South of the front steps; a bit of land reworked

Winter was not kind to the area just south of our front door. The main issue was the near death of the Feijoa sellowiana (pineapple guava), the leafy shrub in the large container. Photo from last September...

It may have recovered, but this was the fourth or fifth time it's completely defoliated with a winter storm. I planted it as an evergreen, I wanted an evergreen. It was time to cut my losses. This photo is from February 10th. I'd cut back the plant, but not removed it from the pot. that was going to be a job! The brown leaves at the front of the container belong to Loropetalum Jazz Hands (a mini fringe flower), I'd left it hoping it would show signs of life, but no.

I finally tackled the stump removal a few weeks ago. Andrew was willing to get involved, but I needed to remove as much soil as possible first. Hours of digging, cutting roots, more digging...

The final removal called for tipping the container on its side (as much as we could in the tight space) and rocking out the stump...

Empty! I also removed several Calluna vulgaris in the area, they'd become overgrown and ugly, only the one on the far left was allowed to remain.

Sadly there was agave damage. I tried so hard to make sure the big Agave 'Baccarat' remained flawless, but two tips were damaged when the pot was being rocked on its side and the stump pulled out. Dammit! Thankfully the damage remains pretty invisible unless you look close. 

Unfortunately it does make those leaves susceptible to rot, I'll be watching them.

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to put in the container: various shrubs were considered, removing the container and planting something in the ground was a possibility. Of course I thought about an agave, and came very close to planting it up with an Agave ovatifolia to mirror the pair on the other side of the porch. In the end I decided on a Yucca rostrata. There are three other Y. rostrata in the front garden (and a Y. linearifolia) and I love the look. I was hoping for one with a small trunk, but I fell in love with this one at Cistus. 

It's on the verge of trunking, and since the others around the front garden already have trunks of various sizes I thought it would be fun to watch this grow and catch up. I took advantage of the extra space in the container—and used some thin-rocks I'd scored on our neighborhood Buy Nothing Facebook page—to underplant with some rock-garden-ish plants.

Various sempervivum, opuntia cuttings, and a Saxifraga 'Whitehills' fill the spaces around the rocks—rocks which are much larger than they appear here, they are buried in the soil and pea gravel. They help to raise up the small plants and provide their roots with a nice drainage run down between the rocks.

I couldn't resist the dark tint to the sea-thrift, Armeria maritima 'Rubra'.

This is the first time I've grown this plant and hope it will like these conditions (in case you're wondering, yes, pink flowers! But I've made peace with those in the front garden).

I'm stopping short of calling this rock-filled planting a crevice garden, even though I did create crevices and plant them. I don't think nine rocks make a crevice garden.

Draba hispanica

Looks like one of the sempervivum as decided to bloom.

Maihuenia poeppigii on the right.

One Armeria maritima went in the ground in front of the container, joined by the Digitalis ferruginea (rusty foxglove) I brought home from my visit to Old Goat Farm, you can see a couple in the background, upper left.

There are lots of sempervivum in the ground around the area and I am thrilled it looks like Acaena inermis ‘Purpurea’ (the small purple leaves) might finally be taking hold in my garden. I've tried this plant in so many places!

In a large metal pot to the side of the profiled container is a Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Chirimen' and more sempervivum. I thought the conifer was dying when I saw the brown bits, but no—those are pollen producing cones. Oh so much pollen!

The tall oddly shaped plant in a container on the far left is a Microcachrys tetragona, the Creeping Strawberry Pine from Tasmania. The container on the far right holds a Helleborus 'Red Sapphire'. The small agaves in containers were in the shade pavilion greenhouse over the winter, the other containers will all stay in place throughout the year.

I quite like how the reworked area has turned out, and I know our mail carrier much prefers the easy access to the mailbox (the glowing metal box next to the front door), and not having to fight through the branches of the Feijoa sellowiana. It will be interesting to see how fast (or not) the Yucca rostrata grows. I have a friend (the one who engineered this caper) who has a few big boys growing in large pots so I know it will be happy for years.

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

A collector's shade garden, in Vancouver BC

The Ketchum garden was another one of last June's Study Weekend stops that everyone was talking about ("have you been to the...?" "what did you think of the...?"). Because I'd heard the buzz I was prepared for the crush of visitors. The garden was packed, but somehow I managed to not get people in most of my photos.

The front garden included water and a bridge to the front door...

From our event booklet: "My collector's shade garden is nestled in front of a conifer forest which offers and aura of serenity. The entrance garden features a large natural pond, which adds reflective light, movement, and sound...This garden reflects the juxtaposition of plants, shrubs, and trees with texture, size, shape, and colours. My favorite plants are Arisaemas, Podophyllums, Calycanthus, Magnolia 'Woodsman', Moon maple, and 'Koto-no-ito' maple."

It's not every house that you access via a bridge...

It was all very green and lush.

Such an unusual and substantial garden wall.

And then I looked up...

And back down...

Love the varied trough styles.

And the foliage, such great foliage in this garden! Impatiens omeiana

Podophyllum for the win! I do not for the life of me know how I managed a photo with no shoes in it. I remember standing here in this pathway waiting, waiting, waiting to be able to take a shot and move a few feet. There were so many people!

Podophyllum difforme 'Starfish Strain'

Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty'

And another Podophyllum difforme 'Starfish Strain' 

Rhododendron williamsianum

More orchid foliage (Cypripedium formosanum) this may have been THE plant of the weekend!

A great rhododendron with tomentum covered new foliage.

This charming small greenhouse was along the side of the house as you made your way back out front.

Rabbit's foot fern living up to it's (common) name.

Another trough planting.

And just like that I'm back at the front of the house, the entrance that doesn't involve a bridge over water...

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

A walk around my spring garden

Spring is doing its best to try and make me forget about the damage of winter. I appreciate the effort and I'm enjoying the heck out of it. But I'm still feeling the burn! That said I want to share with you some of the good things happening in the garden right now.

New growth on the daphniphyllum is always bright and gorgeous. Below is the variegated plant, Daphniphyllum macropodum 'Ki Midori Nakafu'—the leaves start out chartreuse and as they mellow the variegation shows up.

And this the straight up Daphniphyllum macropodum...(no variegation).

Another shot of the variegated version, with flowers (they never get much better than that). I had a third plant, non variegated, but was in a container and it looks like the winter storm was too much for it. Bummer.

Doing my annual cut back on the Akebia longeracemosa 'Victor's Secret' (it wants to own the entire garden, plus the one next door) I noticed the fantastic lichen on the fence. 

The fence was built in early 2014, and I still think of it as new. In reality 10 years have passed.

Here's the akebia. I love the foliage almost as much as the flowers (which are on the way).

In the same general area is the Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida’ (Cutleaf Emperor Oak), also dating to 2014 for when it was planted in my garden.

This entire area was newly planted that spring, and then the 2014 Portland Fling happened that July. I look back on how new everything was then and cringe at the fact almost 100 people were here to see the baby plants!

Speaking of baby, the new quercus foliage is adorable, covered with peach fuzz.

One of the mahonia that is recovering from the winter die-back, M. x media 'Marvel'...

Neither of my Schefflera delavayi missed a beat over the winter, and the new growth is always spectacular. 

Disporum cantoniense 'Night Heron' with a pyrrosia planting that spent all winter hanging on the fence, except for the week of horrid temperatures when it was tucked into the greenhouse.

Another view of 'Night Heron'.

Fertile fronds of Struthiopteris spicant, aka Blechnum spicant, aka deer fern.

I'm so thrilled that my Convallaria majalis 'Aureovariegata' (variegated lily of the valley) is bulking up. Thankfully the foliage is more important to me than the flowers, as I have only two stems of blooms.

This photo is a couple weeks old now (taken 4/14) and things have already changed, but I love the combo of new fronds on the Adiantum venustum (Himalayan maidenhair) with the Veratrum californicum and Podophyllum peltatum.

Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern) with it's spectacular brown outline—which only lasts a few days before it fades to green.

The fine black lines of Adiantum venustum fronds.

New pyrrosia leaves/fronds are adorable, don't you think?

Paris quadrifolia

Epimedium × rubrum, this plant looked great even after the winter storm, thus I added five more to the garden.

Clematis 'Pixie' blooms.

Blechnum penna-marina, aka Austroblechnum penna-marina, aka alpine water fern

Magnolia  laevifolia

Such a fabulous small flower.

Speaking of small flowers, Saxifraga × urbium 'Aureopunctata' is sending up tiny little flowers all over the garden. Hundreds of them. I am trying so hard to like them and not be annoyed by them. Somedays it works, others—not so much.

Aquilegia viridiflora Chocolate Soldier’

Pacific Coast Iris hybrid ‘Wildberry Shortcake’

Leucothoe fontanesiana 'Rainbow' (L) with the blooms of Lewisia cotyledon 'Sunset Series' (R).

That lewisia again.

And another, so VIBRANT it wants to break the camera every time. NoID.

Last shot, this from inside the house. I cut back my Rhododendron laramie in February, it was leggy and suffering damage from the winter storm.. Naturally I stuck the bits I cut in water, and what do you know, they've pushed out new foliage. No roots, but definitely responsible for weeks of "in a vase" enjoyment. Plants are amazing!

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