Hortlandia Fling Garden Tours / Day One, Garden One; James Andrew Gould

Back on April 8th I teased a weekend of garden tours I put together for friends who were in town for Hortlandia (that post here). When I finally sat down to write about the gardens we saw I planned three posts, one each for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, hitting the highlights of the two gardens we visited that day. Who was I kidding? There was no way I could edit down my photos like that! Instead I'm starting my coverage where we started the tours, bright and early Friday morning at James Andrew Gould's garden.

If the name (or the garden) seem familiar it's because I wrote about this garden at the end of March, covering a visit that took place September of 2025. It was great to return again so soon and see what things looks like in the very early spring (our visit was on April 3rd).

I look at this foliage and freeze for a minute. Lyonothamnus floribundus or Comptonia peregrina? A knowledgeable plant person visited my garden recently and we talked about this momentary confusion, I felt a lot better knowing it wasn't just my issue. Oh, and this is a Lyonothamnus floribundus.

Euphorbia 'Tasmanian Tiger' (or the like).

Will I ever be able to remember specific Eucalyptus names? I doubt it.

There were two glorious patches of Grevillea x gaudichaudii when I last visited James' garden. This one was still looking spectacular during this latest visit, the other one had been set back a bit.

Agave! A. parryi I believe.

So many spikes!

Sinopanax formosanus (back left), Euphorbia some somebody along with a Eucalyptus and Yucca rigida in the foreground. 

Such a handsome orb of thin spikes...

Arisaema sikokianum

Part of the group; that's James to the left of the Echium, David and Max. I think the Echium might be hiding Gerhard.

I'm sure those tall Echium are in full glorious bloom now...

And the Erica arborea is probably finished.

Speaking of blooms, Sinopanax formosanus.

One of the very few aloes (or once were aloes) we can grow in the ground here in Portland, Aloiampelos striatula.

The Echium again, I think they're E. pininana. They're like a magnet for my camera.

One of my favorite dry-land ferns, which James introduced me to several years back, Pleopeltis lepidopteris 'Morro dos Conventos'.

The carivorous plant blog.

Mahonia 'Marvel' I believe.

Looking back across the front garden.

And then to one of the two Wollemia nobilis in the garden.

Daphniphyllum? No, I don't think that's right.

Echium wildpretti

Another Pleopeltis lepidopteris backed by a lovely loquat, Eriobotrya japonica.

Close up.

Drimys winteri, I think?

The other Wollemi pine—doing it's strange male and female cone thing—ends today's post. On Friday we'll visit our second stop that day, Dairy Creek Meadows in North Plains, OR.

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude. 

My new (old) gutter planters...

Back during the strange COVID times Andrew and I stopped at a local salvage shop, where I bought a couple of short galvanized rain gutter remnants. I had plans for them, but that's where the story ends. They needed end pieces to make them "plantable" and I had no idea gutter caps that size (and metal!) were still made. I thought I was going to have to fabricate something myself. Fast forward to this spring and I happened to see metal ends were available at the hardware store, and Andrew was up for attaching them. Yay!

This planter/planting I saw last summer in Jenn Ferrante's garden is what inspired me to get moving on the project again after what, 5 years? Good lord. Her planter is way cooler than my gutter pieces though...

This piece is the smaller of the two...

There's one of the new end caps...

The ferns I choose to plant in it—Pyrrosia christii and Phlebosia ‘Nicolas Diamond’—aren't hardy here in Portland, so this piece spent the final few weeks of winter in the basement.

And then once I hung it on the fence I cut back most of the old fronds, so it's just getting started for the season.

They're growing though!

Looking to the right you can see the longer section, I choose to fill it with various Rhipsalis species.

Included species are: Rhipsalis elliptica, R. ewaldiana, R. houlletiana, and R. paradoxa.

Inspired by Jenn's planter, which included decorative rocks, I've been working in various metal pieces. 

It's an ongoing project (they be helping to keep the squirrels from digging in here too, which is a good thing).

Speaking of metal, I picked up that "stand" on the far left (with the holes around the base), when I was in Corvallis, Oregon, last February. I knew it was going to make a nice base for one of my metal dish planters. I absolutely love it!

The rusty piece on the far right is holding a few of the bromeliad planters that were part of the bromeliad table last summer.

Instead of going the table route again this year I went ahead and planted a few bromeliads (dark Neoregelia NoID, and several Aechmea recurvata v. recurvata, v. kiwi and v. benrathii) in plastic pots and sunk them into the metal container I used as the base last year.

I like it the change.

The Bit at the End

Even though these planters all contain multiple plants, I'm usually a one plant per pot kinda gal. So... I was surprised how much I love the container plantings in this Gardenista post on Terrain's new container gardening book. Check it out here.

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude. 

Berry Creek Garden, a place to visit in McMinnville, OR

It's thanks to Social Media (the thing everyone loves to hate) that know Lee McCollins. I met Lee back in 2022 when he invited me down to Durant at Red Ridge Farms for a book signing. 

Because of Instagram, I knew Lee had opened a shop in McMinnville, Oregon; Berry Creek Garden. I am a sucker for a well designed space and I could tell this small shop had it dialed in.

Squeezed in between two tall buildings Lee has made the most of what he has to work with.

Inspiration is off the charts here.

There are four little me reflected in those gazing balls.

Isn't this a perfectly dreamy location?

Agaves do belong in Oregon! I would add this; plant your agave higher than the surrounding soil (not so much in a hole, but at the top of it) and work away the potting mix that the plant came planted in, so the roots are in contact with the native soil.

Wow...

Mangave 'Spotted Porcupine' 

The plants on offer at Berry Creek are not your regular garden center perennials, not even close. Like this Billbergia nutans...

Great labels too...

Artemesia versicolor 'Seafoam'

I'd be a regular visitor, if Berry Creek Garden wasn't over an hour away from my home.

That upcoming talk on growing your own Backyard Cut Flower Garden? That's a class taught by my friend Hayden Smith of Big Oak Flower Farm (it's a small world when you're a plant person in Western Oregon, and I wouldn't want it any other way), I visited Hayden on her farm back in 2024.

At the back of the long narrow space (I think it was once an alley?) is a charming building with books and gifts and other accoutrements.

To the right is an entrance to Mac Market, just the kind of space I'd love to have in my neighborhood.

Inside the shop...

Lee mentioned these windows came from an old family restaurant in Portland, and he'd had them in storage for years waiting for the right place to use them. This is definitely it.

If you find yourself in McMinnville, Oregon—maybe on a wine tasting adventure?—look for this rusty metal tiara at the entrance and check out Berry Creek!

Oh ya, and I left with this fern, Cheilanthes argentea (aka silver cloak fern).... so good!

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.