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. 

Walking Dulcy's neighborhood

After I left the open garden at Dulcy Mahar's former home I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. I love the opportunity to size up the local gardening vibe with a little sidewalk peeping...

Such grand old growth roots with nice moss and fern coverage (yes, I'm ignoring the sidewalk damage and the fact the poor tree needs more room).

Most of this garden was hidden by a tall hedge, but from the side I glimpsed a few palms and Fatsia japonica.

As I mentioned yesterday this is a fairly "exclusive" neighborhood and as such I thought the homes would be similar in character and size, I was very wrong in that assumption.

Oh, a rusty metal mariachi band, that's unexpected!

If you'd have asked me if I'd ever been to this neighborhood before I'd have said no, but once I saw this house I had a flashback to a small plant people group gathering I attended when Kelly and Sue of Far Reaches Farm came to town and gave a talk.

It was here! That was in, maybe, 2011 or 2012? 2013? Wow...how has so much time passed?

Happy blooming Hamamelis (witch hazel).

And another.

More varied home and garden styles...

Their snow drops match the house!

I accidentally cropped the house when I took this photo, I was so in love with the mushroom lights in combination with the ferns and moss—I paid zero attention to the house.

I so need to go back and see these at night!

Love the simple midcentury modern style, but that's a lot of lawn.

Lots of plant maintenance—pruning—happening here.

Nice orbs! I wish I would have got a better shot of the slots in the driveway. It's an interesting treatment.

This is the last house I stopped to photograph that day, and as I was doing so a car coming down the side alleyway slowed and a window came down. I'd been pretty sure multiple alarms were going off as walked around the neighborhood snapping photos (what is she doing!?!), but now I was going to have to actually explain to someone why I was photographing their home and garden. Then the person driving the car yelled my name! Then she told me hers, Sheryl Williams, a fellow blogger, from Austin, now back in Oregon. She'd been to the same open garden and was heading home when she saw me. Cue "it's a small world after all"... (hi Sheryl!)

Back to the home though, it was perhaps the largest I'd seen, footprint-wise. With a huge front yard.

I wonder what's under the straw, in the brick planter? Bananas? A gunnera?

The "lawn" surrounding the front pavers was faux.

In case you need proof...

But look! They also had the first agaves I'd seen all day...

The Bit at the End

I mentioned Far Reaches Farm in this post, so it seems like a good time to point out the extensive Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Video Presentation Archives available on their website, here. You can watch presentations on Polygonatum, Trillium, Aplines from Australia and Tasmania, and so much more—dig in!

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

Now that fall is moving towards winter, it is time to think about summer

I love that line "Now that fall is moving towards winter, it is time to think about summer" so much that I had to enshrine it here, as a post title. After all I am always ready to think about summer!

So where did I hear it? I read it in an email from Far Reaches Farm. Here's the rest of the story... "And where better to go for summer in January than south-central Argentina and Chile. This is a heads up that our affiliate nonprofit Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy has a bit of room left on their small-group botanical tour of the remarkable plants of Argentina and Chile, beginning January 10 with 14 day and 18 day options." (more info here) What a trip that would be!

Okay, on to the post, which is a look at several random things around the garden, starting with this Parthenocissus henryana I'd planned to train around the metal circle, instead it’s decided to mimic the shape all on its own.

In case you think they naturally grow like that, here's another just a few feet away.

I took these photos back at the end of September, before there was any chance of fall color on the leaves.

Back then the bromeliad bowls were still out! (now they're in the basement garden)

By the end of October the Parthenocissus henryana were coloring up rather nicely...

I didn't feel like making pesto when I cut back and dug out my basil, but I didn't want to just toss it either—so I decided to dry it. Who knew this rusty old stand for fireplace tools (picked up for a few bucks, because I was sure it had potential) would be perfect for that?

The Passiflora lutea growing up my tallest palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) is turning golden. Soon the leaves will start to drop.

The rodgersia are also yellowing.

Aesculus hippocastanum 'Laciniata' (cutleaf horse chestnut) too.

As I shared on Instagram, the first dozen, three dozen—maybe even the first hundred—of my neighbor’s maple leaves that fall in my garden are so pretty. That color! I love them. The next several thousand… nope, I’m over it. So many leaves!!!

There's the big beautiful offender, just over the fence.

Since the bromeliad trashcan lid planters went into the basement garden for the season, I capped the pedestals and I'm enjoying these terracotta bowl planters there.

Pteris vittata

Bergenia ciliata

Ciliate = bearing a fringe of hairs along the margin (although in this case they're also on the top of the leaves)

The Syneilesis aconitifolia turn such a lovely buttery color.

I couldn't resist treating them like flowers in vase.

Perhaps I need to cut a couple of Tetrapanax papyrifer leaves too.

For years I've built a winter rain-cover for this large Agave ovatifolia in a container using PVC pipe and a frosted shower curtain. There's no denying it was ugly. I was considering not covering it at all this year, after all it's gotten so large water can't even get into the container any longer. In the end I decided to try building a cover from the double wall polycarbonate panels we had on hand, I really like how it turned out! (the smaller cover is because even though I tried to fix drainage issues with that container I'm not sure I was successful, so just in case)...

We had a couple of intense rain events shortly after I built the structure and it kept the agave dry. However last weekend's crazy rain pushed me to add another panel. There's a fourth I can put on the open end to the westside if I want to give it even more protection. 

I'm hoping to overwinter these Colocasia Pharaoh's Mask and moved them to a different spot in the garden, waiting for the walls to go up on the Shade Pavilion Greenhouse. That's when I discovered I'd been doing it all wrong!

I need to place them somewhere they get backlighting.

Next year! (if I am successful in overwintering)

Rhododendron 'Ebony Pearl'

I took this video when I noticed the cute little mushrooms growing on my pyrrosia planter...

In the front garden the neighbor's dogwood leaves are starting to cover everything...

And getting caught on the spikes.

Loropetalum chinense Jazz Hands

Corokia cotoneaster fruit

I love it when I manage to catch the autumn color on both the Citrus trifoliata (left) and the Fothergilla gardenii 'Blue Mist' (right), of course the real stars of this scene are the pair of Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue'.

Perfection!

The Citrus trifoliata.

Amsonia hubrichtii...

I'll end this post with a link to a story that appeared on the blog Gardenista. The subject is cramscaping and the author interviewed me, after all the topic is near and dear to my gardening heart. Check it out here: The Garden Decoder: What Is ‘Cramscaping’? (And Why Is this Trend Here to Stay?). 

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.