Monday, June 27, 2011

Visiting the Lilyvilla Garden...

Last weekend was the Hardy Plant Society’s Study Weekend, once every four years this event is held in Portland (the study weekend alternates between Eugene, Seattle and Vancouver BC). Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the study weekend events (such as lectures with Fergus Garrett, Nan Sinton and Bernard Trainor) but all was not lost because I did have the opportunity to volunteer for a few hours in one of the coolest gardens open for the event! This is the personal garden of Lauren Hall-Behrens, garden designer (Lilyvilla Gardens), I first visited her garden as part of the 2009 ANLD (Association of Northwest Landscape Designers) Behind the Scenes Garden Tour (click here to see pictures of the garden as it looked then). Lauren has reworked most of the ground plane of her garden in the last few months, planting for greater continuity. Luckily one of my favorite elements, the entry gate, remains. Cerinthe major 'Purpurascens' carries the color scheme nicely (I assume this was no accident). After the massive entry gate the most prominent carry over from the old garden are the huge stands of hardy bananas. However tall structural anchors like this Loquat… And the Nothopanax delavayi/Metapanax delavayi (names they are a changing) stayed in place too. Gone is the monster Tetrapanax, replaced with these containers atop cut and rolled steel columns (designed by Lauren). I regret that I was unable to capture better photos of this beautiful garden. Sunny weather that makes for a lovely day of touring gardens definitely does not make for great garden photography! Lauren had a book of “before” photos available for people to look through, hard to imagine that this amazing space started out as this… This often asked about bench with decorative roof line was a gift from an artist friend of Laurens. However all of the fabulous rusty steel screens and accents are of her design. The steel edging throughout the garden measures 4,” I was surprised to find out it is so deep. Here you see the back of one of her steel screens, which is part of a fountain enclosure, which I failed to get a good photo of (and if you look closely at the bottom right corner of this photo you see that Lauren has an agave too, and she claims to not like spiky plants!) The side garden features a fern stumpery made with wood from a Plum tree removed earlier this spring. Personally I am lusting after this Schefflera delavayi which Lauren planted last fall. Mike Darcy was one of many visitors to the garden on Saturday and he told of at tiny Schefflera delavayi given to him by Sean Hogan which has grown on to stand over 5 ft tall and never suffered even a bit of winter damage (lust! must have…) More photos from the garden… Thank you Lauren for inviting me to be a part of your open garden! And I promise when asked by visitors “is this your garden?” I quickly confessed that it was not, even though I really wanted to say yes...

10 comments:

  1. thanks for the virtual tour Loree! I'm hoping to make a visit to Lauren's garden this summer and after seeing your photos, I'm looking forward to it even more.

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  2. Stunning - esp the raised containers with the succulents. But the clean lines and variety of the whole thing is amazing and so inspiring!

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  3. Thanks for the tour. This garden looks fascinating. I am glad the hardy bananas could stay and be worked into the new design.

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  4. A BIG THANK YOU TO YOU, LOREE! Thank you for your help and thank you for your kind words! It was lovely to have you in the garden!!

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  5. This was fabulous! I was amazed at the before picture. Love all the stone pathways, in addition to the unique features. Enjoyed the tour!

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  6. i would love to walk through that garden someday!

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  7. How is it that her hardy bananas are so tall already? I'm not jealous...I'm not jealous... :) Okay maybe a little bit. Great garden. I bet you loved every minute of being there.

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  8. Ryan, you definitely what to see Lauren's garden when you have the chance, it is such an inspiring place!

    DD, I'm glad you could see the beauty even though my photos were not so good!

    College G, and these bananas are only getting started! Once we have a little heat here in Portland they'll be even more impressive!

    Lauren, glad to be there!

    HolleyG, the before pics were pretty amazing weren't they?

    Laguna, I see a trip to Portland for a garden tour in your future.

    Grace, I think that Lauren does this crazy thing I've heard of some gardeners doing called "fertilizing?"...maybe I'll have to check it out and see what that's all about!

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  9. Really, really lovely garden. The before photos always add a great perspective, too! Sounds like a fun tour.

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  10. This is a very organized garden. I love how everything seems compartmentalized and yet they flow together. I'm getting garden envy again. I really wish I could do something more to our outdoors. You are also lucky you have at least a deep front to work with.

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