Cathi's garden, finally

My friend Cathi Lamoreux has invited me over to visit her garden on my previous visits to Spokane. However, since there's never enough time to do all the things I want to do when I'm up there, I hadn't managed to make it by. This last trip up (in late April) I had the time, but it was still so very early in the growing season for a Zone 6 garden, I wasn't sure she'd want me to stop by. Thankfully she was up for it and so I finally got to visit. 

The vine growing along the front of the garage is a large leaf, non-producing grape vine (Vitis NoID). Cathi says it's at least 20-25 years old. I wish I could have seen it all leafed out.

I don't remember how long exactly Cathi and I have known each other, but she's visited my garden a few times, one of her daughters lives just a few miles from me. Cathi is very active in the Spokane County Master Gardener Foundation...

I suspect the rock garden in the protected corner between the house and the garage holds all sorts of treasures that reveal themselves as the season progresses, however I was thrilled to see a couple of seriously spiny opuntia.

As well as a pair of interesting containers, I love the "pipe with flared lip" look of them.

A few years ago Cathi gave me a big handful of Helleborus foetidus seedlings. They're now blooming in my garden, my mom's garden, a neighbor's garden and a friend's garden—as well as untold stranger's gardens as I potted up several and put them in the little free greenhouse in our hellstrip. It was fun to see them throughout her garden and know just how far the babies have traveled.

Looking out towards the street...

And at a few blooming tulips...

Cathi's down to just a couple patches of tulips in her garden and not planting any more (deer? changing tastes?) but I loved the color of these. 

I was too late to enjoy the blooms of the Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Diane’ (too early for many other things, too late for this, *sigh*), but I've always enjoyed the bits that remain after the blooms fall.

Another extraordinary pot. I was told this one used to be a fountain in the back garden, but once it was no longer water-tight it was moved and repurposed. Such a great shape!

Snowdrops!

I've always been a little jealous of anyone with a cold frame, and this set-up definitely had me feeling the envy.

In fact this whole corner had me feeling rather covetous...

What perfect shelves for staging small pots! 

Cathi and I were busy chatting when I took that photo above and I didn't get a chance to ask her what she used the shelves for. She kindly replied via email "many things over the years. I used to have wooden planter boxes my father built... They had succulents in them for 15 years until the boxes fell apart. Then, I had a year of annuals mixed in with herbs because I never plant annuals so thought, why not? The shelves aren’t wide enough for bigger pots and I ended up watering twice a day in the heat of the summer to keep them alive. Last year, no plants because I was going to be gone for a month in Scotland. I just displayed some of my antique garden décor and the bottom shelf held our collection of heart-shaped rocks. I have no idea what will be on the shelves this year except the heart-shaped rocks are still on the bottom shelf and will stay there." 

The fabulous structure behind the shelves came about as many do, a need to camouflage an eyesore in a neighboring lot. Cathi grows Clematis 'Paul Farges' and Ampelopsis aconitifolia var. glabra on it.

Standing under the structure, facing the potting bench, and looking back at the house. Yes those are two Pot Inc, Hover Dish planters. Cathi bought them from Bob Hyland's Portland shop, Contained Exuberance, back in the day.

Oh! Now we enter the garden house...

So many fabulous things...

I could have spent hours in here looking through all of these wonders...

That funnel! I seriously considered grabbing it and running. But I did not.

Back outside and looking at those shelves again. My mind spinning with the possibilities, especially now that I laid eyes on Cathi's antique garden décor.

Mahonia aquafolium

Planted by birds (or?) but not Cathi. Still, she let it stay and it's grown to take up a sizeable chunk of real estate. Such bright yellow blooms!

Earlier I mentioned that Cathi wasn't planting more tulips, these are the only others in the garden. I included this photo because I thought the protection idea was genius. Something had been munching on the tulips and so Cathi tossed a wreath over the foliage. Don't throw away your holiday wreaths, use them to protect plants in the garden!

Ha, yes, still thinking about that corner. Also, I realized I neglected to call out the Rhamnus frangula (Fine Line Buckthorn) at the corner of the garden house and the potting bench arbor. Such a fabulous plant.

Primula snowballs...

The Hover Dish planters aren't the only thing in Cathi's garden from Bob Hyland's shop, she scored this three-tier wire shelf during Bob's closing sale. Soon she'll bring out some of her many houseplants to summer on the shelves.

Another interesting piece that was hard to miss, this mask by artist Diana Scott.

Ms. Scott was a professor of art in San Francisco, and split her time between SF and Priest Lake, ID. She passed away in 2019. The longer I looked at the mask the more I saw. 

When I followed up with Cathi to get more detailed information for this post she shared that I'd missed spring in full bloom in Spokane by a week; "The dogwoods are blooming their hearts out for the first time in several years. All the fruit trees are still in bloom. In my garden, the akebia vine on the deck is in full bloom. The grape vine on the garage has leafed out, the false Solomon Seal, Brunnera, candy tuft, and sweet woodruff are blooming plus all the regulars (tulips, daffs, hellebore)." Ah well, isn't that always the case? She also shared the names of a few plants she'd purchased at Floralia in Spokane (I love Floralia and wrote about them back in 2022, but didn't get a chance to visit on this trip) including Arctostaphylos /coloradenis ‘Chieftain’... yay! An Arctostaphylos (manzanita) for Spokane. Spokanites, y'all get down to Floralia and buy yourself an Arctostaphylos!

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Elk Rock Garden at the Bishop's Close; how I learned to love a PNW garden with no spikes

If you've ever had the privilege of visiting the Elk Rock Garden of the Bishop's Close then you'll recognize this scene at the back side of the parking area.

I've visited when the wisteria vine has lost all of it's leaves and is nothing but a bare curvy skeleton, and when it's so lush that it completely encloses the bench. This is however the first time I've noticed mushrooms growing on the bench.

Now I've walked up to the area that overlooks the parking, above the wisteria. In a few weeks the hamamelis trees (witch hazels) at my back will be covered in their crimped confetti-like blooms. A years-ago visit to this garden was the first time I was able to smell their unusual fragrance. It's also worth noting that in my 9 years of visiting, this is the fullest I've ever seen the parking lot. I'm not the only one who's visiting, worried about the future.

The news broke in early November: the house (offices to the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon) and garden were up for sale. The estate was given to the Diocese by the Kerr estate in 1959 with the stipulation (and a trust to ensure care) that the garden be open to the public. I won't sugar coat things, this sale felt a lot like a slap in the face to the public and those who love the garden.

The hamamelis...

I do not recall seeing this mounted carpenter square on previous visits.

Although I certainly understand how useful it must be.

Hypertufa troughs moved here from another garden garden lost to us, the Berry Botanic Garden. I never did get to visit the BBG.

The learning and love that comes from wandering a garden like this for nearly a decade cannot be overstated. 

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Wissel's Saguaro'

Araucaria araucana, the monkey puzzle tree.

Back when I first visited (in February of 2013) part of me was still learning to love a truly PNW garden. You see my garden heart had been awakened in the desert SW. If there wasn't an agave, what was the point? I never have seen an agave at Elk Rock Garden, and you know what? That's okay.

Adiantum aleuticum, the western maidenhair fern.

Moss, fallen leaves, and cyclamen.

Some of you will be shocked to read these words, some of you will have already figured it out; I love moss almost as much as I love agaves. Yep.

What will become of all the lush patches of moss and cyclamen if the new owner of the garden develops the land into housing, as is feared?

So many plants with such history. Do they have a future?

The day I visited—December 16th—the estate's gardener was deep in conversation with a few visitors just to the side of the visitors center. I tried to eavesdrop, to hear a bit of information about the future, but wasn't able to catch anything of meaning.

This giant old Chinese wisteria, Wisteria sinensis 'Alba', is a favorite of mine, although I don't think I've ever seen it in bloom. I love it for those gnarly mossy branches.

The window reflects a blue sky behind me.

Blue sky with the perfectly framed view of Mt. Hood.

That's a fine Mahonia eurybracteata forest in the making.

I do love a pair of traditional urns, especially when planted with astelia.

Garrya elliptica, silk tassel bush.

I do not recall ever noticing the large windows on the extreme right, some sort of second floor conservatory? 

More cyclamen...

Sinocalycanthus chinensis, aka Calycanthus chinensis or Chinese sweetshrub.

I'm still mourning the removal of a large edgeworthia next to the stream...

...and I can't see this small pond without thinking of the day I visited with Lila.

Being tree-stupid I didn't have a clue as to the ID of the tall blazing rust-colored conifer above. Since I usually assume everyone else knows more than I do, I asked a couple who was coming up the pathway if they knew the ID. Oh yes he said, that's a madrone. 

No. I looked at him while shaking my head and saying "I don't think so". Then I was told it's a maple. Well, no. It's not that either. Me thinks it's actually a taxodium, a cypress. But I could be wrong. *I was wrong! Thanks to Linda and Tamara who say metasequoia!*

Bright green fern fronds are a lovely accompaniment.

Here are the madrones, out at the point, overlooking the Willamette River.

Final photo from my visit, the alter which has always stirred feelings of great reverence within. This is a powerful place. I am deeply saddened to think that I may never visit again.

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