Yesterday, Blaze and I took a road trip down to Morton, to the Raintree nursery. It’s about a 2.5 hour trip both ways. Some of it’s on the interstate, some of it’s through very pretty countryside.

This nursery specializes in plants that will grow in the Pacific Northwest. For example, they have filberts that have been specially bred by the University of Oregon to be resistant to the blight in this area. Etc.

In general, Blaze and I are very good about asking each other, “Are you sure you want that?” Not that either of us are spendthrifts, however, this does help keep us both in check, make sure that when we purchase something, we’ve actually thought about it.

All of that goes out the window when it comes to buying plants. We both love plants. We bought a lot, and will be spending the next few days putting them into the ground.

I bought a tea bush to replace the one that didn’t survive the winter. I bought a second blue huckleberry, because while they are self-pollinating, they will fruit more if there is a second bush around.

I also bought two elderberry bushes. These are specially bred to deal with more sunlight, and have dark red leaves. They’re also European, not American. We’ll see how they do.

The nursery was giving away rose cutting, from rosa rugosa plants. We picked up two. They are thorny little stems sticking out of a plastic bag that contains a bunch of roots. We picked up two that already have green leaves starting to bud on the branches.

I really only have one more big plant to buy this year (besides replacing some of the herbs). I’ve always wanted a really pretty flowering tree for the upper meadow, that I’ll be able to see from my windows. Raintree doesn’t have many ornamentals, most of the plants they sell are industrial, i.e., they produce something edible.

I really want a Japanese flowering cherry. I haven’t decided if I’ll get the bigger one or the smaller one. But I’m going to get one of those for the yard.

I’d also love a golden chain. I don’t think I’ll ever get one like the one I had in the front yard of the Seattle House that was both a golden chain and a pink chain. The weirdest thing about that tree was that one of the colors was not a graft. It would grow both the golden chain flowers as well as the pink flowers from the same branch. Weirdest thing I’d ever seen.

What are some of your favorite pretty plants that are growing in your yard?