Yes, I have no Nolina

Once there were three, three Nolina hibernica 'La Siberica' that is. For the last couple of years I've been down to just this one. 

Sometime this spring the lower leaves started turning brown, I finally got in there and cleaned them up, not taking a photo first because I didn't think doing so would be all that remarkable.

But things took a turn when I found this. It was gooey inside. *post publishing note to add that there was a mushy spot and I worked it until it looked like this, the round hole (holes) were my doing*

There was another smaller hole a little further up... well damn. 

What to do? Treat it with something (a fungicide?) and pray? The decision to remove it was made pretty quickly. It seemed doomed, wasn't all that attractive, and I had just returned from Seattle with a couple of good sized ferns that were only (hopefully) going to get bigger and they needed a home. Andrew took pity on my efforts to dig, and had the Nolina out in no time (it had been growing in that spot since 2014). I wish I'd have taken a photo, but I did not.

In with the ferns! I also added a little metal to help visually ground the new plantings in their place and to give them a little better drainage, since they're built up a bit from the surrounding soil.

Hmmm, maybe I should add a smaller fern too? Pyrrosia lingua 'Undulata', there are never enough pyrrosia in this garden.

All planted (and mossed and rocked) up.

In the front (with the blue rocks and pyrrosia) is Dryopteris wallichiana, in the rusty circle at the back, the mystery fern from Eric's garden—which is a mystery no longer. I'd narrowed it down to Dryopteris affinis 'Stableri’ or Dryopteris x complexa 'Stableri’ but long time blog reader Chava had her look-alike identified at a recent Heronswood Garden fern class, the verdict; Dryopteris filix-mas ‘Crispum stableri (the other names are synonyms). Thanks Chava!

Here's a close up of the rusty circle, it has teeth! I think it's a long band saw blade that's coiled into a circle. Danger! (perfect)

Pulled back shot...

The funnel-shaped planter on the left came from the same trip up to Seattle (purchased at Earthwise Salvage). I worked it onto a metal tube I had on hand (from BBC Steel) and planted it up with Lepisorus cf. sect. pseudovittaria MD 15-45 from Far Reaches Farm.

I also reworked the dish planter with the Blechnum brasiliense and Pyrrosia sp. SEH#15113, cramming in the Rhododendron nakaharai ‘Mariko’ I purchased at the Rhododendron Species BG on the mentioned (and linked) Seattle trip. Cramscaping in a dish planter!

I haven't missed the Nolina at all. If I do then I'll just take a quick walk over to McMenamins Kennedy School and admire their mature specimens.

In case you're wondering where in the garden this little make-over took place, right there. At the north end of the patio...

The Bit at the End

Some of you may have heard the reference to the song "Yes! We Have No Bananas" in the title of this post. I knew it as a song from Louis Prima, but evidently it's originally from Frank Silver, published in 1923. Frank Silver explained the origin of the song to Time Magazine: ".....About a year ago my little orchestra was playing at a Long Island hotel. To and from the hotel I would stop at a fruit stand owned by a Greek, who began every sentence with 'Yes'. The jingle of his idiom haunted me and my friend Cohn. Finally I wrote this verse and Cohn fitted it with a tune." (source)

For some reason I kept hearing "Yes! I have no Nolina" while I was working on this project. The mind works in strange ways...

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