Kelly Dodson & Sue Milliken

HPSO’s Fall PlantFest 2018, which includes a lecture followed by a plant sale, features Kelly Dodson of Far Reaches Farm as our lecture speaker.  Kelly Dodson and his wife, Sue Milliken, are true plant geeks. Their specialty nursery, Far Reaches Farm, located in Port Townsend, WA is a mecca for gardeners.

Kelly and Sue met on a seed collecting expedition to China and the rest is history. The nursery, in its eighth year, offers a wide selection of unique and special plants. Kelly is a well-known speaker and he will regale us with plants from far and wide that are well-suited for our northwest gardens. As an added treat, he and Sue will be selling plants at the plant sale that follows the lecture.

Their nursery grows thousands of taxa in their collection, which is augmented by their own seed collecting expeditions and exchanges with botanic gardens and others similarly possessed from around the world. You are guaranteed to see plant or two you have never seen before in their display gardens.

Sue Milliken

They also created a Botanical Conservancy to facilitate the acquisition and introduction of threatened and vulnerable ornamental plants, of known wild provenance as well as from cultivated sources, to North America. These plants will be maintained as a living reference collection for public educational and scientific purposes with the goal of conservation through cultivation via distribution to botanic and public gardens, botanists and researchers, plus professional and amateur gardeners and horticulturists. All proceeds from the sales of these plants go to supporting Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy’s mission.

Excerpt of the Botanical Conservation plants from the Far Reaches Farm website

Kelly & Sue have a great sense of humor, which comes through in their plant labels as well as through tales of their travels and life at the nursery.

PlantFest takes place at the PCC Rock Creek campus (17705 NW Springville Rd, Portland, OR 97229) on Sept 15, 2018.  Parking is free.  The lecture is from 10am-11am (register here) and is $10 for HPSO Members; $20 for non-members; and $5 for students.  The plant sale is from 11am-2pm and everyone is welcome with free admission.