February; two steps toward spring, three steps back

Or is that three steps forward and two steps back? My answer changes depending on the day. We've had a mild winter here in the Portland area, and most of the first half of February had me feeling like spring arrived early. We have a name for that around here, false spring. It happens nearly every year. You think you've rounded the bend, only to be pulled back into the cold wet, which is happening this week with rain and high temps in the low to mid-40's/and lows in the low to mid 30's. Still it looks like our lowest low of the season is behind us. Here's a nice chart (from my favorite weather site) comparing the coldest temps for the last eight winters. I had no idea 2019/20 was such a dream!

And here's one with our February snowfall amounts going back to 2015. Fingers crossed we don't have any this year.

Today's post is a random look at a few plant and garden related things from the last couple weeks. These first few photos are from a walk. I think this person hoped to get a border of opuntia growing along the front of their property. If you lay a pad on soil it *should* root and form new pads. Unfortunately it looks like these may be rotting before they start to grow.

This front yard stopped me in my tracks, what the heck?

There's a boat with a skeleton passenger, a captain at the wheel (with no boat to steer), and deep sea diver. I wanted to get a photo from the other side, a better angle, but the homeowner was working in the driveway and I chickened out, lest I get pulled into a conversation that I didn't have time for.

The weekend of Feb 7th I was down in Corvallis, Oregon, to take part in a day-long conference on the Oregon State University campus. Naturally I worked in a couple nursery visits while we were in town. This gorgeous Agave potatorium ’Cherry Swizzle’was at Shonnards Nursery, it would have come home with me if not for the $125 price tag.

The event was the Benton County Master Gardener's Insights into Gardening. It's an annual happening, so if you're in the Corvallis area save that link for 2027, this was an extremely well organized gathering with lots of great speakers.

And vendors...

One of the talks I attended was Neil Bell's "Drought Tolerant Shrubs for Year-Round Interest." I appreciated his succinct description of a drought tolerant plant. So much better than the too-wordy definition I usually come up with.

There were four different talks running at the same time, in four different rooms, sixteen total for the day. This was the schedule for the room I was speaking in. Yep, I was the one talking about succulents. Oh well. It wasn't the most popular talk of the day, but I still had a very engaged audience and appreciated being invited.

In addition to visiting area nurseries, we also stopped by the Corvallis ReStore, where I scored these two treasures... a rusty grill for mounting a plant or two, and a heavy base that no doubt will hold a dish planter of some sort... under $10 total!

My next plant adventure was a stop at Xera Plants, where co-owner Greg Shepherd's smiling face greeted me...

Xera closed their Portland retail shop at the end of the 2025 growing season, and now they've opened a covered shopping space in a hoop house at their farm down in Sherwood, just 25 minutes-ish south on I-5.

I know a most folks were sad to see the retail shop in town close, but I was thrilled to get to visit the growing grounds again and feel the magic of where it all happens. 

I used to visit the Xera farm with a small group of friends before Hortandia each year, that was back before the retail shop existed. It was amazing to see how much the area had changed in those 10+ years.

Muehlenbeckia ephedroides

Trachelospermum asiaticum 'Ogon' 

This open-air space is currently under-construction, but it sounds like it will be loaded with plants once summer shopping time arrives.

Adjacent to the hoop house and open-air shopping space is the covered work space where the Xera staff works potting up the plants we can't wait to buy.

This character growing next to the work space is a semi-espaliered Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths'. It's fighting to overcome a weather induced set-back but looking good while doing it.

Next up—did you read about my friend Gerhard's final trip to San Marcos Growers? Lucky me, he picked up a couple gallon pots of Aechmea recurvata and sent them up to Portland, my last San Marcos plants...

That's not all he sent! This guy bolted out of the box as soon as I cut the tape. Did he hitchhike all the way from Santa Barbara? Or was Davis, CA, (where Gerhard lives) home? Either way I doubt he enjoyed the low temperature of 33F that night.

Here are the plants temporarily potted up to spend the next month or two in the basement garden. I've got plans for them come spring...

Outside the hellebores are in full flower around the garden, not great photos, but you get the idea...

Only 32 days until spring!

The Bit at the End

The folks at Plant Delights Nursery lost some plants, and they want them back. More accurately they—like all of us—have had some plants die. Unlike us, they've sold those same plants over the years and they're hoping someone out there is still growing them and can share back to the nursery. It's a long list, with several fantastic dry land ferns that I wish I had! See the list here.

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