Last weekend was the annual migration -- tender plants up from the basement, shade pavilion greenhouse walls down and those plants set free. It really is quite the production, I was fortunate my husband helped move a lot of them. About the 15th trip up the stairs he...
Plants: Articles from The Editorial Side
What can we say? We are here because we love plants. You’re probably here because you love plants. We talk a lot about the plants we love, covet, admire, have watched grow happily in our gardens, tried and failed, the ups and downs of tending our own gardens and visiting others. It’s a happy place here, join us.
plants to make a garden sing
I cannot get over the thrill of plants emerging in spring, tender vibrant leaves bursting forth from earth. And it happens every year. How is nature so smart? Also every year, I'm taken by surprise when I swoon over flowers. I claim I garden primarily for foliage. But...
Tetrapanax, don’t make me sorry!
Oh boy, talk about a good thing, and perchance too much of it? The jury is out. But if year one is any indication, Flamingo Park, we may have a problem. These plants were gifts from Ron Wagner, a guy who packed his bag, and I mean singular bag, and headed for...
A visit to Dancing Oaks Nursery
Last week I shared photos from a visit to Sebright Gardens, this week we venture on to Dancing Oaks Nursery in Monmouth, Oregon. For those who live in Portland Dancing Oaks is a bit of a destination nursery -- about an hour and a half south of town. It's a beautiful...
Spring Fever is Contagious
It's been a few years since I've felt like showing off my garden, after multiple forces converged and took it from a wild lush jungle, to a big sad mess, with the occasional interesting plant hinting that a gardener used to tend these parts. Not the way I like to...
Spring: come here, go there, fly with all you might.
Don't you love this time of year, that is if you're not still buried in snow. I'm so sorry for those yet battling dastardly weather. We had a mild winter in the Pacific Northwest, and that means all manner of things are bursting from the earth. Some people worry about...
A visit to Sebright Gardens
As I may have mentioned, one (or twelve) times before, in Oregon we are rich with independent nurseries. We have so many to chose from it's almost mind-boggling. Last week I had a chance to visit a couple in the Salem area, south of Portland, ones I only get to once a...
Lan Su Chinese Gardens redux
You may recall, I posted about the Lan Su Chinese Garden before. I said that I hardly ever go--because I have a yearly membership, which means I can go any time I want. Hmmm. That doesn't make sense, does it? And it's not true. Now that I'm driving myself around town,...
This was going to be the year I skipped these…
As some of you may have read in Patricia's last post I recently stumbled upon a treasure trove of Echium candicans at Garden Fever. I was just walking along admiring the flowers and other offerings when bam! I'm suddenly confronted with beautiful variegation, what's a...
springtime plant lust
I've got it. How about you? What's are you pining for? My problem is remembering what I want in the face of so many temptations when I actually do make it to the nursery. I'm dazzled by the abundance. And, of course, the pesky brain injury, blah blah, no help there...