Monday, February 3, 2020

At last! A sunny morning...

January in my garden was grey, wet, and warm, it was actually the second warmest January on record here in Portland. As for rain, our "normal" precipitation for the month is 4.88", this year it was 7.58". To say I was feeling distanced from my garden doesn't even begin to describe the feeling, I hadn't done anything out there all month! So when last Thursday morning started off sunny I seized the opportunity for a walk around the garden. Naturally I wasn't planning to take photos, I was still in my pajamas even. But the phone was in my hand and so I recorded some of what I saw...

Helleborus x hybridus 'Jade Tiger' (above and below)

Helleborus x 'Golden Sunrise'

Helleborus 'Black Diamond'

Helleborus x ballardiae Pink Frost

Helleborus 'Dunno'

Helleborus 'Onyx Odyssey'

Helleborus argutifolius

This was a surprise, I've never seen the Fatsia polycarpa ‘Needhams Lace’ in such glorious bloom...

It beats the F. japonica hands down, much more lovely.

While there are buds all over the Ceanothus 'Dark Star' this brave little guy decided to go ahead and open. In January!

I picked up this Aspidistra zongbayi 'Old Glory' at a pop-up event my friends Ann and Evan did at Xera Plants last year. Isn't it fabulous?

Oh! And I'm thrilled to announce that I'm doing a pop-up at Xera this year! Mark your calendars for May 30th, more details to come, but it will involve cool plants in creatively re-purposed containers. Oh and Ann and Evan are doing one at Joy Creek Nursery on June 7th.

The seeds on my Aucuba japonica ‘Longifolia’ are starting to color up. I love this plant!

This "stick" was laying on the ground near the shade pavilion greenhouse, it's the skeleton from a cylindropuntia I grew in the front garden years back. All summer it laid on a table under the shade pavilion, that is until it disappeared. I'm glad to have it back, I wonder what animal moved it around?

I think I've finally figured out how I can have cyclamen foliage in my garden. Anytime I've planted them in the ground they just vanish. I get to enjoy them for a season and they never return. Maybe planting them in a dish planter will be the answer? I've definitely enjoyed this one.

After years of not jumping on the epimedium bandwagon I'm glad I finally did, but with a spiky bent.

Saxifraga 'Primuloides'

My lawn! Hahaha, whenever people talk about removing the moss from their lawn I laugh and imagine how horrified they would be seeing mine.

Am I right?

New foliage on Lonicera x brownii 'Dropmore Scarlet', the old foliage needs to go away!

So far (I know anything can still happen, winter is not over) my five Echium wildpretii are doing fine. This should mean tall dramatic bloom spikes this spring.

Love this strange foliage thing this one is doing.

Sedum spathulifolium 'Carnea', Calluna vulgaris 'Stockholm', and Hebe ochracea 'James Stirling' in these dish planters. The colorful plant on the round is Astelia nivicola 'Red Devil'.

A new spear on a Trachycarpus wagneriensis,

Aloe aristata, now known as Aristaloe aristata

Is there anything better than agave shadows?

Warning, there are going to be a lot of Euphorbia rigida photos. I just can't help myself.

There's another of the Echium wilpretii.

Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Nanjing Gold'

I got a little carried away here too...

A NOID Lewisia

And more Euphorbia...

Mahonia gracilipes

And more mahonia, with Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue'... another gardening season is ahead and I am thrilled!

Weather Diary, Feb 2: Hi 45, Low 30/ Precip trace

All material © 2009-2020 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

26 comments:

  1. We had some sun this weekend too, but woke this morning to snow. Bah! You know how I feel about that cold, white crap. Your garden looks marvelous. I have that red Sedum spathulifolium too (love it, need more!), and the same very mossy lawn conditions. Good luck on your pop-up, that's exciting news!

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    1. I need more of that sedum too, it's a good one! And thanks for the well wishes...hope to see you? Or wait, maybe that's when you're in England.

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  2. What a wonderful garden you have. Love your ferns and your variety of helleborus. Some of them don't survive the cold winters here in southern Austria, but I'm really in love with them.
    Happy gardening and all my best
    Elisabeth

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  3. How wonderful! We had a VERY warm stretch of weather last week (you'd have been in heaven) and it felt like Spring but our temperatures plummeted again yesterday afternoon. I'm envious of your splendid hellebores, especially 'Jade Tiger'. Your Aspidistra has me seeing that genus with new eyes.

    I SO wish I could attend all those pop-up sales!

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    1. I wish you could too Kris. Maybe you need to make a trip up here in June!

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  4. Helleborus 'Black Diamond' in the midst of lush maidenhair fern, in the middle of winter is a great shot. Courtesy of climate change? My maidenhair fern is brown crisp at this point. Fingers crossed we'll finally get to see Echium wildpretii in bloom.
    I wish that gorgeous "stick" could talk; I bet it has a good story to tell.

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    1. No, that combination (Helleborus 'Black Diamond' in the midst of lush maidenhair fern) plays out every year here. Adiantum venustum is evergreen for me, should be for you too? Fingers crossed for the echium, although it is bitter sweet when they bloom, as that means death. Here are some photos from another bloom year: http://www.thedangergarden.com/2012/05/how-did-my-garden-end-up-so-colorful.html

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  5. Waiting anxiously for spring to see if my Jade Tiger survived and will bloom. That Onyx Hellebore in the fern foliage is drop dead gorgeous. What a stunning contrast of filmy and fullness. I have one Cyclamen growing in fairly sandy, gravel-ish soil and it came through a bad winter beautifully. Just ordered a few more, so I hope it makes it through this winter or I will just have wasted my money. We have been having way more rain than normal so I empathize. It is hard to be a serious gardener and everything we knew about our climate seem to be out the window.

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    1. Fingers crossed for your tiger! And yes, we gardeners are definitely living climate change.

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  6. I covet your moss lawn.

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    1. I wish it were all moss and the clover would go away, but I guess that would require more work than I'm willing to give it.

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  7. I giggled at "spiky epimedium". Even the shadows in your garden are spiky. Love the moss in your garden. I blame squirrels and rabbits for about everything that happens in my garden. It is usually true too. I am glad you got your stick back.

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    1. Ya the squirrels are probably the culprits, since (thank god) I don't have rabbits.

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  8. I wish I could get the grass out of my moss!

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    1. Ha! I'd love to see an ad for "grass-out"!

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  9. Looks like spring has arrived in your neighborhood! I have a section under a large oak that I've let moss take over - less mowing, therefore more 'green.' ;) Eventually, you won't have to mow!

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    1. Well spring last week, cold (28) this morning. Frosty!

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  10. Yay for sunshine and agaves and cyclamen and and and....thanks for the Ann and Evan house plant pop-up sale at Joy Creek shout out.

    I love your moss lawn, by the way.

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    1. I am looking forward to visit JC while they're there, fun!

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  11. Curious as to what is a pop-up plant event? Sounds like fun. Your garden looks all shiny and clean after all the rain.

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    1. Just for fun I looked up the official definition of a pop-up: "denoting a store or other business that opens quickly in a temporary location and is intended to operate for only a short period of time"...yep, that pretty much covers it. Ann, Evan and another friend, Richard sold plants they'd propagated, my "pop-up" will be plants I've bought and unintentionally propagated (cause plants make babies!) but they'll all be planted in containers I've "made", these kinds of things: http://www.thedangergarden.com/2015/07/somebody-stop-me.html

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  12. Thanks for the plug for Ann and my pop-up at Joy Creek! I've got yours at Xera on my calendar! I love that 'Old Glory' aspidistra. It's one of my favorites. Glad you're enjoying it! Love your mossy lawn. It would be even better with just moss and no grass at all! lol. I'd much prefer that to what passes for lawn here: weed-filled field grass that can grow 2-3 feet tall if it's not mowed. So strange about your Cyclamen troubles. Squirrels? Too much competition? Wonder what could be causing them to disappear...

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    1. I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys have on offer at JC! And ya, that darn lawn keeps growing (the clover does too). I think the cyclamen issues are probably competition. Hopefully the dish planter idea is successful.

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  13. Sun! I don't realize how much I take it for granted until it goes away :-(.

    Seeing your beautiful hellebores has me convinced that I need to add more to my own garden.

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  14. Heleborus spp. is on my list to use in my design - I have 1 or 2 places! But your Echium...wow! In fact your Euphorbia rigida is almost as wow, for something that does like it in Las Cruces - this weekend should wake ours' up nearby.

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