Anything you want me to pick up for you while I'm in California?

Last month, while I was in Seattle visiting friends, my phone lit up with texts from my friend Eric. He was in Southern California, and sending images of his extreme plant adventures. First up, digging this two-headed Cycad. I'd think he was crazy, had I not spent a day with him rescuing five large Yucca rostrata, or another day when he moved an agave weighing several hundred pounds. If anyone could make this work, it's Eric.

"I'm driving around LA with my tailgate down and the root ball hanging out the back end because it's too heavy to move anywhere. A very kind stranger helped me heave it into the back of my truck. I was working in it until 10 pm, in the dark."

Not stopping with just a ginormous Cycad (and never mind that the Cycad and most of the rest of these plants are not hardy back in Portland, where Eric gardens), I continued receiving photos of plants he was be bringing home...

Be still my heart, Bismarckia nobilis.

In the truck! Don't you think this should be ad for Toyota Tacoma? 

Fully loaded and paying the price at the pump. I believe the Cycad and Bismarckia nobilis are on the lower level.

So back to the title of this post. Eric had visited my garden a couple weeks prior to his trip and asked if there was anything I wanted him to be on the look out for, anything I wanted him to pick up for me. I wasn't able to think of anything right off the bat, but then he mentioned maybe a large Asplenium nidus (bird's nest fern)? Like at Marbott's? I remember thinking that was kinda random (below my Instagram post from when I saw their fabulous specimen last November) but sure, I'd love one. 

And of course, because he's amazing, he found one! Or rather two, one for him and one for me. Here's the photo he sent me telling me that my very own, 3ft tall bird's nest fern was waiting for me at his place. It had gotten a little burnt and torn at its previous home in San Diego, but I'm confident I can have it looking happy and healthy again. Yay!

Last weekend I went over to pick it up, which led to watching as Eric hoisted his older Cycad into a custom built planter box.

I didn't just watch, I had a job. I needed to keep an eye on the bracket supporting that shelf of potted succulents—which was also bearing the weight of the Cycad—and make sure it didn't start to bend while the electric hoist winch lifted the heavy plant high enough that Eric could work it into the container.

It was a test. I was supposed to keep my eyes on the metal bracket and not let them wander to the other plants already up in the rafters (the Great Migration is under way). I passed. Well, that is the metal bracket didn't bend. I may have let my eyes wander a bit.

Wowsa.

All in! There's Eric, behind the plant. for scale.

Here's the Cycad he brought back from CA, already in it's fancy planter box (which will be lifted via a pallet jack and pulled out of the greenhouse for a summer vacation). Note the trays of Aeonium being rooted...

The dreamy Bismarckia nobilis is settling into its new home in Portland.

There was also a flawless Agave ovatifolia 'Orca' in the haul.

Which, in a simply shocking turn of events, meant that he passed this Agave ovatifolia 'Orca' on to me.

I fell quite fortunate to unload this beautiful specimen in my garden.

But what about the Asplenium nidus!? Well, I thought I took a photo when I unpacked my car that afternoon. Sadly I did not. This is the first photo I took, after I threw it up on my potting table to get a closer look and make sure there weren't any slugs or other critters hiding in there (I did find one large snail). 

Such a small (6") container for a 3-ft tall plant! I think it had been placed in a taller nursery pot at some point, allowing the roots to grow as they were.

I absolutely LOVE those dark midribs, and the lines on the fronds.

As well as the sori pattern.

Time to take off that ridiculously small pot.

And once that was done guess what I could see through the roots? Not soil, but another plastic pot!

I had to pull away all the roots at the bottom, outlined in orange.

Which lead to finding this.

Was there even any soil in there? That's a good question. I'd already torn up so many roots I didn't want to do more damage by cutting into them to find out.

Before potting it with a little new soil I went to work cleaning it up a bit more. What's that in there?

Plastic! What the heck?

After potting it, I cut off the yellowing fonds and loosely tied up the ones that remained. Afterall it has to spend winter in the basement and there's not a lot of extra room down there. 

It's going to have to get moved around as space is needed, like on laundry day.

Funny it wasn't until recently that I even decided liked this fern and added a couple small ones to my collection (via Little Prince). I really want to fertilize the rescue fern, but everything I've read tells me to hold off until spring. I'm going to try...

The Bit at the End

I like big ferns, rich people like big trees; The Latest Wealth Flex: Big Trees. A gift article from the the NY Times.

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl, photos from Eric Peterson used with permission. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude. 

Some photos from around the garden, and forcing myself to start the Great Migration

Each autumn there comes a day when my trusted weatherman issues the warning; changes ahead, the rains are returning. Get done what you need to get done outside because dry days will no longer be the default.

If I haven't already begun the Great Migration, this is my call to action. Here's the thing though, it's mid-October and it still hasn't happened. In fact up until this week we were enjoying summer-like temperatures. Now it's cooled (high 60's to mid 70's) but it's still dry. That blue sky calls, urging me to enjoy leisurely days in the garden. However, when viewed through the changing foliage and ripening fruit of Poncirus trifoliata (Citrus trifoliata) I know the clock is ticking.

So starting the Great Migration (non-hardy plants moved to the basement) has been difficult. I feel no sense of urgency. I want to putter. Taking photos seems like a good diversion, right? This Kumara plicatilis (aka Aloe plicatilis) will need to go inside, it's only hardy to 20-25F, likely less when it's in a container.

These Agave victoriae-reginae are much hardier (10-15F) but they want to stay dry. I'll leave them here, in a well-draining container unless things get super crazy.

Semponium 'Sienna', in a container. It will stay as a test. The Semponium I left planted out through last winter (which was admittedly mild) did great until they were snacked on by a bunny. Only one survived that.

The spines of Dasylirion wheeleri lit by the sun.

None of my Eryngium guatemalense bloomed this year. So sad.

Androsace sarmentosa, perhaps var. yunnanensis.

Agave 'Blue Glow' Compacta. I have every intention of leaving these tucked right here for the winter. We'll see how that goes.

To the driveway planters, where the Sarracenia are looking quite lovely.

Those veins!

Those areoles! 

Wait, what? Aren't areoles the modified buds that distinguish cacti? The "diagnostic feature" used to determine if you're looking at a cactus, or another succulent that looks cactus-like, such as Euphorbia? Yes, they are. But etymologically speaking, the word areole comes from Latin areola, which literally means a "small open space" or "little area". And I just learned that's what the windows (the feature that tricks insects into thinking they can get out, and thus exhausting themselves) on carnivorous pitcher plants are called. Huh. 

Moving on... Agave lophantha 'Splendida'.

And the opening buds of Anigozanthos 'Celebrations Masquerade'... crazy color, right?

Walking into the back garden now (still taking pictures, still ignoring the idea of moving plants), this area was a construction zone for several weeks from early August until mid-September, while Andrew painstakingly scraped the house all the way down to bare wood and then primed and repainted. He was very respectful of the plants and what damage did occur was *mostly* on things that die-back and grow new foliage/fronds next spring/summer. The reason for this photo is the Calycanthus floridus var. purpureus Red Zeppelin® I brought home from the Farwest Show has found it's place in the ground. 

Fingers crossed it has enough sun to keep the foliage dark AND that it's a few years before I need to start pruning to keep it a manageable size.

Cool fertile frond on Blechnum novae-zelandiae.

Okay, somewhere in this narrative I actually did start moving plants. The sheer number that need to be moved (by just me) means I can't wait until it's down to the wire, especially when I've got travel lined up for later in the month. So I began, slowly. This area was much fuller prior to the Nepenthes, Tillandsia, and Asplenium nidus going indoors. I kind of like this simpler look (note to Spring '27 self).

One of the benefits of moving plants when it's still gorgeous outside is that you get distracted and it's okay. You aren't under the gun. You can pause and appreciate the light... 

Speak of that light, wowsa... Begonia  'Taconite' looks crazy good when backlit.

I hated to disturb the Ficus pumila 'Monier's Hardy' growing up and through this small pot of cacti, it looked so cute.

Another moment when the light was just right, in this case on the fronds of the potted Dicksonia antarctica.

This crazy plant! Hedera helix 'Erecta' was growing in a container, where it produced the small ladder-like leaves. Since planting it out in a stock tank it's started to bend and produce the larger stacked leaves.

I did finally locate my other Fling-crush, Caladium 'Burning Heart' (as seen in this garden).

Caladium are usually is grown as annuals in my climate, but I'd really like to overwinter it. Have you ever successfully done so? Any tips you can provide would be most welcome.

A couple photos of plants that were getting cleaned up before going inside, this is my Pinguicula planter... and (almost) everything is still alive! I've kept Pinguicula and Heliamphora alive for 6 months! Fingers crossed my luck continues.

These Pachypodium lamerei have been with us nearly as long as we've lived here, that's some 20+ years.

Inside now (I know, this post is getting long... just a few more photos) and before we go down into the basement garden I had to share a fern, Microsorum diversifolium, that Jerry recently gave me. I love it!

And the last of my summer zinnias. I pulled the plants out and cut the last blooms over three weeks ago, I appreciate these are still looking so summer-like.

Okay, down to the basement. Where you might be surprised at my progress given all the excuses I've shared. 

I've tried to remember to snap a few photos as I go. It's nice to have a record to look back on year after year.

New growth on my Platycerium grande.

The green wall...

Microgramma vacciniifolia and a tiny orchid.

Microsorum brachylepis 'Datun' put on so much new growth this summer.

A cold front moved through over the weekend and last Saturday's low of 41 (Sunday even colder at 39!) certainly caught my attention. More things were moved... space is filling up.

When the calendar says autumn, but the days are still sunny and relatively warm, I find it hard to imagine a time will come when I want to be anywhere but in the garden. Then, when it starts to get cold and wet, well, it’s just not fun anymore. And now that the sun sets before 6:30 (!) it's nice to be able to go downstairs and see part of the garden...

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