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Five days of horticultural adventures...
Last week I traveled up to the Puget Sound area for tons of plant related fun—starting with a visit to the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden (oh you know there will be future post!). While there I...
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The Gardens at the 2025 NWFG Festival
There are two types of gardens at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival, the small "city living" gardens and the big expensive display gardens. The city living gardens have historically been my...
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Winter Jewels Hellebore party at Little Prince...
Over the weekend Little Prince of Oregon held their first annual Winter Jewels Hellebore sale, I ventured down to check out the action. LPO is a wholesale nursery and rarely open to the public, so I...
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The Carhart Garden, during the '24 Garden Fling
For some this was the first garden of the 2024 Garden Fling, but for me (and those on the same bus) it was the second garden we visited. There was confusion as we entered, compounded by the fact the...
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Froggsong, a Fling Garden
Froggsong Gardens was another "first day" garden during the 2024 Fling, and it was also our lunch spot where both buses stopped at the same time and we were all able to mingle.The listing on Froggsong...
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The Berk/Kessler Garden, a Puget Sound Fling stop
My visit to the Berk/Kessler Garden in Seattle was on the "bonus" Monday of the Garden Fling weekend last July. I'd been wanting to tour this garden since I first saw it from across the street, while...
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A pyrrosia scavenger hunt, at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden
This year, during my annual February stop at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden, I tried to stick to a few themes when snapping photos. Typically I just point the camera at anything that catches...
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Some plants I grow and some plants I lust after, at the RSBG
I've been shopping at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden on-site nursery long enough to have accumulated a nice little collection of their plants. In addition, there are several plants I've...
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A visit to Seattle's Volunteer Park Conservatory
It was a rainy February afternoon in Seattle, and I was done with the NWFG Fest (but not done with plants—duh) so I decided to visit an old haunt, the Volunteer Park Conservatory on Capitol Hill. I...
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There are 130 acres, so what haven't I seen?
That's the question I asked myself when I booked our tickets to visit the Huntington Gardens mid-November 2024. It goes without saying the Desert Garden is always my primary destination, but even I can...
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Spring!
Looks like we made it, to spring that is, and I for one could not be happier. It's so nice to be sliding into the growing season, look around the garden, and see life, not the scorched earth hellscape...
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Women in Horticulture, Chemeketa Community College
I recently attended an event called Women in Horticulture (celebrating women with Community College and Technical Institute roots) held at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon. I went not...
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Windcliff, visiting during the Garden Fling
What better to do on a rainy spring day than edit down the 100+ photos I took at Dan Hinkley's home, Windcliff, last summer? It's pretty ideal to have a stash of photos to dip into whenever the mood...
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We Fling at Heronswood
It was great fun to visit Hersonswood Garden last July with my fellow Flingers (the same day we also visited Windcliff, Dan Hinkley's current garden). I think there were roughly 90 of us, but the...
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Yes actually, I will be making this a lifetime project
When he thought you were taking a little too long to complete a task, a prior boss of Andrew's would ask, "are you going to make that a lifetime project?" I thought of that snide remark as I started...
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Bay Area Garden Extravaganza Part 1 (people & plants)
I stole the title of this post from Gerhard, nothing else I came up with quite expressed the way I felt, it was an extravaganza of the highest order. Let me backtrack just a bit. Andrew and I had...
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Jim Bishop's glorious San Diego garden
The one private garden I managed to visit during our January trip to San Diego was that of Jim Bishop and his partner Scott Borden. I was briefly on the Pacific Horticulture board of directors with...
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Be the one who says no (and my trip to Hortlandia)
I intended today's post to be about the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon's spring plant sale, Hortlandia, which took place last weekend. I'll give a recap of that event below, but first I want to write...
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Visiting Iseli Nursery
I finally toured Iseli Nursery in Boring, Oregon. Back in 2020 I'd lined up all the necessary permissions (they're wholesale and not open to the public), but then horrible wildfires hit and the roads...
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Gerhard’s garden, visiting again after 6 years
For a while there I was on a roll, visiting Gerhard's Davis, CA, garden in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2019... but then came the drought. It's hard to believe 6 long years went by between my 2019 visit and...
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Seeing tz_garden in person...
Back when Gerhard and I were scheming on what to do during my visit, I suggested a stop at Tracy's in Livermore, CA—even though I knew it was a bit of longshot (significant drive, slim chances she'd be...
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Max and Justin's Oakland garden, the front half
Max and Justin Cannon's garden is one I've dreamed of visiting for a very long time. My dream finally came true last month and it was just as good as I imagined. I took so many photos, I tried to...
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Max and Justin's Oakland garden, the back half
Wednesday we toured the front part of this cramscaped Oakland garden, today we're checking out the back, starting with this ginormous staghorn fern. I seriously gasped when I saw it.Justin says; "That...
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April garden views
I find myself confused about where exactly the plants in my garden should be in mid April (when I took these photos). We've had a sunny warmish stretch and I think I've mentally jumped ahead to May,...
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The Desert Garden at Balboa Park
I was surprised to discover I'd missed writing about the Desert Garden at Balboa Park, since I'd previously covered the Kate O. Sessions Cactus Garden and Palm Canyon, and the Botanical Building (aka...
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