My ×Mangave report...
Inspired by Gerhard's ×Mangave roundup and the cold temperatures in our forecast (they didn't materialize to the frigid depths that were predicted) I walked around the garden and snapped photos of my...
View ArticleThe "other" bromeliad garden at Lotusland...
Back to my visit to Lotusland last April...The courtyard between the main house and the smaller pavilion (where Ganna Walska actually lived) was where we ate lunch during the Bromeliad Summit and where...
View ArticleGanna's sunny patio
Ganna Walska that is, the lady who created Lotusland.I don't recall seeing this patio on my previous visits to Lotusland, I think it's tucked away, of the main pathway, just enough that most visitors...
View ArticleWednesday Vignette; making a wreath is always the right answer
Last week, when I shared a photo of the magnolia seed cones I'd picked up, I wasn't expecting questions about what I would do with them. Just picking them up and putting them in a pile where I could...
View ArticleThe Steppe Garden, at the Denver Botanic Gardens
Let's go back to the Denver Botanic Gardens, shall we?This is the Steppe Garden. Their website says: In the Steppe Garden, learn about the fragile steppe biome and about steppe landscapes across the...
View ArticleNovember's Bloomday (where I decide I really do need to become fabulously...
Is it summer yet? Know, I know, it's not even winter yet, technically. I haven't even had a hard frost in my garden. Yet I yearn for summer. I wish I were one of those people who gets all giddy at the...
View ArticleArizona, 1951
When our Portland Bloggers group met up at Little Prince of Oregon for our annual shopping adventure last March, Linda of the blog Whatsitgarden, and the Etsy shop Littleplantpots gave me this black...
View ArticleJenn Ferrante's garden, from the HPSO Study Weekend
Back to June and the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon's Study Weekend garden tours. I'd visited this garden previously, in 2014. Five years later I was curious to see what had changed...From the tour...
View ArticleWednesday Vignette, oh to have an opuntia tree
I snapped this photo at the Ruth Bancroft Garden last April, during a visit with Gerhard. Can you imagine having an opuntia of tree-like proportions?From Brian Kemble (curator at the garden) I learned...
View ArticlePerplexed (WWTT?)
I love it when I'm out for a walk and I come upon a scene that makes me stop and wonder: What Were They Thinking? Yes indeed...this here is a head-scratcher!Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of horsetail,...
View ArticlePatio ready (one of these things is not like the others)
An errand to get rebar had me at the orange big-box store. Since I could see the garden department was open I decided to check it out first, before walking to the other end of the store for the rebar....
View ArticleJane Kerr Platt Garden, a stop during the 2019 Portland Study Weekend, last June
I'm always a little apprehensive when I see a full grown Magnolia macrophylla such as this. My tree will be this large someday...It turns out large specimens are what this garden is all about. From our...
View ArticleSusan Denman's garden, a stop during the 2019 Portland Study Weekend, last June
This garden was right next door to the one we saw yesterday."The Denman garden is an acre-sized, charming country garden surrounding an 1897 farmhouse in the Portland West Hills. The many defined...
View ArticleWednesday Vignette, my bamboo poly tunnel
For the last few weeks Andrew has been busy splitting bamboo, bending it, and lashing it together to make make custom domes I can use to cover (along with frost cloth and plastic) some of my tender...
View ArticleHappy Thanksgiving!
Here we are again, Thanksgiving in the United States. How did this one come around so fast? Well, it feels fast to me. What are you doing to celebrate? Big family feast? Small dinner with a friend?...
View ArticleBlack Plants, for Black Friday
This seems like such a natural for me, I can't believe I've never done it. Here we are, Black Friday...that day we pay tribute to the great American tradition of shopping. Or not. Oh I've not always...
View ArticleLast year's holiday creations, at Wells Medina Nursery
While in Seattle for the NWFG Festival last February, I made a stop at Wells Medina nursery. It was fairly empty, but there were still a few holiday creations hanging around. I snapped some photos and...
View ArticleBottles in the landscape
When I drove by this hellstrip I had to stop and snap a photo.It's definitely an inexpensive and colorful "hardscape" treatment. Well, if you don't count the price of the wine, or water, or booze, or...
View ArticleWednesday Vignette: more than two of anything is a collection
I live with a person who strives to have as few belongings as possible. He has a box of things from his past and he occasionally goes through it and purges. Our house was built in 1948 and as such the...
View ArticleA look at the winter dish gardens...
I was doing more of the perpetual garden clean-up when I noticed how nicely the sun had lit these dish planters...They're heading into their second winter, I put them together in October of last...
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