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Craig Sailor is the Arts & Entertainment editor at The News Tribune. Last year he planted his first vegetable garden. Focusing on unusual varieties, “Freak of Nature” returns for 2008 with a new crop of uncommon vegetables and flowers. This year he’ll try yin yang beans, giant pumpkins, blue poppies and mutant sunflowers. He gardens at his North End Tacoma home and sneaks seeds in to his mother’s garden at Willapa Bay when she’s not looking. E-mail him at craig.sailor@thenewstribune.com.

Sue Kidd is the Lifestyle Editor at The News Tribune and the ringleader for the Home&Garden section. She is a decent vegetable gardener, but occasionally a tragic mess at growing other stuff. She’ll blog about gardening events, gadgets, her weird obsession with guerrilla gardening and all her assorted garden disasters. E-mail her with thoughts/rants/questions/bizarre observations. sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com.

More gardening blogs:
Greengirl
"Starting seeds, dreading weeds."

You Grow Girl
"Gardening for the people."

Between Plow and Wood
"Meditations on farming, nature, food, art, sustainability, the environment and rural living."

Downtown Tomatoes
"A gardening club for the rest of us."

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A Gardening Blog
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
Posted by Craig Sailor @ 06:16:12 pm

This is my evergreen barberry (with a ceanothus in the background and a few sprigs of rosa glauca mixed in.) It's going crazy right now with arching branches of neon orange blossoms. It's the most intensely flowered barberry I've ever seen.

Well, I have seen another just as stunning: at the fabled Heronswood Nursery in Kingston where I bought mine as a small twig.

Started by plant explorer Dan Hinkley and his partner Robert Jones the small nursery soon grew both in size and world-wide reputation.

But Hinkley and Jones sold Heronswood to Burpee a few years ago with much controversy. Now, the pair have a new home and stunning garden in Indianola.

TNT reporter Debbie Cafazzo and I visited Dan last week and the busy author, lecturer and world traveler graciously gave us a tour of the garden and talked about life post-Heronswood. You can read the story and see my photos in this Saturday's Home&Garden section in the The News Tribune.

Oh, the barberry...Dan (who has one growing in Indianola) told us last week that he collected the seeds for this bush on the same Chilean island that Charles Darwin collected seeds from.

I think I'll name mine "Charlie."

Categories: Gardening News, Flowers