Robyn's Nest Nursery

Review of Robyn's Nest Nursery
January 1998
by Steven C. Chamberlain
105 Academy Street
Manlius, NY 13104
Steve_Chamberlain@isr.syr.edu

Robyn's Nest Nursery
7802 NE 63rd Street
Vancouver, WA 98662
(360) 256-7399
Robynsnes2@aol.com
Catalog $2

Owner: Robyn Duback, Member AHS

In the past I have purchased the following hostas from Robyn's Nest Nursery:

• H. 'Abiqua Drinking Gourd'
• H. 'Aqua Velva'
• H. 'Aurora Borealis'
• H. 'Betsy King'
• H. 'Blue Vision'
• H. 'Burke's Dwarf'
• H. 'Celebration'
• H. 'Chameleon'
• H. 'Decorata'
• H. 'Dorothy'
• H. 'Elizabeth Campbell'
• H. 'Emerald Skies'
• H. 'Fall Bouquet'
• H. 'Garnet Prince'
• H. 'Gloriosa'
• H. 'Gold Seer'
• H. 'Golden Anniversary'
• H. 'Golden Bullion'
• H. 'Golden Medallion'
• H. 'Golden Sunburst'
• H. 'Iron Gate Glamour'
• H. 'Louisa'
• H. 'Moscow Blue'
• H. 'Pacific Blue Edger'
• H. 'Reversed'
• H. 'Royal Super'
• H. 'Sea Sapphire'
• H. 'Sentinels'
• H. 'Sherborne Songbird'
• H. 'Sherborne Swan'
• H. 'So Sweet'
• H. 'Sparkling Burgundy'
• H. 'Sweet Susan'
• H. 'Uzu-no-Mai'
• H. 'Valentine Lace'
• H. 'Yellow Submarine'
• H. 'Yellow Waves'

With these orders, I have received the following cultivars as bonus plants: H. 'Mountain Sunrise', H. 'Richland Gold', H. 'Blue Diamond'. All of these plants are thriving in the garden. My order for 1998 is in the mail.

For the past three years, the Robyn's Nest Nursery catalogs have been my very favorite of all those that arrive. For elegance of design, for accuracy of proofreading, for illustration with original drawings, for interesting information, this catalog is very, very hard to beat. (And it workslook how many hostas I've ordered as a result!) The current 44-page catalog has 19 pages of perennial listings followed by 25 pages of hosta listings. Altogether there are 449 hosta species and cultivars offered for sale in the catalog. Included are a number of Robyn Duback introductions not available elsewhere: H. 'Bigfoot', H. 'Fantasia', H. 'Magic Carpet', H. 'Mischief', H. 'Pacific Sunlight', and H 'Skookumchuck'. There are some others that were not available from any other of the sources listed in the 1997 Hosta Finder: H. 'Kifukurin Ko Mame', H. 'Kirishima', H. 'Kiwi Cream Edge', H. 'Kiwi Gold Rush', H. 'Kiwi Treasure Trove', H. 'Lady Isobel Barnett', H. 'Limey Lisa', H. longipes 'Hypoglauca', and H. 'Saishu Yahato Sito'. If you are only going to deal with a few mail order nurseries, this certainly should be one of them.

Prices tend to be moderate for the size and quality of plants shipped. The most expensive hosta offered for 1998 is H. 'Fantasia' for $200. At the other end of the price spectrum, there are numerous garden-worthy cultivars available for 3/$12. Credit cards are accepted, and orders are charged upon receipt. Plants are shipped within the US by UPS, except for Alaska, and arrive around the date specified.

Hostas are shipped bareroot covered with Robyn's wonderful slime (my terminology). I keep forgetting what it is really called, but it is a moisture retainer, which looks like mucous, that can stay in place when the plant goes to the garden and, as a result, plants shipped from Washington state to New York state look as though they don't know they've left their soil. I've been particularly pleased with the same-season growth of hostas received from Robyn's Nest Nursery and I wish all mail order nurseries used this slimy stuff on their bareroot plants.

The perennials offered for sale include nice selections of heucheras, pulmonarias, and tricyrtis. I bought a broad selection of heucheras last year. This year, I've ordered a set of pulmonarias in addition to hostas. Included as an insert to the catalog is an order form for the new Japanese book on variegated plants.

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