16-17 April: in the garden

Saturday, 16 April 2022

At home

Ah, a day off. The front garden looked amazing in the morning sunshine. I actually got out the door by ten AM!

I do love our puddle.

Hymenanthera with tiny flowers; subtle two tone grey-white berries will follow.

How did this Tetrapanax lose its stem? Did I do that? Or the wind?

Acer campestre ‘Carnival” glowing in sunshine

Driveway garden tulips

Driveway garden: Grevillea ‘Canberra Gem’ and tulip

West bed in back garden

Back garden, Willows Loop West

Tulips and Persicaria ‘Golden Arrow’

Looking east over the bed we revamped last winter

Rose ‘Radway Sunrise’ in east bed

Lilies and my European bladdernut tree that I got from Markham Farm. and the ever annoying meianthemum (false lily of the valley native woodland groundcover)

Willows Loop East

Kerria japonica

‘Spotty Dotty’ and pulmonaria and Hosta ‘Mouse Ears’ the shady danger tree bed

Two cultivars of Impatiens omeiana just emerging, foreground has green and bronze foliage and behind it is one with silver foliage.

Wild…violet? on Bogsy Wood plant table….

…and a primula

New willow grove garden, looking east and west

Read Full Post »

5 June: Mid-Spring at the Bayside Garden

Friday, 5 June 2020

At last we managed to visit Steve and John’s garden by Willapa Bay. Although (due to the second spring clean up at work after our non-essential weeks and to the emergency building of our coyote-proof catio and then the time-consuming plant sale prep) we had missed the peak rhododendron bloom time, this garden has much to offer at any season.

When we arrived a few minutes early, Steve was tidying the garden with bucket and picker-upper.

Let’s walk through through the garden with Steve and John, enjoy the vistas, and give the plants some individual attention…social distancing, of course.

In the upper beds near the house:

Acer platanoides ‘Rezak’, “the only plant on the property with a tag”

Allan’s photo of an unidentified acer

Steve and John (Allan’s photo)

I tried to take good notes, but had forgotten a clipboard, so many rhododendron names were illegible.

As always, Steve and John helped via email with the identifications.

Rhododendron ‘Ring of Fire’

Rhododendron ‘Ring of Fire’

I was overexcited by the purple stems and my photo is blurry…

Rhododendron loderi ‘Venus’ (highly fragrant in its pink bloom)

enviable hostas

Hosta ‘Madame Wu’ (Allan’s photo)

more perfect hostas and proof that we had missed peak rhododendron bloom time

grassy paths down the north side of the property

The rhododendrons with white tomentum, the powdery substance on top of the leaves, are my favourites. Rhododendron sinofalconeri Vietnamese form

emerging into sun on the north side, as we amble westward

left: ‘Orange Rocket’ barberry, which we all expected to be more columnar. Right: Drymis winteri

A few more rhododendrons had kindly waited for our visit.

R. ‘Anna’ in front of R. ‘Leo’

Rhododendron ‘Mango Tango’

Many in this collection had leaves that, to me, are as good as any bloom.  Visits to this garden have been a revelation from the standard rather boring rhododendrons that I had been familiar with before.

R. ‘Sir Charles Lemon’ with R. ‘Lissabon’ in foreground

We now cross the driveway to the shady south beds under limbed up trees.

looking back north across the driveway

south side of driveway: a grove of rhodies original to the property, which was a rhododendron nursery at one time.

Allan’s photo

R. ‘Cupcake’

Rhododendron degronianum ssp yakushimanum x R pachysanthum, my favourite of all

Cornus canadensis, a groundcover that I love.

In the ferny beds…

cinnamon fern

Allan’s photo

Rhododendron ‘Jan Dekens’

the cryptomeria grove

Crinodendron hookerianum (Chilean lantern tree)

R. ‘Yaku Princess’

the glorious variety of rhododendron leaves

Allan’s photo

Rhododendron macabeanum

Rhododendron sinofalconeri

Allan’s photo, Steve and a few remaining blooms

R. quinquefolium

Rhododendron lepidostylum

Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’

and its flowers

Rhododendron ‘Starbright Champagne’, Steve’s favourite

R. pseudochrysanthum

Hydrangea ‘Lemon Daddy’ which I love and keep forgetting to look for…maybe I can beg a cutting later this year.

looking north across the irrigation pond

We crossed over there, but I got too busy chatting about plants and only took one photo.

Allan’s photo: Leptospermum lanigerum ‘Lydia’ from Xera plants. Woolly tea tree, comes from New Zealand. Genista in the background.

John had left us to prepare some tea and cake.  We walked up the driveway…

…around the south side of the house…

…to …to the sheltered sit spot at the southeast corner of the house, where this was our view:

We had walked here to start our tour and to admire a little rhododendron growing in a stump on the north side of the lawn.

R. keiskei ‘Yaku Fairy’. What a little cutie.

We sat for tea and cake with this backdrop.

Allan’s telephotos of an interesting vessel…

…and of Baby Island.

We had tea from Beach House Teas...

…and observed proper social distancing.

John had baked a dessert of Dutch Spice Bread (Ontbijtkoek, aka Breakfast Cake). Delicious.

(Steve, with a bouquet I brought)

Allan’s photo

It was our first social outing since the stay at home order expired.

We were serenaded by birds…

Allan’s photo

…and visited by Mr. Towhee, a special friend of the family.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

As we departed, we further admired the entry garden.

Allan’s photo

If you would like to visit this garden in other seasons and earlier years, just put “bayside garden” into our search box, and you will get a wealth of posts.

You can see a drone video of the garden (which also shows inside the house) on this realty listing…which also means you could dream of living here yourself.

Steven and John were organizing the big 2020 conference for the American Rhododendron Society, when the coronavirus reared up and postponed it till 2022. If you live in the US and all these amazing rhododendrons inspire you to become a collector, joining that organization would be a good place to begin.

 

Read Full Post »

Hardy Plant Weekend: eclectic, artistic garden

Sunday, 26 June 2016

Hardy Plant Society Study Weekend

presented by the Salem Hardy Plant Society

garden 24: an eclectic, artistic garden in Woodburn

This garden’s artistic touches strongly appealed to me along with its selection of interesting plants.  The shady nature of the garden was welcome on a 90 plus degree day and also made pocketcam photography difficult.  We did our best to do the garden justice.

It was clear, from across the street, that something exciting awaited us.

along the sidewalk

garden entry

Hardy Planters who were departing had delighted expressions and said we were in for a treat.

entering the front garden

more Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’, more regret that I did not buy some.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

an elegant outbuilding

behind the outbuilding, a fabulous stash of garden ingredients

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

outbuilding wall that faces the back garden

looking back at the outbuilding

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

dovecoat

complete with doves

Allan’s photo

Some free range chickens, including one with a cute topknot, were also around.  They were shy and hidden in the shrubbery so I failed to get a photo.

Allan got a chicken photo!

Another garden with perfect hostas. Maybe chickens eat the snails.

Allan’s photo

Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’

lost in the deep woods

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

dripping water

Allan’s photo

Spotty Dotty again

entry to a living tunnel

Ok. where in my garden can I do this? Oh….I have a salmonberry tunnel…not this cool.

This is magical.

me, loving the tunnel

out the other end. To the right, a pavilion with stone pillars.

and refreshments

Hardy Planters

including Our Ann

and a garden host

Allan’s photo

little dog looking into the tunnel

across from the pavilion

at the front corner of the garden

front of house

the way out

I don’t want to leave this paradise, yet I must.  There was one more garden to see (the last one written about in the previous post; it did not take long but I did not know that would be the case) and a three hour drive home.

Takeaways: I need Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’, and a larger lot, and I need to get the salmonberry groves cleaned out to make room for more shade plant collections, and I need more repurposed junk and some stone pillars.  Dang it.

You can see more photos here, on The Eye of the Lady, taken with a much bigger camera and with great skill.

the way home

91 degrees F as we drive through farm and vineyard country

This area grows many of the ornamental trees and shrubs shipped all over the country. Some fields had fascinating variety.

orchards

We were interested to learn that there is a trail all the way from Banks to Vernonia.

Allan’s photo

After a scary drive over the coast range, facing long lines of impatient and pushy drivers heading back to the city after a seaside weekend, we were pleased to enter maritime weather.

61 degrees and salty

a feast at Himani Indian Cuisine in Astoria ended our four day holiday.

after dinner, some Astoria planter admiration

well done, Astoria

Four days, 25 gardens (including the Oregon Garden)!  Tomorrow, we will resume publishing just in the mornings, at least until another garden tour day comes up.  There are three in the near future, unfortunately all on the same day.

right here on the Long Beach Peninsula

in Aberdeen, 1.5 hours north

In Tillamook, 2 hours south

 

Read Full Post »