Heronswood Garden, finally

Heronswood, located in Kingston, Washington, has a tumultuous history that reflects its evolution from a private plant sanctuary and nursery to the only botanical garden owned and operated by an American Indian tribe. It was established in 1987 by Dan Hinkley and Robert Jones on 10 acres of woodland on the Kitsap Peninsula (see map below). Hinkley, a renowned plantsman and horticulturist, and Jones, an architect, sought to create a diverse garden showcasing rare and unusual plants from around the world. Heronswood quickly gained international renown for its eclectic plant collections. Hinkley’s plant hunting expeditions to Asia, South America, and other regions yielded a plethora of unique species that found a new home in the temperate climate of the Pacific Northwest.

In the 1990s, Heronswood blossomed. By 2000, the garden featured 10,000 species and had become a mecca for plant lovers and botanists alike. Heronswood Nursery specialized in exotic plants raised from seed that Hinkley had collected on his travels, selling primarily through mail order. The catalog, eagerly awaited each year, listed several thousand plants with detailed descriptions, but no photos. The lack of illustrations in a catalog may seem counterintuitive, but it added to the mystique. At the height of its success, the nursery employed 30 people and mailed out 50,000 catalogs a year.

The frantic pace and popularity of Heronswood began to take a toll on the couple: “Heronswood became a laboratory, a hotel and salon,” Hinkley writes in his book Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens (Timber Press 2020), “an entrepôt of ideas and new plants with an eclectic guest list of often-celebrated authors, artists, designers, gardeners and media personalities. It was bigger than its parts, and more than Robert and I . . . could sustain.”

In 2000, Hinkley and Jones sold Heronswood, including the plant collection comprising between 7000 and 8000 taxa, to W. Atlee Burpee & Co., a major U.S. seed and plant producer. Hinkley and Jones stayed on to run the garden and nursery operations. However, plagued by financial problems, Burpee abruptly shuttered the business in 2006, laying off all employees with no advance warning and moving the nursery operation to Pennsylvania.

The closure of Heronswood sent shockwaves far and wide. With virtually no maintenance, the garden went into decline, as any garden would if left unattended. Burpee’s attempts to sell the property failed, and for half a decade, the future of Heronswood seemed bleak. But in 2012, everything changed. The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, whose reservation is nearby, bought Heronswood at a sealed-bid auction. Recognizing the cultural and ecological significance of the garden, the tribe embarked on a mission to restore and revitalize the property. With Hinkley returning as a consultant, the garden began its journey of renewal. Volunteers, horticulturists, and tribal members worked tirelessly to rehabilitate the neglected grounds, breathing new life into Heronswood. Today, the focus is on both preserving the unique plant collections and integrating the tribe’s cultural heritage.

Heronswood is open to the public throughout the year. Check the Heronswood website for opening hours.

Heronswood had been on my bucket list for a long time, but somehow I’d never managed to visit. Fortunately, Heronswood was one of the destinations on the 2024 Garden Fling – in fact, together with Windcliff, Dan Hinkley’s current garden located just a few miles away, it was one of reasons why I decided to attend the Fling.

Below is the official garden map, borrowed from the Heronswood website:

The original gardens dating back to the time Hinkley and Jones lived there are on one side of the parking lot, the new Renaissance Garden on the other. Directly adjacent to the parking lot is the Rock Garden, which was created during the pandemic. As per the Heronswood website, “the Rock Garden incorporates five rocky islands, each studded with miniature treasures that grow at high elevation. The garden currently showcases alpine plants from North America’s western mountains and southwestern deserts but will expand to include other regions plus Mediterranean landscapes.” [1]

Of course I was most interested in the succulents growing in the Rock Garden. I was quite surprised by the variety – everything from agaves, cacti, and dryland ferns to sedums and yuccas. The limiting factor isn’t temperature (Heronswood is in USDA zone 8b), but winter rainfall. Many succulents can tolerate cold temperatures as long as they’re reasonably dry. Sitting in soggy soil for any length of time is what often kills them. To prevent this, the mounds in the Rock Garden are composed of porous soil with excellent drainage.

Below are just a few examples of what’s growing in these mounds. This garden is in its infancy; it’ll be fun revisiting it in five or ten years.

Sedum oregonense

These are the most unobtrusive plant tags I’ve ever seen. They disappear into the background when you don’t focus on them directly, but pop into focus when you need them.

Opuntia sp.

Agave parviflora

This intriguing green cushion is Sabulina austromontana, or Columbia stitchwort. It has a large native range, from British Columbia and Alberta in Canada south into the Rocky Mountains and Utah.

Like my friend Loree (danger garden), I’m always on the lookout for agaves. Her motto is, “There’s always an agave if you look hard enough.” At Heronswood, I didn’t even have to look hard. In addition to the (small) agaves in the Rock Garden, I spotted a few larger specimens in the rock walls surrounding the parking lot:

Agave ‘Baccarat’ (top), Agave parryi (in the wall)

Agave salmiana var. ferox...

...with lots of pups

From the Rock Garden, I walked over to the Renaissance Garden. Started in 2018, it recreates an abandoned logging camp that is being reclaimed by the forest – a tribute to the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s long history in the local logging industry. Hardy ferns from around the world, more than 3000 in total, and other shade-loving plants grow under a canopy of Western redcedar, a tree of particular significance to the tribe.

One of the most unique features in the Renaissance Garden is the Raining Wall, a permeable wall with water seeping from the top. It supports a variety of plants tucked into cracks and crevices. The sounds made by the dripping water were magical.

Fern tables have become a popular feature in Pacific Northwest Gardens. Loree Bohl has written about fern tables extensively on her blog, danger garden, including her own. This post, about a hands-on workshop with fern table master Richie Steffen, illustrates how to make your own.

The fern table in the Renaissance Garden is a massive structure befitting the “abandoned logging camp” concept. Not knowing much about ferns (all we can grow in the Sacramento Valley are dryland ferns, and there are precious few of them available), all I could do was stare at the myriad shades of green in front of me:

I would gladly have spent another hour in the Renaissance Garden. However, we were on a tight schedule, so I reluctantly tore myself away and moseyed over to the Woodland Garden.

The Woodland Garden is one the original gardens established by Dan Hinkley when he and Robert Jones lived at Heronswood. It’s home to a large part of Heronswood’s plant collections, with noteworthy specimens from the Hydrangea, Barberry, Aralia, Begonia and Lily families. As such, it’s not only a beautifully serene place, it’s also one of major horticultural significance.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I came across the structure below. I had no idea what it was, but it turns out it’s a temple ruin created by artists George Little and David Lewis. They used to have a celebrated garden on nearby Bainbridge Island, but I believe they mostly live in Mexico now.

It’s not difficult to imagine this might be a ruin in a tropical jungle

In contrast to the naturalistic Woodland Garden, the gardens around Heron House, the original home of Dan Hinkley and Robert Jones, are formal and precise. In the “old days,” they were used for entertaining. Today, they are a popular wedding venue.

The hornbeam arches, above and below, are a landmark feature of Heronswood.

Carnivorous plants feature prominently, both at Heronswood and also at Windcliff, as you’ll see in a later post.

The formal gardens were at their summer peak, but the layered foliage textures and colors are spectacular even without flowers.

One of the most beloved parts of the original garden is the potager. Originally, this boxwood parterre was a formal vegetable and herb garden, now it’s all flowering plants. This is one of the most popular spots for wedding ceremonies.

Dan Hinkley’s legacy will forever be an integral part of Heronswood, but as I mentioned earlier, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe has begun to widen the scope. The Rock Garden and the Renaissance Garden I already showed you are two prominent examples. Another is the Traveler’s Garden, still very much in its early days. Divided into three areas representing a Chilean forest, a Vietnamese peak, and the mountains straddling the border between Oregon and California, it “tells the tale of plant hunters, what they do and how they do it.” [3]

Finally, the S’Klallam Connections Garden, still under construction, will feature plants of particular significance to the tribe, including “a coniferous woodland filled with edible berries and cedar bark, a seasonal pond providing cat-tail and sweet-grass for weaving, plus a camas prairie for harvesting edible bulbs.” [4] As Heronswood director Ross Bayton explained to our group, camas bulbs were one of the most important traditional foods of the S’Klallam, and having a reliable source of camas growing right at Heronswood will allow tribe members to at least taste the food of their ancestors.

Consider this post an introduction to Heronswood, not a comprehensive survey. There was much more to see, but we had a limited amount of time. With Heronswood once again open to the public, I know I’ll be back.

Click here to read my post about Windcliff, Dan Hinkley's current garden, which we visited later on the same day.

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