A visit to Plant Delights, pt. 1

Before we headed to Asheville for the Garden Bloggers Fling, we took a detour and headed first to Raleigh, North Carolina, where we visited the Plant Delights nursery and display gardens. If you are a serious gardener, you are probably familiar with Plant Delights, a unique nursery which specializes in rare plants and especially noted for those that push the zone limits for southeastern gardens. The nursery is primarily mail-order but they do open their doors to the public on selected weekends during the year.

Frankly, I was unprepared for the wonders that awaited us here. The website says that the display gardens comprise 5 acres filled with over 18,000 varieties of plants. I believe it! There were two major gardens - a semi-sunny one near the home where owner Tony Avent lives, and a heavily shaded garden at the entrance to the nursery. Both gardens were jam-packed with plants, arranged in surprising combinations. It didn't occur to me at the time but later, at the bloggers fling, a lady made the comment that the garden is proof that you don't have to necessarily plant 3 of everything to have an effective display. 

Agave and roses - why not?

The courtyard of owner Tony Avent's home (that is him in the white shorts). Notice all the agaves in pots!

Plant Delights carries all types of plants but they have large inventories of hosta, ferns, agaves and evergreens.

A sedum that I did not get the name of

 

These steps led to a sunken rain garden (below)

The Rain garden where runoff water is recaptured and the impurities are filtered by the Louisiana iris.  The beautiful tree in the back is a golden wax myrtle called "Myrica Soleil" (the nursery doesn't offer it at the moment)

The rain garden, from the opposite side

A beautiful iris

They offer a huge selection of hostas. This one is called "Cathedral Windows".

I have the name of this agave jotted down somewhere. I talked to Mr. Avent and he suggested that I feature this one in a "Hot Plants" article for Alabama Gardener. Noted!

By the time I had toured the first section of the garden, I made it to the nursery where I had to contain myself. I did bring home around 7 or 8 plants. Here are a few that I bought:

Sinningia 'Scarlet O'Hara'

Liriope "Peedee Ingot" - a golden monkey grass that was just too hard to resist

Hydrangea "Lemon Daddy" - Mr. Avent highly praised this hydrangea and it glowed on the patio. I had to have it!

I also came home with:

Buddleia "Miss Molly"
Cestrum "Orange Peel"
Anomatheca laxa
Heuchera "Southern Comfort"
Abutilon megapotamicum
Leucosceptrum stellipllum "October Moon"
Canna "Panache"


In Part 2, I'll show the shade garden!

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy