Visiting gardens makes me happy

I just returned from a week in Philadelphia, aka America's Garden Capital. The 2023 Garden Blogger's Fling was held there and that meant four days of intense garden touring organized by Karl Gercens, garden traveler extraordinaire and conservatory manager at Longwood Gardens. Andrew and I arrived early and I spent another two days touring on my own. I'm wiped out and can't wait to tell you all about it—just as soon as I recover.

This lady enjoying a garden visit is another of the many vintage photos Andrew has given me over the years, I thought her expression adequately expressed the joy of garden touring and she would have fit right in with the GBFling crowd! 

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All words © 2009-2023 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

UBC Botanical Garden Mondays—three of three

For today's final installment of UBC Botanical Garden Mondays, we walk thru the moon gate and under busy Marine Drive (the main route to and from the UBC)...

Once you emerge on the other side of the tunnel the gardens have an entirely different feel; they're open to the sky in a way the other side is not. First up, the food garden (the lights in the background are part of the sports complex on the UBC campus)...

On the garden map this is just listed as the arbor, but it's a heck of a lot more than an arbor.

I couldn't explore the areas around the structure any further as there was a private event underway. What a lovely setting.

Moving on I briefly tucked into the Physic Garden, but since I only had limited time left to explore before I had to leave for the first open private garden of the day I didn't poke around much.

Rhododendron williamsianum, such a fabulous patch of this plant—it inspired me to buy another when I saw it on offer at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden on my way home after this weekend.

Rhododendron pseudochrysanthum

Such a fabulously pruned specimen.

And then there's this! Listed on the map as a cactus house it's a partially sunken glass house that's totally magical. 

Before we enter the glass house we'll have a look at the troughs.

Such interesting plants, I do love me some saxifrage.

Saxifraga hostii, I think.

Polystichum imbricans subsp. imbricans, downright dreamy! (fun ID story on this blog)

I've finally made my way over to the glass house...

I wonder if this is the same green blooming cholla that I've got?

Maihueniopsis ovata

Maihuenia poeppigii

Close-up

Outside once again and admiring the alpine garden (that's what the map calls it, but it seems like these plants are from more than alpine areas), I believe those are Echium wildpretii rosettes.

The building in the background serves as a reminder that we're in a dense urban area.

Berkheya purpurea

Eryngium agavifolium

Comptonia peregrina

Azorella trifurcata (cushion bolax)

I love that large round mass of lichen growing on the rock. Isn't it spectacular?

Myriopteris gracillima, aka Cheilanthes gracillima

There's our agave! Agave parryi var. huachucensis.

A wide angle shot showing the area the agave is in (on the far right of the photo)

Tigridia orthantha

Such a spectacular bight flower.

97% dead arctostaphylos? Still fabulous.

Just a couple more photos. Nolina hibernica 'La Siberica' (I think) on the left, with a Yucca linearifolia on the right.

It's a spiky round orb!

That's it from the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden, if you missed the first two parts of this series here's the first, and here's the second. I still have a lot more to share from my time in Vancouver...

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All material © 2009-2023 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery—or how I rationalize stealing a friend's idea

This corner of my back garden has undergone a few transformations over the years. Back in 2014 the privet was removed and the fence, plantings, and stock tank went in (here). I enjoyed several years with the stock tank acting as a pond and the fun of growing water plants, until marauding racoons continually trashed the pond and took away any and all joy. Last spring I converted the stock tank to a table planting and thoroughly love the new look.

Shifting our gaze just a few feet to the right this is a spot that I've never really been happy with, until now. I am absolutely in love with this vignette and I stole the idea from my friend Denise.

Back in February was when I first took note of the barrel rings acting to define plantings in Denise's Tillamook garden (via her blog). The rings showed up again in April, and they'd multiplied! I saved those images to an inspiration file and periodically looked at them, knowing I'd eventually find a place to do something similar.

In July I visited Denise and finally saw the rings in person, here's a photo from her garden (entire post here).

I was also rather taken with this astelia she planted in a metal tube.

Once I was back home it hit me where I could place a ring, and of course I already had one just waiting to be used. I completely ripped off her design ideas and transplanted them to my garden. Metal ring planting? ✔ A slightly different gravel mix within the ring? ✔ Astelia in a metal tube? ✔

That popcorn cassia that's completely blocking the view of the plants in the ring? It's gone now. I'd already planted it in this spot before I put the ring in place, and since it's an annual in my climate I figured I'd just let it live out the season. Then one day I decided it needed to go, bye bye! It was a good decision.

Thankfully Denise visited my garden a couple of weeks ago and I was able to show her my idea thievery in person. I think she has forgiven me. I tried to bribe her with plant gifts.

This snippet of an article was in a recent Gardens Illustrated and I loved the quote so much that I had to record it (sadly I didn't track which issue, or even what garden Danni works in, my bad)...

Gardening is about the process, and small projects like this are what those of us with a "finished" garden can indulge in to get our creative ideas flowing and feel a renewed connection to our garden.

Thank you Denise for the inspration!

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All material © 2009-2023 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.