Wednesday Vignette, plants are cool

Last weekend I climbed back behind our tallest palm, a Trachycarpus fortunei, to cut back a couple of crispy Macleaya cordata stems. While there I looked up to see if I could spot any bomarea seeds on the vine. I did not, but I was in awe just the same. This tree has grown from a plant I looked down on, to towering heights. It supports two different vines growing on it and produces copious amounts of seed every year. Look at that dramatic frond at the top of the trunk. Aren't plants just the coolest?

Weather Diary, Sept 24: Hi 75, Low 60/ Precip 0

Wednesday Vignettes are hosted by Anna at Flutter & Hum. All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

A garden tour of sorts...

Every late summer/early fall I do an extensive garden tour post. I've taken photos for this year's tour, but since the book deadline is looming large I don't have time to edit and organize the photos. Instead I've done a few quick video tours, they're each under a minute because that's what Instagram tells me is acceptable, and I also want to post these there. My video skills are pathetic and the narration is rather flat, but...it is what it is. I hope you enjoy...

The front garden...

Walking into the back garden...

The upper back garden...

And the shade pavilion and patio...

I still plan to do a regular photo heavy tour later in the year, this is just an "until then" appetizer.

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Weather Diary, Sept 23: Hi 69, Low 56 Precip 0

All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

My 2019 HPSO PlantFest Haul...

Saturday September 14th was our Hardy Plant Society of Oregon's Fall PlantFest. What does that mean? A speaker and a plant sale. This was the first time in years that I didn't have out-of-town guests visiting, I won't lie, I missed them. Plus I'd purposely planted a few things a couple of days before the sale, to give me an extra strong sense of just how full my garden is...I didn't need to purchase more plants. That said, of course I did...

There was a great small nursery, Alpine Gardens, selling mostly hardy succulents, but a few non-hardy things too. I picked out three red sempervivum. For some reason interesting red ones seem extra hard to find.

Two of the three came with names and I full intended to document them here. But I tossed the plant tags before I could. Oh well. I suck at tracking sempervivum names.

That does not diminish my love for them one bit.

At $4 for the larger plants and $2 for the small ones, like below, they were a great price, if not quite the screaming deal I picked up last month (here).

Although it doesn't look like it in this light, I think the patch below maybe the same plant as the one above.

The dark colors provide such a great counterpoint to the usual shades of green and white.

Next up, I couldn't resist this Pyrrosia lingua from Sebright Gardens.

I don't "need" another pyrrosia...

Put it was so healthy, and bursting out of it's container, so I bought it. I am rather addicted to pyrrosia.

This P. lingua was just a small 4" pot when I bought it.

Now it's on the move, spreading out and across the patio retaining wall.

Here's my Pyrrosia lingua 'Ogon Nishiki' aka variegated tongue fern. The variegation does sometimes revert however.

Others I have include: Pyrrosia hastata

Pyrrosia sheareri

Pyrrosia polydactyla

And Pyrrosia lingua, crested form

I also have a Pyrrosia lingua 'Eboshi' which is fabulously twisted and contorted, but it's in such shade that I couldn't get a good photo of it, so instead I share a close-up of the crested form.

My final purchase at PlantFest was this fancy Venus fly-trap, Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu'
aka red dragon fly trap from Carni Flora PDX. I picked up the container at another nursery later that afternoon.

It's the red on the inside of the traps that gets me.

And check this out, I managed to photograph the inner "hairs" the second layer of detection that tell the trap the insect is in place and it's worth closing to consume. Can you see them?

Here's my older Dionaea muscipula.

You can see it's inner "trigger hairs" (I just made that term up) and a small something that might be an insect to their right.

Since taking this photo I've potted up my new flytrap and it's joined the other carnivorous plants at the north end of the patio.

This was the last big shopping event of the season, however, us Portland area garden bloggers still have a plant swap coming up next month. I may not escape without accumulating a few more plants...

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Weather Diary, Sept 22: Hi 66, Low 57/ Precip .09"

All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Bye bye phormium...

As you walk into the back garden this beauty of a phormium is on your right, or at least it used to be.

I looked back through my old blog posts and found photo evidence if it being in this spot as early as 2012. That's seven happy years, and at least two, maybe three cold and ice events that should have killed it.

But it was a trooper and soldiered on. Well, that is until...

The mealy bug invasion.

I sprayed a few times, when I first discovered them, but there were just too many mealys to kill off. Plus the conditions that allowed this to happen (a shaded base of the plant, which can stay a little on the wet side) weren't going to change. Plus, there was a little rot in there too. It was time to say goodbye.

Honestly though, the fact this plant had survived so much made it hard to let go of, plus it looked so good with the Arachniodes simplicior 'Variegata' to it's side.

After a little prying with the shovel it came out in one complete chunk, and filled the yard waste container completely.

Now there's an empty spot...

But not for long...

The new plants are in place in this photo, but they're so small you can't see them.

It's much easier to see them from this angle...

One plant dug out (plus a few pieces of Saxifraga x urbium 'Aurea Punctata') and fourteen planted in, sounds about right.

I moved the metal aloe pedestal planter back a bit, without the huge mass of the Phormium it didn't make sense for it to be out at the corner of the planting space.

In went a few sempervivum from an earlier haul.

Selaginella kraussiana 'Aurea'

A pair of Coniogramme emeiensis 'Golden Zebra'

And a random Canna lily I picked up on clearance at the everything/grocery store. It was blooming in bright yellow and I sunk it in a container for a color-pop. Now that it's done I figured it's big leaves would add a nice contrast here.

Hopefully it will return and bloom to add a little color next year.

The Cornus sanguinea 'Compressa' was a gift from Roger Gossler earlier in the year, when he brought a group up to tour the garden. I'm glad I finally found a spot in the ground for it.

Those stacked leaves are pretty cool.

Roger also brought me the Rhododendron 'Ebony Pearl' (on the left), those of you who read rhododendron and think massive shrub don't need to worry, this one shouldn't get too big for the space. If so, well, I'll deal with that eventually.

Finally, I planted three more Arachniodes simplicior 'Variegata' to the left of the existing plants.

Old ones...

New ones...

Come spring I need to seed in a little lawn where the phormium had shaded it out. Or maybe dig a few plugs from elsewhere and get it going that way.

I do miss the bright phormium stripes against the dark house, but it's fun to try new plants and see what they do...

Weather Diary, Sept 19: Hi 72, Low 55/ Precip .01"

All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.