An omnibus of garden profiles is a popular format for many horticultural authors, and yet I find Under Western Skies: Visionary Gardens from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast especially engaging. Author Jennifer Jewell brings broad and creative perspectives to what makes each place noteworthy.

Although Jewell wrote the text, she gives first title page credit to Caitlin Atkinson, the photographer, an appropriate decision for a book as sumptuous as this one. The gardens of the geographic range, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast, have only infrequently been considered before, and the choice of subjects is quite remarkable.

A handful are well-known, such as Heronswood, but even its story is quite different now under the ownership of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe. Most were new to me. In Washington State, this includes private gardens in north Seattle, Castle Rock and Pullman. Others in the region are found in Hood River, Oregon and Tofino, British Columbia.

While I can envision visiting some of the gardens that have public access, this is not a travel guide. By profiling the place, the people and the plants, each location is presented with a sense of its space in a bigger world. This is done in part by a brief description of the climate, geology and human history of the indigenous peoples that once dwelt on the land. The photography, rarely showing close-ups, enhances the feeling of lightly defined borders. These gardens, while often providing sanctuary, are not isolated from their surroundings or their past.

Jewell writes in the preface, “Most gardens are a three-part alchemy between the riches and constraints of the natural and/or cultural history of the place, the individual creativity and personality of the gardener, and the gardening culture in which both the garden and the gardener exist.” While I won’t use Under Western Skies to plan my next garden touring itinerary, it does give me a better sense of my place and purpose as a gardener, especially in this part of the world.

Supported by a 4Culture Art Project Grant, Markel Uriu’s work explores invasive species: their environmental impacts, and links to humanity, globalization and colonization.

By tracing the movements of invasive species, human histories can be revealed. These arrivals drastically alter and shape the landscape, creating new iterations within the ecosystem, often with unintended consequences. As human developments compound issues such as climate change, new elements create further unknown surprises.

New works since 2020 explore these emerging shifts, focusing on hybrids and extinctions which result from the movements of new organisms through human distribution. Additional works explore the unknowns within mundane landscapes, exploring recent changes in landscapes through photographic records and obfuscation through the use of paper weaving.

Regular users of our online catalog may have noticed a new resource there: Pacific Northwest Nurseries Online. In addition to showing our historical and current publications from over 150 nurseries in the Washington/Oregon/British Columbia region (and a few in Northern California, Idaho and Alaska), the listing offers online access links to the websites of wholesale, nonprofit and retail seed houses and nurseries all over Cascadia.

This listing is a work in progress. If we've missed any of your favorite nurseries, please let us know!