It's not just roses...

This month marks the end of my six and a half years of service on the board of directors for the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. I met so many talented people during my run, it has truly been an honor. Today's garden visit is to a fellow board member's garden, that of Harry Lander...

Funny thing is, I've never actually met Harry in person. He joined the board during the COVID era. The board used to meet in person at the HPSO's office, however since spring of 2020 the meetings have all been online. I do however know that he's the former curator at Portland's International Rose Test Gardens, and he also served on the board of the Portland Rose Society. Thus I figured his garden would be all roses all the time. Whenever he held an open garden event I didn't even consider going. Well, until now...

Ryan of @tropicalpdx was the one who pushed me to visit, he lives near Harry and knew there were plants I would enjoy.

Even agaves!

There are definitely some plants in the garden's mix that can't stay in ground thru a Portland winter, so I was curious how they're protected. I imagined them getting whisked off to some fancy greenhouse Harry had connections to.

But no! They get shuffled into this window and sky-lit room behind the palm.

I didn't actually talk to Harry during this visit—he was off entertaining more important visitors—but I do imagine this gorgeous brugmansia is pruned back, dug, and stashed indoors.

Now we've passed into the back garden and the light got kind of weird. It was a day of mixed sky conditions.

To the left is the entrance to the back garden, in the above photos I was looking straight ahead, but here I turned to look back.

There is a pond between me and those two gentleman, that's what they're looking down at.

Proof of pond.

Oh ya! Tree ferns!!!

I heard from another visitor that Harry used wrap these with a heat-source during the winter, but now that we've "moved up a zone" there's no need (an idea that I'm not buying into, btw—climate change means erratic non-predicable temperature swings, not all "warming"). Fingers crossed for them.