Sebright Gardens and Nursery

How did I possibly call myself a Pacific Northwest gardener before visiting Sebright Nursery and Gardens? Shame on me! I should have gone years ago. All of my hosta- and fern-loving friends have been visiting for years, practically squealing with excitement at how gorgeous it is. My dear friend and former boss/owner at Joy Creek Nursery Maurice and his husband took me and FM along for a road trip last week to do a little shopping and exploring. How could we resist with such fabulous company? 

Sebright Gardens is near Salem in the mid-Willamette Valley. It is many acres of well-tended, mostly shade gardens that were started in 2003 as a private garden. Fast forward to today and there are many more acres being claimed for expanding garden beds, a mail order and retail nursery and the ambiance of surrounding agriculture typical of the area. They are known for an amazing variety of hostas, ferns and epimediums.

It was a super-bright, sunny hot day, not ideal for photography but hopefully the spirit of the place will grace these photos. All right then, let's check out one of the best small nurseries in the land and have a picnic. Here we go!

A typical vignette in the lovely shade gardens of Sebright Gardens and Nursery. OK, let's start from the beginning:

The nursery with the fern and hosta hoop house on the right, Maurice deep in shopping mode 3.2 minutes after pulling into the parking lot. That tingle in your tummy when you see plants for sale? That was double this day.

From Maurice forward - it's all hostas. They ship for those of you who can't visit the nursery in person.

SO MANY. It was difficult to choose. They grow over a thousand varieties.

Backstock for employees only. I actually wasn't lusting to go explore this section because the variety for sale in the retail area is overwhelming. And fabulous.

Moving on to a tour of the gardens post-lunch. I believe this is Blechnum chilense, a very handsome evergreen fern with rather stiff fronds.

Moving along through the garden, the sheer variety of foliage colors is enough to convince me you could create a whole garden with hostas alone if one were so inclined (I'm not, but just sayin'). The tower is one of many throughout the grounds, the clever design conceals upright sprinklers.

A perfect hosta. I saw no slug damage on any plants, a small miracle. I wonder how they do it?

 Osmunda regalis var. spectabilis, royal fern.

Golds and chartreuse spark in the shade. I love the wavy margins on the hosta on the right.

Not entirely hostas, there were sun perennials tucked in, too.

Conifer textures are quite pleasing. There are many sunny borders, not only shady ones.

There's a full shot of one of the irrigation towers on the left.

A variegated philadelphus. If they had this for sale I would have brought one home for sure. While I love philadelphus, especially our native Philadelphus lewisii, truth be told the plant is quite dull once the bloom has ended, so to look at this for the rest of the season would be fantastic.

Perfection - ferns, hostas, grasses, ligularia all grown so beautifully. Apparently they add several inches of compost every year to all the beds and that fact goes a long way towards explaining such lush gardens.

Maurice and I both looked for a tag on this conifer, both finding it quite interesting. No luck. 

Stained glass foliage of cannas.

Chionanthus virginicus, white fringe tree. 

After shopping and before exploring the gardens we enjoyed lunch in this fantastic gazebo in a shady position with a cool breeze passing through. Sorry, no pics of the food frenzy in which we all participated. Let's just say everything is calorie-free when on a plant road trip (or so we told ourselves as we inhaled potato chips and brownie bites).

Clematis (I took no note of the culitvar) brightening a shady spot. I really like the many shades of pink/purple on one specimen at the same time.

More sunny borders with peonies, shrubs and other herbaceous perennials.

It doesn't particularly read as spectacular in this photo, but when I saw this hosta in the garden I stopped and said how much I like it. When I looked at the tag it turns out it's one I purchased before lunch! 

More Blechnum chilense filling in between hostas in the understory of small deciduous trees.

Athyrium niponicum var. pictum 'Apple Court', painted Japanese fern looks so fresh this time of the year. In my own garden if they don't receive adequate water, they look rather tattered.

Dryopteris affinis 'Cristata'

The sun was warm and the gardens looked great.

Paris polyphylla 'Heronswood Form', an incredible shade-loving plant I really lust after. Alas, they were not available in the nursery.

Delosperma hanging down a rock wall in a rather hot sunny site.

A sweet primula just wrapping up its bloom.

Carpinus fangiana, hornbeam.

More Blechnum chilense. I guess I really like this fern. 

  Schefflera rhododendrifolia

Acer pseudoplatanus 'Esk Sunset' 

Thalictrum ichangense 'Evening Star' - had this been available at the nursery for sale I would have purchased it. Sadly, it is not.

Polygonatum 'Fireworks' with handsome red stems and variegated foliage.

Not clear what this is but I really admired the bright variegation in dappled light.

My heart jumped a little when Maurice and I spotted this variegated Daphniphyllum himalayense.

A newly created area, it must be at least an acre - where trees were cleared to make room for more garden beds. I noticed many iris beds. Apparently they are iris breeders as well and since they have the land to plant them out in a garden setting, why not? (except all the work!)

For my first visit I will say I was quite stunned at the perfection of it all, the gorgeous shade gardens thick with foliage textures I could never adequately duplicate in my dry shade garden, but I continue to try. In fact, I've been purchasing plants from them for years at plant sales and everything I've ever purchased has been quite healthy. So. What did we come home with? Hostas 'El Capitan' and 'Tyler's Treasure'. I picked up a Cheilanthes lanosa or hairy lip fern, Epimedium 'Swallowtail' and Acer pseudoplatanus 'Esk Sunset', a beautiful small maple with mottled pink and cream leaves. Not a lot but treasures nonetheless. They are all planted (save for the acer), tucked into their new homes in a few blank areas in the shade garden (winter damage always creates new opportunities, I tell myself) and I look forward to watching them grow year in and out. They will remind me of a very splendid day well spent with dear friends.

That's a wrap for this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always, thank you so much for reading and commenting, we love hearing from you! And a big thank you to the King City Garden Club for having me out for a presentation last week. An additional huge thank you to the Clark County Hardy Plant Society of Oregon group for having me out Wednesday evening to talk all things groundcovers. It was a pleasure meeting you all, both such wonderful gardening groups. Thank you thank you!

Garden Smart TV Episode of Sebright Gardens