Joanne & Larry Turner's Garden (Kelso, Washington)

Last week, I drove up to Kelso to visit Joanne and Larry Turner, who had cut some trees and had limbs for me to use in my twig fence. They have a great property, way out in the country. Fresh, crisp air and no traffic noise, just bird song. It is really beautiful.

The garden was at its peak, a tad behind our garden closer to the city. The dogwoods were magnificent. Joanne grew many of them from seed. The one in the above photo is 'Venus'. I'm not sure about the one below.

The Turners have a lot of rhododendrons and they were spectacular. Joanne told me the names of all of these and of course, I don't remember the names now.

I love to see rhododendrons that have been shaped into trees. They have a nice one -

I was impressed with their Mountain Laurel (Kalmia). In our garden, they are so slow growing, but perhaps we just have dwarf varieties. That occurred to me when I saw these, which were around 7 feet tall. 

And, finally, Joanne has a lot of perennials and many unusual groundcovers. She shared some with me - Zebra Squill (Cooper's False Scilla, Ledebouria cooperi), Rhodoxis in two colors, a pale pink and a deep fuchsia, and Gentian, which I will be attempting for the third time. 

Beautiful iris -

And this flower, which was new to me. It is Dichelostemma ida-maia (according to my plant ID app) - 

I was happy to get the twigs, but so glad I was there at the peak bloom time in their garden. Thanks Joanne and Larry!

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy