Bloomday for May 2014...

It's May! It's Bloomday! And it's hot, a new record high yesterday in Portland of 91F, today we back of to a more "reasonable" (not really, not for mid-May) 88F. So let's start this bloomday show with the hot pinks, no I don't go looking for them, they just find me...

We inherited this Peony with the house, this is the first time I remember it blooming in sunshine and heat. Usually it's rain which weighs down the heavy blossoms and has them laying on the ground.

I apologize for this one (a Lewisia) but the color is just so insane I had to share it. It's a touch less vibrant in the flesh.

Here's my mellow Lewisia...

The Rheum palmatum bloom tops out at just about 6ft.

Watching it unfold has been quite the spectacle.

My bouganvillea went through a pouting face when things were cool and wet. I hope it's enjoying the heat. Camarillo Fiesta Bouganvillea

The Abutilon 'Red Tiger' isn't yet tall enough to hold it's big blooms in the air.

These are not blooms, but scouting about for flowers to photograph I was excited to see our sarracenia is going to bloom.

Ditto for the Echeveria 'Perle Von Nürnberg'...

When it went in the ground (finally, after a long winter) this Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum looked like it wasn't going to make it, however it's put out some new foliage and even a few new blooms.

Also inherited, Clematis montana is just about finished blooming for the year.

Cerinthe major 'Purpurascens' is just about to start.

Echium russicum

Mammillaria plumosa

Genista lydia

London Pride, Saxifraga x urbium, with a chewed on rodgersia leaf.

Euphorbia x martinii 'Ascot Rainbow'

I don't know what I was thinking when I bought a 6-pack of Nicotiana. Well actually I do know what I was thinking, I thought I was buying the tall plants. Not these little pip-squeaks.

This is the last of the Magnolia laevifolia blooms. They put on quite a show this year.

Podophyllum peltatum, the flowers...

Which are held under these leaves.

Solomon's Seal, which I recently discovered makes a great cut flower.

It's going to be a big year for Syneilesis aconitifolia blooms...

Finally the blue flowers of Parahebe perfoliata...

And we end the show with my new (so excited!) water lilly. Our stock tank "pond" is now in the sun which allows an entirely new selection of water plants...

As always visit May Dreams Gardens for the list of bloggers participating in bloomday this 15th day of May.

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Bountiful Farms, accidentally....

Last Friday I had business south of town, down Salem way, I was visiting a couple of wholesale nurseries to talk with their growers. Anytime you're off Interstate 5 and traveling the back roads of the Willamette Valley you'll encounter small nursery after small nursery and occasionally a really big one. I have to admit my heart tends to swell with a bit of pride, this, my adopted state, is just so full of people doing what they love... growing plants. How amazing is this place? There are nurseries devoted to conifers, those specializing in daphne, fuschia, hosta (and more, more, more) and the hops! I meant to stop and take a photo of the hops which were just getting started growing up their tall, thin supports, but I did not. Darn. Cruising along at 50 mph I did spot this scene out of the corner of my eye...

I didn't have time to stop but circled back around after my meeting. How much do I love this? A lot....

So good!

This tennis/badminton (?) match was being played in front of the home adjacent to Bountiful Farms Nursery. Evidently they specialize in sculptured plants (among other things).

Here's a fellow mowing the lawn in front of his home.

While the kids play on the swing set.

And jump rope.

I was about to leave when I finally saw their name spelled out...

I wasn't sure I'd successfully captured the whole thing so I split the words for a close-up.

A fish looks about to encounter a sea monster but that's just the "s" in farms, seen from the back side.

Fun, no?

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Eryngium maritimum, I bought a replacement and then…

I'd given up my Eryngium maritimum for dead. It should be hardy to 20 degrees BELOW zero but last winter the growing tip got hard and crusty and then the whole plant just sort of melted and disappeared. Dead, right? So naturally I put the word out I was in need of a replacement, Scott emailed me a photo when he spotted them at Portland Nursery, I was there the next day. Plant bought!

I loved it's placement in the garden so I did my best to replicate it. That's it at the bottom of this photo...

And what's that? Ya, the original plant returning a week later, about a foot to the North, hey I was kind of close...

The orange arrow is pointing to the old plant and the new plant is obvious at the bottom of the photo. Whodda thought in May plants would still be showing up? It's a good thing...

Oh and check this out! I Googled Eryngium maritimum and this crazy photo showed up on the Wiki. The entry is in Polish and doesn't even make much sense when translated, but this scene, it's pretty bizarre...

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

An update on the Agave burial mounds…

I've always been somewhat skeptical of mounds or berms in the garden. Unless done well they just look silly. Like you buried an elephant and then planted on top of it. I'm not claiming these are done well, but I don't mind them and the plants appreciate the extra drainage they provide.

However when I think of them the word "burial" is inevitably part of the name, "the agave burial mounds." Particularly appropriate after last winter, since a few agaves met their death here, as noted in the photo below. Top left (the blue agave) was an Agave americana, center below that an Aloe striatula, both gone. The Agave bracteosa in the lower center (corner) would have been okay, if the neighbors cat hadn't laid on it and it's sibling just to the right. As for the A. americana 'Variegata' that's just the beginning of a pattern for the variegated agaves...

This is how that same area looks now. The dead ones came out and new ones went in. Overall I'm quite happy with the success and not upset at the failures.

This Agave 'Royal Spine' has pride of place in the corner, it's not particularly hardy but I got it for a great price so I'm experimenting.

An aeonium which as been over wintered for years now. It starts out tiny and bulks up as summer progresses. Then I pull it in the fall and the cycle starts anew...

Ditto for the Graptoveria 'Fred Ives'...

This is the superstar of this planting Agave bracteosa it just keeps on looking good year after year...

And this little Saxifraga bloom is pretty sweet too...

This is the second burial mound, photo taken last November and subsequent deaths noted.

The look of this entire area is so different now, with the looming privet gone and a couple other big plants dead.

Yes I lost an Agave gentryi ‘Jaws’, and yes I replaced it with another.

Agave gracilipes

A pair of tiny Agave parryi 'JC Raulston' pups which made it through the winter.

Agave schidigera 'Black Widow', it had been in the house and on it's last leg. We'll see how it does here...

I decided to go for it and planted my beloved Grevillea x gaudichaudii here...

I won't hesitate to dig it up if bad winter temperatures are predicted.

And now here we are at burial mound #3, as it looks now...

And last November, deaths noted. See what I meant about a pattern? There were some supposedly hardy variegated ones in there but they're all dead dead dead.

I do still need to spread compost mulch, or maybe I'll decide to use pea gravel like on the others. Either way don't look to close okay?

One of the survivors, Agave neomexicana...

New this year (and no, not hardy) a blooming Echeveria 'Perle Von Nürnberg'...

NOID Opuntia from T or C, New Mexico.

Opuntia polyacantha

Opuntia santa rita

And the view from dog level, as I sat down on the lawn and gave Lila a few much deserved tummy rubs...

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.