Jane Kerr Platt Garden, a stop during the 2019 Portland Study Weekend, last June

I'm always a little apprehensive when I see a full grown Magnolia macrophylla such as this. My tree will be this large someday...

It turns out large specimens are what this garden is all about. From our handout: The Platt Garden was started from scratch in the 1940's by John and Jane Kerr Platt. This garden, originally an apple and cherry orchard, is known for its collection of species rhododendrons and a variety of witch hazels, two groups championed by John and Jane and, for the last 20 years, their son David*. The garden is known both as a collectors garden and for its ability to display specimens with an eye to the combination of color, texture, and size. After nearly 80 years, many of the older specimens can be seen in their fully mature form...Also enjoy the Pietro Belluschi-designed home nestled into this wonderful setting. *David and Lisa Platt are the garden's current owners.

The setting felt more like a park than a garden.

Here's a plant I am unfamiliar with...

Can anyone ID it?

Rhododendron pachysanthum, I believe.

I've no idea which rhododendron this is.

Their Paris polyphylla were planted in the sun. I looked around to see if maybe I'd just happened by during a brief bit of sun but no, they were in a very exposed spot. Interesting. I know this as a shade plant.

Now these are sun plants!

This agave and aloe seemed to be recent arrivals, still in their nursery pots. In a historic, upscale garden such as this I wondered what the story was. Someone on the tour dropped them off? They were meant to be planted up before the hordes arrived but missed?

So much lawn, and so green...

That's a perfect swinging tree!

Finally, I spotted this cool old wheelbarrow tucked away in a corner I probably wasn't supposed to be in. Deep shade accounts for the odd color of the photo. Isn't it fabulous!?

Weather Diary, Nov 24: Hi 51, Low 40/ Precip .16"

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

Patio ready (one of these things is not like the others)

An errand to get rebar had me at the orange big-box store. Since I could see the garden department was open I decided to check it out first, before walking to the other end of the store for the rebar. Imagine my surrpise when I saw a table full of Agave attenuata, in November, in Portland.

This is one of the wimpiest agaves there is, melting near 30F, what is it doing at a big box in Portland? Oh! It's Patio Ready! Does that mean these were supposed to be merchandised over the summer? (they weren't here a month ago when I was at the same store).

Hmmm, and one of these things is not like the other...

You're not an Agave attenuata! Of course the label on the side of the pot said it was.

I wonder if they'll have the smarts to put these all on clearance before they freeze?

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Weather Diary, Nov 21: Hi 57, Low 34/ Precip 0

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

Perplexed (WWTT?)

I love it when I'm out for a walk and I come upon a scene that makes me stop and wonder: What Were They Thinking? Yes indeed...this here is a head-scratcher!

Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of horsetail, Equisetum hyemale—love the stuff. I also know it can be horribly invasive, so I don't let it loose in the ground. But here they did...

And not just at one corner, but two...

Three...

Four...

And five!

Five corners planted up with the stuff!

I wonder why the other two were left alone? And why right at the corners?

Weather Diary, Nov 20: Hi 58, Low 40/ Precip 0

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

Wednesday Vignette, oh to have an opuntia tree

I snapped this photo at the Ruth Bancroft Garden last April, during a visit with Gerhard. Can you imagine having an opuntia of tree-like proportions?

From Brian Kemble (curator at the garden) I learned it's an Opuntia leucotricha, one of the tall-growing species from central Mexico. He says the name “leucotricha” (white hair) refers to the trunk, which sports wispy white hair-like spines. Sure enough, if you click on the photo to enlarge it you can see the white "hairs". Aren't plants cool?

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Weather Diary, Nov 19: Hi 55, Low 47/ Precip .29

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.

Jenn Ferrante's garden, from the HPSO Study Weekend

Back to June and the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon's Study Weekend garden tours. I'd visited this garden previously, in 2014. Five years later I was curious to see what had changed...

From the tour booklet: "Foliage Rules!" on this large corner city lot. The garden owner says that she swoons over chartreuse and dark-leaved plants, and many have found their way home to her garden. Rustic basalt paths lead around the house to a shady plant-filled east side, a private back corner oasis, and through to the sunny west side with a large deck.

The previous views were of the hellstrip, now we enter the garden proper...

Looking to the west, but the preferred flow is to head east first...

...and so we go east...

They're looking up, I thought maybe we were being invited to go up the stairs, but you'll soon see those stairs are creatively blocked.

Pyrossia! I'm experiencing a bit of a pyrossia obsession at the moment.

See, aren't these metal planters a nice way of saying "don't go up there"...

But we can go here, stepping down into the west-side garden.

These are what I most remembered from my first visit five years ago.

I was thrilled to see they were still here.

The booklet specifically mentions them: "The original old terracotta drain tubes that were dug up during garden development have been artfully re-purposed throughout."

I believe these "planters on a stick" were done by the same artist who did the stair-blocking planter (Indio Metal Arts).

Chartreuse and dark foliage...no wonder I love this garden!

I covet this planter too, and was glad to see it was still in use.

Weather Diary, Nov 18: Hi 58, Low 52/ Precip .10"

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