Thursday, October 5, 2017

There be nurseries there...

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Burns, Oregon — population 2,788 — has a combo florist and nursery. Of course every small town needs a florist, but with a Safeway just up the street I figured they'd have that covered....

My surprise increased when I walked inside and felt like maybe I'd went through some strange wrinkle in space and ended up at Magnolia Market in Waco, Texas.

Not that I've actually been to the Magnolia Market but who can avoid the press that place has received? And of course Pam wrote about her visit last October.

How wonderful that something like this exists in Burns!

It got even more exciting when I stepped out into the nursery...

The helpful person working at the shop had mentioned the nursery was in transition to "harvest" and their plant stock was low due to the season. Still it had a couple of Portland-area nurseries I've visited recently beat.

This was just a part of their tree selection.

And there was a small veggie garden too!

The owner of 4B has an online business (here) selling the decorative wooden signs you saw around the store, at the beginning of this post. Those sales no doubt help them through the slow times at the retail shop.

I hadn't planned to visit any nurseries in Bend either (our last stop on the way home), but we arrived in town early in the afternoon, and even after taking time for a leisurely lunch at McMenamins Old St Francis School (Lila was welcome in their outdoor courtyard dining area), we still had a couple hours to kill before checking in to our hotel. As luck would have it there was a great bookstore nearby for Andrew to checkout, and a quick Google search gave me three nearby nurseries to chose from, I hit them all but only took photos at one.

Oh gosh, it's ornamental cabbage and kale time isn't it?

I haven't decided if I'll dabble this year or not.

Ah that's right, Bend is home to Steel Life...

I do love the Steel Life line, but gosh...for $224.95 put a little gravel topdressing on that folks! And maybe add another plant or two (not saying this is a Steel Life issue, I'm assuming it's the nursery's display). And what's up with that seashell?

More of the line was represented, but also a little shopworn.

Oh! What are those!?

Scarlet Gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata)

"Scarlet gilia, or skyrocket, has been known to modern science since 1806, when western explorers Lewis and Clark collected the first specimen along the Lolo Trail in the mountains of northern Idaho" (from the U.S. Forest Service). The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center adds "Its beauty compensates for the faint skunky smell of its glandular foliage, responsible for the less complimentary name Skunk Flower." (they say foliage but I think they mean flower?)

I bought this one.

The nearby signage gave me laugh "knick-a-knick"...hmm, I suppose they mean Kinnikinnik? Aka Arctostaphylos uva-ursi.

Weather Diary, Oct 4: Hi 71, Low 42/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2017 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

17 comments:

  1. Re: the sign, I'm also wondering about currents. Do they have a water garden area? OK, I've put my inner English teacher away. Cool foliage on that scarlet Gilia! I'm off to check out 4B's website.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! Good catch...my eyes didn't make it past the kick-knack shelf (one of most hated words...kick-knack). As a matter of fact they did have a water garden area, but it was drained for the season ;)

      Delete
  2. love the speckled pumpkin and the plant you bought. Had to laugh at the Knick-a-knick sign. Living in Wisconsin I learned how to spell Kinnickinnic early on as it is the name of a park, a town, a river etc. and is a not uncommon word here. It apparently is an Ojibwe word meaning “what is mixed” . For some reason the final "k" is not used in these names as it is in the plant name.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I still can't spell Pend Oreille right the first time, but I've finally mastered Coeur d'Alene.

      Delete
  3. Would you believe I was at Garland Nursery two days ago and lo and behold in their natives section was one 4 inch pot of Ipomopsis aggregata? Of course I grabbed it up. I am hoping the flowers aren't too orange or I'll be giving it away but I do love the foliage. Heck maybe I'll just cut the flowers off and enjoy it that way. And I didn't detect any offensive odor at all. It's funny when I was checking out, the cashiers were oohing and awwing over it. Apparently they didn't even know it was there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Of course I would! This is how the world works.

      Delete
  4. I checked out the link to Pam's post of her visit to Magnolia Market. It looks like a fun place to visit and I could see the similarities with 4B: Barn House Chic, why not?
    Your interpretation of Steel Life style is as good or better, without the price tag. I'd like to see Scarlet gilia in bloom. Probably not till next year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Definitely not until next year, although honestly the foliage is so cool I don't need blooms!

      Delete
  5. I'm very pleasantly surprised by the nursery selections in Burns and Bend (OK, it's not so surprising in Bend).

    Ipomopsis aggregata - never even heard of it, but I would have bought it too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wanted to buy them all (so different!), but sadly not in the budget.

      Delete
  6. The Ipomopsis is native to SoCal - who knew? I've never seen it but probably would have picked it up on spec too.

    With "Fixer-Upper" set to shut down after its 5th season, maybe Burns is gearing up to be the new Waco? Perhaps you should take a closer look at that real estate you showed earlier this week after all. You could get in on the ground floor! (No pun intended.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One word = cold. Winter is real in Burns.

      Delete
  7. I look forward to a fragrance report when Ipomopsis blooms for you. What a cool looking plant! Silly Alison, the sign was referring to plants with electrifying flowers. Nice to know that there are suppliers for the plant addicted in Burns too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Darn, I should have picked up some of those electrified flowers to plant around my stock tank. Take that you stupid raccoons!

      Delete
  8. We've been down to the Magnolia Market a few times. It's a day trip from me. Our first visit was at their old location. 4B: Barn House does have the same look.

    The Steel Life containers look really nice. That planting however was a little sad. It looked a lot like the other plants had died and been pulled, but nobody bothered to add more gravel.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The sea shell looked like a snail shell.

    What a cool plant that Ipomopsis aggregata is!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nice to see the big cities haven't cornered the market on sophistication. Let's hope it filters down to politics.

    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!