Specialty Nursery Profile: Far Reaches Farm, Port Townsend, Washington State

Trays of plants are continually propagated to fulfill the desires of covetous gardeners who peruse the catalog online for updates. Photo Credit: Eric Hsu

Interview by Eric Hsu with Kelly Dodson and Sue Milliken

Photos by Kelly Dodson and Sue Milliken except where noted.

People often ask me why the Pacific Northwest is the mecca of specialty nurseries in United States - the climate is enviably mild and temperate, the range of plants can be grown in different microclimates, and people more embracing of new approaches towards planting. Far Reaches Farm is one specialty nursery that reflects the idiosyncratic, but playful approach towards introducing plants either from the overseas explorations trips or in-house breeding. It’s a skein of passion that threads through all the specialty nurseries - Issima, Cistus Design, Garden Visions - featured on this blog. Please welcome Kelly Dodson and Sue Milliken of Far Reaches Farm, Port Townsend, WA (www.farreachesfarm.com). I should add that they are in the process of setting up a conservancy dedicated to conservation of rare and endangered plants especially those from Asia - please visit Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy at https://farreachesbotanicalconservancy.org/ for their mission and goals to raise funds.

Both of you have had deep roots in running plant nurseries – Kelly in the Puget Sound region, and Sue in Vermont. The first business is always like the first-born child –the logistics are one thing, and you fuss and tussle with the pendulum of passion and profit. What mistakes were you two determined not to repeat when starting Far Reaches Farm?

It was very clear to both of us that we needed to keep the plant inventory down to a manageable size. We both had had enough of insane hours and recognized that if we simply focused on some key genera and worked within our limits, we could grow a few cool plants, make a living and have some time to ourselves. (Cue Eric asking “How’s that working out for you?”) What we hadn’t expected was the self-perpetuating synergism of two compulsive plant collectors with identical strengths and weaknesses – there was no dead man brake on this runaway plant train.

Hepaticas look like delicate jewels springing like welcome surprises from unremarkable plastic pots.

Finding a suitable site for a nursery is a common struggle for people who must deal with property values beyond their means. What led you two to purchase the six-acre property in Port Townsend on which the nursery currently is situated?

Starting over from our past lives with the possessions that mattered -namely lots of plants, price was a pretty critical component. Port Townsend is a magical place and it was important that we lived in a place that we loved despite being in the “far reaches”, well removed from plant shoppers in the Seattle-Metro area. We’re both shade gardeners at heart and the property had just one tree, a Populus trichocarpa which we promptly cut down. It also had the worst soil imaginable – compacted glacial hardpan from a mile of ice parked on top of it during the last ice age. But it was inside city limits, was a bit underpriced and had a small 740 square foot house on it which fit in well with our “tread lightly on the Earth” shared beliefs.

Kniphofia ‘Shiny Beast’ has an enticing description in the catalog: “Our own hybrid introduction which we have trialed for 10 years before releasing a few. A very long bloom period from mid summer into fall. Narrow foliage supports 3'+ stems of rich burnt orange with the individual flowers glistening as if lacquered. Attribution to everyone's favorite 1978 Captain Beefheart album Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller). A Far Reaches exclusive which we think is damned good.”

Your catalog descriptions often have humorous asides about being jealous of those who have milder microclimates in the Puget Sound, or those who have grown your plants to superlative levels. In a way they poke fun at the climatic shortcomings of your nursery’s location. Can you two confess your site’s challenges even in an enviable climate?

Port Townsend is at the terminus of the Quimper Peninsula, a small thumb of land sticking out into the Salish Sea. Downtown PT is very rarely colder than zone 9. We were sure we would have an enviably mild location being just 2 miles away from salt water on 3 sides. Turns out, we are in a shallow dish of a frost pocket and apparently, just enough removed to have no meliorating maritime influence. We are also in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mts and get just 18” of rain per year with nearby native Opuntia fragilis testifying to the low precipitation. There are good parts to being in the rain shadow but having clear skies means we lose the insulation of cloud cover, so we frost early in the fall and frost late in the spring. Our worst cold event was an early November drop to 8F with a 40 mph wind which followed the preceding week of balmy temps in the 60’s. That created too many new planting opportunities. What really pushes us over the edge is that in 10 minutes we can walk to a half a zone warmer and in 20 minutes to a full zone warmer.

The display gardens around the nursery contain a lot of plants in their mature sizes as well as serve as a source of propagating material. It’s a colorful sight in summer when dieramas and midsummer perennials peak. Photo Credit: Eric Hsu

The scope and diversity of plants at Far Reaches Farm propagated, grown, evaluated and sold is even mind blogging even for the most jaded of serious plantspeople. Undoubtedly this genetic repository motivated you two to establish in 2017 the Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy (FRBC), a non-profit conservation nursery focused on endangered flora. How will this conservancy grow with being mindful of the ethics and politics of sharing plant material?

It was this very question which was one of the main drivers in forming the FRBC. For seed, plant or voucher specimen collections of wild provenance in other countries, the nonprofit conservation focus does and will allow for a more amenable permitting process. This will be especially true going forward as such processes likely will become more restrictive and labyrinthine. This is less of a concern for our importation of cultivated ornamentals not currently in North America. On both counts, our goal is to not make money but to acquire plants that are not or scarcely known to horticulture or botany, get them established and replicated and then distributed to ensure a broad conservation umbrella of ex situ cultivation, so to speak. FRBC plants are distributed through the FRF website with each entity getting 50% of the purchase price. This helps support the FRBC and covers part of the costs incurred by Far Reaches Farm in producing and distributing that plant.

Stewartia cf. pteropetiolata has a striking scarlet pink splash in the center, attracting the attention of a pollinator.

Ernest Henry Wilson described China as ‘Mother of All Gardens’; indeed we owe our treasure trove of garden plants to this world’s 3rd largest country (approximately 3.7 million square miles). Of the provinces, Sichuan and Yunnan are often the botanical hotspots that plant hunters have sought out repeatedly. What led both of you to pivot your collecting trips to Jinfo Shan (金佛 山), the highest peak of Dalou Mountains, in Chongqing Municipality?

We’ve been to Jinfo Shan just once some years ago and were privileged to be in the company of the great plant explorers, Steve Hootman and Peter Cox. While we have not pivoted our efforts towards Jinfo Shan, this does illustrate a key consideration in planning a plant hunting trip. Often, these mountains can be quite isolated such as Emei Shan in Sichuan, and not connected to an extensive range of peaks. Such mountains become biodiversity hotspots as they are essentially island refugia for a huge number of species that cannot migrate from that mountain. This can often lead to a high degree of endemism or unique variations on more widely distributed species. It is always good to go as high as you can as this translates to greater cold tolerance in plants. We like working the edges – that is, the altitudinal limit for a species or the place where the underlying geology changes from limestone to sandstone, or the furthest edges of a plant’s range. This is often where interesting things can happen to species as the limiting environmental factors are applying maximum pressure and you can find distinct evolutionary adaptations. Back to Jinfo Shan, this one mountain boasts 4,768 species of seed plants and that is not counting ferns or other lycophytes. By contrast, our own Washington State has around 2300 vascular plant species, less than half of Jinfo Shan which just blows our minds.

Ilex robusta CGG 14166 - an evergreen holly that shows bold red shoots similar to the more familiar Pieris floribunda.

Even in the most civilized of countries, plant hunting is often riddled with hazards (rockslides and closed roads from earthquakes in Taiwan, poison oak in Pacific Northwest US)? It’s hard to avoid asking the perennial question: do you have any memorable funny anecdotes from your travels that readers may find amusing (certainly not yours if the moments back then were harrowing)?

Sue’s broken ankle was a drag but at least it happened coming down the last mountain on the final day in the field. Kelly’s fractured rib came from falling while collecting a few seed of Photinia beauverdiana for a friend and opting to hold the seed up high and safe rather than breaking his fall. After that, it was simply known as that Phucking Photinia. A potentially dicey moment occurred in 2003 with our jeeps in the Nagaland jungle as we headed towards Mt. Saramati. We hoped to be the first westerners to climb this since the Peabody Expedition in 1958. At this time in 2003, there was fighting between the various tribal factions in Nagaland and there was a rebel secessionist movement to leave India with clashes between the rebels and the Indian army. The remote area we were going to was controlled by the Naga rebels and we would have to get permission from them to climb Saramati. Honestly, we weren’t looking forward to this as we had just recently had an unpleasant time at a paramilitary checkpoint in Manipur. Driving through a dark, narrow defile, a man in camouflage stepped out onto the road with his hand up to stop. Looking out the windows, we could see men with machine guns pointing at us from the edges of the ridge. Our guide had been worrying about this moment for days and thought it possible they might take the jeeps and everything in them, leaving us to walk out and him out of business. The fellow who stopped us was the captain of the guard and spoke decent English. He spoke to our guide at length and then came to talk with us. Sue erased any doubts he may have had when she told him how beautiful his country was and how much we were enjoying it. Not the Nagaland of India but the Nagaland of the Naga people. Passage was granted with the proviso that upon our return, we give him a ride to the nearest town 3 days drive away.

Lilium oxypetalum var. insigne, a Himalayan native showing its beautiful dusky violet flowers.

Meconopsis baileyi ‘Hensol Violet’ is a red violet variant of the famous blue poppy Meconopsis baileyi (formerly M. betonicifolia). Photo Credit: Eric Hsu

It's one thing to fly, scout for plants, and eat some questionable cuisine, but it’s another thing to stay up all night to clean seeds under poor lighting. What have been your systematic approach towards tackling seed cleaning to pass USDA APHIS inspection?

Whiskey, bright headlamps, magnifier glasses, chocolate and colorful self-recriminations for not having done more earlier.

Are there any plants that got away?

Always. Often the most frustrating are the ones we didn’t know were there until subsequent research after returning home or worse, you see it coincidentally in the photo during a presentation. Most commonly, you find the plant but not in seed.

Agapetes sp. MD17-119 - a possibly new species introduced by Far Reaches Farm.

Although one can apply experience of germinating seeds using taxonomic relationships (i.e. the same family), there are often exceptions to the general rule. For seeds whose germination requirements are largely unknown, how does the nursery maximize their chances of success without being overly confident in one approach?

We have the same pessimistic optimism of most farmers. That is, we expect the seeds to germinate, but are not surprised when they don’t. For those seeds with no information on germination requirements, we make educated guesses based on our experience, taxonomic relationships and observations of its native environmental conditions. If there is a just a few seed, then we go with the method that usually works most of the time which is the warm germinator regime followed by cold if nothing happens on warm. If there is ample seed, we might do cycling through warm-cold-warm-cold-warm. Or a long cold then warm. Or gibberellic acid in conjunction with those approaches. Or surface sow for light requirements. Or some form of scarification if a hard seed coat. If still nothing, then we are not above pleading with the recalcitrant seed pot. We will hold some choice seed pots for years thanks to a couple of collections waiting for 5-7 years to germinate.

An unidentified Arisaema sp. MD15 74-001 reveals its unusual coloration for a genus better known for its dark macabre hues.

Having access to biodiverse hotspots in temperate climates means that the likelihood of discovering new species is higher than winning the lottery in US. Sometimes the big reveal isn’t until you have returned home, germinated the seed, and grown the plants to maturity. How do you two confirm the identities of your mystery plants (it’s too easy to throw one’s hands in despair after looking at Flora of China online!)?

We are acutely aware of our limitations and have no problem reaching out to experts on particular genera. We are fortunate to have 3 consulting taxonomists donating their expertise in plant identification for the FRBC. This works well via sending photos, voucher specimens (dried and pressed plants on a herbarium sheet), live plants or tissue samples for molecular analysis. One of our taxonomists and FRBC Board member, is reasonably local and makes regular visits to identify plants and make voucher sheets. We also appreciate identifications from visiting experts and the online community. A mentor once told us that the best way to get the right name on a plant is to put the wrong name on it as it won’t be long before someone corrects you.

Roscoea ‘Family Jewels’, a Far Reaches Farm introduction that resulted from Roscoea purpurea f. rubra ‘Red Gurkha’ crossed with other taxa to produce shorter, free-flowering hybrids. Despite the variation in the seedlings, ‘Family Jewels’ have coppery-suffused foliage that highlight the fuchsia to bright purple blooms well.

Nomocharis farreri B014-116 is a rare species from northern Myanmar and adjacent Yunnan. Keeping the species pure is not easy since the plants will cross pollinate with other species in the vicinity and bees do not discriminate!

Selling plants that are less familiar, uncommon, or even perplexing to us gardeners can be a challenge. Even the plant-crazed nuts among us can have second thoughts about nurturing a plant whose ornamental worth or hardiness remains untested. How do you two go about convincing your customers to be more adventurous in their plant palette?

We’ve found that those second thoughts the plant-crazed nuts might have are rather fleeting. We don’t grow large quantities of any one plant and that is often because of lack of propagation material, difficulty in propagation or our own inherent plant attention disorder. Between the plant collectors and public and botanic gardens, we don’t have a lot of surplus. We’re plant people, not salespeople, and we rely on gardeners catching a bit of the excitement we have for our plants. That said, we have sold very few plants that we don’t like a lot either for their ornamental value, their botanical interest or combination thereof, so we might just be enthusiastically biased.

The world of woodland lilies (i.e. Disporum, Disporopsis, Polygonatum, and Maianthemum) have a special place in your hearts at the nursery. Most people are only familiar with Polygonatum odoratum and the variegated form, which are classic shade perennials for their vigor. Can you two recommend up and coming taxa that may be proven performers in the shade garden?

There are some recently described evergreen species we grow such as Polygonatum undulatifolium, introduced by Hootman and Polygonatum luteoverrucosum, introduced by Floden, which rock our world, but we are very hesitant to try them in our zone 8a garden. These would be awesome in coastal Oregon and California. Polygonatum vietnamicum is an amazing species that is hardy for us despite its Vietnam origin. Whorled leaves in tiers with big red flowers on stems that for us reach 15’ tall in our shade garden. If that is too big, something similar but shorter at a mere 8’ tall, would be Polygonatum huanum with orange-red flowers. This is generally seen offered as Polygonatum kingianum but the true P. kingianum has yellow flowers. Of course, we are partial to our recent introduction of Polygonatum jinzhaiense, mainly because it is the first verified introduction of this species, providing important DNA studies to better understand the genus. And because the large, white flowers smell like baby powder.

Crocosmias seem to acquire a certain largess at Far Reaches Farm – it would not be wrong to say that your nursery currently holds the most comprehensive collection of Crocosmia cultivars in U.S. What is compelling about these South African geophytes that prompted a full blown obsession? Any favorites and tips for growing them well?

We made some mention of compulsive plant acquisition earlier and we were indeed mad about Crocosmia for a number of years, amassing a collection of well over 100 cultivars from sources in the UK. Our hope was to have a comprehensive reference collection here in the US because there are relatively few cultivars and species available. Currently, there are over 300 Crocosmia available for sale in the UK. What we found was a disappointingly large number of nearly identical cultivars with many of the historic varieties having little garden merit from the modern viewpoint. If you are going to have small flowers, at least don’t be a thug. Another problem was the impossibility of definitively verifying the correct identity, removed as we are from experts and proper comparatives in the UK. So we’ve paired it down to some favorites and know we have contributed to the Crocosmia future in the US as a number of commercial breeders have purchased a lot of Crocosmia from us.

What is or are your desert island plant?

Ideally, it would be a large island to accommodate them all as our affections are a bit mercurial. One plant that has stood the test of time is the pink-flowered form of False Solomon Seal, Maianthemum oleraceum. Our planting of different clones featuring smooth green stems, smooth black stems and hairy black stems, pretty much owns the shade garden when they are in flower, topping out at 7’ tall.

Any advice for anyone who desires to run a specialty nursery?

Our biggest mistake was not marrying someone rich.