danger garden

I love magnolias, in fact even the word “magnolia” makes me happy. Thank god I’m not going to have children because if I did I might just have to name our first born Magnolia, it could just almost be bearable for a girl child (no doubt she'd be called Maggie), but what a curse for a little boy.

The image at the top was taken in my garden, the one below was taken at Cistus Nursery when we visited last weekend…

And so was this one…

I’ve been in love with Magnolia laevifolia ever since spotting it in the Kennedy School garden years ago. I already had a couple of them in my garden but this one is a new addition, from my friend Bridget (she moved out of her garden (and house) a month or so back).

It’s crazy ahead of my own M. laevifolia, and that’s not a bad thing since it means the floral show will last longer if the plants space themselves out.

The fragrant white flowers make me weak in the knees, but if I had to choose I’d claim the brown fuzzy pre-flower bits as my favorite. They stick around for months!

But the blooms. They are pretty fabulous, and there are so many of them!

This is one of those plants that's suffered a bit of an identity crisis. As Cistus Nursery tells the tale... "Stunning plant! Recently called M. dianica and previously Michelia yunnanensis but this plant is always fabulous with its graceful, ropey foliage; profuse, intensely fragrant white blooms in spring and summer; and first rate cinnamon indumentum on the buds in autumn! Easily accepts sun to half shade with regular water. Frost hardy in USDA zone 8 and very possibly into mid zone 7."

And Xera Plants says "A wonderful evergreen shrub with rounded leaves that are deep green and backed with a brown indumentum which coats the stems as well. Conical growing to 10' tall and half as wide in 8' years. The flower buds are coated in brown fur as well and are formed in the previous year and are showy through the winter. They open to 6 petaled white very fragrant flowers in April and are profuse born along the lithe stems. Unlike other Magnolias they are not brittle and are not damaged in snow and ice bending easily. This undemanding and handsome shrub is at home in full sun as well as shade in well drained soil with regular irrigation though it is tolerant of dry conditions when established. There are other named forms of this shrub which we have found to be not as hardy to cold. This form is cold hardy to at least 5 °F and has performed for the last 12 years with no damage from the coldest temperatures."

I am irrationally in love with this plant. I'd love to be able to include 10 or 20 magnolias in our garden but realistically that's just not possible. This one however could fit in any and every garden. You need one, really. What are you waiting for?

Okay, rescue me from my magnolia madness...what are you in love with in your garden this week???

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

It’s a tradition, four years strong. The Thursday before the big HPSO plant sale a group of friends and I head out for a day-long adventure. That day was April 10th, we started at Xera Plants retail shop in SE Portland. Here (from left to right) are Lyle, Heather and Scott checking out the offerings.

The weather that day was nothing short of perfect! The rest of the gang Ryan (white T on the far left), Tim, James, Riz, Greg (co-owner of Xera), Derick, and Nathan. Look at all those plants!

Callistemon subulatus 'Dark Red'...yes it's as soft as it looks.

Didn't get the name of this Aquilegia but it was quite lovely.

Love the grid pattern on some opuntia, this one especially.

And plant shadows, I love plant shadows.

Here's my (tiny) haul from Xera; Two Eryngium giganteum 'Miss Wilmott's Ghost', which Greg said should bloom this year since they're last years plants (fingers crossed), Sedum spathulifolium 'Carnea', and yes another Grevillea juniperina 'Molonglo' but this time I'm only planting one (I lost six juniper Grevilleas last winter) and in the back garden, where it's a little more protected.

Next stop Secret Garden Growers in Canby, Oregon (yes we went from urban to country, in no time). This was my first visit to SGG, although since they're a plantlust.com nursery I have emailed with the owner, Pat, many times. It's wonderful when you finally meet someone in person and they're just as nice as you thought they'd be.

The nursery was lovely as well, and large!

Syneilesis palmata

There were two large hoop houses in the distance and we were concerned they'd be off limits, torture to plant lovers on a field trip! Nope, we were allowed in to survey the goods. Naturally I fell in love with several things in the "not for sale" section, like that purple succulent on the right.

Also not for sale...

Ditto...

My Rubus lineatus died completely back to the ground this year. It's already sprouting out new growth but so much for those 7ft tall arching canes.

At least I know I'll have that pleated foliage to look forward to again this summer.

My Impatiens omeiana is showing signs of developing into a mass like this, finally. I do have my doubts as to whether or not I'll get to enjoy it before the critters go to town on it (slugs? root weevils? both?).

Speaking of critters (but the cute ones)...

I bought one of these phormium, in fact maybe the one in the front on the far right. Sadly no frogs came with it.

Sedum makinoi Ogon 'Golden Japanese Sedum'

Geranium? My mind's gone blank, but I can tell you I almost purchased one of these.

My gunerra has returned, surviving the winter cold. It's not this big, yet...

Still no sign of either Acanthus sennii however.

I'll end today's post with the most popular thing at the nursery. This little guy (forgot his name) was just too cute. We were devising all sorts of schemes to escape with him, but then there would have been the inevitable fight over who got to take him home (just between you and me I'm sure Heather would have won). Tomorrow I'll share the second half of our day...

Yesterday I shared the first half our outing, with stops at Xera and Secret Garden Growers. After grabbing lunch we headed to Grassy Knoll Exotic Plants, a nursery I'd only just learned about thanks to a visit from a blog reader in California, thanks Max! GK Exotics is a mail order nursery but the owner, Elizabeth, was kind enough to allow our group to visit, and while she was out of town no less! Her husband Nathan (plants are not his thing) was a trooper and dealt quite well with 3 car-loads interupting his peaceful afternoon.

GK Exotics specializes in passion flowers, like this beauty.

Even the foliage is fabulous.

I'm sorry but how can you not laugh at a plant like that? Reminds me of my "big hair" days.

Lush and lovely Grevillea x gaudichaudii

I really wanted to buy one of these, but instead chose to be content with my single plant, purchased last fall from The Desert Northwest. It's good to know of someone else out there growing it...in case I do decide to take the plunge (perhaps I'm feeling the sting of last winter?).

Leucospermum grandiflorum, which Elizabeth grew from seed...

Looks like a successful mail-order business!

Not one, not two but three fabulous Aloe polyphylla...

Not only were there beautiful plants but there were goats! Just the thing to take Heather's mind off the puppy we had to leave behind earlier in the day.

This one's got guts too, it tried to eat the Passiflora 'Sunburst' I'd just purchased moments before. Silly goat!

Onward! Our last nursery stop of the day was Bosky Dell Natives. Do you notice anything unusual in the photo below? Under the water spigot? Poor opuntia had to go into hiding.

Swoon...

I suppose this was once planted with sedums and such, not so much anymore. I would love the opportunity to cart it home and plant it up.

Not sure if this was part of the home on the premises, an out-building, or just what. This whole nursery was a bit of a mystery...

See what I mean?

Where else are you going to see a shopping cart with a tree growing out of it?

And I didn't make any purchases here, but that's okay. I'd done all right earlier in the day.

I'm still not jumping on the trillium bandwagon...

So that's a wrap on our day! After four nursery visits (and a lot of traffic on the way back into Portland) we're back where we first met up that morning, the garden (and house) of Sean Hogan.

I spy a couple of new Yucca rostrata...

And perhaps a Nolina microcarpa? I'd accuse him of being a copycat (since I just bought one) but then we all know who's the copycat don't we?

I can't remember the name of this camellia but it's gorgeous. I were looking to plant one in my garden this would be the one...

Thanks for coming along on our fun-filled day!

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

The first time you see a big healthy clump of Podophyllum pleianthum is a memorable moment, it's such a big glossy, alien-looking leaf. Hands down the most beautiful plant I'd ever seen was spotted in a container in my neighbor’s garden, I was awe-struck. I’ve planted a handful of podophyllum over the years but never ever in my wildest dreams did I ever think they could look like this…

And they don’t! Mine struggle along, producing another leaf or two every year but that’s about it. This one, this one was something altogether different. So you know where this is going right? Yes that clump belonged to my former neighbor, Bridget, and is now in my garden. Two weeks in a row my “favorite plant” is a pass-along of epic proportions from a plant loving friend. Here's the clump shortly after I dug it out from her former garden...

We discussed the ideal placement in my garden and since as part of the privet-lands project I'm getting a new larger (and sunnier!) stock tank "pond" I decided to drain the old one and fill it with soil. It was actually kind of reassuring to see that after four years filled with water this tank was still solid with no rust, just a little discoloration (that's a bit of water and soil in the bottom, I started adding potting soil and then thought to take a photo)...

Tada!

And here's how they look now. Pretty fabulous right? Thank you so much Bridget!

A huge bonus of growing this plant in a container is that you can see the flowers, which are held under the leaves.

About to open...

I've been keeping an eye on them, enjoying watching their development.

The stats on Podophyllum pleianthum:

hardy in USDA Zones Zone: 6 to 8
grows to to 24" tall, individual leaves on my plant measure 12" across and the clump it's self is 36" wide
light shade to shade with even moisture - not drought tolerant
originates in Central and southeastern China

Here are my other podophyllums. The dark leaf I believe is Podophyllum 'Red Panda', I have a vague memory of buying it at a Leach Botanical Garden plant sale one spring. On the right is my other P. pleianthum, just a tiny thing.

Hiding behind 'Red Panda' is Podophyllum delavayi, he's shy (or I just couldn't get a good photo of him).

Unlike the above podophyllums which are clumpers it turns out Podophyllum peltatum is a runner.

Yes it is! I planted just one in 2010...

And now I've got, well, 17, 18, oh I don't know, a lot of plants! Of course I'm not complaining, I'm thrilled. So what looks good in your garden right now? Please tell us about it...

Springtime is all about the discovery, and while I am constantly checking-up up on things in person I haven’t really posted much about this spring in the garden, as a whole. Here’s a little walk around sharing some highlights...

The Rheum palmatum is going to bloom, I'm a little worried. It might be more than the garden can handle, so big so luscious, so red!

Just look at that thing!

It was plenty bizarre, and then it started to open.

Even the stem is part of the action!

The Pittosporum divaricatum has never looked better. All those tiny bright green leaves (and yes, this is the least blurry photo I could manage)...

My Microcachrys tetragona finally made it in the ground, this silly little plant makes me so happy!

Parahebe perfoliata

One of the pair of tetrapanax trunks not leaving out from the top finally started to do so from the side.

This is the other one. I hope one of those nubbins starts to grow!

I couldn't bear the sight of the dead tips so I cut the trunks back. I forgot how crazy interesting they are. A woody edge surrounds a white spongy material in middle.

I got all excited when the eucomis started to push up out of the soil. My excitement tempered a bit when I realized only one of three clumps is returning.

My crazy little lewisia which starts to bloom orange and then fades to pink.

Gross. Bye bye Mr. Slug.

My favorite thing about Fatsia japonica might just be the new growth.

Heck all new growth is pretty fabulous! Mahonia fortunei 'Curlyque'

The tip on my Mahonia x media 'Charity' turned crispy this winter looked dead. It's wonderful to see new growth happening.

Schefflera brevipedunculata

There are two stems on the plant, one with new growth (above) and one which I (stupidly) broke, causing the new growth to fall to the ground (and me to swear, loudly). Those little side buds have been swelling and I think they're going to start growing, thank god.

This patch of Solomon's Seal is on borrowed time. It looked lovely next to the hydrangea (which left last year) but not so good anymore...a little out of place...

New growth on Metapanax delavayi...

And Schefflera taiwaniana...

Now that my clumps of Syneilesis aconitifolia have gotten bigger it's hard to appreciate the individual leaves. Some thinning may be in order, although I tried to divide it last year to share with my mom and failed miserably.

This fern is the only remaining one of about 20 we inherited with the garden.

And this is one of the unfurling fronds on my Dicksonia Antarctica, the one that lives in a container. The one in the ground is definitely dead, I picked the wrong winter to experiment.

My variegated Daphniphyllum is going to bloom!

But my relocated Loquat isn't so happy, poor thing.

However my, also recently moved, Fatsia polycarpa is going to make it (big sigh of relief). Although winter seems to have done a real number on it's growing tip. No signs of branching on the trunk, but it's definitely still alive so it's got to push some new growth out somewhere...(please!)...

And finally it turns out the winter damage to my Bocconia frutescens was a blessing in disguise. Since the foliage was toast I cut it back hard and look...a much fuller plant with lots of leaves, a happy ending. Oh and yes, that poor spider has been hanging out there for weeks, with no customers.

It feels like I’ve been working for years now to make our garden feel more enclosed and intimate. However it seems whatever progress toward that goal I had achieved has been completely erased, decisions we made (like having the privet removed) are to blame, but Mother Nature played a role as well.

Let’s start in the front garden. While “enclosed and intimate” wasn’t the goal I had in mind here I did love the way the Grevillea juniperina 'Molonglo' tied everything together. It just looked so right rambling to and fro, a carpet which grounded all the furniture…

And now, without it, that area looks so wrong, or at least random and disparate like a wall of artwork with no order…

Chaos, just the way I like it!

Orderly, nothing touching, daring you to connect the dots, boring!

So while I considered replanting the ground-cover grevillea I did not, it had grown wonderfully for years but if another severe cold snap could knock it back (yes some were dead, others were just too ugly to leave) did I really want to go through that again? No, it was too important to the scheme. Thankfully I scored the mother load of Juniperus conferta 'Blue Pacific' (aka Blue Pacific Shore Juniper) at Portland Nursery a couple of weeks ago (I bought three to go with the one I found last fall and the one already in the ground). This is such a cool plant and a great long term solution. Just look…

Of course that one has been in place for years, they start out like this…

Hence my heartache. Until they fill in things just look wrong!

So in the meantime I decided to do what gardeners everywhere do (but I've never done), buy some annuals! Hopefully these Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls' (silver pony foot) and Helichrysum petiolare (licorice plant) will fill in and meander here and there and help my eyes to see pretty, not ugly, when I look at the front garden.

But then there's this. In the back garden I’m dealing with a different situation. Things were so enclosed last year. Then the Acacia pravissima (right as you enter) died, I moved the Fatsia polycarpa (left as you enter) and we removed the privet (far end).

Now it looks like this…wide open!

Augh. I get all sad just thinking about how exposed it all is. Not that I regret the changes, I just wished we’d done them years ago so it was all mature and recovered by now (hindsight, if only)...

Things will grow, Clifford (the big leaf magnolia) will leaf out, it will fill in. But for now I'm feeling the loss of the overgrown-ness and sharing that feeling, in the vein of keeping it real. Gardening ain't for sissies.

"The desert vegetation is all gray. Some is gray-blue, some is gray-green, but all of the typical plants are gray. And so are the lizards, rattlesnakes, coyotes, deer, and most of the birds. Gray is such an uneventful color. The desert skies at dawn and dusk are often color gone crazy. Wild streaks and splashes of all vivid colors. Life on the desert is rough and tough but it isn’t gray. But the plants are gray: sagebrush, rabbit brush, grass, saltbush, and most of the weeds.

The flowers are gorgeous, though: primroses, buttercups, Indian paintbrush, larkspur, phlox, and the beautiful coral mallow. Their vivid colors flash as suddenly into view as a startled antelope.

Writers tend to describe the desert in polysyllabic words. Chet Craddock, of Burns, says that a four-syllable word to a trained writer is as natural as a hair in the biscuit. They say the desert is unchangeable, immutable, inscrutable, unnatural, indefinable, uninhabitable. These words are poor as I see a desert. It is dry, hot, cold, gray, hard, vast, and fierce. Let’s call it raw."

The Oregon Desert

by E.R. Jackman and R.A. Long

1964 The Caxton Printers, LTD.

Caldwell, Idaho

For years now, well at least since 2005, Andrew has been scheming on a trip to Burns, Oregon. I think this is the year it might actually happen. And I'm ready. Let's do it.

Last Saturday we took down the walls on the shade pavilion greenhouse, an annual milestone for sure. From here on out it's happy outdoor living! (okay for 6 months...) Of course before the deconstruction could get underway we had to remove all the plants. As we did I saw many things I wanted to stop and note, or take care of, but there wasn't time (the husband runs a tight crew, no lollygagging). However there was one plant so amazing in it's spring growth that I had to record what I was seeing and that's my Banksia blechnifolia...

This is the second Banksia blechnifolia I've grown, as the first died an untimely death last spring when allowed to dry out on an unusually hot May day while I was away on Jury duty. It was so fabulous I bought a replacement last September when I visited The Desert Northwest up in Sequim, WA.

This is what made me want to try to grow it again. The undersides of the leaves...

But look at this combination of the underside of an older leaf with the coppery fuzz of a new one. Pretty darn fabulous.

But wait! Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, there is fuchsia fuzz too! Seriously. Is this plant amazing our what?

The only thing that could take it to the next level, well it's this...a crazy ground level bloom! What if? Well I would be thrilled (photo borrowed from The Desert Northwest)...

Description from The Desert Northwest: "Fascinating! This is one of several Banksia species that actually creeps along the ground, producing large leaves that stick straight up while the stems are completely prostrate. In the case of this species, the leaves recall with remarkable resemblance those of some species of the fern genus Blechnum, though they are much tougher, and may exceed 12" long. Cylindrical orange or orange-red flower spikes are produced on quite young plants: these arise directly from ground level resulting in a very curious looking plant! And to top it all off, it has brilliant pink new growth! Being from summer-dry Western Australia, it will appreciate a hot site, perhaps with reflected heat, and NO summer water. Although we're not sure how hardy this is yet, it's certainly hardier than might be expected. So far it has survived temperatures in the upper teens F unharmed. It can also be grown in a container in a sandy soil mix, where it is sure to make an interesting conversation piece, and yes, it does bloom in a pot!"

Bonus: if you're in the Portland, Oregon, area I've just learned The Desert Northwest will be at the Spring Garden Fair in Canby this weekend. May 3&4, 2014. If you contact them today (Thursday) you might be in time to get Ian to bring down a requested plant. Sadly he has no Banksia blechnifolia stock at the moment.

So...that's my story, now I want to hear about what's looking good in your garden this week...

As I've mentioned before, finding tasteful hanging containers is not easy, I treasure the ones I have. On the left (below) is an old IKEA offering. For years it had been planted up with a mishmash of succulents, all of them struggling to survive. I finally got rid of them (okay not really, they were salvaged and will be planted out, elsewhere) and potted up the Selenicereus chrysocardium I purchased at Portland Nursery last January. Such a beautiful plant...

Although it is suffering a bit of sunburn, I've been ever so slowly introducing it to the full power of that orb in the sky but it's a power to be reckoned with...

In the orange ball (also from IKEA) is a poor agave, planted in this container when it was just a tiny thing. Now there's no way I could remove it without breaking the container, which of course I don't want to do.

The favorite of the lot, my Circle Pot from Potted. It has always hung from a branch in the wall-o-privet, but since that's now gone it needed a new home. Clifford (our big leaf magnolia) was a natural, but I worried about the weight, not wanting to damage his branches. Out with the planted succulents and in with Tillandsia Usneoides and T. xerographica. No extra weight from soil and I can easily dump any water that accumulates in the pot, since I've been fearful to drill this one for drainage, lest I break it.

Once Clifford fully leaves out it will in a happy dappled shade situation.

The newest hanging container in my collection was purchased at Portland Nursery last January, when they had their 30% all containers sale. I'd had my eye on it for awhile. I believe it's a product of Gainey Ceramics before they shut down.

It's bright apple green...

Just like our front door...

So of course it's hanging on the front porch. Planted up with Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls' and a single black Ipomoea (Sweet Potato Vine) it should develop a nice long bit of foliage trailing downwards as summer progresses...

No, this isn’t a full-fledged agave report, just a few random agave highlights...

This photo was taken on November 30th, 2013. I walked around the garden that day enjoying my plants, because severe cold was on the way and I wasn't sure which ones would survive.

This particular Agave americana (dug from my in-laws place in Truth or Consequences, NM) was looking so good. It had been a highlight of the garden for years, but I had doubts about its ability to survive what was predicted for the next week.

Thankfully it stood strong through that storm, but as winter wore on began to take a turn, the center cone turning to mush and feeling soft. It had been a good run (planted out in the spring of 2011) and by mid April I'd come to terms with the fact it (and it's siblings, 3 plants total) had to come out. Of course I took a few photos before I dug.

And thank god I did! Since I had the camera in hand I decided to pull back the rotting leaves and show you all just how bad it was, boy did I get a surprise. It wasn't all rotten after all! Just the first leaf was...

Under that was a perfectly solid (although quite discolored) leaf. So I carefully removed the rotten bits and left the plant. That was a couple of weeks ago and it's done quite well since, last weeks heat wave (89F) did it good.

Here's another, I thought this rot was terminal.

There were also several mushy outer leaves on this plant. See the ones which are purple rather than blue? They were squishy to the touch.

But a little careful surgery and we have a deformed, but solid, plant. Survivors! By mid-summer they should be fully recovered and looking good again (I hope).

Speaking of looking good check out these Agave ovatifolia...

I've shared them before, years ago, and they've grown so much! Winter got the better of the phormium (to the left) and did a number on the manzanita but wow, the agaves look untouched (wish they were in my garden, along with those planters!)...

Nice huh?

Nice, nice is someone sending you a plant you've been lusting after for years. You've already met Joe (my prized Agave ‘Joe Hoak’) and then you saw his big brother across town. Well it's time you met Little Joey, another A. 'Joe Hoak'...how lucky am I?

Little Joey and his friend White Stripes (Agave americana var. medio-picta 'Alba') were sent to me by Hoov of Piece of Eden. What did I do to deserve such kindness? (thank you Hoov!)

In the shot above, behind White Stripes, you can barely make out a pair of Agave 'Mateo'. Just tiny things they're pups separated from a larger plant I bought last August. Mom went in a container but I stuck these in the ground, and whadda ya know?! They made it through our very cold winter. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since their known parent is Agave bracteosa...

Finally I thought I'd share a crazy agave pairing I recently put together. First take a beefy Agave ovatifolia...

Then add a bright green Agave lophantha 'Splendida'...

And you get...

Originally I was going to only plant the A. ovatifolia in this container (inspired by the ones shown above) but then the folks at Cistus Nursery had to go and tempt me with that beautiful bight green A. lophantha 'Splendida'. Since it had several plants growing together in the pot I separated them but then replanted them all together, spaced to accommodate a little growth. It's an agave mash-up center stage in the old privet-lands...

Last Friday we took a different route across town to meet friends for dinner. On the way I spotted this line of perfectly manicured cones, in a perfectly manicured lawn...

I wonder if the bright green new growth delights or irritates their creator?

And what thought process led to their placement, dividing the expansive back lawn in half? Were there once flowers blooming in the bare soil at the base of the laurel hedge, or was the negative space part of the pattern?

In case you're wondering here's the rest of the lot...

A little further down the street I found another case of extreme control.

And I wondered about the gravel stage upon which the fig tree grows.

Were the plant choices simply a case of careful editing of what had been planted by a previous owner?

Right next door a bit of chaos.

Plants (weeds) allowed to take over and do what they desire.

Neighbors, there's just no rhyme or reason how we end up where we do. Sometimes we land next to those that share our aesthetic (whatever it may be) and other times it's the odd couple.

This week’s favorite plant is another in a container, not that it has to be. It spent the entire winter outside, stuck in a drive way planter waiting for spring. No it’s in a container simply because I wanted to highlight it, and keep an eye on it...

After all those glochids aren't fooling around.

They’re also the reason for its common name, Chenille Prickly Pear.

They remind me of my grandma’s chenille bedspread, only it was soft (photo borrowed from Etsy, because I don't have my grandma's bedspread, sadly).

This opuntia came to me as a gift from Bob, The Miserable Gardener. This warning was on the outside of the bag, I decided to take it seriously and open the package with salad tongs. I'm glad I did as there were glochids everywhere.

Judging by the photos I found online this plant will bloom red, a welcome change from the usual yellow opuntia flowers in my garden. It's hardy to USDA Zone 8a, when planted in well drained soil, of course. There are a total of 3 new pads developing, they look so sweet in innocent now...

What's caught your eye in your own garden this week?

I've always been somewhat skeptical of mounds or berms in the garden. Unless done well they just look silly. Like you buried an elephant and then planted on top of it. I'm not claiming these are done well, but I don't mind them and the plants appreciate the extra drainage they provide.

However when I think of them the word "burial" is inevitably part of the name, "the agave burial mounds." Particularly appropriate after last winter, since a few agaves met their death here, as noted in the photo below. Top left (the blue agave) was an Agave americana, center below that an Aloe striatula, both gone. The Agave bracteosa in the lower center (corner) would have been okay, if the neighbors cat hadn't laid on it and it's sibling just to the right. As for the A. americana 'Variegata' that's just the beginning of a pattern for the variegated agaves...

This is how that same area looks now. The dead ones came out and new ones went in. Overall I'm quite happy with the success and not upset at the failures.

This Agave 'Royal Spine' has pride of place in the corner, it's not particularly hardy but I got it for a great price so I'm experimenting.

An aeonium which as been over wintered for years now. It starts out tiny and bulks up as summer progresses. Then I pull it in the fall and the cycle starts anew...

Ditto for the Graptoveria 'Fred Ives'...

This is the superstar of this planting Agave bracteosa it just keeps on looking good year after year...

And this little Saxifraga bloom is pretty sweet too...

This is the second burial mound, photo taken last November and subsequent deaths noted.

The look of this entire area is so different now, with the looming privet gone and a couple other big plants dead.

Yes I lost an Agave gentryi ‘Jaws’, and yes I replaced it with another.

Agave gracilipes

A pair of tiny Agave parryi 'JC Raulston' pups which made it through the winter.

Agave schidigera 'Black Widow', it had been in the house and on it's last leg. We'll see how it does here...

I decided to go for it and planted my beloved Grevillea x gaudichaudii here...

I won't hesitate to dig it up if bad winter temperatures are predicted.

And now here we are at burial mound #3, as it looks now...

And last November, deaths noted. See what I meant about a pattern? There were some supposedly hardy variegated ones in there but they're all dead dead dead.

I do still need to spread compost mulch, or maybe I'll decide to use pea gravel like on the others. Either way don't look to close okay?

One of the survivors, Agave neomexicana...

New this year (and no, not hardy) a blooming Echeveria 'Perle Von Nürnberg'...

NOID Opuntia from T or C, New Mexico.

Opuntia polyacantha

Opuntia santa rita

And the view from dog level, as I sat down on the lawn and gave Lila a few much deserved tummy rubs...

I'd given up my Eryngium maritimum for dead. It should be hardy to 20 degrees BELOW zero but last winter the growing tip got hard and crusty and then the whole plant just sort of melted and disappeared. Dead, right? So naturally I put the word out I was in need of a replacement, Scott emailed me a photo when he spotted them at Portland Nursery, I was there the next day. Plant bought!

I loved it's placement in the garden so I did my best to replicate it. That's it at the bottom of this photo...

And what's that? Ya, the original plant returning a week later, about a foot to the North, hey I was kind of close...

The orange arrow is pointing to the old plant and the new plant is obvious at the bottom of the photo. Whodda thought in May plants would still be showing up? It's a good thing...

Oh and check this out! I Googled Eryngium maritimum and this crazy photo showed up on the Wiki. The entry is in Polish and doesn't even make much sense when translated, but this scene, it's pretty bizarre...

Last Friday I had business south of town, down Salem way, I was visiting a couple of wholesale nurseries to talk with their growers. Anytime you're off Interstate 5 and traveling the back roads of the Willamette Valley you'll encounter small nursery after small nursery and occasionally a really big one. I have to admit my heart tends to swell with a bit of pride, this, my adopted state, is just so full of people doing what they love... growing plants. How amazing is this place? There are nurseries devoted to conifers, those specializing in daphne, fuschia, hosta (and more, more, more) and the hops! I meant to stop and take a photo of the hops which were just getting started growing up their tall, thin supports, but I did not. Darn. Cruising along at 50 mph I did spot this scene out of the corner of my eye...

I didn't have time to stop but circled back around after my meeting. How much do I love this? A lot....

So good!

This tennis/badminton (?) match was being played in front of the home adjacent to Bountiful Farms Nursery. Evidently they specialize in s culptured plants (among other things).

Here's a fellow mowing the lawn in front of his home.

While the kids play on the swing set.

And jump rope.

I was about to leave when I finally saw their name spelled out...

I wasn't sure I'd successfully captured the whole thing so I split the words for a close-up.

A fish looks about to encounter a sea monster but that's just the "s" in farms, seen from the back side.

Fun, no?

It's May! It's Bloomday! And it's hot, a new record high yesterday in Portland of 91F, today we back of to a more "reasonable" (not really, not for mid-May) 88F. So let's start this bloomday show with the hot pinks, no I don't go looking for them, they just find me...

We inherited this Peony with the house, this is the first time I remember it blooming in sunshine and heat. Usually it's rain which weighs down the heavy blossoms and has them laying on the ground.

I apologize for this one (a Lewisia) but the color is just so insane I had to share it. It's a touch less vibrant in the flesh.

Here's my mellow Lewisia...

The Rheum palmatum bloom tops out at just about 6ft.

Watching it unfold has been quite the spectacle.

My bouganvillea went through a pouting face when things were cool and wet. I hope it's enjoying the heat. Camarillo Fiesta Bouganvillea

The Abutilon 'Red Tiger' isn't yet tall enough to hold it's big blooms in the air.

These are not blooms, but scouting about for flowers to photograph I was excited to see our sarracenia is going to bloom.

Ditto for the Echeveria 'Perle Von Nürnberg'...

When it went in the ground (finally, after a long winter) this Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum looked like it wasn't going to make it, however it's put out some new foliage and even a few new blooms.

Also inherited, Clematis montana is just about finished blooming for the year.

Cerinthe major 'Purpurascens' is just about to start.

Echium russicum

Mammillaria plumosa

Genista lydia

London Pride, Saxifraga x urbium, with a chewed on rodgersia leaf.

Euphorbia x martinii 'Ascot Rainbow'

I don't know what I was thinking when I bought a 6-pack of Nicotiana. Well actually I do know what I was thinking, I thought I was buying the tall plants. Not these little pip-squeaks.

This is the last of the Magnolia laevifolia blooms. They put on quite a show this year.

Podophyllum peltatum, the flowers...

Which are held under these leaves.

Solomon's Seal, which I recently discovered makes a great cut flower.

It's going to be a big year for Syneilesis aconitifolia blooms...

Finally the blue flowers of Parahebe perfoliata...

And we end the show with my new (so excited!) water lilly. Our stock tank "pond" is now in the sun which allows an entirely new selection of water plants...

As always visit May Dreams Gardens for the list of bloggers participating in bloomday this 15th day of May.

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

This week’s favorite is a tree I bought last fall, at that time it had only a handful of crispy copper leaves still attached. Watching it bust out with new growth this spring has been amazing…

The tiny pink leaves and the green catkins were such a wonderful combination.

As the leaves got larger they took on a darker hue.

And finally they turned green, a wonder shade silhouetted against a blue sky.

Details on the eventual height of Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida' (aka Cutleaf Emperor Oak) are somewhat difficult to find. Everyone seems to stress how slow growing it is and offers up statistics like “8' tall x 3' wide in 10 years” (via Buchholz and Buchholz Nursery, where I bought my tree). Their full description: “An amazing, upright deciduous tree with large, green and deeply cut leaves. Truly unlike any other oak. Like something wild from a rainforest. Prefers full sun in well-drained soil. 8' tall x 3' wide in 10 years. Hardy to -30 degrees. USDA zone 4.” My tree is just over 6 ft tall...

Plantlust.com lists it as eventually reaching 15ft tall, JC Raulston Arboretum says 20ft. The foliage is long and lean and just starting to look lush.

15ft, 20ft, either sounds good to me.

The stats:

hardy to at least USDA Zone 5, maybe 4
upright deciduous tree
prefers full sun in well-drained soil
growth is so slow that this is a frustrating plant if you don't have glacial patience (which is why I bought the largest specimen I could find)

With this post I'm also joining Foliage Follow-Up on Digging, because foliage is why I had to have this tree in my garden. So, what's looking really good in your garden this week? Bonus points if it's all about the foliage...

For the first 4 or 5 years we lived in this house I did weekly battles with bindweed. It grew up into the privet on the north side of our backyard. At first I pulled armfuls (depriving the plant of the photosynthesis it needs to live and making it weaker, or so I hoped), and slowly over the years I won the battle. The last couple of years I rarely saw a leaf, but if I did I pulled it immediately, in fact I had forgotten about it completely until I saw this…

This is an old unused garbage can where I tossed the roots I dug out of the area where the privet was removed. Since the ground under the privet was formerly covered in ivy and vinca I wanted to make sure I got it all out (or at least as much as I could) before I started planting. The clods of clay soil make the debris quite heavy so I’m slowly working it into our yard waste container. I went to grab a couple of handfuls and discovered the bindweed growing happily where none had been two weeks earlier. If it’s growing like this with no water or light for months what does that mean for the bits I might have left behind, in the soil?

Yep…"They're ba-ack!"

I’ve read about weeds that can lie dormant in the soil for years, until just the right time to unleash their weedy fury. Looks like I’m going to have a battle on my hands…

I’m a sucker for tradition, especially traditions that involve plants. Last weekend was the annual Rare Plant Research open house, I haven’t missed a single year since my first back in 2006! This year I was greeted by a new gate…

Planted with opuntia.

Okay, let’s shop!

There were aeoniums…

Eucomis…

Colocasia…

Bromeliads…

This one was labeled as Alcantarea Odorata and I took note. I bought one last year but it wasn’t signed then and I’ve wondered what I had.

Canna (many others which I didn’t photograph, I was partial to this one).

In short many many fabulous things.

I was tempted by Echium Mr. Happy, but passed.

Several of my agaves have come from Rare Plant Research, but it’s been years since I’ve bought one here.

I found myself trying to convince other shoppers that this was a plant worth having. None of them took me up on it.

An acacia mash-up (the fine leaves).

I take this shot every year…

And consider trying another Furcraea every year (I’ve killed a couple, I resisted…again).

I almost bought one of these Aralia spinosa. Perhaps I should have…

Not tempted by these but love looking at them…

This one I almost bought, and wish I would have.

Look at all those blooms!

I was joined at the sale this year by the dynamic duo in their traveling plant-mobile from Tacoma (that’s the Outlaw and Bonnie Lassie in case you didn’t know). Here’s the Outlaw after deciding against purchasing one of those handsome opuntia…

His purchases (below) were on the less prickly and more colorful side of things.

After looking over the goods for sale we wandered up to the owner’s home on the hill, Villa Catalana. It’s been fun to watch it progress over the last 8 years.

This year there was a bit of vehicular eye candy parked out front.

All of us “zone-pushing” gardeners in the Portland area have losses from the winter cold. This poor Pineapple Guava lost a lot of foliage.

And this cordyline (maybe? on the right), looks like it might have been wrapped for protection what with that damage to the leaves. Or maybe they're bent from the ice storm?

Did anyone notice the long, hard, protuberance on the ground level? Alison noticed and pointed it out, with a giggle. Those of you that know Alison won’t be surprised (and that’s why we love her).

I'm not much for mixed planters but this one really had my attention.

The covered dining area off the kitchen has a view across the pond...

And they've finished the covered atrium between wings of the home. There was a wine tasting going on inside (as if running a nursery wasn't enough work now the owners have started a winery) but the line was too long and I did not partake.

It was fun to look around...and the haze you see was a cooling mist being circulated through the air.

Back outside...

And the view from across the pond.

So what did I buy? The photo below shows the assortment that was in my cardboard flat for the longest time, do you think I was stuck on dark foliage? Canna 'Australia', a pair of Ricinus communis (Castor Bean), and an Aeonium 'Silk'. I was the lucky recipient of a trio of seed grown Castor Bean from Alison at the spring bloggers plant swap but decided you can't have too many big leaf poisonous plants in your garden, right? Besides I have terrible luck with these plants (getting them to grow big) so why not hedge my bets?

I also picked up a striped bromeliad...

And an Acacia dealbata. Perhaps the best acacia for our climate? It can resprout from the base if it freezes back (when it freezes back?). Now where to plant it...

Magnolia laevifolia is my favorite plant in the garden, this week…

An annual outing with my fellow plant lovers...(part 1)

An annual outing with my fellow plant lovers...(part 2)

Podophyllum pleianthum is my favorite plant in the garden, this week…

Just a quick walk around the garden

Stepping backwards when all I wanted was to move forward…

The Oregon Desert

Banksia blechnifolia is my favorite plant in the garden; this week…

Just hanging around...

It’s time we talk about my favorite subject…agaves!

Control and Chaos

Opuntia aciculata is my favorite plant in the garden, this week…

An update on the Agave burial mounds…

Eryngium maritimum, I bought a replacement and then…

Bountiful Farms, accidentally....

Bloomday for May 2014...

Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida' is my favorite plant in the garden, this week…

The Evil Vine

Rare Plant Research 2014 style...

One Word Wednesday, red...