While gardeners will be forgiven for showing spring all the love, for Sequim nursery manager Stew Cockburn, his heart belongs to fall.
And it’s not just the changing colors that catch his eye – although they do! It’s that fall is the best season for planting – the rains have loosened up the dry soil, making it easier to dig, Mother Nature will water your new plantings for free, and temperatures remain mild enough to encourage strong root development, explains Cockburn, manager of the New Dungeness Nursery in Sequim.
“While I’ve been known to plant year-round here in the Pacific Northwest, I typically find that unless we start to get really chilly temperatures, the ground is warm enough through the fall to let plants get well-established,” Cockburn says.
With all that in mind, the New Dungeness team is celebrating with their annual fall sale, including 20 percent off everything in stock through Oct. 20. And new this year – in addition to the sale starting earlier and running longer – it also includes houseplants!
As a special treat, available while supplies last, Cockburn has four varieties of native willow at 50 percent off, plus giant sequoia, and lombardy poplars already at 15 feet tall – a great choice for fall color. “If you have a big yard, these are a great bang for the buck,” Cockburn notes.
The New Dungeness team – including four with Horticultural Professional certification through the Washington State Nursery & Landscape Association – are always keen to share the benefits of adding native plants to your landscape design.
Several Canadian hemlock hybrids include a lovely dwarf weeping variety, ‘Jeddeloh,’ that will love a shady area, while Panchito manzanita is an attractive evergreen shrub that will also appreciate a spot in the understory.
For a beautiful boxwood alternative, Cockbun loves the variegated Cascade Sunburst evergreen huckleberry, with new growth in pink contrasting glossy green leaves, plus flowers and berries as the seasons progress.
Also catching Cockburn’s eye in the nursery is a Tiger Eyes sumac with stunning, cut-leaf foliage that changes through the seasons from chartreuse to bright yellow to orange-red, and ‘Kaleidoscope’ Abelia, a flowering evergreen shrub with year-long color.
Rounding out the list is the new ‘Paisley Pup’ Leucothoe, an evergreen shrub with pink-tinged new growth.
Seasonal special events are on their way
Beyond the fall sale, New Dungeness Nursery has a variety of other special events on the calendar, including a kids’ Christmas tree pot-up and an all-ages wreath-making and holiday decorating class, in addition to the ongoing series of landscape classes.
Visit New Dungeness Nursery at 4911 Sequim Dungeness Way, where they’re open daily, year-round! Learn more at newdungenessnursery.com or call
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