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 working on the removal of a clump of Yucca filamentosa in the front garden. Because I fear this is going to be a lifetime project, or at least one I continue until we move from this house.

The clump (orange arrow) had what I believe to be a bad case of Halticotoma valida, or yucca bug. I started to notice the yellow stippling on the leaves of just one plant a couple of years ago, but I took my usual route of ignoring it and assuming nature would take its course and things would be better in a few weeks/months. Instead they got worse. More of the yucca in the clump started to look bad. I took this photo last summer as I was trimming off ugly leaves and kept it as a reminder to do something about the problem.

So far the issue is only on the clump with the arrow pointing at it, but the circles identify other yucca species in the front garden, ones that are much more dear to me. I've also read they might feed on dasylirion, there are two of those in the area, not circled.

These yucca, below, (a photo of the infected, taken earlier in the month) date back to 2005 and our first month living here. They're descendants of plants I brought to Portland from my garden in Spokane, WA. I would never plant them now, since I've learned about other, more fabulous yucca species, but at the time I didn't know and we didn't have a lot of money to spend on plants, and so they went in the ground.

Hoping to keep the bug from spreading I decided it was time for these yucca to go. I could have tried treating with a systemic insecticide but I'm always one to chose the non chemical route when possible. Oh and yes, I started this dig knowing that removing a yucca (especially a Y. filamentosa) was going to be a big job lifetime project, still, even I was shocked at what I found. Look at the size of that root!

There were more...

And more...

This was a solid mass of them.

I kept digging and digging...

The roots go out in all directions, including under the sidewalk and driveway. Even if I removed the plants I want to keep, in an effort to dig out the roots, there's no way I could get the ones under the concrete.

But you know what? I conquered the bishops weed, I've moved an Acanthus mollis and eradicated every attempt it made to regrow. I can do this. I think. I hope. I pray. Wish me luck...

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

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 garden is so large (15 acres) we quickly dispersed and only occasionally would we cross paths. Since I'd been a few times before, I was able to stroll at a leisurely pace and not try to see it all, I felt sorry for those folks who had to rush. Here are my highlights...

I started in the Rock Garden...

So cute, so fuzzy, so dangerous...

Pellaea gastonyi

Polystichum imbricans

Heading over to the Renaissance Garden (ferns!) you pass by some stately agaves...

The perfect wall for drainage and heat.

Lovely purples with the cotinus and acanthus.

This is the first time I've seen the Raining Wall (at the entrance to the Renaissance Garden) complete.

The fern table...

Tiny treasures planted in the table include...Dryopteris affinis 'Crispa Gracilis'

Blechnum penna-marina

Rhododendron valentinioides

Selaginella tamariscina 'Golden Sprite'

Calling out a few ferns planted in the garden; Polystichum polyblepharum.

Adiantum x mairisii

Adiantum aleuticum 'Subpumilum' (on either side of the moss).

Blechnum microphyllum

This was interesting to see. When at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in February I spied a plant that looks a lot like this. I called that one out as perhaps Polygonatum mengtzense. But I had a phone screen shot in my files noting this plant as Maianthemum oleraceum. The plot thickens!

I've taken a photo of this container on several visits. Parts change, parts stay the same.

Okay, here's a confession. I love this...

I hate this...

I've felt the extreme love/hate ever since my first visit to the garden. One seems like an interesting way to raise up planters above the ground level, the other seems overly contrived and out of place.

Moving on...

I suppose you could call this artful hedge contrived, but it's plant based, not artificial. 

Ditto for the potager.

I used to dislike the chanterelle fountain, but it's grown on me.

Imagine rinsing your vegetable harvest here after picking them from the potager...

Lillies, the flower of July...

I loved the dusty hues of this vignette.

Globularia incanescens

Empty pot as framing device, it works. It really does.

A little further into the same planting.

The tree ferns! These have been here for years, surviving the seasons, unlike some newer tree ferns in the Renaissance Garden.

Dryopteris crassirhizoma

I feel extreme plant lust every time I look at a photo of this fern.

A last look at the tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica).

Making my way out of the garden and back to our bus I passed this totem pole that had been left to rest, decay, and return to the land.

It was a great reminder that the garden is now owned by the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and going forward the garden will meld their vision with that of it's famous founder, Dan Hinkley.

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.