For Portland gardeners, one of my favorite plant sales of the year is happening this weekend, the Chinese Garden fall plant sale. It isn’t a huge sale, but their selections are always top notch and not commonly found elsewhere. I love how this sale is run. We’ve all been to the sales where you have [...]
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Tagged: rhododendron
I never get tired of watching new leaves emerge. Flowers are fine, but after staring at the bare winter landscape for months, I’m most excited about being surrounded by lush green. Even the evergreens, like this pittosporum, put on a show of growing new leaves that stops me in my tracks and makes my fish [...]
We’ve got a nice cloudy day today with a few showers moving through, the perfect day for some work in the garden. Everything looks so happy and refreshed by the rain. This peony collected glittery rain drops on the leaves, probably marking the last time I’m going to like this plant for a little while. [...]
One of the consistent highlights of local plant shows is the Gossler Farms table. Gossler Farms is a family run nursery in Springfield, Oregon with a well deserved international following. Roger Gossler is a person you want to make sure to talk to when you get the chance. Don’t be fooled by his mild demeanor, [...]
It warmed up this weekend and I uncovered all my winterized stuff. We had about a week below freezing, a foot of snow, with some prolonged periods in the mid 20s.
I pushed all the agave pots up against the south side of the house, covered them with a frost blanket, and covered that with [...]
I did the everything I could get to on the winterizing front. The pots were huddled by the south side of the house, the were bananas wrapped, the really tender stuff was relocated inside the house. Now all I have to do is resist the urge to declare winter over at the first [...]
#1. Moss covered branches in winter
#2. Big leafed rhododendrons
#3. Moss gardens
#4. Monster leaves of Gunnera
#5. Hairy fiddleheads
#6. Alien beauties like Pinellia cordata
#7. Spring leaves of the golden full moon maple
#8. The pleated new growth of rubus lineatus
#9. Sharp spines of agaves against a velvety bamboo backdrop
#10. Purple spring leaves of ornamental rhubarb
I noticed a trend once I pulled together some pictures of my new evergreens in one place. The same leaf shape has been making a repeat appearance. I guess this has been the year of the palmate compound leaf in my garden.
Identified on the plant tag as nothopanax, this one had me worried for [...]
Some of the trees are naked, but there’s still plenty of garden eye-candy in Mid-November. Either I have done an excellent job of planting more winter interest, or it is not really winter yet (it’s the latter).
I had honestly hoped for more out of my Gunnera this year. I built a bog just [...]
Happy November! We had a beautiful mild October with hardly any rain here in Portland, but finally we have some good rainy fall weather on the way to water in the new plants.
Some of the spring plants were iffy, some still are, but at least we’re through the hot dry weather, and the rain [...]