Goodbye Nolina 'La Siberica', hello mossy logs and ferns

I broke the sad news about the demise of my Nolina hibernica 'La Siberica' in late July. I began that post with the smallest sliver of a hope that somehow this long term resident of the garden might survive, but as I wrote I realized I had mentally already shut that door. I loved, I lost, and I was ready to move on.

It was August 6th when I cut back the razor-sharp leaves, preparation for digging it out. I put my foot on the plant for leverage and the whole thing bent over. Turns out I'd made the right choice, that plant was not going to pull through.

Interestingly I visited John Kuzma and Kathleen Halme's garden just a week later and guess what they'd just put in their yard waste bin...

The same thing happened in their garden, an established Nolina 'La Siberica' that had been fine earlier in the summer suddenly took a turn. While I don't wish losing a plant on anyone, this development definitely made me feel better about my own loss. Some had suggested my issue was too much summer water, meaning I could have prevented it. Seeing the same scenario play out across town seemed to suggest otherwise.

So, back to my garden and the newly emptied space. Inspired by the idea of planting pyrrosia with a fallen log or two (like this) my friend Susan had rounded up some nice pieces at Secret Garden Growers (where she works part-time), and lucky me she brought a couple over to my garden—with extra moss!

I played with the logs, plants I'd purchased, and metal—moving them around deciding what I liked.

I knew I wanted to work in a pair of pedestal/elevated dish-planter type structures and hoped to track down a couple of plough discs, but that was not to be.

Instead I went with flat platter-like surfaces and found...

...heavy terracotta dishes to plant up and sit on them. I thought thick terracotta would hold the moisture nicely but drain. Nope. There is no glaze but they held water for a ridiculous length of time, so I drilled holes. Two in the small dish and three in the larger. I might have to pull these if the weather gets bad and I didn't want to compromise their structure.

In went pyrrosia, Pyrrosia lingua 'Hiryu' (in the small dish)...

And Pyrrosia lingua 'Ogon Nishiki' with P. lingua 'Compacta' in the large. I also used a few pieces of black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens') I'd dug up in the area, along with Lonicera crassifolia.

These didn't go into the dish planters but I have to share a couple photos of the cool fronds of Athyrium niponicum 'Aubergine Lady', from Little Prince.

Cool right? These went into the ground, but don't show up in the coming photos, sadly.

Since I knew I'd be returning with more ferns, planting the ground layer was put on hold until I got back from my trip to Far Reaches at the end of August. This Pyrrosia sheareri is from that haul. Between the log and the metal tube is a small Pyrrosia linqua from Little Prince—they'll grow to be normal size eventually.

The tubes are held in place with rebar and are straight, at least for now. In some photos they look a little crooked, but the angles are deceiving.

Like here for instance.

Planting done, it's time to put the dishes in place (different cameras, different days make for different colors and saturation in these photos).

It's a complete accident that these variegated fronds of  'Ogon Nishiki' ended up in a spot where the afternoon light can shine through them. I love the effect!

I did a little research on how rust effects moss and other plants and found nothing but positive reports. Hopefully that's the case. This is the larger dish...

And the smaller...

There was a nice planting pocket in one of the logs, so I worked in a Lonicera crassifolia. Fingers crossed it's happy there.

Adiantum aleuticum 'Subpumilum'

Davallia perdurans PMD, squirrel’s foot fern, from Far Reaches.

The short metal piece helps increase drainage and lifts the fuzzy bits up off the ground, so they can better be seen.

Also from Far Reaches, Deparia lobato-crenata.

And Lepisorus cf. macrosphaerus MD 15-09 now ID'd as Lepisorus rostratus MD 15-09.

This small Pyrrosia sheareri was sent to me a few years ago by a kind person that I've never met. It was hit extremely hard by last winter (I hadn't noticed that something had essentially pulled the rhizome completely out of the ground) but thankfully it has fought its way back. Hopefully it will be happy here.

There are multiple Asplenium trichomanes worked in here and there.

And the Rhododendron 'Golfer' I brought back from the Fling (and the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden) was planted nearby.

Euonymus fortunei 'Kewensis', another Fling crush that Little Prince satisfied.

Checking out one of the dish planters from the backside, while 'Golfer' glows in the sunshine...

These two new pedestals echo the bromeliad bowl I put in earlier in the summer, unintentional, but I do love a repeated element.

I can't remember if I ever called out the dark Rhododendron 'Ebony Pearl' I planted between Sammy (our oldest Yucca rostrata) and the palm, it's hard to see but rises up above the black mondo. This is also a good opportunity to mention the Parablechnum novae-zelandiae from Dancing Oaks, it's on the far right near the furry palm trunk. Closest to Sammy's trunk is a Pyrrosia linqua and above that the Blechnum sp. #3 from Windcliff Plants (Dan Hinkley) that I brought home from the Cistus Summer Extravaganza.

Looking at this shot I realize I didn't mention the big beautiful fern to the right of the pedestals, that's Dryopteris cycadina.

I wonder how many of you've noticed this new planting plops moss and ferns down in an area with agaves and yuccas all around? It was something I thought long and hard about before I planted. The agaves and yucca are throw-backs to when the back garden was much sunnier. However, they're still alive and doing well—and I love them—so why would I pull them out? When I mentioned this to Susan (she of the log gifts) she called it a very "PNW thing". Yep, I can live with that.

Bold changes. Rule breaking. Planting what you love. That's Fearless Gardening I think....

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