Last Thursday was one of those days I think I must have the best job in the world. Not only did a Seattle Times photographer send me these absolutely gorgeous photos he took of a modern Seattle garden (how many of those do we have??), but I started out the day submerged in a filigreed haze of Japanese maple foliage.
Charlie Morgan has at least six hundred Japanese maples on his half-acre property, mostly in boxes and pots, grown large enough so you can see their beautiful structure. His collection is a wonderland of rare and unusual maples, both ancient and new, including some vine maple cultivars I'd never heard of, let alone seen. Morgan is an architect who has slid down the slippery slope of genus obsession, with the contemporary touch of Craig's list mixed into the tale...yet when you walk beneath all those lovely trees you can understand why....
I'm writing a story about both the modern garden, designed by Richard Hartlage, and Amazing Maples for Pacific Northwest magazine...the maple story will run later this autumn, the modern garden story next year...in the meantime, here's a peak at Charlie's collection...
