Sounds like a great time for all of you. Be sure to get lots of photos for the rest of us.
Cher

Will, I have two chainsaws. I can make room somewhere on ten acres, even after 35 years here. Rectifying past mistakes is the hard part. I have no special plants in mind. Whatever strikes your fancy.
What to bring is my major problem. You guys are serious collectors. I'm a over the hill, retired landscaper that's getting a little long in the tooth, as the Brits would say.
I've been wanting to visit Bob's for a long time. This is the best opportunity for me to buy a few plants from him. I won't even have to pay for shipping!
Mike....still cleaning up after a winter ice storm.

I suggest we either do it on Saturday, May 19th or May 28th (Memorial Day Monday). Every other weekend in May I am already scheduled for tours at Albers Vista Gardens.

Do either of these dates work for you?

-Sam

Monday the 28th works great for me too.....one of my normally scheduled days off!

Thanks for the offer, Will. Not sure what I might want/need. Special ordered three new maples I still need to deal with :-) Watcha got that's tiny and in duplicate? So far all my conifer purchases this year have been for clients - I love spending other people's money!!

I am 100% a go for Monday the 28th. Is this a good day for a visit Bob?

Let's work out some times and whether anyone is carpooling and we'll make sure Bob's OK and then we're off.

yup. Monday the 28th works for me as well. Let's make a very memorable Memorial Day.

~Dave

That will work on this end. Would about 10 am be a good time?

Bob

I will be there at 10AM on Monday. As of right now, I am not picking anyone up. If you want a ride and you're convenient enough, let me know(via email or here).

Cya folks there!

-Will

Will, I'm east of Renton, near Maple Valley. Out of your way, so I won't need a ride. Thanks, anyway.

I will be at Bob's at 10am also. It will take less than an hour to get there.
Mike

10:00 a.m. will work just fine for Dr. Albers and me as well!

-Sam

Will, I know you are over here in Kitsap but not sure where :-) Any chance we could meet up and carpool together?

Pam

Who is excited for this weekend?!

-Sam

I'm stoked, Sam.

Mike

woohoo!

~Dave

I am excited as well! I have corresponded with Dianne Fincham and she is expecting us. This should be a great day, even if the weather isn't perfect for sunbathing, it will make for good photo ops!

Pam, where are you located? I will be coming South on 16 from Port Orchard(Sedgewick).

-Will

I'm too far north for you, Will :-) I'm in Indianola so will be driving on my own (with shotgun riding dog).

Hope to see you all there! It's been eons since I was in Eatonville......hope I don't get lost.

Pam

Have fun and show us some pics! :0)

It was a fantastic trip, and we all left with some incredible plants.

I will start a thread to show pictures of the plants we purchased later, but for now here are some pictures taken at the garden:

Our group: (from left to right, Bob Fincham, Mike (botann), Pam (gardengal), John Albers, Will Fletcher (firefightergardener), Anita and her husband Dave (Glaciers-End), and finally me (monkeytreeboy15) on the end.
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a large Abies nordmanniana 'Golden Spreader'
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Abies delavayi 'Buchanan' cone
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Picea jezoensis 'Aurea' cone
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Picea abies 'Dandylion' or 'Summer Daze'
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-Sam

it was 97 here yesterday .. i suspect.. by the way you all are dressed.. it wasnt so there.. lol ...

i am envious ...

did monkey get a new camera??

ken

It's nice to put some faces with names... now I know there were more pics take a long the tour... lets see them =) lol

Thanks for the group photo. Looks like a bunch of happy people and why not? :) That Golden Spreader is to die for.
Cher

Thanks for the photos Sam. A good group photo and some awesome cone photos!

Glad you all got together yesterday.

Dax

Hello everybody! Glad you had a great time, looking forward to all the pics...

WOW...Real nice group photo ! Ill be around 90 when my 'golden spreader' looks that good! lol

Sam! I still have the specimen of 'Hupp's Christmas Tree' I was going to offer you! We'll have to set something up soon.

Even though I was late(blame the woman), I had a great time, met new friends, enjoyed the company of old ones, hoped to take home a few plants, left with a baker's dozen and had that conifer-high all day and well into the day today. Like a TOTAL ASZHOLE I didn't bring my camera so a few cultivar photos of what I came home with will have to suffice. Hopefully some others there took some photos and can share them - Coenosium Gardens is a truely amazing place.

Picea abies 'Dazzler' - One of Bob's golden seedling, it's starting to show serious promise and this specimen had already decided to cone, ala 'Pusch', small and bright red.
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Picea abies 'Honey Pot' - Dave asked(knowingly) if I was going to collect all of the golden seedlings. That seems likely, just LOOK at these gold colors!
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I also traded a few grafts of 'Catharine's Golden Heart' with Dave for a nice specimen of 'Anita's Golden Cloak'. Trading and plant-sharing has become one of the more enjoyable parts of collecting. Meeting the people is right up there as well.

More as I get time.

-Will

Great pics, Sam. Must have been awesome there.

Will...Mr. Pic-o-matic...forgot his camera? You must have been stoked for the trip.

tj

I was so stoked I ran out of the house with my camera and didn't realize I had left the battery at home in the charger until I tried to take a picture. Not a good move on my part, but I WILL be back.
I picked up a Sciadopitys vert., 'Ossario Gold', Abies Koreana, 'Gelbrunt', and a seedling from a 'Gelbrunt'.
Mike

Great pics. Looks like you guys had fun. Anita should have worn her golden cloak! ha!

Matt

Mike I have to laugh at your forgetting the battery. :) But what a great day. Now think about all of us over here that day in the 90's and all you guys had on jackets. That doesn't seem fair, plus you went home with some new plants.
Cher

It WAS a great day!! Fun to put faces to folks I just knew by name and was totally awed by the variety of conifers Bob grows. And what a charming host he is!! I was very good and limited my purchases - only a Picea abies 'Gold Drift' and a nidiformis 'Kalous'. When you are restricted pretty much to growing in containers, small is good!! I plan on the Gold Drift being just a sprawler off the side the container - Bob grew several of his as groundcovers and they were striking.

My slowly mending broken ankle was screaming all the way home but it was sure worth it :-)

Hi Mike, 'Gelbbunt' not Gelbrunt.

You guys and your camera's. eeez.

Dax

I'm very glad that you guys had a wonderful day!
It's to bad that some camara's were missing.

I see some familiar faces at the group pic :0)

Sam, do you've some other pics you want to show us?

Pam, It's Picea abies 'Nidiformis Kalous' instead of nidiformis 'Kalous'...

Great group portrait. I like Bob's hat.

Thanks for the pics!

No, Ken, not a new camera. I'm just beginning to learn how to use it properly. It was no more than 60 or so that day.

Edwin, I don't have many more pictures to show because I was too busy asking what was for sale and reading tags to have much time to photograph. I will find some others, and as I said, I will start a thread to show the plants we left with.

Will, I'm looking forward to receiving 'Hupp's Christmas Tree'. And this gives us an excuse to tour each others pinetums soon!

-Sam (still in awe of the collection at Coenosium Gardens)

Thanks for sharing!

-Sam (still in awe of the collection at Coenosium Gardens)

I can tell based on that picture. You are as giddy as a little school girl!lol!

Yeah, Sam was having fun. Heck, we all were. Sam is one sharp guy. He really knows his conifers and was very focused.
Me? I went the other way. It didn't take me long to get foggy headed after looking at all the trees and sucking up info like a vacuum cleaner. I left bewildered and had to really concentrate the first few miles to make the right turns to get home.
Thank you very much Bob and Diane.
Mike
p.s. Thanks Edwin for the correction. Typo. The label was right.

Thanks Dax, not Edwin. Sheesh!

'Gelbunt' it is.
Mike

Envious.

I would have liked to have been there.

My wife and I need to jump in the pickup and head that way for some of those choice cultivars.

Maybe I will stop by Will's and dig a few while I am out there....he won't miss them.

Dave

You got it Dave, bring a truck and a shovel, I know they'll be well cared for! I'll make my way out there soon, I can combine it with a wicked storm-chasing trip! :)

-Will

definitely fun meeting all of you no-longer-virtual friends. Here's a plant that I found compelling. I've been to Coenosium so many times that Bob's trees and I are on a first name basis. However, every time I'm there, I encounter something special. Pictured is an Abies koreana cultivar with bristled cones. I didn't commit the name to memory so please someone help me out here. Hopefully, I'll get to clip a few scions next winter.
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~Dave

Dave, that's the Abies koreana 'Vengels' which is a Dutch seedling selection, introduced by Piet Vergeld who also selected the Picea omorika 'Peve Tijn' and the Taxodium distichum 'Peve Minaret'.

Mike, maybe you can thank me after all, it's 'Gelbbunt' instead of 'Gelbunt'.
It means "Gold Variegated' in the German language.

Two Ls and two Bs! I just made the correction and now I have to make another. It's hard to keep up, but I'm trying.
Thank you again, Edwin. ;-)
Mike

Mike, you're welcome!
It's one L and two Bs...

Abies koreana 'Vengels': Thanks, Edwin. I too had forgotten the name, Dave.
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-Sam

Sam, beautiful pic!
It can happen that these cones will stay at the plant for 7-8 years...

Sam, you mentioned "Picea abies 'Dandylion' or 'Summer Daze' ".

Does this plant have two names or don't you know which name was given to this plant?

This is a brandnew cultivar and and seems like a mess is starting already...

Please clearify.

Edwin, I simply can't remember what the tag said. It was one of the two, but they are definitely two separate cultivars.

-Sam

Right, Picea abies 'Dandylion' and Picea abies 'Summer Daze' are both different golden selections from Bob Fincham(numbers 13 and 20 respectively) and not the same plant.

Link below

Here is a link that might be useful: Golden Seedlings/photos

Please, all of you, do it again next year! I didn't find out about it in time to clear my calendar, but I could have been there. Next Memorial Day?

Abies koreana 'Vengels' = WOW! WOW! WOW!