Today a few garden updates from the Northwest corner of the upper back garden...![]()
First of all, I bit the bullet and planted the tall Pseudopanax ferox that I got from my friend Lance Wright when he moved to Eastern Oregon last summer. This plant is borderline hardy here in Portland, and he was moving to a much colder location.
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It became mine last June, but I was hesitant to plant it in the ground right away as I was going to be away off and on for a few weeks, and it didn't come with the best root system. By the time I could plant it (and baby it a bit) the weather had turned hot—so I decided to just leave it in the container and not risk it. Thank god I did as I'm pretty sure I would have lost it during last winter's extremes.
So why did I plant it in the ground if there's a chance I could lose it? Well, it's too tall to fit in the shade pavilion greenhouse during bad weather, unless I lay it on it's side, which would not be easy to do once I plant it in a ceramic pot. Plus I have another, smaller plant that's already in a container (a form of plant insurance) and they are hardier the larger they are. So I decided to be fearless and just do it. I picked this spot because it's protected from our frigid wintertime wind and gets a fair amount of sun. By planting it in May it will have several months to get established before winter comes around again.
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Speaking of plants I lost last winter, this astelia was a floppy mushy mess. It looked so bad cut off all the leaves flush with the base, but didn't dig it out—and look at it now!
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There's one other astelia that's also trying to stage a come back—three tiny leaves a couple of inches tall—but all the others I thought were dead definitely are.
This trio of containers is the current featured focal point in the corner of the upper back garden, visible as you enter...
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I then decided to go with a theme of plants in pots with the yellow/green speckled glaze and this aloe, Aloe maculata, got the nod.
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The third pot was an empty I had on hand, planted up with a gifted Leucadendron 'Ebony'. It's small but growing.
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Now we're scanning to the left and focusing on the trio of dish planters in front of the palm (Trachycarpus wagnerianus).
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These planters were looking pretty rough after winter, so I did an intensive refresh.
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I picked up a pot of small agaves labeled as Agave parviflora but most likely Agave × leopoldii and divided them up.
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I also replanted (from the previous version of the dish planters) some Agave parryi 'JC Raulston', misc sempervivum and a Maihuenia poeppigii.
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But of course what you're really wondering about are those opuntia pads with the INCREDIBLE 4" long spines; meet Opuntia sulpurea...
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I like the mix.
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Oh! I forgot to mention the pieces of Portulacaria afra ‘Lilliput’ I cut up and stuck into each of the dishes. They add a nice contrasting texture.
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And that's what's new in the NW corner of the upper back garden!
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The Agave 'Blue Glow' looked so good when it came out of the shade pavilion greenhouse this spring that I knew it needed to be here.
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