The Plant Hunter

Daniel J. Hinkley's iconic garden, Windcliff, is a map of his adventures as a plant hunter and a life well lived.

- DEANNA KIZIS

When I think of a plant hunter—as in, someone who goes to places like South Africa, Vietnam, China, and Nepal to find rare species and bring them back to the United States— I imagine a swash-buckling Indiana Jones type running through the mountains complete with hat and whip. And to hear famed plant collector, horticulturist, and botanist Daniel Hinkley tell it, there is a bit of daredevilry to the job. “I’ve had hard treks, bad knees, bee stings, and leeches hanging from my neck,” he says. “But if I am lucky, plant collecting offers me a bit of seed, and the resulting plant possesses all of the memories associated with it.”

When he’s not covered in leeches, Hinkley can be found in his famed garden, Windcliff, in Indianola, Washington, which extends across six-and-a-half acres on a south-facing bluff high above Puget Sound. It is a garden of astonishing beauty—the culmination of a plant man’s incomparable eye and vast expertise on how to nurture living things. Hinkley fell in love with plants at the age of 5. He remembers his first time sowing seeds of morning glories and gourds with his father, and although he can’t explain what exactly the attraction was, he soon promoted himself to head vegetable gardener. This in a family that grew up during the Great Depression and, frankly, didn’t understand why he couldn’t just buy canned beans if he wanted them so much. By high school, Hinkley was collecting houseplants and orchids while studying what grew around him in Northern Michigan. Multiple degrees in horticulture soon followed.