Friday, March 31, 2023

A long anticipated Sauvie Island garden visit

I've wanted to visit this garden—located on Portland's Sauvie Island—for several years now. I remember Maurice Horn (of the much loved, and now closed, Joy Creek Nursery) speaking about the garden when he gave a presentation to the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. Then I read (with envy) my friend Tamara's blog post years ago, detailing a Joy Creek staff gathering in the garden. So when Tamara organized a visit for us last month I was thrilled! Then the weather started to look iffy. Talk of snow. We decided to postpone, good thing too as that was the day a foot of snow fell in parts of Portland

We rescheduled for last Friday. As I was getting ready to leave home big fat snowflakes were falling from the sky. Seriously. I put on a brave face and drove on, as I drove the flakes turned to rain. Not ideal weather for a garden tour but a heck of a lot better than snow! We even had a few sunbreaks...

This perfect water dish was once a fountain in downtown Portland. I know it's a sin, but I covet this. So very much.  

I've sworn to purchase no more Euphorbia x martinii 'Ascot Rainbow'. They look great for a season, maybe two, and then they just cease to be. But when they're good, they're very very good.

This palm oasis is in the center of a circular driveway. I really want to go back and see it in the summer when the Tetrapanax papyrifer is all leafed out (the tall, bare, sticks).

I don't remember if we learned the purpose of this adorable small shed (it makes me think of a pumphouse), but we did learn it has to come down soon, before it falls down. Bummer!

If you look to the the back of the shed above you can see a fenced area in the distance. That's the vegetable garden. Or rather the vegetable prison. Double rows of fencing keep the deer out.

If my memory is correct George (Maurice's other half and an incredible baker, more of that in a bit) said they have 10 acres. Not all of it is this intensely gardened, but there are new planting areas being added.

This photo, looking towards the back of the house, was taken just beyond the clipped shrubs in the photo above. I adore that patio! I am jealous of their large windows and patio access. 

Looking to the left across the back corner of the patio.

Nodding Euphorbia wulfenii bloom.

I'm really enjoying getting to see so many winter gardens this year—I know, technically it's now spring, but barely... and remember, it was snowing on my way to see this garden!

I need a mossy, saxifraga covered stump.

Edgeworthia, the star of many of our PNW gardens this time of year.

Looking across the patio again. The first patio shot I took was from a viewpoint off to the left, the home is to the right, and if you could see through that foliage in the distance you could make out part of the doomed little garden shed.

I snapped several shots of this formal part of the garden—does it qualify as a parterre?—but this is the only one that came close to capturing the magic. Tamara got a great photo of this space from the other side, and also identified many of the plants—her blog post on our visit is here.

The small spiky garden...

Agave parryi var. parryi

Group portrait, the sideways was yucca bent under the weight of snow and ice.

I took SO MANY photos of this beauty. Arctostaphylos manzanita 'Dr. Hurd'...

So incredibly cared for, pruned to perfection.

The rain made that smooth, sexy bark shine.

I finally tore myself away from the manzanita and turned to appreciate a new planting in the making—that's the neighbor's house beyond the fence.

Sadly winter wiped out a few of the plants before they really got going.

Oh look, there's Dr Hurd again! I'd love to see what treasures are lurking among the rocks come summertime.

We're in front of the house now—the blooming cherry started off this post, seen from the side of the house nearest the driveway. Those trunking variegated yucca were flawless, and what a great combination with the yellow hellebores.

Moving around to go down the steps now, they're the approach (or in this case departure) from the front door.

And I'm back to admiring this combo!

Looking over my shoulder once I'm down to the bottom of the steps.

The house seen from a distance. I think it was about here that George left our wandering group and headed back to the house to heat water for tea. He also prepared a scrumptious spread of scones and muffins (homemade) as well as two kinds of jam (also homemade), one of which made from mahonia berries! They were so good, that man's got talent.

We walked down towards the water at the far edge of the property. Can you make out the dusting of snow on the hills in the distance?

Walking back towards the house now, I stopped to admire this dark hellebore.

And the view of the driveway palm oasis from the opposite side.

Garrya elliptica arch...

Well there we are, a pyrrosia! P. lingua 'Eboshi' to be exact, and it looks unfazed by winter. 

As you may remember I look for an agave and a pyrrosia when touring a PNW garden, if I see both then I know I'm dealing with a like-minded gardener (or in this case gardeners). Maurice and George are all that and more.

Oh! We're back behind the house at the edge of the patio again and the light has gotten even better...



What can I say? I was enchanted.

I'll wrap up this post with a couple of photos I shot from inside the house. These show just how perfectly the house is open to the landscape. First from the front window...

The side...

And the back...

Thanks again to our kind hosts George and Maurice, it was a very special day in a truly magnificent garden.

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32 comments:

  1. I loved everything about this garden but the mossy trees were among my favorites as well as all those vertical evergreens. I have a couple of tree stumps that I need to see if I can hack into for planting. As for the windows, big windows out to the back with a deck one step from the ground were big selling points when we bought our house.

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    1. Agree about the moss. This garden reminds me of my home on an island in Maine on a foggy day. i miss it. A great garden and wonderful photos.

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    2. Moss makes everything better! When we were penning the offer on our house I worried about the fact there are only 2 windows at the back and they're at the corner. Andrew said we'd put in a set of French doors. That was 18 years ago, still no doors.

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  2. It's nice to see this garden through both Tamara's lens and your own. The cherry tree really stands out under the gloomy weather conditions but I'm glad you got a few "sunbursts." (I heard that term during a news/weather report while on business in Portland, or maybe Seattle, decades ago and I still remembering laughing out loud when I realized what that meant.) The Yucca-hellebore combination is wonderful and I'd copy it if hellebores were more reliable in my climate. The Deer Correctional Facility is brilliant - I wish I had something like that for rabbits.

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    1. Sunbreaks you mean? Ya, a term that would never apply in your part of the world.

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  3. Great post, Loree! I'm so glad it all happened despite the bad weather...we had just enough dry time to get out there. I love seeing it through your eyes. Hooray for visiting new gardens with friends! May there be much more of it in both of our futures.

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    1. It was such a wonderful morning, the kind of thing we once took for granted (pre-Covid), but I never will again.

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  4. That manzanita is beautiful. If I could only have one plant it would be arctostaphylos. So cool to live in a place where, even in early “spring”, we have so much variety.
    Jim N. Tabor

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    1. Which arctostaphylos is your favorite?

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  5. I didn't realize how close you were to a snow event that day! I'm sure the garden looks beautiful coved in white, but it would have been so disappointing have to postpone the visit again.
    I've also gone off Euphorbia. Everything I tried was mostly unsatisfactory:
    E. 'ascot rainbow', E. fireglow, E. wulfenii... When they are good, they are very good, just not in my garden.
    An excellent combination of variegated yucca and the much sought after yellow hellebore!
    Chavli

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    1. They had so many yellow hellebores! They've been dividing and selecting for years.

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  6. A wonderful garden. Thanks for the tour, I really enjoyed it.

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  7. Thanks for sharing another amazing garden.

    Even in winter there can be lots of interest.

    I am not too sure what to make of all of the moss though. Looking at the photos again it does look right for the garden. I wonder what it is like in the summer? I guess that it is left on some of those trees all year round, but removed in other places? I noticed that the roof of the house is moss free. Is that a new roof or has it had the moss removed?

    I agree with you that having the large windows looking onto the patio is a great idea. It must really bring the garden into the house when you are sat by them and looking out.

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    1. Moss is a fact of life here in the PNW. It thrives in the wet months and goes dormant in the dry ones. I have no idea the age of the roof. We are trained to keep our roof moss free.

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    2. The only places PNW-ers (well, gardeners anyway) remove moss is roofs and driveways. Those beautiful moss-covered areas would take a number of years to get that large and luxurious. This is the very best season for moss. In most areas of a garden in summer it goes dormant and sort of fades out until the rains come back. People here carefully tend moss where we want it to be and move it to establish new areas. However, it is easier to establish in new places here than elsewhere.

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    3. Thanks for the info!

      Most homeowners in the UK tend to leave the moss on their roofs, particularly up in Scotland.

      It has been quite a mossy winter this year.

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  8. An incredible garden. Though probably not the nicest weather to tour in the mist and rain really made everything pop. Gorgeous views from the house onto the patio. Touring at this time of year really makes you appreciate the form of plants. .

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    1. The rain held off for most of our visit, so I have no complaints.

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  9. We have had a stunning amount of rain in Southern California this year, and yet these photos remind me that our climate is DRY. Looking at these photos is like looking at another planet! Thanks for the intergalactic travel!

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    1. You're welcome! I am so so so sick of the rain!!!

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  10. Looks like it was a lovely visit. That shed is something special! The views outside, and inside looking out, are equally beautiful. Thanks for sharing. :)

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  11. Uff da! I don't have a pyrrosia...

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    1. Well I haven't visited your garden yet, so you've got time.

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    2. Well, now the pressure is on. Was hoping to get gardening done last week during spring break, but the weather didn’t want to cooperate.

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  12. What a gorgeous garden! The manzanita is a stunner. Reminds me I need to prune mine this year to show off her underskirts. All the moss and lushness the rain brings. How perfect to top off the visit with scones & jam.

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  13. A garden as delightful as its gardeners! Beautiful!

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  14. I have some questions about the double deer fence. How tall is it? About the typical 3-1/2 feet? How far apart? Does it work? I know that deer can jump either high or wide but not both at the same time, and the double fence is the only alternative where building codes limit fence height (3-1/2 feet typically.)

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    1. From memory I think it was 5ft-ish tall, maybe 2.5 or 3 ft apart. This garden is outside the city and on a several acre lot, so I don't think code comes into play here. Yes, it works.

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