danger garden

Friday, July 25, 2025

Visiting the Mardi Gras Gardener

I've shared several photos of my friend Alan's garden on my Instagram page, but I could not find any record of having written about his Portland garden here on the blog. So, in case I haven't, well, now I am.

Alan recently had an open garden for HPSO members, and then an after hours party for his friends.

I wasn't able to stay long, but I did manage to take 30-some pictures. Alan's garden is extremely photographable... gorgeous flowers, plants, and vignettes everywhere.

Alan's Instagram handle is the Mardi Gras Gardener, as he hails from New Orleans and loves a good party.

As you'll see, Eryngiums are kind of Alan's thing. There is an amazing number of them in his garden, all grown well.

The somewhat serene entry to the house doesn't fully prepare you for the plant chaos that lies beyond.

It's wall to wall plants!

With so many sexy blooms passersby have done not nice things...

I think this is Kniphofia thomsonii?

Working my way along the long border...

More Eryngium...

An Oleander with a Tetrapanax backer.

The Verbena were off the charts, mixing and mingling with all the plants.

Oh ya... Agave ovatifolia looking glamourous.

More Verbena.

Another Eryngium, maybe a nice tall Eryngium yuccifolium?

More Kniphofia...

How long has it been since you've seen a free-standing mail box? It's been awhile for me.

Eryngium agavifolium

Clematis florida var. sieboldiana (damn!)

Definitely a Rhododendron, perhaps R. makinoi?

Oh ya, I love me a good stump planting...

And what's that...

Look at that foliage!

Turns out this is very much a danger garden plant! Aralia spinosa aka the devil's walking stick. So named named for the sharp, spiny bits that cover its trunk, branches, and even the petioles and leaf midribs. And of course for the fact it kind of "walks" around the garden, popping up here and there.

I'm hoping Alan will share one of those babies with me, when the time comes to dig them.

It's a gorgeous plant! (and garden)

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Wednesday, July 23, 2025

I'm (STILL) not in the desert southwest

Acting on a tip from a blog reader I stopped by an exotic animal hospital in Beaverton, OR. Why? To check out the plants of course...

These are quite fitting for an office that specializes in exotic pets. After all, you don't see blooming cholla on every street corner in this part of the world.

Technicolor flowers and fruit.

Oh my now that's exotic! A variegated Cylindropuntia imbricata flower.

The title of this post is a play on another post from back in 2011, when I shared photos of a drive-by home garden that happens to belong to the same person who owns this vet office, see that here.

These agaves appear to all be the same species.

Pups of plants from the home garden maybe?

There are a lot of them!

I should know which one this is, but my brain isn't connecting the dots.

This big bad boy was behind the office building.

Nearby yucca...

Okay what the heck, here's another garden I stopped to photograph a few weeks ago. This one closer to me in North Portland. These plants were all blooming in a wide hellstrip.

Maybe you don't see blooming cholla on every street corner, but there are more than you might think.

It turns out summer in Portland can look a lot like the desert...

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