Off to Sebright Gardens

It was such a good day! After visiting Illahe we then trekked over to Sebright Gardens. "We" being just five of us from the HPSO NE Portland focus group. We ate our packed lunches, chatted, and then set out to shop. I still feel like a failure whenever I see happy blooming Caesalpinia gilliesii. It can be grown here, I just can't manage to do it.
Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida’ (Cutleaf Emperor Oak)
NoID crocosmia.
Ditto for the coneflowers (noID)...

From where I sat eating my lunch these blooms looked like ginger, ha! I was surprised to see they were eucomis.

That hardy begonia that I don't grow because it comes up late and I'd put a shovel through it thinking the empty spot was room for a new plant.
Here's Tim, my carpool companion and driver for the day, pushing a cart full of his plant purchases (top shelf) and mine (lower level, note... just two!) as well as our fellow adventurers Kathy and Patty. We stowed the plants in the car and then did more garden exploring.
Visible just ahead of the cart in the last photo, Agave americana 'Mediopicta Alba'. A beautiful but NOT hardy agave here in the Portland/Salem area.
Well unless you plant it under a thirsty Douglas Fir just a few feet from a rock wall.
Then, as it turns out, magic can happen and the agave lives through a remarkably horrible winter. Color me impressed.
Variegated daphniphyllum, green on green version.
My heart was momentarily heavy spotting this happy Nolina hibernica 'La Siberica', since it's official that mine has given up the ghost.
Variegated daphniphyllum, creamy version.
I love seeing this one here in the garden, but I'm thrilled to have the green on green version in my garden.
Anisocapium species (that's all the tag said).
I wish my photos illustrated just how ginormous the fronds were.
Hardy begonia (no tag I could find).
This beauty threw me and I had to seek higher council for a proper ID. Turns out it's Parablechnum novae-zelandiae, syn Blechnum novae-zelandiae.
So very dreamy! If you're hunting for it you might want to know it's being offered in the Hardy Fern Foundation fall catalogue (here). Currently only members have access but sales will open to the public on, August 16th. 
Just around the corner this sexy number is Parablechnum montanum, syn Blechnum montanum.
Damn.
I am in awe!
Another fern that I wish I was able to show you the size of those fronds! This one is Coniogramme emeiensis 'Golden Zebra'  but it was about twice the size of any 'Golden Zebra' I've seen before.
So striking!
I should have had Tim hold his phone there for scale so you could understand just how large this fern was.
Happy heathy Wollemia nobilis, it's not everyday you see this unusual conifer.
Okay, so what did I buy? This is my two plant haul...
Dryopteris cycadina

And a variegated Aspidistra elatior.
I always think of variegated plants as being a little weaker than their all-green counterparts, but my variegated aspidistra was the hands-down champ at dealing with last winter's horrid cold.
I didn't hesitate at the chance to add another to the garden.