December felt warm, January not so much. It's been wonderfully sunny since our return from California, but cool and rather windy—the wind makes temperatures in the 40's painful. I was finally able to get out in the garden last Saturday, which is when I took these photos. The high that day was only 46F, but the extreme wind had ceased and so it felt warmer, at least that's what I told myself.
We ended 2025 without a freeze, no freeze in November or December. Last week it finally happened, temperatures in the mid 20's overnight, with Saturday night being the most extreme. We fell below freezing around 10:30 pm and remained below until 10:30 am on Sunday with an ultimate low at the airport (our official recording station) of 22F. I'd read forecasts of 27 and thus didn't do anything to provide heat to the shade pavilion greenhouse, thankfully it didn't drop below 28 in there (the sun heated things up and the doors were closed, retaining the heat).
The shot above shows the potted aeoniums near the door in the SPG. They'd endured a few brief overnight dips to 25F left out in the driveway, but I finally decided to show some mercy and moved them before things got really extreme They'd been out far longer than I thought I'd get away with, so no sense losing them now. I'll move them back here once things moderate, it looks so empty without them (I wrote about the aeonium display
here).
There is one test aeonium in the ground, I managed to leave this Aeonium 'Lily Pad' planted out by accident. It has a sort of shiny, too much like jelly, look to the leaves, I think it might be a goner.
Some of you asked about the moss Christmas tree, there it is, doing fine outdoors. I have poured water over it a couple of times, since we've been so dry here this month.
The dry has definitely helped borderline succulents survive the cold. I forget which Mangave this is, but it's doing just fine.
Ditto for these two hanging on the front of the garage. It's worth noting that even with the recent low temperatures we're still running the warmest winter on record here in Portland.
The front garden, on the 24th of January.
Agave parryi ssp. huachucensis 'Excelsior'
Blooms of Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Nanjing Gold'.
The Semponiums continue to power through. These photos were all taken before Saturday night's cold, but they look the same now. S. ‘Sienna’...
Semponium 'Diamond'
Semponium 'Destiny'
Here's one of the Dasylirion wheeleri along the house sidewalk and the containers that I've left out there through the winter. Soaking up the sun.
The Euphorbia rigida blooms are starting to open.
Note to self: you really need to add some soil to this large terracotta container. It's down several inches at this point.
The Trachelospermum (ground cover vine) colors up so nicely in the cool months. I wish I could remember which one this is.
Arctostaphylos 'Monica' on the left, A. x ‘Austin Griffiths' on the right.
A very dry (and thus starting to curl) Cheilanthes tomentosa with an Agave "Mateo'.
I think this is the only agave damage I have to share thus far this winter. It's a NOID plant that I've always thought might be A. 'Baccarat'. The black leaves probably have more to do with a car door than they do winter rain or temps.
I left all the small Agave victoriae-reginae in the ground, and they're all doing fine. Here's one in the front garden...
Back garden...
A view across the empty patio. The shade angles are extreme this time of year.
The covered, containerized, plants.
The ferny bits.
Palms and the orange wall... I love them both very much.
The shade pavilion greenhouse.
A sad looking Pyrrosia hastata, those fronds curl with the slightest cold.
The dish-planted Pyrrosia are doing fine with the cold, even though they have very little soil around their roots. Many experts say Pyrrosia are hardier when grown as epiphytes. I've got a few such experiments running around the garden, but should extreme cold hit I'll definitely pull these three in, they're too special to allow to perish.
Pyrrosia sheareri
Pyrrosia sp. SEH#15113
Pyrrosia sp. SEH#12547
Here's another of the experiments (they keep me engaged and sane), Pyrrosia lingua with its root mass wrapped in a little landscape fabric and moss, tucked in at the base of the Metapanax delavayi.
Truth be told I hauled out the hose (old habits die hard, growing up in Spokane where it gets COLD over the winter, I learned to disconnect my hoses, drain them, and put them away for the winter) and watered a few things, like this, which had gotten really dry over the last 16+ days with no rain. You can tell when a Pyrrosia is too dry, its leaves lose all luster and they look and feel limp.
Another Pyrrosia experiment, this one tucked into the Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate' .
One of my late season plant purchases, Rhododendron yuanbaoshanense.
And here's a recent score that I'm very excited about. In the springtime I'm left juggling plants that need to be planted out, things still in their nursery pots. There's no great place for me to stash them where they can get light and water, but they're not in my way. The driveway crop tanks are great for corralling them short term, but then I can't plant up the tanks with early spring crops. THIS will help me with that...
A small local nursery (
Birds & Bees) is going out of business and I found this rolling rack there. It's a little taller than what I was looking for, but it's got all sorts of vintage charm, the shelves are already drilled for drainage and the castors are beefy.
Patina!
Look at all that storage space! My springtime shuffle suddenly got a whole lot less stressful.
The Bit at the End
Perhaps you've heard of
aphantasia? People with this neurological variation are unable to "voluntarily visualize mental images." If someone with aphantasia tries to picture a tomato, or sunny beach, they wouldn't see a picture. It's not a disorder or something that can be fixed, it's just how the brains of a small percentage (1-4%) of the population work.
Anne Wareham, who writes for
Garden Rant recently shared that she has the condition, read her story here:
What If You Can’t Picture a Garden? Gardening With Aphantasia.
— — —
To receive alerts of new
danger garden posts by email,
subscribe here. Please note: these are sent from a third party, their annoying ads are beyond my control.
All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.
I've been watering too, as crazy as it sounds. My goal for the new year is to either install a greenhouse or a pavilion to store plants during the winter. I'm also trying to decide on an agave. I've been reading the descriptions on Cistus website. (Apparently Blogger is getting worse than WordPress about leaving comments - this is Phillip).
ReplyDeleteWell darn, I thought Blogger played nicer with other Blogger users, that it was only Wordpress folks who have difficulty commenting. Re: agaves, A. ovatifolia is a great one for us, as is A. 'Baccarat' and if you don't want the extra spines then A. bracteosa or A 'Mateo'.
DeleteYour morphomatic pavilion / greenhouse is so awesome. I didn't acknowledge (until recently) that the rain is the real kiss of death vs. dry cold. The new cart, what a great find. Your Pyrrosia experiments are going strong - imagine once spring hits... the splendor! Aphantasia, off to read.
ReplyDeleteYep... winter rain is the enemy, the thing that keeps me from growing a lot of the plants I should be able to grow--Zone-wise--if it were dry (of course lack of winter rain would keep me from growing a lot of the plants I love too, always a trade off). I really wanted to fill that cart up for a photo-op, but that would have meant hauling plants out from the SPG and up from the basement, I figured those of you without aphantasia could picture it.
DeleteI'm glad your garden is weathering winter so well and my fingers are crossed for you that that trend continues. I've always admired your shade pavilion in all its incarnations and I love the photos at the top of your post in its greenhouse state. Can you walk into it in its current winter state? The rolling cart is a great find, although it always pains me to hear of another independent nursery closing (even when it's not in my own area).
ReplyDeleteI can walk into the SPG now that the aeoniums are back outside, it only becomes difficult to navigate when there's an extreme event and I shove more plants in. That nursery was pretty special, and in an underserved part of town. I hated to hear the news.
DeleteThe first photo is EVERYTHING. The shade pavillion looks like a glowing jewel.
ReplyDeleteYour mystery mangave looks like 'Bloodspot'.
That rolling rack is a fantastic find. If I ever saw something like that, I'd grab it, too.
All in all, it looks like a mild winter for you with little damage. We've hit freezing only a few times here in the Sacramento Valley, but weeks without sun and constant dampness have wreaked more havoc in my garden than a dip into the high 20s would have.
Thanks, I thought it might be an under-colored 'Bloodspot', but there are SO MANY mangave now, I can't tell them apart. I just read your damage post and it's heartbreaking. We're back into the rain right now, but next week has a dry sunny 60 degree day. I wonder what February will bring...
DeleteSo cool, you remembered the last photo in the series! Thanks! Gerhard called it correctly: 'A glowing jewel' indeed.
ReplyDeleteThe back-lit arctos photo is stunning; not your usual angle.
Pyrrosia hastata is called Hastate Felt Fern for a reason: it's smart to curl felt-side out when it gets cold. I also love the nestling Pyrrosia in the woody trunks, it looks so natural.
Although we aren't out of the woods yet, I feel we may have dodged a (winter) bullet this year. A well deserved break, especially since these days we derive so much solace from our gardens!
Chavli
Being out in the garden (any garden) is so important when my head feels like it's going to burst with all the evil in our leadership. I hope this mild winter continues. Thanks for inspiring me to take that SPG image, I don't know that I would have otherwise.
Deletecool to hear the semponium are doing so well! I panicked and covered my pyrrosia hastata when it was 22°. The worst part of this winter is that as pleasant as it has been, I should be out weeding now. I really like a breathing space to reevaluate and rest. But if I were to get the early weeds now my whole year would be so much easier. Guess I'll have to suck it up. Great cart, but sad to hear the nursery is closing.
ReplyDeletePyrrosia hastata is such a drama queen, looking like it's gonna die when it's cold and then bouncing back. Get out there and weed! (and thanks for reminding me, I've got a patch I need to tend to)
DeleteYour garden looks so well except the one Agave! Beautiful! Sure is unlike Gerhard struggling with cold, fog and rain!
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping that damage will stick to just the few leaves on that agave, so it can pull out of it once the warmth returns. We shall see.
DeleteLoree, great as always. I love love your SPG. I might have to replace our pergola with one similar. You must get way less rain than Vancouver, Agaves need to be super well drained to survive here.
ReplyDeleteI, too, am aphantastic. I don't even know what my mother looked like. I take pictures of everything all the time. I only came to understand this was a thing last year, at 73 years old. It explains my difficulty with schooling and my mastery of numbers and mapping. New Yorker magazine had a terrific article on aphantasia in October.
I looked up our rainfall numbers; Vancouver gets about 10" more rain annually, and Portland runs hotter in the summer. Of course they need great drainage here too, something I learned the hard way. Interesting to hear that you're aphantastic, and that you only recently learned of it. I feel like it's certainly becoming more well known as I've read a few things about over the last few months.
DeleteAlso... you are a very young 73!
DeleteI can't believe how sunny January has been! Our low Sunday morning was 21.2F. I actually watered several days ago too. I was worried that the many evergreens I planted in November and December were drying out.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should try another experiment, Loree: Pollarding your Albizia! This way, you retain the low-down structure for more places to tuck plants, but never get the huge crown and too much shade.
My wife has aphantasia, she only found out two years ago. It explains a lot about how we communicate. I have the opposite affliction: entire constructs, gardens, buildings, rooms, (and even very mature plants), leap into my minds eye, fully formed, in three dimensions, all I have to do is draw them. When we decided to move out of Dallas, OR, the impetus for us to start the process was a design for a custom house that spontaneously popped into my head. It took me about one hour to draft it out. I've always been able to do this, even as a small boy. Maybe some day we'll build the house, but this time it was financially impossible.
I think that without intending to pollarding my Albizia is exactly what I'm doing. I've cut it back hard twice now. I never wanted to be the person with a bunch of butchered trees, but here I am. As for your minds eye, mine works similarly. Re: plants and gardens, I see the plants as they will eventually look, not how they look when I plant them. It shocks me when I'm talking with someone and their words draw me back to the present and I look at the plants and see them the way they do (the way they really look). It's a very strange experience. Here's hoping you can build your custom home somday!
DeleteThe January photo of the backlit pavillion greenhouse is magical. Is #15113 the same as #1511?
ReplyDeleteOnce again the #'s you're referring to are different than what I see, what I named them. So I'm not sure what photos you're asking about, I wish I knew. This came up in your reply to "Tour of my 2025 Garden, Part Two" as well. All I can guess is that you're talking about the semponium images (?) if so then the answer is no. Different photos, different plants. The semponium that was in the 2025 tour post is photo GeoJ.112 in this post.
DeleteWhoops, let me clarify. Pyrrosia sp. SEH#15113. There is one labeled 1511 in past posts that looks similar to me, but I'm not sure.
DeleteDuh! Sorry, I should have guessed that. Okay... yes! I was checking names before a talk and realized I had missed a number and corrected it on my plant list. You are spot on!
Delete