The next garden visit during Study Weekend, Connall

The Connall garden kicked off Saturday's garden touring during the 2025 Study Weekend event last June. 

I'd been following Kyle Connall on Instagram for awhile, and so I was looking forward to finally seeing his garden in person, it did not disappoint. From the tour booklet: "When we moved to this two-acre property 21 years ago, it felt like a blank slate with lawns, maple trees, and a few arborvitae hedges. Initially, we thought of creating an English garden, but after discovering how expensive water was, we landed on a Mediterranean, drought-resistant planting scheme. We started with the courtyard and long driveway by widening the borders on each side of the driveway and planting 500 lavender plants and eight eucalyptus trees. The trees were initially six-inch starts but now are quite stunning in their maturity, forming an archway over the drive." Stunning indeed! I only wish I'd been able to capture the magic of walking under them.

Kyle recently identified them (on Instagram) as Eucalyptus pauciflora ssp. debeuzevillei.

The courtyard...

"The courtyard includes a water feature, palms, jasmine vines, and other tropical-looking planting material. A new path was installed last year with 2x4 foot concrete slabs surrounded by cream-colored gravel."

Nice of the Brugmansia to bloom for the tour.

I love the dramatic, yet simple, stairs...

To get to the rest of the garden we walked through the plantings—see the start of the pathway to the left of the tall Tetrapanax papyrifer? The folks towards the back have emerged at the other end of the path. But first...

Agaves! And a Yucca rostrata (or two, or three)...

Looking on towards the back garden...

And looking back at the Tetrapanax.

The back of the house...

The description continues..."Next we removed most of the lawn behind the house. This created our largest area, which includes a meandering pathway, firepit, drought-resistant trees, shrubs, grasses and perennials. The cacti garden in far back section includes agaves, opuntias, and yuccas."

The wide swaths of a single type of planting really drive home what's possible in a large garden.

The use of Nassella tenuissima (aka Mexican feathergrass, at least I think that's what it is) in this part of the garden is magical, I should have taken a short video so you could enjoy the movement.

Again, perfectly timed blooms...

I just could not get enough of this planting.

Even better with friends. That's Ann on the left (LaManda is only half in the frame) and Alexa waiving in the center of the photo. Sadly I missed getting Emily in the image.

Yes, that's a Metapanax delavayi on the right (above and below).

Cotula, maybe C. lineariloba, or C. hispida, I'm not sure which.

The view goes on and on and on...

I couldn't decide which photo I liked best, so you get them both.

Finally, big impact containers along the side of the back patio. I had a recent conversation with Kyle where shared his plans for planting many more Yucca rostrata. I'm going to have to invite myself back to see the results!

The Bit at the End

If you've ever had the pleasure of hearing Karen Chapman give a garden talk then you know what a great communicator she is. She's doing an online presentation, "Global Design for Modest Spaces" on Tuesday, January 20th, and it's free! More information and registration here.

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Experimenting with a fern mount

When it comes to plants that naturally grow as epiphytes, or lithophytes, you know I like to experiment and see what I can get away with. Case in point, this Pyrrosia christii growing on a rock (with a little moss and a little potting soil), this is what it looked like in September.

And now... 

It’s out in the shade pavilion greenhouse and even though we haven’t had a hard freeze, it’s obviously not happy. I’m hoping it will leaf out (frond out?) in the spring, or maybe it's just going to give up? It is an experiment after all.

For my next Pyrrosia christii experiment I decided to mount a couple plants on a piece of tree fern trunk. I read on the Glass Box Tropicals site: “This species also seems more prone to forming a mound instead of wandering around like some of the other rhizomatous species. To get the best growth, this species seems to love tree fern fiber plaques/mounts.”

First I soaked the root ball(s) to help with teasing away extra potting mix.

The tree fern fiber chunk came from a Andy’s Orchids purchase at a past Northwest Flower and Garden Festival. It was the home of either a mounted Pyrrosia nummularifolia or P. piloselloides that didn’t make it.

For mounting I bought a spool of nylon beading thread. I'm done with fishing line, I hate that suff!

Rhizomes and roots spread out on the tree fern fiber.

Weaving the thread around and around.

The moss for this project came from our patio wall. There's no shortage this time of year.

Laid out it looks like a skinned a green squirrel.

The finished project.

When I pictured the finished mount in my mind it certainly wasn't covered in so much moss.

Oh well, I do love moss.

It will be interesting to see how it does, hopefully the abundance of moss well help to keep the fern from drying out.

The next project I plan to tackle involves a much larger piece of tree fern trunk (purchased here). I'm still in the scheming stages with this one...

... but I'm pretty sure it will involve Pyrrosia lingua 'Undulata' that I got from Little Prince.

And I think I'll be able to complete this project without covering the entire piece of trunk with moss.

Postscript to add I've discovered there's a worm living in the moss covered pyrrosia mount. I wanted to set him free outdoors but he refuses to leave easily and I don't want to do any harm. Maybe once everything goes back outdoors this spring he'll make a break for it?

The Bit at the End

Here's an Instagram reel showing a great way to mount a platycerium / staghornfern with a terracotta saucer. I'm definitely planning to try this one: check it out here.

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