Create a Scene in Malvern, PA (during the Philly Fling)

Would you believe I still have several Philly Fling gardens to write about? Crazy! Even more crazy is the fact that I saw this garden one year ago today. I didn't plan it this way, in fact I edited and uploaded these photos earlier this month and it was just a fluke that I chose today to post. 

Create a Scene, what a name right? It is the garden of floral designer Michael Bowell and the artist Simple.

This was a garden where we all (almost 100 of us) visited at the same time, instead of splitting and going to two separate gardens and then flipping. So in other words, this was a large garden...

It was also an incredibly personal garden and one I really loved exploring.

Yes, there is always an agave IF you look hard enough. Unfortunately sometimes it's not real.

While time has blurred my memories of visiting in person (what fun it was to go through the photos), I don't know that I would really have any more to say if I had posted the week after returning home. Mostly I just walked around with my mouth hanging open and my camera clicking.

There was a sort of nursery area in front the home. Not that any of the plants were for sale.

I wanted this strange shelving, seeing it again I am scheming how this would translate to my garden.

You've seen flashes of that barn red in previous photos, that indeed Michael and Simple's home.

As I explored this far off section of the garden I wondered if anyone would notice if I didn't make it back to the bus, would they come looking for me?

Luckily I made it back to the home to explore the greenhouses with my fellow Flingers.

More empty shelves...

This was all attached to the side of the home.

I think there's a pot under there, somewhere?

Greenhouses spaces are so mysterious and magical, especially when they're a little overgrown and abandoned. I was in heaven here.

Yep, I'm coveting that shelving too...

Oh look, a hot tub! Imagine wandering out of your home, through your greenhouse, and into your hot tub. Damn.

There was more than just one greenhouse structure, there was a whole series of them of different sizes and materials.

Back outside now. Here you can see the meeting of the house and the large glass greenhouse.

Fellow Flingers...

Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a cat?

The spaces in between...

And the final photo. Are you intrigued? Confused? In awe? Me too.

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Roadtrip, north again

Yes, I do love a planty roadtrip. Last weekend I headed back up to the Seattle/Bellevue area to give a talk for the NPA, and as luck would have it the same weekend the Hardy Fern Foundation was having their fall Fern Fest event. How could I miss that? So I left home at the (ridiculous) hour of 6:30 am on Saturday morning and was at the Bellevue Botanic Garden before the sale started at 10 am. Yay!

Turns out I wasn't the only Portlander that made the early morning trip, Craig (of the Farm on Dairy Creek) and Jenn (here's her most excellent garden) must have been right behind me on I-5. By now y'all probably recognize Emily (on the far left), the wonderful nursery manager for the Hardy Fern Foundation.

The Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden was also selling plants at the event, they brought a few of my favorites like Rhododendron williamsianum...

Rhododrndron nakaharai

The spider azalea, R. 'Linearifolium'

And Rhododendron 'Wine & Roses' 

The HFF tables were filled with fantastic ferns like Blechnum penna-marina (Austroblechnum penna-marina).

And Blechnum chilense (Parablechnum cordatum).

Dan Hinkley was also at the event selling Windcliff plants, like this super serrated Schefflera delavayi, which I heard more than one person lusting after, and then withdrawing their hand when they saw the price (upwards of $200).

I spied this gorgeous creature in the holding area, I didn't want to manhandle someone else's plant, so I'm not sure if it's a brassaiopsis or a trevesia.

Hopefully many folks signed up to be Hardy Fern Foundation members during the sale.

After the sale I zipped over to Wells Medina Nursery where I saw the most hilarious plant label that I've seen in a while. 

I give you Amsonia ciliata 'Halfway to Arkansas'...

You'd be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't be?) at how many times I'm drawn to Stokesia laevis when they're budded up like this. I bought one once, it disappeared without ever blooming.

Now it's Sunday and I was back at the Bellevue Botanic Garden for my talk. This was the Northwest Perennial Alliance's annual meeting and it kicked off with a pumpkin demonstration (adding succulents) by Alison Johnson.

The meeting marked their 40th Anniversary, we are so lucky here in the PNW to have such strong horticulture organizations.

Fast forward to Monday (this is the quick highlight/haul reel, there will be more in depth posts of some of my stops in the future) and I'm at University Village to visit Ravenna Gardens. I had to stop to admire this swath of Mahonia eurybracteata 'Soft Caress' which appears to not have been effected at all by last winter's nastiness, unlike most 'Soft Caress' here in Portland.

Such a beautiful mahonia.

Ravenna Gardens! It had been a couple of years since I'd been, thankfully it's just as wonderful as it was back when Gillian Matthews (the founder) was still in charge. Kudos to the new owners for keeping it such a great destination.

The first plant to catch my eye was the dark leaf hydrangea everyone is talking about, Hydrangea macrophylla Eclipse® (not Hydrangea macrophylla 'Eclipse'... the devil is in the [trademark vs. cultivar] details).

Then I went to look at the Windcliff plants, silly since I'd just shopped his plants at Fern Fest and was at Windcliff in July, but hey, you never know what you might find.

Begonias...

Sinopanax formosanus

Hemiboea subequalis var. jiangxiensis (oh so very tempted)

Strobilanthes gossypinus

Pseudopanax 

And look, Arctostaphylos x 'Sunset', for those of you at my talk on Sunday who were wondering where to buy arctostaphylos in the area, here you are...

Inside the shop it was fun to see Dan's book and my book hanging out together...

So, yes, the moment you've been waiting for, the haul photo! It's a good one.

Clockwise from the far right: from Ravenna Gardens, Bergenia ciliata. Look at those hairs!

They're on the stems too.

Blechnum novae-zelandiae from the HFF Fern Fest. It got a little wilted in my car but responded nicely to a drenching.

Eryngium guatemalense from Dan Hinkley. Craig pointed out this came from seed he got from Jimi Blake. Fun provenance, I had to try it.

During my stay up north I visited my friend Scott's garden (2021 visit here) and he gave me this pot of agave pups. They're a form or a cross of Agave scabra (Agave asperrima) and he says they should be hardy, I'll plant them out next spring.

Another HFF Fern Fest fern, Anisocampium cuspidatum.

Evergreen, 24" - 36"... what's not to love?

I grabbed this shaggy oddity at Wells Medina. Artemisia gmelinii, aka SunFern™ Olympia, aka Russian Wormwood.

I know nothing about this plant other than it's supposed to be evergreen and likes full sun. We shall see.

I think this might have been my biggest score of the trip, Rhododendron cardiobasis from the RSBG at Fern Fest. Bought for the big foliage of course.

I think there might have only been one of these at the sale, I turned around and saw it and wasted no time making it mine.

I'm also pretty excited about this one, Rhododendron 'Ever Red'. Hopefully I can keep this one alive, as I quickly killed the one I bought from Roger Gossler.

Speaking of killed, I'm thinking the third time is the charm for Rhododendron forrestii ssp. forrestii. I've killed the two Roger Gossler has given me (well, they died, I don't know if I was to blame or not). We'll see how this one (from the RSBG) does.

Finally, Scott didn't just send me on my way with a pot of agaves, he also gave me a trio of Aspidistra elatior pots (I can always use more aspidistra) and a cool piece of vintage metal.

Hmmm... what will I do with this? Fun times ahead.

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