Friday, January 11, 2013

We revisit an extraordinary garden, chapter 2…

Well here we are, in the amazing back garden (yesterday we were out front). As you scroll through these photos you’ll probably notice there are a few that seem to be rather repetitive, but each one features a plant, combo, or view that I felt was important to share. I wish you could have all been there with me as John answered my questions and shared his passion for plants.

We’ll start in the lower part of the garden nearest the house and then move up into the large extended back garden, complete with intersecting pathways and a garden structure with a green roof. Then we’ll circle back toward the house and end up back where we started.

Are you thinking the same thing I was when I saw this Leucadendron argenteum: “How is that going to live through a Portland winter?”…well I’ll point to the equally gorgeous Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea' behind it, which obviously has made it through a couple of winters.

I think John must be a magician with winter protection and live in an enviable micro-climate.

Excellent drainage is also key.

No doubt the shelter provided by the house helps a bit too.

There are so many beautiful things!

Echeveria secunda

Now we are looking at the eastern (I think) edge of the property. Still in the area closest to the house.

Yucca aloifolia 'Purpurea'

Another Leucadendron argenteum.

Tradescantia 'Godzilla' with Melianthus major 'Purple Haze.'

Yes! That's another one of my obsessions...Adenanthos sericeus or Coastal Woollybush.

Close up...

There are several gorgeous Passion Flower vines in the garden.

Looking back over our shoulder we see the water feature that divides the lower back garden from the upper expanse.

Such a thick layer of leaves...so many textures and colors.

I've admired this plant every year at the Rare Plant Research open house and have almost purchased it multiple times.

Such amazing leaves!

Speaking of amazing, look at that color!

Sigh...

Oh how I want those tall feathery plumes in my garden!

This airy foliage would be welcome too, along with those spikes.

And if Anigozanthos, or Kangaroo Paw, were hardy here...well...LOOK OUT!

A glance backwards before looking to our right...

And the crevice garden! Yes I was inspired all over again.

Behind the crevice garden...

Now turning and looking behind us...

The plants and intersecting pathways make you feel the garden goes on forever...

I wonder how much the Eucalyptus in this garden influenced my desire to have fresh branches through-out our house for the holidays?

Fine foliage...

And bold foliage...

Both are at home here.

Looking back towards the house.

Close-up.

And the green-roof of the new garden structure...

Which you see here on the left (the blue building, the house on the right is a neighbor).

Looking back towards John's house again in the distance with an impressive stand of Tetrapanax on the right.

Close-up.

I think this is a Daphne?...

Look what's lurking behind the Abutilon...Schefflera delavayi!

Again with the fabulous foliage textures.

Now we are back in the lower area next to the house, but on the opposite end of where we started this visit.

Astelia...

Eryngium pandanifolium

And the "blooms"...

Parahebe perfoliata on the right.

And another dreamy powder blue Eucalyptus. I swear I could get lost in there...

Looking back where we've just been.

And towards the water feature again, from another angle.

And finally back where we started.

Amazing! Thank you John for inviting me over for another visit...here's hoping for a mild rest of our winter...

43 comments:

  1. Another wow, just what we need. Those images and plants are a sight for winter weary eyes. And to be able to grow Restios, that Leucadendron, and the purple Acacia like that, double wow! Great to see the crevice garden again and the agaves have definitely bulked up since the last time you featured them. Makes me want to go out and garden now (or more precise tomorrow morning)...

    Oh and that water feature is lovely, simple and contemporary and works well with the rest of the garden!

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    1. Glad you guys enjoyed the visit. I just saw a prediction for 22F tonight, hopefully everything that's borderline here is well protected!

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  2. Thanks for this excellent post, great pics and lots of ideas worth bearing in mind.

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    1. You are very welcome Barry, thanks for stopping by!

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  3. Amazing! Something to ask when you visit gardens in the future: lot size. It's really difficult to get a sense of how big or small the space is. When I see this my first thought is "that's way more space than I have", but it may not be.

    The restios paired with the elephant ears is probably my favorite combo of this garden.

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    1. It looks like the lot measures 90 ft wide by 200 ft deep...remind me how that compares to yours?

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  4. I feel completely at a loss for words! That has to be one of my favourite gardens I've ever seen. I can only imagine what it would be like in the flesh. Seriously?!?! I'm also super impressed with all those tender plants looking so pristine! My heart is racing with excitement over the crazy epicness.

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    1. "crazy epicness" has to be one of my favorite new descriptors.

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  5. *My browser is acting crunky so sorry for the double post!*

    I'm behind on posts here because I'm still dealing with a lot of self-loathing when thinking about how far I let things slip in the garden. I know I can't be too hard on myself after such a hard summer, but I lost my enthusiasm. I can't believe that we're not too far from outside weather around here and today makes it feel like we're already at that point. We're hoping to head outside to give it a little TLC, shortly.

    The Tibouchina is flippin' gorgeous and I hope ours makes it this year. We lost the first one last year when we didn't get it in on time (they're not inclined to cold weather at all). I'm seeing some new growth on it at the moment.

    I'm thinking we'll have to wait a couple of months before we know if we lost our Iochroma.

    Fingers crossed for our green babies!

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    1. Also, here's our Iochroma: http://instagram.com/p/Qk61fmkqcI/!

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    2. Beautiful Iochroma (I say that like I had clue what that plant was, now I know!). Sorry for the crunky browser (and there was no double post) that must get quite old.

      Fingers crossed indeed!

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  6. Wonderful tour of this awesome garden. Every time I see the crevice garden I try to think of a place to use that idea.

    The plant selection is amazing and I'm taking notes. One question is why the eucalyptus is hardy there and not here. Need to check on that.

    Thanks for the grand tour!

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    1. I am not a eucalyptus expert but I know we have had some die back around here in the colder years (or as the Outlaw refers to them "the PKW"...Phormium Killing Winters).

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  7. I'm trying really hard not to break the tenth commandment here but it's difficult! Thanks for another visit to this amazing garden! Every image made me think that it was my favorite until I saw the next one. Beautiful and interesting!

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    1. Ah give yourself a break, go ahead and covet!

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  8. Like Louis, I feel at a loss for words. Impressive is not the word for that amazing, stupendous stand of humongous Tetrapanax. But other words don't do it justice either. I saw that Parahebe perfoliata at one of the gardens on a garden tour last spring, and it's another cool plant that inspired a great deal of lust in me.

    Thanks for this post. I needed it.

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    1. Yay, glad you enjoyed it Alison. I bought 2 Parahebe perfoliata last winter and planted them out in the spring. After seeing just how big they could get I dug one up and took it to the garden bloggers plant exchange. The one left in the ground looks good...no blooms yet though!

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  9. Just a few pics! The crevice garden is cool, in need to be adapted with my design style on some project... The ones with the Opuntia engelmannii and Caesalpinia gilliesii (you titled above it, airy and spikes...) immediately threw me and transported me back here, since those are common in Abq and south. I see a dwarf pomegranate and fruit, too. Amazing diversity!

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    1. I know...I kind of went overboard with the photos. Caesalpinia gilliesii so that's what that is, thank you. I hope when you do design a crevice garden you'll share it on your blog!

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  10. Wow Loree!

    What a wonderful garden.

    I really like that one a LOT. The planting design looks really well thought out and sits really well with the hard landscaping.

    I am not sure if the unknown plant is a Daphne or not, but it looks cool.

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    1. I thought of you Adam when I realized I was posting so many photos on a Friday, giving you your weekly dose of plant porn! The garden design was done by Sean Hogan (Cistus) nursery...so yes, very good bones to the garden!

      Turns out that plant is Daphniphyllum macropodum...I need to go back and edit the post to get some of the names that others have supplied in there!

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    2. Ha, ha! Good old plant porn, you spoil me on a Friday night!

      I thought I recognised the leaves on the Daphniphyllum macropodum. There seems to be quite a few different types. I have one and it is a Daphniphyllum macropodum var humile and it has red petioles and doesn't grow as big as the type.

      I also bought a Rhododendron last year that looks quite similar to it.

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  11. I covet those Restios...and the miniature Cattails!

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    1. There you go breaking those commandments again (see the Outlaws comment above).

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  12. This garden is the kind of place plant lovers dream about. There are so many fantastic plants, I can't even list them all. I'd go nuts if I went there with my camera.

    Seeing Leucadendron argenteum in a Portland garden gives me hope that it would do well here. I'll pick one up the next time I'm in Santa Cruz. Ditto for the Acacia baileyana. Gosh, I think I'm beginning to drool!

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    1. This will be the first winter for those gorgeous Leucadendron argenteum in the ground. This week will be a test for them for sure (just like you we're cold right now!).

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  13. I don't even have words...

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    1. Cat got your tongue? (I know, that was bad...)

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  14. Interesting...I see a lot of plants that I've murdered over the years. I would love to see what they do for winter protection. Maybe they live right above some geothermal hot springs?

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    1. Wouldn't that be wonderful? (the hot springs) John was talking about building some protective covers for the plants, he's a pretty ingenious guy so if anyone can do it he can.

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  15. A nice garden as everyone mentions, but all these plants are much more common here in the SF Bay Area, and you all should just move here if you want to grow these plants without constantly worrying about a cold winter. In fact, I'll go further and say that plant palette is straight out of Berkeley or like a shopping trip to Flora Grubb Nursery in the city. The Leucadendron argenteum definitely needs protection much below 28/29F, and may even have problems with rot in your rainy winters without superior drainage, full sun and great air circulation. I was surprised to see things like Aeoniums and Euphorbia tirucallii Sticks on Fire planted out in the garden, but guess they're more of the "dig them up for the winter" sorts of plants. It's been cold down here also, but so far no actual freezing temps, but very close. All those restios, Melianthus, Adenanthos, Acacias, etc are really at home here with the zone 9b/10a, or now said to be verging on zone 10b if you believe the USDA, (I don't ). It does seem slightly amusing how these zone 10 plants are so coveted up there, and the extra efforts made to grow them. So much easier when their survival doesn't depend on tracking the weather reports daily, or moving everything inside or under cover. Well I guess the summer sights of plants which cheated winter's freezes is its own reward! I prefer to garden where the Kangaroo Paws are still in full bloom in January, along with all the Aloes. Head's hoping for a mild winter for all of us, cause it's truly no fun here either when we get zapped by a 20 year freeze and it drops to 25F. Been there and done that 3 times in the past 40 years, and always went back out to replace those dead Tibouchina heteromalla's, Cussonia spicata's or Ceiba
    speciosa's, etc.
    Thanks again for the great garden tour, it could be here in the Bay Area except for that 200 feet deep lot size, you'd have to be a millionaire.
    David in Berkeley

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    1. There are a few of us (me!) that would love to move to California for the gardening possibilities, but the pesky issue of a job (or a spouses job) in Portland keeps us firmly grounded here (trying to grow the plants we love). While part of me would love to not pay attention to the weather forecast I can't imagine making do with the plants that are comfortably hardy here...not when there is so much else available. We try to keep them alive, expecting that some won't make it, but celebrating the ones that do.

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  16. It's filled out a lot since you last went hasn't it? Parts of it still look like a car park or nursery sales yard but this is still up there in my favourites alongside your friend Lauren's garden.

    You know what it is that really does it for me? It's a phenomenon i'm christening Green Avoidance. It's almost eerie how little straight-forward, old fashioned, plain old green there is to be seen in that garden. I've been trying Green Avoidance myself. It's difficult, but I think it's worth the effort for the spooky effect.

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    1. Car park or nursery sales yard? How so? The big open spaces?

      I think you're on to something with the Green Avoidance theory (that would also make great blog name by the way).

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    2. Yes, the open spaces. They are the only bit of the garden that I can't warm to. Yet lawn would be totally out of place, I think.

      If the garden were in California it wouldn't look quite so beautifully otherworldly. It's a very choice selection of plants and I wish the owner the best of luck for the winter. He/she is sailing pretty close to the wind as far as hardiness goes!

      I'm linking to this post of yours on my facebook. It's a beauty. As ever, thanks for sharing.

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    3. Thank you for the link! As for the open spaces I think what I like about them picturing them full of family and friends for a big summer party.

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  17. I replaced my smoke tree Grace with that acacia, and I've been having second thoughts ever since. I've been seeing some crummy looking ones locally, just kinda blobby and without much shape, but after seeing a decent one here last week and now this one I'm calming down. Perhaps it's all about selective pruning for good shape. Hoping my eryngo padanifolium blooms this year and looks like that! So glad you got to revisit this fabulous garden again.

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    1. Maybe yours is just going through its awkward teenage years and will shape up this year?

      I'm hoping maybe I'll get to make a visit here an annual tradition!

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  18. chthonian has it, almost no green. So much blue and silver. Comes off, though, as someone's loved and comfortable home, rather than a show-off of style and money--though plenty of style and quite a lot of money, no doubt. The empty gravel spaces, when filled with happy visitors enjoying a party...probably look just right.

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  19. AnonymousMay 09, 2013

    amazing garden!!! how are the plants being protected in in winter? in portland its not really warm there!

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  20. AnonymousMay 09, 2013

    anybody know the name of the powder blue eucalyptus?! thx

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