Hortlandia Fling Garden Tours / Day One, Garden One; James Andrew Gould

Back on April 8th I teased a weekend of garden tours I put together for friends who were in town for Hortlandia (that post here). When I finally sat down to write about the gardens we saw I planned three posts, one each for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, hitting the highlights of the two gardens we visited that day. Who was I kidding? There was no way I could edit down my photos like that! Instead I'm starting my coverage where we started the tours, bright and early Friday morning at James Andrew Gould's garden.

If the name (or the garden) seem familiar it's because I wrote about this garden at the end of March, covering a visit that took place September of 2025. It was great to return again so soon and see what things looks like in the very early spring (our visit was on April 3rd).

I look at this foliage and freeze for a minute. Lyonothamnus floribundus or Comptonia peregrina? A knowledgeable plant person visited my garden recently and we talked about this momentary confusion, I felt a lot better knowing it wasn't just my issue. Oh, and this is a Lyonothamnus floribundus.

Euphorbia 'Tasmanian Tiger' (or the like).

Will I ever be able to remember specific Eucalyptus names? I doubt it.

There were two glorious patches of Grevillea x gaudichaudii when I last visited James' garden. This one was still looking spectacular during this latest visit, the other one had been set back a bit.

Agave! A. parryi I believe.

So many spikes!

Sinopanax formosanus (back left), Euphorbia some somebody along with a Eucalyptus and Yucca rigida in the foreground. 

Such a handsome orb of thin spikes...

Arisaema sikokianum

Part of the group; that's James to the left of the Echium, David and Max. I think the Echium might be hiding Gerhard.

I'm sure those tall Echium are in full glorious bloom now...

And the Erica arborea is probably finished.

Speaking of blooms, Sinopanax formosanus.

One of the very few aloes (or once were aloes) we can grow in the ground here in Portland, Aloiampelos striatula.

The Echium again, I think they're E. pininana. They're like a magnet for my camera.

One of my favorite dry-land ferns, which James introduced me to several years back, Pleopeltis lepidopteris 'Morro dos Conventos'.

The carivorous plant blog.

Mahonia 'Marvel' I believe.

Looking back across the front garden.

And then to one of the two Wollemia nobilis in the garden.

Daphniphyllum? No, I don't think that's right.

Echium wildpretti

Another Pleopeltis lepidopteris backed by a lovely loquat, Eriobotrya japonica.

Close up.

Drimys winteri, I think?

The other Wollemi pine—doing it's strange male and female cone thing—ends today's post. On Friday we'll visit our second stop that day, Dairy Creek Meadows in North Plains, OR.

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