Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Multiples

Last weekend I visited Flower World in Maltby, Washington. I’d heard about this place from a couple of friends, most recently The Outlaw. Since it was a grey and chilly day we spent most of our visit in the Seasonal House, where it was warm and bright.

And where there were more houseplants than I think I’ve ever seen in one location. The word I’ve heard most often used to describe Flower World is BIG and indeed, it really is. Besides the sheer size, the thing I was blown away by was the quantity. If you liked something you had about 50 of them to choose from, it was a little intimidating.

My friend Erin liked the tri-color Cordylines.

Whereas I was partial to Miss Andrea, in fact one came home with me.

Of course since there were so many to choose from it took awhile to decide which one.

How do you decided which plant is “the one?” I’ve seen people just grab the one in front, and people who decide they must have the one in the back, furthest out of reach. I usually select three good looking ones and chose the one that speaks to me from that group. It helps to put them on the ground too, since that’s the angle I’ll usually see it from. Aren't those colors just fabulous!?

See what I mean about multiples?

It's rare to see opuntia like this in a nursery.

They've taken some cuttings from old woody specimens. I like it!

There was only one of these bad boys, not multiples.

But if you looked close you could see it was made up of multiple smaller Staghorns.

Multiple crew-cut-suffering Carex morrowii 'Silver Scepter'...

It's fairly rare to see a group of Magnolia macrophylla, especially so tall.

Platycladus orientalis 'Aurea Nana' (Berckman Dwarf Golden Arborvitae), these look like they might take a bite out of your little dog when you're not looking, thankfully I left mine at home.

Now a not so subtle segue into another location with multiples, my friend Patrica's garden. Where else in Portland are you going to see so many Echium wildpretii?

Gorgeous!

So this is what happens when you let a blooming plant go to seed...

They look a little like sea anemones don't you think?

There's another plant she's going to have multiples of next spring. Hopefully this means I'll have a source for seedlings!

And finally, multiple people mentioned Dodonaea viscosa 'Purpurea' when I asked about dark evergreen foliage hardy in my zone. Is that it, below? Yes it's in Patricia's garden, and yes I could have asked her but she just broke her shoulder and had surgery with multiple screws placed in the bone. I don't think plant I.D. is high on her list of priorities at the moment. Please advise if you know...

All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

36 comments:

  1. Feel better soon, Patricia!
    Bridget

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  2. indeed dodonea viscosa purpurea

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  3. Flower World is such a great place. Those wide-leaved Cordylines are beautiful. I usually do a short beauty pageant too when trying to choose a new plant, if there are plenty to choose from. And look at all those flowers on Patricia's castor bean! I hope they drop loads of beans and make lots of babies.

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    1. A beauty pageant, that's exactly what it is!

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  4. Did you by chance get the species/variety of that gorgeous Staghorn? My inquisitive boyfriend wants to know.

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    1. Looks like Platycerium bifurcatum.

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    2. Thanks Hoov! I would have said something super helpful like "there's more than one?"

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  5. Further proof that all Arborvitae are not created equal, but those fruits have not won me over. When I get a plant from Jockey Hill, I let Michelle pick out the best one. It is not always the one I would have chosen, but I'm learning.

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    1. Funny you say that, I've had similar experiences with those more knowledgeable than myself doing the choosing.

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  6. Yea! You finally made it to Flower World! Did you have breakfast or lunch at the Maltby Cafe? Sorry to hear about Patricia's shoulder!

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    1. No we did not because I am a dork and forgot all about it! We ate at a lame place in Woodinville, the decor was early 90's Applebees but the food was actually good.

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  7. A "get well soon" to Patricia. The Dodoneas reseed like crazy here, so you might get one of those, too.

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    1. Evidently there's a good chance it might not make it through the winter (see Justin's comment below). Damn.

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  8. Definitely a dodonea. I've grown the green Dodonea viscosa from seed for revegetation projects, and they germinate well. They also grow from cuttings. I haven't tried the purple ones, but they must be easy to propagate as they are everywhere around here.

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  9. Miss Andrea is beautiful! And nice to see her again, brings back memories ;)

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  10. You want Castor bean seeds -- how many dozens do you need? I only have 'Carmencita' (shown) and what seems to be 'New Zealand Purple'. I prefer the purple -- the foliage is better.

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    1. Ha, thanks Alan! Actually it's babies I'm after. There's too much competition in my garden for a little seedling to take off. I figure if I start with plants then I might have a fighting chance.

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  11. Dodonaea viscosa is really considered hardy up there in Portland? I'd have my doubts that it would tolerate low 20's°F in combination with freezing sleet and cold wet winter soils. They were often killed here in Sunset zone 14 during that bad 10 day bout of freezing weather in December 1990, at low 20's°F. The purple color is only retained on plants getting full sun all day.

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    1. Turns out you're right (see Justin's comment below). I'm bummed as this one seemed a promising answer to my hunt...

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  12. Wow! You really get around. Good on you! I certainly enjoy making the trek to Flower World, but I must admit that wandering around the huge grounds makes me hungry. And as far as I know, they don't have a restaurant. To compensate, I often stop at the Maltby Cafe (5 mins away) for victuals.

    So, what's your next destination?

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    1. I wish that I would have remembered the cafe, I don't know where my brain was.

      Actually there's nothing planned for awhile, travel-wise, which is nice. Of course the NWFG Show in February is a must. And it would be nice to go somewhere warm and sunny during the longest, ugliest month (January).

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  13. The sheer size of some of the nurserys in Oregon - Washington is mind boggling- I'll never forget pulling into Swanson and seeing dudes in safety vests directing traffic in the parking lot. I must say though I'm a little taken aback by the crew cut carex ? Perhaps a recent hires previous job was with a mow and blow company .

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    1. OMG you are so right! I can picture those orange vested fellows at Swansons right now!

      I was a little flummoxed at the carex, almost as bad as cutting the tips on the phormium, which thankfully they hadn't done.

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  14. Your Miss Andrea is indeed beautiful. I use a similar technique in selecting the "best" specimen when there are many to choose from. I'm sure it annoys some nursery personnel who wonder "now is she going to put all the rejects back where they came from?"

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  15. Patricia's sea of echiums is one of my favorite things ever. And it's such a perfect scale for that super wide hell strip.

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    1. Indeed. Can you imagine when they all bloom how magnificent it will be? (of course that's assuming a mild winter...)

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  16. Dodonaea viscosa 'Purpurea' is unfortunately not reliably hardy in the NW, speaking as someone who's lost about eight of them. Both Ceanothus 'Tuxedo' & Rhododendron 'Ebony Pearl' are great and survived the Nov. 11 freeze in my garden (we got down to 15 degrees).

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    1. I will learn from your loss and skip it then, thank you. I do love the foliage on that rhody...wish the flowers weren't pink though...

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  17. The cordyline you bought is gorgeous. I second the comment on the Platycladus taking a bite out of your little dog, haha! (And love what I think is a Japanese maple in the photo above under the Magnolia marcophylla)

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    1. Ah you would have loved the garden I visited on Sunday, Japanese maples everywhere! Photos coming up soon...

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  18. You brought back great memories of my trip west two Aprils ago when my son & I visited Plant world. I was blown away by the size and numbers of plants that I can only dream of growing here in Vermont! I nurture and coddle my Gold Laced Polyanthus Primula...and there was an entire table full of them!! I wanted to cry! Made me want to move to Washington immediately!

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  19. Hi, A little late on this one. But now I figure I have time now (hah!) since our house is going on the market Friday, and the first showing is today. Just looked out the window, and the Dodonaea appears to be okay. What do I know, though. I think I've let way too many babies die during the cold. It's hard to work with only one wing. Oh, and the poor Echiums. Great fantasy while it lasted.

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