Heronswood and the Brotherhood of the Traveling Plants

Jill Severn portrait

A gardener I met in a buffet line had a lot to say about rock gardens and plant collecting. Before we got to the main dish, after which we would part ways, he leaned forward a little and said “Have you been to Heronswood?” (I swear he said this in italics.)

I had not been to Heronswood then, but now I have. And he was right – it’s a happy place for everyone with an affinity for the green, growing, flowering world. And it’s even better for plant collectors with a taste for the exotic and unusual.

Heronswood is a public garden in a patch of forest in Kingston, in Kitsap County, Washington. It was first created by Dan Hinkley, a rockstar in the world of horticulture with a long list of awards, books, and admirers. His website describes him as a “Teacher, writer, lecturer, consultant, nurseryman, naturalist, gardener” committed to, among other things, “raising the collective awareness of the diversity of plant life on Earth and the magic and mysteries of our natural world.”

His twice-yearly international plant-hunting expeditions have roots in the British colonial tradition of exploring the world and bringing back seeds and cuttings of exotic plants. Fortunately, he’s left the colonial part of that tradition behind, and focused on sharing the joy and wonder of the Earth’s diversity.

But in a nod to his brotherhood with those colonial botanists, one of the most spectacular plants at Heronswood is an eight- to twelve-foot tall lily, Cardiocrinum giganteum, first “discovered” by Nathaniel Wallich, a Danish botanist who worked for the British East India Company. It is a Sino-Himalayan species known as the “prince of lilies.” It’s reputed to be fragrant, but you have to be tall to smell it.

Another clue to Hinkley’s DNA is that when he arrived at Heronswood in 1987, he planted a traditional English garden that includes roses, perennial borders, and a formal, geometrical garden of closely pruned boxwood edging enclosing plantings of flowers. (Right now, that formal area looks much better in the photo on Heronswood’s website than it does in person, but the roses and the perennial borders are lovely.)

A lovely perennial border in Heronswood’s English garden

Soon Hinkley began to develop a much larger, mostly wooded area of Heronswood where he planted the plants he found on his travels.  Most are planted along footpaths through or at the edges of the woods.

There are many marvels, including a collection of 200 kinds of ferns, but most of them are not labeled. For most of us, that absence is a little frustrating, but for serious plant collectors – like the man in the buffet line – the frustration must be acute.

Another vexing feature is the absence of way-finding signs through the maze of footpaths, or a detailed, readable map.

But it does seem a little fussy to complain about being lost in paradise. Heronswood is a wonderland, and the man in the buffet line was right: it’s worth a trip. It just needs to be approached with sympathy.

It’s had a rough time in the 21^st century. Hinkley and his architect husband sold it to the Burpee company in 2000, but by 2006 Burpee abandoned it, and it slid into neglect. Many plants were lost. Finally in 2012, the Port Clallam S’Kallam Tribe bought it at auction, and continues to support its gradual restoration.

The Tribe is also working on devoting a section of the site to traditional medicinal and food plants.

Dr. Ross Bayton, the current Garden Director, has added a rock garden, which is not yet ready for prime time. It was planted in 2020 during the pandemic, so it’s unfinished state feels symbolic of our whole society’s unfinished recovery.

It’s impossible to see everything on a single visit to this sprawling, diverse family of gardens. It might take more frequent trips, over a period of years, to truly come to know it, to appreciate its progress towards full recovery, and to witness the continuing development of the tribal garden.

Those trips could be our own miniature, bi-annual expeditions to “discover” exotic plants from around the world.

Jill Severn writes from her home in Olympia, where she grows vegetables, flowers, and a small flock of chickens. She loves conversation among gardeners. Start one by emailing her at  jill@theJOLTnews.com