Plants doing exceptionally well (and one that's still not)

As I've written about (at length), last winter was a nightmare, there was so much plant death. However, on the flip side, I've noticed there are a few plants in the garden that are doing exceptionally well this year. Why? I attribute their happiness to the consistent rain this spring, rain that alternated with nice warm sunny days. There wasn't too much of either, just enough of both to get plants growing. There's also increased open airy sky—aka sunlight. Plant death means increased light for the nearby plants that live.

Galium odoratum, sweet woodruff, came with me from my Spokane garden (hitchhiked with another plant), and went in the ground back in 2005. It had all but disappeared, only a leaf or two showing up, that is until this year.

I suppose rather than look at its reappearance as a good thing, I should probably be terrified that a plant can lay in wait for over a decade, and then pop up all lush and happy almost over night.

Speaking of things showing up unexpectedly, see those terracotta shards on the lower right (above). My garden has been producing terracotta bits for years. Sometimes it's when I dig, but most of the time they just show up on the surface of the soil in unexpected places.

Another green ground cover, Soleirolia soleirolii (baby's tears), is also doing fantastic.

I never would have dreamt this Zone 9 plant—that I stuck in the ground on a whim—would have lived through last winter and look so good now.

I planted these Blechnum chilense (Parablechnum cordatum, the Chilean hard fern) back in 2020 and they promptly died back, or perhaps were chomped on by rabbits, or both.

Last year I think there may have been one sickly sad little leaf from each plant.

But this year!

Wowsa, it's beginning to look like I'm going to get the Blechnum chilense planting I intended back when I planted them.

Nearby is my Rhododendron pachysanthum. The new foliage starts out white frosted...

And then slowly turns cinnamon, it's in the process in the photo below. This is one that's definitely appreciating the increased light levels.

And a plant that's appreciated the rain that's fallen further into the season, Rodgersia, I think perhaps R. rotlaub. Those big leaves are just so fabulous...

Without equal, actually.

One more happy plant surprise, I bought this NoID orchid years ago, on sale. It was budded up and I figured "why not?". When the flower faded I hung onto the plant, because the foliage was interesting. Eventually I worked the plant into the bromeliad panels I made back in 2022 (very little soil, mostly growing in moss, hanging on the fence in summer, in the basement in the winter). Not only has that orchid lived, but it's going to bloom. Pretty fabulous!

Mahonia x media 'Marvel' made a quick recovery from its winter damage.

I have three marvels and they're all looking good.

The sad plant in the mix is another mahonia, Mahonia eurybracteata 'Soft Caress', it's still not doing so well. 

I have (or rather had) five of them; three plants that are just a couple years old and had overheard protection in the form of trees, and two plants that had been planted out in garden for 10 plus years, but were in the path of extremely high (frigid) wind. The young but "protected" plants (above and below) are finally pushing out new leaves, but one of the oldies was recently tossed, it was either dead, or at least dead to me. Bye-bye.

We're going on a bit of a detour before we get to the fourth Mahonia eurybracteata 'Soft Caress', and taking a look at the Mahonia eurybracteata 'Indianola Silver'. That's it dead center of the photo below, with the beautiful flush of pearly green new growth...

This plant was knocked back just as harshly as the 'Soft Caress', but it's rebounded much quicker. My two other "silver" Mahonia eurybracteata, 'Cistus Silvers' have also pushed out new growth, proving they're better adapted to my growing conditions.

Since my fifth 'Soft Caress' was nothing but a curvy stump...

I decided to make the trip out to Cistus and buy a couple of 'Silvers' to replace it, of course when I went to dig out the stump just two days later, this is what I saw... new growth!

The timing!

I went ahead and cut back the stump to the new growth point, and then planted the three Mahonia eurybracteata, 'Cistus Silvers' I bought nearby. Since they're seed-grown they all differ greatly. Those bright green leaves belong to one of the new plants...

They should develop a bit more of a silver cast as they age.

And here are the other two. It will be interesting to see how they all grow, and what future winters hold for them all.

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All material © 2009-2024 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Dancing Oaks Nursery and Gardens, a long overdue visit

It's hard for me to believe, but my last visit to Dancing Oaks Nursery in Monmouth, Oregon, was way back in 2021—and it took place in April! Hardly prime gardening season. Back then I broke my visit report into two parts, the plants and the garden. This time there will be just one post, but it's a long one!

I visited on June 19th, the first plant I stopped to swoon over was this, Daphne x burkwoodii 'Briggs Moonlight'. I had one of these briefly, mine never looked this good.

Agave 'Blue Glow' and friends...

The extensive gardens at Dancing Oaks are used for many events, in fact I attended one back in 2018 when the Salem Study Weekend held a dinner party in the garden. While exploring the far side of the garden on this visit, I came upon this low stacked wall with it's planting pockets and a tall pedestal at the end.

Here it is again, but from the opposite side. Hard to get a good photo of, but really interesting to me.

Based on the bloom spike I think this is a Nolina of some sort.

But I can't ID it any better than that.

Such a happy patch of purple oxalis, which always reminds me of Austin, TX, where this plant seems to be growing in every garden.

The tall planted up containers dripping water in the display garden/pond just beyond the greenhouses are a favorite of mine, although they were hard to photograph in the bright sunny conditions on the day I visited (Tamara got much better photos during her visit in May, here).

I have no idea what this candy-cane colored flower is, but there was no missing it's colorful display...

Happy plants are swallowing the containers here...

When I walked around to the backside I discovered gunnera tall enough to stand under.

Spiky plants in containers on the other side of the pathway.

Puya × berteroniana

It was good to see the clay planter "wall" was still in place.

From the other side...

I would have thought xeric plantings would be at home in the clay pockets but this combo with Maihuenia poeppigii was the only such plant I saw in the mix.

There were multiple poppies in different colors and shapes but I loved this one best of all.

Cephalaria gigantea, perhaps? 

Arctostaphylos 'Elizabeth McClintock'

And a very low hanging Magnolia macrophylla flower.

To the dry garden now...

I was surprised the ghostly corpse of their bloomed agave was still there. I'm glad though, as it's pretty fabulous.

It's brothers and sisters (still very much alive) need to be freed from the overgrown euphorbia...

It's such a beautiful sight to see tall Eremurus in the landscape.

Pineapple broom, Argyrocytisus battandieri. It smells delicious!

Rhododendron 'Ebony Pearl' in great light.

Kalmia latifolia

I'm not fan of pink flowers, but this was hard to not photograph it looked so happy and abundant.

And there they are, my yucca friends!

Finally, it was time to shop...

I had completely forgotten about their greenhouse that collapsed during the January storm, here it is being rebuilt.

And here's a photo of it in January, photo borrowed from the Dancing Oaks Facebook page.

All but two of my purchased plants came from this greenhouse, signed as Jurassic Park.

It's also where the temping off-limits plants live.

Pteris wallichiana, still with it's Far Reaches Farm label stuck in the soil. I have one of these, also from Far Reaches, but it's just a tiny thing. Fingers crossed it might someday stand this tall.

Some folks claim the best way to grow Pyrrosia is in moss-lined hanging baskets, those plants weren't looking great though.

Ah! I was tempted, Microcachrys tetragona, the creeping strawberry pine. I love this plant so much, but I already have a couple so I didn't really need more.

Their stock plant of Parablechnum novae-zelandiae was a beauty.

The final shot I took during my visit, as I left the nursery...

I wish you could see all the mountains I saw. There were four of them off in the distance, all so big and white. Here you can barely make out Mt Adams (in Washington) above the metal fence post on the far left. I was also able to see Mt Hood, Mt Jefferson and what was probably Three Fingered Jack. It was an epic view.

Here's my haul, which also felt pretty epic.

Russelia x 'St. Elmo's Fire', aka firecracker plant. This one's only borderline hardy here at best, but I'll enjoy it as an annual cascading over the side of one of the driveway stock tanks.

Aristolochia sempervirens, evergreen Dutchman's pipe.

Aristolochia fimbriata, white-veined Dutchman's pipe.

A pair of Adiantum aleuticum 'Subpumilum'.

I may have squealed out loud when I spotted this one, Pleopeltis lepidopteris 'Morro dos Conventos', aka Brazilian hairy sword fern. I have one from Plant Delights (thanks to Heather who let me piggy-back on her order last year) but there's no way I was going to divide that plant to experiment with it in ground. Now I have three (3!) plants to play with and see how they do in my garden.

Lastly (but not leastly), a Parablechnum novae-zelandiae which is already in the ground. I've wanted one of these ever since seeing it at the Miller Garden north of Seattle. Fingers crossed it likes my conditions here in Portland.

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All material © 2009-2024 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.