Friday, April 4, 2014

Visiting Grey Greer Gardens...

I made one other stop during our recent jaunt to Eugene, Oregon...Greer Gardens.

This was my second visit to the nursery (the first was in 2009), and it's been hit hard by time and temperature. I had the place to myself and it was an enjoyable, if somewhat melancholy, experience. In fact, when I met back up with Andrew, and we discussed what we'd done while apart, I told him I'd visited Grey Gardens. If you've seen the movie you'll understand my metal mistake.

There were a lot of conifers...

Some quite fetching, Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca'...

Abies concolor 'Candicans'

Cunninghamia lanceolata 'Glauca' (although it wasn't looking very "glauca" perhaps it was the rain.

The big bamboo looks happy, the little bamboo, not so much.

This visit was on March 8th, it was a surprising to see a rhododendron in full bloom.

There were many trees and branches down, blocking pathways.

Great form!

The red aucuba berries were so bright I could see them from quite a distance.

At first I thought this was a spectacular silver leafed shrub, but actually just the undersides of the leaves on a fallen branch.

There were rhody's as far as the eye could see...

And even a surprise yucca.

Winter really did a number on their hoop houses.

Washingtonia filifera, which have seen better days.

The covered area off the back of the office fared better and held several treasures.

Callistemon citrinus 'Splendens'

Lots of gunnera

Cordyline australis 'Renegade'

Sophora prostrata 'Little Baby'

Back outside it was time to make my exit.

But not before I admired this Metasequoia glyptostroboides...no doubt rooting into the ground.

And wondered about this odd tree...

What is it? Or what are those nuts (?)...

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

27 comments:

  1. There's an eerie sadness to this post. Those poor palms.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with Alison, there is a sadness about the post.

    I liked the Rhododendron specimen you picked up on, I would love to have one of tthat shape and form in my garden.

    It's amazing to see what nature can do when left to its own like that Metasequoia glyptostroboides. They are supposed to like it quite wet, so I guess the nursery is in quite a wet area? It would not have liked being too dry in that pot for too long.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would think in the summer, when the rains let up, it would be quite dry there. Perhaps the surrounding trees provide enough shade for it to stay cool and moist.

      Delete
  3. Pretty sure the tree in the last couple of photos is Paulownia. The "nuts" look like the seed capsules of P. tomentosa but the infructescences don't quite look right for that species. Perhaps one of the less common Paulownia species?

    John B.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, very interesting. Thanks John. I was hesitant to get too close to check it out in detail as it was in an obviously private area next to the owners home. Plus that lawn was soggy!

      Delete
  4. This looks like a ghost nursery. Quite spooky.

    I hope with the advent of spring, the nursery will spring back to life. I hate to see any nursery go belly up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Looks like the owners are letting it fade away and will be selling the land, see the link below from Jennifer.

      Delete
  5. Reminds me of a Cornish nursery that has seen better days. Very atmospheric with that hint of dereliction to it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The weather that day helped too (with the atmosphere).

      Delete
  6. Sad that things got overwhelming for the caretakers. There could have been an injury, illness, family tragedy, etc. or maybe too much needed doing in the nursery all at once. With some work, it could be resurrected, just look at Grey Gardens!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you're curious you should read the link provided by Jennifer below, looks like they're going to retire and close up.

      Delete
  7. Last I heard, the owners were planning to gradually close the nursery, retire and develop the land: http://projects.registerguard.com/web/newslocalnews/28608038-41/greer-eugene-business-housing-development.html.csp

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the link Jennifer, it's nice to know the back story. It makes sense as that is a huge chunk of land surrounded by homes. Good news that it's a conscious decision to let the nursery close.

      Delete
  8. It has that lonely feeling to it..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes indeed. Although there was a helpful employee buzzing around.

      Delete
  9. Interesting. It looks like it was a great place at some point. Maybe the spring weather will help bring some of the plants back to life. Wish I could have seen it during better times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Even when I visited 5 years ago it seemed to be pretty vibrant.

      Delete
  10. My , I hate to see stuff like this; such hard times in this industry , so many closures . I would have felt the need to buy something just to hand them the money--

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nature reclaims its own pretty quickly when our backs are turned. I'm often amazed at the energy and "attitude" involved in maintaining even a smallish garden.

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a cool place - but what sad sights, too. Love all the selection of conifers - that’s one thing I miss here in Central Texas. I fell in love with so many different varieties when the Fling was in Chicago and we visited a conifer nursery - it was amazing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember the conifer display at the Seattle Fling, and all the oohs and ahhhs I was hearing. Growing up with them and being surrounded by them at all times I do take them for granted.

      Delete
  13. It looked even worse the day I found this muddy parking lot and mess… Couldn't exit fast enough!

    ReplyDelete
  14. As the owner of the "mess" some of you insist, I can only say one thing. We had a terrible winter with both the second coldest and then another later wet snow storm several months later, just before the visit of this blogger. Next, we were and are closing to develop a much more profitable venture, that of a retirement living venture on our 14 acres.so why rebuild the greenhouse and so forth. We are closing as of the end of August 2015. For those who have never been in our kind of specialty retail nursery, try it sometime and then you can comment.,

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Comment moderation is on (because you know: spam), I will approve and post your comment as soon as possible!