Windcliff, too!

Every field has its superstars: people who stand out from the crowd because of their talent, experience, or accomplishments – and because they’re universally respected, admired, and even loved. In horticulture, Dan Hinkley is one of those luminaries. As a plant explorer, he’s been around the world, hunting obscure treasures that would make great additions to our gardens. In over 30 trips in almost 40 years, he has introduced thousands of trees, shrubs, vines, and perennials to Western horticulture, many of them through his own nurseries. His personal gardens in Washington State, first Heronswood and now Windcliff, are considered masterpieces and attract visitors from around the world. He’s a charismatic speaker and has inspired several generations of gardeners and garden professionals alike.

Dan Hinkley at Windcliff, July 21, 2024

Last month, at the 2024 Garden Fling in Tacoma, Washington, I got to visit Heronswood, Hinkley’s first garden, now owned and operated by the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe. And just a few hours later, small buses took our group of 100 to Windcliff, Hinkley’s current garden, less than 10 miles away.

While Heronswood is tucked away in a forest, Windcliff is located on an exposed bluff high above Puget Sound. Heronswood is primarily a shady woodland garden, combining naturalistic plantings with formal elements and high drama. In contrast, Windcliff showcases extensive drifts of sun-loving perennials. “[At Heronswood] I had gardened inch by inch,” Hinkley says in Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens, published in 2020 by Timber Press. “[At Windcliff] I was gardening mile by mile.”

Cover of Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens

I had read Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens so I came somewhat prepared. I knew I wouldn’t be able to match Claire Takacs‘s transcendental photos, but I was hoping I’d capture my own impressions of this unique place.

Windcliff is a 6½ acre property facing south across Puget Sound with expansive views of downtown Seattle and 14,411 ft. Mount Rainier beyond. Dan Hinkley and Robert Jones bought it in 2000 from two women who had lived there for 30 years. At the time, most of the 6½ acres was mown lawn, with just a small area a traditional garden. This allowed Hinkley to essentially start with a blank slate. With the luxury of not having to live on the property right away (he was still working and living at Heronswood), he took his time to become acquainted with the land and figure out what he wanted the new garden to be.

Over the next three years, Hinkley developed the garden while Jones worked on transforming and enlarging the existing house. The bluff, the south-facing two acres perched above Puget Sound, is visible from almost any room in the house so Hinkley wanted it to be a viewing garden. The space was “overpowering in possibilities but intimidating in scale,” he writes. Large drifts of plants from around the world – agapanthus, eucomis and dieramas from South Africa, giant lobelias and fuchsias from South America, pittosporums and grevilleas from Australia, phormiums and olearias from New Zealand, berberis and cotoneaster from Asia, and many others – create an open savannah. Grasses, including Molinia, Panicum, Austraderia, and Stipa, provide movement and capture the light.

The large terrace in front of the house is designed to be a lush oasis. It has several water features – rills, falls, and pools – that connect the house to Puget Sound, visually and emotionally. A wide range of plants, everything from water lovers to cacti and succulents, coexist in surprising harmony even though they come from completely different habitats.

During my visit, I focused on the bluff and the terrace, but there are other areas of significance I didn’t have time for, including the arboretum along the driveway, the potager, and the 2½ acre meadow. Windcliff is not a place you can explore in a 2-hour window. The presentations I’ve linked to at the bottom of this post are a great way to see more of Windcliff than I’m able to show in this post. And of course Hinkley’s book, Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens, goes into great detail about the creation of the garden and the underlying design principles.

OK, time to take a look at what I saw during my hurried visit.

Along the drive

Spectacular bamboo allée along the drive

Korean-inspired totem along the drive

Trunked Yucca gloriosa next to rose campion (Silene coronaria)

In front of the house

Northern dining room alcove

One of several Cautleya

Paris sp.

The juvenile form of Pseudopanax ferox, the toothed lancewood from New Zealand – fantastically weird and instantly recognizable

Heptapleurum delavayi ‘Windcliff Lace’, a new introduction available through Windcliff Plants, the small on-site nursery

The terrace

Shade sails along the side of the house...

...with the bluff visible beyond

“Phlomis Towers” by ceramic artist Dustin Gimble (@dustingimbeldesigns)

A handful of Yucca rostrata...

...and a variety of hardy palms anchor the terrace plantings

Non-hardy potted succulents spend the summer on the terrace and go back in the greenhouse for the winter

Claygave donahuensis, clay artist Marcia Donahue‘s interpretation of an agave

Water is a central element of the terrace

Another variegated Yucca gloriosa

Silver sage (Salvia argentea)

Water lilies

Manzanita

Curling bark on manzanita

Yucca rostrata, Kniphofia, and Sarracenia

Small pond...

...full of hardy pitcher plants (Sarracenia sp.)

The bluff

Drifts of flowering sun lovers

The Council Ring by mosaic artist Jeffrey Bayle, a frequently used hang-out spot with an unobstructed view of Puget Sound...

...and the Seattle skyline beyond

Agapanthus in full flower

Hinkley has been breeding Agapanthus for many years, specializing in fully deciduous species that are hardy in the Pacific Northwest. Every year, 200+ seedlings of new varieties are planted out for evaluation.

Windcliff Plants currently lists 54 different species and cultivars of Agapanthus

Greenhouse, potager, and nursery

The greenhouse is used to shelter tender plants in the winter and grow tomatoes in the summer (the weather isn’t hot enough to reliably ripen them outside). Scored of raised planters outside the greenhouse are chock-full of vegetables.

The small on-site nursery was bursting at the seams with plants:

Robert Jones kindly opened the nursery so we were able to shop to our heart’s content. The majority of plants in the nursery aren’t suitable for my climate, but I did buy a few things, including Agapanthus ‘Hobbit’s Double’ (a double-flowering cultivar), Yucca rostrata (a new 2021 seed collection), Pseudopanax ferox and Pseudopanax crassifolium (I lost mine to our recent heat dome because I failed to move them into full shade), and Salvia daghestanica (a mat-forming groundcover salvia from the Caucasus).

Windcliff Plants isn’t set up for mail order, but you can submit your order online and pick up your plants at the nursery. You can also make an appointment to shop in person. More info here.

Dan Hinkley on YouTube

Here are two excellent video presentations by Dan Hinkley:

• Dan Hinkley: in conversation with the legendary plantsman, interview with Noel Kingsbury
• Winter Lecture Series – Dan Hinkley, Windcliff, presentation at New York Botanical Garden

© Gerhard Bock, 2024. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.