Thursday, January 10, 2019

The Jungle behind Jungle Fever Exotics

After visiting Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium last October, I realized if I just slightly altered my route home I'd drive right by Jungle Fever Exotics, so naturally that's what I did. After shopping the nursery I wandered up the street to visit the garden of the owner, Jerry. That's his house, as seen from the street-corner.

Pretty fabulous, right?

Hmm, looks like the purple Plantago I got from Evan last summer. I haven't noticed mine recently, I must make a point of looking.

Funny—funny odd, not funny haha—I didn't notice those ferny things on the side of the house until looking at my photos (I wonder what they are?). I was to taken by the Lobelia tupa...

They always make me think of flamingos.

The training of the Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca' (blue atlas cedar) continues.

There are several pieces of rebar helping to shape it to the owners vision.

Ah! That green roof treatment is new...

And fabulous...

What's that I spy on the right?

Ah yes, beautiful, fun, and invasive as hell...Phytolacca americana, aka pokeweed.

I've photographed them multiple times now, but the chunky steps across the hellstrip still grab me, they're so wonderful! (we'll explore them further, from the other side, in a bit)

Butia capitata (pindo palm) I believe.

Standing in front of the next-door neighbor's lawn, I look back at the jungle.

And the towering Eucalyptus.

We're looking at the hellstrip plants now, Nolina 'La Siberica' on the left...

Palm berries and husk (? not sure what the correct term is).

Correa some-something. Since this garden is incredibly close to the south end of Puget Sound it's in a pretty mild micro-climate.

The other side of the steps.

Growing in the crack between the top step and the large rock, what is that...

Tillandsia-esque, but it must be some other Bromeliad, hardier than a Tillandisa???

Of course there is a huge patch of Aloe striatula (aka Aloiampelos striatula) too...

And a wonderfully pruned Arctostaphylos.

And the pièce de ré·sis·tance (pieces?), big beautiful Agave parryi

*I swoon*

Time to head through the foliage tunnel and back to my car parked by the nursery.

At the opposite end...

Oh how I miss my Grevillea victoriae...

Weather Diary, Jan 9: Hi 45, Low 42/ Precip .18"

All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

18 comments:

  1. The whole garden is swoon worthy. What great plants and pairings. I still remember the first time I saw a Blue Atlas Cedar, at least 20 years ago. Trained or not, what a gorgeous plant. And it looks like he is surrounded by a lot of grassy lawns!

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    1. The garden was looking especially wonderful that day, such a pleasure to see.

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  2. Holy cow that Eucalyptus (glaucescens? I think) has gotten enormous. I can remember when Jerry said he was going to by that house. He sure put a heck of a lot of work into it! As an aside, I have a bunch of photos of Jungle Fever from 2001 that would be fun to look at.

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    1. It would be fun to see those photos! Maybe you could upload them to FB and then link to this post so people can see what 18 years does to a garden?

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  3. The garden really stands out from the neighboring properties. Heck, it would stand out next to virtually every property I see here too. I adore that green roof above the front door. And that groundcover between the stones and the rock sure looks like Tillandsia - warmed by the surrounding stone, could the pocket provide a microclimate within a microclimate?

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    1. Evan agrees with your agreeing those are Tillandsia, I'm officially jealous.

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  4. Jerry's garden is always a treat to visit. Of course a little retail therapy at Jungle Fever is never a bad thing either.

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    1. So true. All I bought was a little Drosera capensis.

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  5. I might be wrong, but the Tillandisa/Bromeliadish things remind me of the ones I saw planted in huge swathes outside the Amazon Spheres. One, the gray one, was identified as Ochagavia carnea, and the other more green one is that one, whose names escapes me right now, that flowers bright red in the center. Both marginally hardy, but maybe more hardy for Jerry there in his more protected location. Such an overwhelming garden.

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    1. I know which plants you're referring to at the Spheres and your're right, they are very similar. Hard to tell in the photo but these are much smaller.

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  6. That large Agave parryi is indeed beautiful, in part to the setting with the large rock-basin. I really love that arrangement. Another vignette I like a lot is the bamboo with carpet of black mondo grass. I'm still waiting for mine to fill in like that... its a gorgeous look.

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    1. Black mondo grass can be glacially slow at times!

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  7. Oh my, what a great garden! I love how full and mature it is. The plants have had time to move around as they're able and creep into and over the hardscape. Oddly, my purple Plantago all went completely deciduous. I think the green ones in the lawn are mostly semi-evergreen. I'm disappointed. I'll be sticking with Ajuga for purple groundcover foliage. Those are indeed tillandsias. That garden is probably close to being USDA zone 9, and there are some pretty hardy tillandias.

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    1. Yep, my purple Plantago has all but disappeared, although I looked hard enough and finally discovered two tiny little leaves trying to pop out of the gravel. Tillandsia...I'm so jealous.

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  8. Pokeweed: don't forget super poisonous too! Fun fact: the foliage is edible if you triple boil it. Some very hungry people must have discovered that.

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