply earthy woodland forest sanctuary, I fully understand the challenge of photographing long views, but of course I have tried my best to capture it at this recent visit.
Please enjoy this first set and I will share with you more thoughts and the joy of experiencing her garden.
Thank you very much for your hospitality and kindness Nancy and Fergus! I hope these photos convey the beauty of what you have created!
Cherry Ong
Perennially Crazy
Richmond, BC
Nancy says her garden has about 150 varieties of hydrangeas!
Nancy in her garden. Thank you for being so generous with your incredible space, Nancy!
While Nancy’s garden is known for its hydrangeas, there are so many sensational trees and shrubs that provide all kinds of color. These plants are even more exciting in the fall.
Brocc and Fergus having fun! Two very happy wet dogs!
Like the incredible sculpture we saw in Carol’s garden earlier this week (check it out here, if you missed it), these orbs made out of twigs and branches is such a creative and beautiful use of garden material.
A garden as magnificent as Nancy’s obviously needs an area to sit and enjoy the dense plantings that surround. The privacy and seclusion that Nancy is able to create with layers and layers of foliage and flowers is unparalleled.
There are so many eye-catching plants in Nancy’s designs that it’s hard to pick out any particular stars. Of course, the many hydrangea blooms sprinkled throughout are always noteworthy, but she will also give plenty of people a different perspective on foliage plants. I’m not sure what the incredible purple plant is at the center, maybe a ‘Royal Purple’ smoketree (Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’, Zones 5–9) as it’s starting to darken? If so, the bright yellow plants that surround are making it look so much lighter and brighter.
Just about every color and texture can be found in Nancy’s beds. Even in small corners, every inch is utilized as the various forms weave around each other.
Thank you for sharing yet another incredible garden with us, Cherry! Please extend our gratitude to Nancy for sharing her awe-inspiring gardens. And everyone keep their eyes out for parts of this series in the coming weeks!
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
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