Alpine Rock Garden and Rutherford Conservatory, at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden (visit part one)

As I've been going through my photos from the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden (I visited on September 10th) I decided that the next time I visit I'm going to walk the opposite way through the garden, beginning at what I usually consider to be "the end". Even though I am sure to stop and turn around as I walk, you see things differently when you're headed towards the plants, and you're not so tired at the end of the garden!

We start my coverage of this garden visit at the Alpine Rock Garden. I'd been wandering for two and a half hours when I finally walked into the rock garden, thus I wasn't as sharp as I would have liked to be.

Still, I spotted this little beauty.

I'm a sucker for a good rosette...

...and it's something new to me! Common name "sempervivum-leaved rock jasmine" (more info here)

Next up is one of those serious "lust list" plants...Adiantum aleuticum 'Subpumilum’: "A truly dwarf maidenhair, and a very slowly spreading groundcover. Shiny, glossy black stalks hold aloft contrasting, limey-green pinnae. Rarely available, it takes good drainage and light shade and rich soils." (source)

I hope this will be available through the Hardy Fern Foundation next year.

This was a fun discovery!

Saxafraga x geum 'Dentata' growing on a rock—who knew it liked it like that?

Now I've hiked up to the Rutherford Conservatory which is the last spot to visit before I wrap things up here.

That's a stellar patch of Begonia pedatifida.

There are so many plants inside the conservatory that I admire and then walk away from, thinking they're not hardy. I have no idea what these are, but I know the begonia above (B. pedatifida) is hardy for me in Portland.

And if these bright green leaves are Cyrtomium falcatum (Japanese holly fern) then it's hardy too.

Curculigo sp., which was hardy in my garden for several years.

Of course I do (madly) wish I could grow tree ferns outdoors in my Portland garden. Sadly that's not an option unless I want to go to heroic measures to protect them.