Road trip; with bonus traveling cactus

Last week Andrew and I road-tripped back up to Spokane for my dad's memorial service. On our way out of town I snapped photos along I-84, headed east through the Columbia River Gorge. Here we're only about 30 minutes out of Portland, the color is a bit funky, but I loved the rocks and the waterfall. 

Better color, but window reflections! Oh well. I wonder how many people would ID this as Oregon? It's not all tall trees, ferns and moss here. This one was taken about an hour and 20 minutes east of Portland.

Fast forward to our leaving Spokane a few days later, now we're heading south on the Palouse Highway in the rolling hills of SE Washington. 

That's not a shadow line, but rather changing crops.

Wind turbines are ubiquitous in these parts.

We spent time exploring around Walla Walla, Washington. Andrew wanted to fish on our way home and since my dad always enjoyed a drive in the countryside it seemed like a fitting way to make our trip back home. Wild roses like these grew all along the roadside where I grew up.

Lonicera ciliosa, I believe. It's native to forests of western North America.

I don't know what this little white-flowered cutie is though.

And this—super strange! 

The top side of the leaves look like this...

And the undersides have this fuzzy business on them. Some sort of parasite?

There was water, of course. 

Andrew found a deer bone, a foreleg we're thinking.

We saw a lot of verbascum, my favorite "weed of the west"...

Here they're hanging out stream-side, we were a couple weeks too early to catch them in bloom.

In Walla Walla proper we visited Green Valley Gardens, it was a nice nursery—complete with kniphofia mysteries!

I bought a blooming cactus ("growers choice"... in other words, no ID), which kept me company for the rest of our travels.

Water bottle holder? No! Plant holder...

Country roads of SE Washington...

And into the Columbia River Gorge again...

Beautiful country, with or without a cactus friend.

All material © 2009-2022 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Visiting the Bellevue Botanical Garden, Part Two

Today we pick back up with our visit to the Bellevue Botanical Garden as we're walking into the famed perennial border...

The Datisca cannabina (aka false hemp) is always a show-stopper for me. That's it above, in the distance, and again below.

And here, backed by a soft blue sky.

One of the many Cephalotaxus harringtonii (aka Japanese plum-yew) that caught my eye. Of course the variegated chestnut is no slacker in the foliage department either.

Semi-wide shot with nolina...

Nolina hibernica 'La Siberica' that is.

I seemed to be captivated by cryptomeria on this trip, stopping to take photos here and of several at the Kubota Garden the next day.

I'm always mesmerized by a fuzzy verbascum.

Crinum 'Cecil Houdyshel'

And again, masked by blooms of a nearby grass.

Verbena 

And a rodgersia looking fabulous so late in the year, it must get a lot of water.

These small, protective cages were all around the garden. They remind me of a project in Lorene Edwards-Forkner's A Handmade Garden, I wonder if she held a workshop at the garden?

I can be charmed by a dark, late-season hydrangea bloom.

Darnit! The Northwest Perennial Alliance has a propagation exhibit and there are usually plants for sale. It wasn't open when I was there, maybe a COVID thing? (this scene was behind a closed door, photo taken through the glass).

There are parts of the garden left natural and wild.

I found this old hebe to be quite a looker.

Lysimachia paridiformis var. stenophylla

And finally, the fern garden...

I was rather taken with this one, as it was forming a short trunk.

Online requests for ID resulted in the names Polystichum polyblepharum, Polystichum x dycei, and Dryopteris cycadina—with Polystichum polyblepharum emerging as the likely winner.

I bent to take a photo of the turkey tails, but then noticed there was a fern frond in shadow.

And now I'm looking for a hollow trunk in which to plant a few ferns.

Onoclea sensibilis, the sensitive fern.

Here's another plant whose ID I wondered about.

Perhaps a rhododendron?

And here's our last photo of the visit, definitely a rhododendron, but I couldn't tell you which one.

Weather Diary, Nov 12: Hi 49, Low 36/ Precip .16" 

All material © 2009-2020 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.