Hortlandia Fling Garden Tours / Day One, Garden Two; Dairy Creek Meadows

This visit (like the last), occurred on April 3rd. Friends came to town for the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon (HPSO) spring plant sale and we set out to see gardens—a visit to Dairy Creek Meadows, the home of Craig Quirk and Larry Neill, was requested. 

No matter how much you warn folks from a warmer climate that things are slower to start here, it still comes as a bit of a shock for them. From Gerhard's post about this garden: "When I got off the plane in Portland, it felt like late winter rather than the early spring we’d been enjoying in Davis. As a result, I had to moderate my expectations of how gardens would look. Indeed, Dairy Creak Meadows was very much in what I would consider winter mode."

C'est la vie. Up here in Portland we were all feeling pretty good about where are gardens were, things were growing and it was definitely spring, blooming Trillium for example...

This dark container grouping was in front of Craig and Larry's garage, extreme crevice gardens—the work of Chris Dixon—filled a couple of them.

The meadow/perennial garden around the greenhouse was just beginning to wake up for the growing season. I think that's our entire group for the morning in this photo, left to right: Craig, Max, Steven, David, Gerhard, Judith, Darren and Larry.

Of course the greenhouse is spectacular no matter the season.

Ditto for the crevice garden (a bit of the "making of" here). The plants come and go with their blooms, but the rocks are spectacular on their own.

An "inside and outside" shot.

Sempervivum 'Gold Nugget'

Fritillaria

Globularia

Action shot! Gerhard photographing, Steven, David, Max and Craig intently looking at something, and Darren and Judith on the move.

In his post(s) on the garden Gerhard took a step back and included big-picture details that I just don't think to include anymore, since I've visited, and written about this garden, and the owner's previous garden, Floramagoria, so many times. If you're curious Gerhard's posts are here and here.

The grain bin and potting shed structures...

One of two Agave ovatifolia that flank the back entrance to the greenhouse.

And one of a pair of Dustin Gimbel sculptures.

The cactus collection...

There are also aloes and bromeliads.

And rhipsalis...

Part of the greenhouse is designed as a living space.

There's also a propagation space, but I didn't get good photos of that area.

Back outside and moving towards the potting shed.

Pleopeltis lepidopteris 'Morro dos Conventos'

The carnivorous plant playground! (that's how I think of this area).

Fern table in the making...

Dairy Creek, the garden's namesake, was running fast and furious back in April.

Just a couple more photos as we walked to the upper pond...

Marcia Donahue's work...

The upper pond and its zig zag boardwalk.

And that's a wrap!  For a look at this garden last June, click here. Craig and Larry are so generous in opening their garden for HPSO members that I suspect I may have another chance to visit this summer...

The Bit at the End (kind of)

After finishing up at Dairy Creek Meadows we made an extremely quick stop at Blooming Junction, on to McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse for a late lunch (and garden walk), and then on to the reason for the gathering, the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon's Spring Plant Sale, Hortlandia. It was a very full/fun day!

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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.