The Mitchell Garden, during the 2025 Study Weekend

They just keep coming right? Are you curious just how many Study Weekend gardens I visited? Well, so far I've written about eight of them, those visits took place Friday and Saturday, June 27th and 28th. Today we kick off Sunday's tours with Christine and Jim Mitchell's garden. After this I've got one more Sunday garden and then a bonus Monday garden. There were many other open gardens that weekend that I didn't make it to for one reason or another. 

The sun was shining bright on Sunday and unfortunately the photos suffer because of it. Hopefully you can see past the glare and harsh shadows. From the tour brochure: Located on a quiet, one-third-acre suburban corner lot, the 26-year-old Mitchell Garden has developed into a mature, diverse, peaceful, restful and lush private retreat. This is an “all seasons” garden. Plants in this garden are selected for foliage—color, shape, texture, and multi-season impact. Plants are also selected for low maintenance. 

The description continues: The front garden is anchored by conscientiously pruned conifers along with water-wise ground covers and seasonal perennials. Dry-loving plants and a collection of dwarf conifers thrive here. A collection of hardy and marginally hardy succulents (including desert specimens) are scattered throughout the front and back garden beds.

That blue ground-hugging conifer is swallowing a similarly colored agave. Do you see it?

There it is...

This is a horrid photo, with the bright light and deep shadows, but I had to include it because I love how the peeling Arctostaphylos bark mimics the spiky bits of the opuntia.

We've walked into the back garden now...

More from the tour guide: In the very private backyard garden, brick and stone patios encourage sitting and viewing. Multiple trellises are covered with clematis and hops (used by the resident home brewer). A cathedral of six large, 100-plus year-old Douglas fir trees tower over the back, framing a lush woodland garden.

I first visited this garden back in 2015, with a small group of bloggers (here), that means I've been visiting for 10 years! Time flies...

The strong light that day made it especially difficult to photograph in the shady woodland garden.

Lysimachia paridiformis var. stenophylla

Tetrapanax reaching for the sun above a mix of Podophyllum.

Stunning Rhododendrons too!

There are a few of those 100-plus year-old Douglas fir tree trunks.

Chris Mitchell and I share a love for agaves. Back when I first met her she was planting out and lifting nonhardy agaves each year, not anymore. Now the agaves in the ground stay there and only the potted specimens are moved with the seasons—that is undercover for the rainy months.

I loved how these potted agaves told visitors this was an off-limits area.

Another sculptural Arctostaphylos showing off its cinnamon colored bark in the sunshine.

Nice color echo at the end of the pathway, between the Berberis (?) and the umbrella.

That's a happy Agave parryi!

A couple shots of the front garden as we head back to the car...

The Bit at the End

Garden touring calls for a certain level of behavior, be it a public or a private garden. I thought this Garden Rant article hit on several important points; Behaving Badly In Gardens.

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

February; two steps toward spring, three steps back

Or is that three steps forward and two steps back? My answer changes depending on the day. We've had a mild winter here in the Portland area, and most of the first half of February had me feeling like spring arrived early. We have a name for that around here, false spring. It happens nearly every year. You think you've rounded the bend, only to be pulled back into the cold wet, which is happening this week with rain and high temps in the low to mid-40's/and lows in the low to mid 30's. Still it looks like our lowest low of the season is behind us. Here's a nice chart (from my favorite weather site) comparing the coldest temps for the last eight winters. I had no idea 2019/20 was such a dream!

And here's one with our February snowfall amounts going back to 2015. Fingers crossed we don't have any this year.

Today's post is a random look at a few plant and garden related things from the last couple weeks. These first few photos are from a walk. I think this person hoped to get a border of opuntia growing along the front of their property. If you lay a pad on soil it *should* root and form new pads. Unfortunately it looks like these may be rotting before they start to grow.

This front yard stopped me in my tracks, what the heck?

There's a boat with a skeleton passenger, a captain at the wheel (with no boat to steer), and deep sea diver. I wanted to get a photo from the other side, a better angle, but the homeowner was working in the driveway and I chickened out, lest I get pulled into a conversation that I didn't have time for.

The weekend of Feb 7th I was down in Corvallis, Oregon, to take part in a day-long conference on the Oregon State University campus. Naturally I worked in a couple nursery visits while we were in town. This gorgeous Agave potatorium ’Cherry Swizzle’ was at Shonnards Nursery, it would have come home with me if not for the $125 price tag.

The event was the Benton County Master Gardener's Insights into Gardening. It's an annual happening, so if you're in the Corvallis area save that link for 2027, this was an extremely well organized gathering with lots of great speakers.

And vendors...

One of the talks I attended was Neil Bell's "Drought Tolerant Shrubs for Year-Round Interest." I appreciated his succinct description of a drought tolerant plant. So much better than the too-wordy definition I usually come up with.

There were four different talks running at the same time, in four different rooms, sixteen total for the day. This was the schedule for the room I was speaking in. Yep, I was the one talking about succulents. Oh well. It wasn't the most popular talk of the day, but I still had a very engaged audience and appreciated being invited.

In addition to visiting area nurseries, we also stopped by the Corvallis ReStore, where I scored these two treasures... a rusty grill for mounting a plant or two, and a heavy base that no doubt will hold a dish planter of some sort... under $10 total!

My next plant adventure was a stop at Xera Plants, where co-owner Greg Shepherd's smiling face greeted me...

Xera closed their Portland retail shop at the end of the 2025 growing season, and now they've opened a covered shopping space in a hoop house at their farm down in Sherwood, just 25 minutes-ish south on I-5.

I know a most folks were sad to see the retail shop in town close, but I was thrilled to get to visit the growing grounds again and feel the magic of where it all happens. 

I used to visit the Xera farm with a small group of friends before Hortlandia each year, that was back before the retail shop existed. It was amazing to see how much the area had changed in those 10+ years.

Muehlenbeckia ephedroides

Trachelospermum asiaticum 'Ogon' 

This open-air space is currently under-construction, but it sounds like it will be loaded with plants once summer shopping time arrives.

Adjacent to the hoop house and open-air shopping space is the covered work space where the Xera staff works potting up the plants we can't wait to buy.

This character growing next to the work space is a semi-espaliered Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths'. It's fighting to overcome a weather induced set-back but looking good while doing it.

Next up—did you read about my friend Gerhard's final trip to San Marcos Growers? Lucky me, he picked up a couple gallon pots of Aechmea recurvata and sent them up to Portland, my last San Marcos plants...

That's not all he sent! This guy bolted out of the box as soon as I cut the tape. Did he hitchhike all the way from Santa Barbara? Or was Davis, CA, (where Gerhard lives) home? Either way I doubt he enjoyed the low temperature of 33F that night.

Here are the plants temporarily potted up to spend the next month or two in the basement garden. I've got plans for them come spring...

Outside the hellebores are in full flower around the garden, not great photos, but you get the idea...

Only 32 days until spring!

The Bit at the End

The folks at Plant Delights Nursery lost some plants, and they want them back. More accurately they—like all of us—have had some plants die. Unlike us, they've sold those same plants over the years and they're hoping someone out there is still growing them and can share back to the nursery. It's a long list, with several fantastic dry land ferns that I wish I had! See the list here.

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