The fluted planter gets a makeover

I shared the photo below in a blog post from early June. The subject was the new pedestal for the dish planter on the bottom left, but when scrolling through the post my eyes immediately went to the fluted planter next to it. How pathetic. What was once a robust planting was now looking rather tired.

There are ferns in the mix that are late to emerge, and over the next few weeks it should have filled out. But why wait? Time for a makeover!

I decided this little Hosta (H. 'Cameo') would make the transition to the new planting.

And divided the Lepisorus bicolor I'd picked up at Secret Garden Growers. It was filling the 4" pot I bought it in, why not make two plants for this project?

A couple tiny Begonia grandis hitched a ride with the fern. I hope I don't regret not pulling them out.

I knew I wanted to make this more than just a flat planting, so I worked in a piece of driftwood to help build up the soil in places. Since I had three metal cylinders, but only planned to use two of them for plants, I added one to the end of the wood to help visually tie it in to the rusty metal. Dorky? Maybe, but it worked for me.

The Hosta peeking through leaves of Bergenia ciliata var. ciliata, also from Secret Garden Growers.

I worked in one other plant from the old scheme, this Begonia U164 or maybe U614. Seed-grown, it was gift from Maggie Soderstrom.

This planter gets tucked under cover over the winter months because it doesn't have drainage, but it does stay outside. Thus things planted here need to be winter hardy.

Rooted babies of my Androsace sempervivoides fill the two metal cylinders. I'm not sure how they'll do in the shade this area gets, we shall see.

Heather kindly divided her Lepisorus pseudoussuriensis 'Taoshan' (on the left) from Windcliff and shared a piece with me. I hope it will be happy here.

I'd sat down on the ground to take these photographs and realized there was a sort of Begonia grandis echo happening.

To my right is the wire basket planter with its Begonia grandis.

Oh and remember the cool cement piece I brought home from Clinton Bamboo Nursery? This may not be its final purpose, but for now it's acting as a nice base to elevate the fluted planter.

From above...

From the side...

Bonus update! I'm sneaking in one more project. If you look at the chair you'll see a small planting next to it.

When I was in Seattle in early June for FernFest I stopped at Bellevue Nursery and crushed on their Begonia 'Cracklin' Rosie'...

I didn't think it was a lasting infatuation, and left it behind. But I couldn't shake it. I looked but hadn't been able to find one in Portland, so grabbed one when I saw it at McClendon's in Tacoma.

I blame this image from hortandpott on Instagram for stoking my obsession. I couldn't stop looking at it. It's not the same Begonia and my implementation is certainly not the same as theirs, but it's what sent me down the path. Isn't it dreamy?

Here's how mine turned out.

At the front is Pyrrosia lingua 'Undulata'.

At the back, yes that's the Pyrrosia lingua 'Tachiba Koryu' I purchased at Dancing Oaks. I thought it and the begonia made a fine pairing.

The end.

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude. 

There's a strawberry in my agave pot!

Back in 2014 I bought a straight-sided chartreuse strawberry pot from Crate & Barrel. At the time I wrote; "I've always had an aversion to strawberry pots, the shape and the pockets. I find them vulgar. Yes I know, it's a weird opinion but it's mine. So imagine how surprised I was when I spotted this chartreuse number at Crate & Barrel and had to have it. Had to." Here's what it looked like back then, after I potted it up as an agave pot...

At some point I found, and filled, a second pot, but the contents have always stayed pretty true to that first post. That is, they weren't strawberry pots, but rather agave pots. Some agaves produce runners at a similar rate to strawberries, so really it's not that much of a stretch.

Things changed this year when my 2026 Hortlandia plant haul included a gift strawberry plant, an Albion. I looked around for a suitable place to plant it, but came up empty. Then I realized it was time to pull the overgrown NoID agave I'd had at the top of this pot for far too long. Why not put the strawberry in there? Indeed.

Don't be thinking I got carried away and bought more strawberries, nope. The second pot stays safely succulent-filled. At the top is Agave lophantha 'Splendida'.

The pockets are filled with Haworthiopsis coarctata, formerly Haworthia coarctata. Behind it grows my deformed (but lovable) Cereus forbesii 'spiralis'.

Now that I've started I guess I'll just go ahead and share what's growing in the driveway planters this season. Musella lasiocarpa, Chinese yellow banana...

In one of the crop tanks, I'm growing a mix of zinnia. I started Zinnia elegans 'Envy' (green blooms) from seed, but bought a mix of "hot" color seedlings—orange and pink—to tide me over until Envy blooms. Meanwhile Envy is taking over!

However, I have had plenty of flowers to bring in the house over the last few weeks...

Back to that agave/strawberry pot. You can see I'm not entirely giving it over to the strawberries, although I did allow a runner to root in one pocket.

There are also a couple that worked their way into the basil.

And a couple others that shot up into the second crop tank. The Albion berries really are quite tasty, I've harvested a handful thus far.

We've also enjoyed a few SunSugar tomatoes.

But are still waiting on the first fruit from Alice's Dream Tomato, a seedling from my friend Mindy.

Did you know there's an edible Persicaria? Persicaria odorata, aka Vietnamese coriander. A neighbor left a couple plants in the Little Free Greenhouse in our hellstrip so I figured, why not? I've yet to cook with it though.

I'm growing Melothria scabra, Mexican sour gherkins again. I love the small "snacking" cucamelons.

Physalis pruinosa 'Aunt Molly's, a ground cherry is also great for snacking while working in the garden. They come wrapped in a paper husk that keeps them clean.

For those of you think I hate flowers, especially pink ones, I give you this...

Nerium oleander ‘Hardy Red’, I adopted it from Jerry at one of our Blogger plant swaps. It's been blooming strong for over two months now...

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude. 

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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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.