Let’s go pup hunting!

I recently discovered a pup about 9“ away from one of my New Mexico Agaves (I believe they are Agave americana) in the front garden…it was a bit absurd how excited I was. I mean it’s not like pups are anything new. My container grown Agaves pup all the time…no big deal! I guess it was the fact that this one is in the ground that got me so excited. It’s almost like I could hope to see this in my front garden someday,(photo taken in Fillmore, CA)… Okay, not likely but one can dream! Then just a day or two later I spotted this… When I went out to photograph it I spotted another! This had me fantasizing again, maybe something kind of like this might start in my front garden! (photo also taken in Fillmore, CA)

But I think the most surprising pup of all was the one I found in the Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa)… It's also the cutest. ***btw the winner of the give-away copy of Ricki Grady's new book BeBop Garden was Ann***

I love a restaurant with a planted courtyard…

There is outdoor dining, and then there is outdoor dining. The less impressive of the two usually means a table and chairs on a narrow sidewalk. If you’re lucky it’s a pedestrian friendly street and you’ve got an active buffer between you and the traffic, if you’re not, well then you spend your meal shouting at your companion and inhaling fumes. Is this desperate need to be outdoors simply a reflection of our climate here in the NW? Are we so staved to be outside that ambiance is not important? I wonder. My favorite restaurant meals eaten outdoors have been enjoyed in a completely enclosed courtyard. Sometimes there is no indication whatsoever that the restaurant even has outdoor seating until you are asked if you would like to dine in the courtyard, that makes it even more special. These courtyard pictures are from Autentica in NE Portland, plants and design from Cistus Nursery (of course!)… Wonderful food in a fabulous setting. Are there any great restaurant courtyards in your part of the country?

Calla Lilly as a rock garden plant?

I love it when I see a plant growing somewhere unlikely, like this Calla Lily. I don’t think of them as rock garden plants (perhaps I’m wrong) yet here was a beautiful plant growing out of a rock wall.

danger garden follow-ups…

Somehow we've ended up here, the first day of FALL (luckily it's looking much more like summer today with a sun and a high of 85) I thought this a good time to follow-up on a few loose ends here at the danger garden…I know you’ve all been on the edge of your seat wondering about… What the heck did I do with the Chocolate Mimosa tree I (accidentally?) bought a couple weeks ago? Since I could find no obvious place in the ground for it I decided to plant it in an IKEA galvanized Huson planter like this (don’t worry, it’s bigger than it looks): The advantage to this container (over a nice ceramic one) being that its super light so I can easily haul it around the garden on a whim, without damaging my back. Plus it looks perfect with the galvanized metal of a stock tank (of which I have a few…). For now it’s hanging out on the patio, gracing this corner with its luscious chocolate foliage… I have, however, become a little obsessed looking at our small patch of lawn (the yellow spots are sun glare…not freakish markings) and thinking that come spring I’ll be carving out a nice new rectangle for planting. That’s how it goes right? What little lawn remains gets smaller and smaller as the available places to plant get fewer and fewer. I think the Mimosa will stay in the metal container but cozy up next to the bamboo in the stock tank. Then a few other plants in less than desirable places (like my Magnolia laevifolia which is doing great despite being buried by overzealous Hakonechloa) will move into the newly revealed soil...we’ll see (perhaps a future follow-up?). Back in late August I asked for your design advice concerning my Clematis tibetana var. vernayi and what to grow it on. While I appreciated all of your ideas I realized I was going to need a little time to find just the right thing, I didn’t want to rush it. I also didn’t want to leave this fabulous plant to languish in a 4” pot any longer, so a temporary solution was in order. I located a nice sized rectangular container with a dark brown glaze and harvested a few of my black bamboo canes. The idea being the support system would fade in to the background (the house) and let the cut foliage shine. Looks like more than the foliage is going to be “shining” though because there are a couple of flower buds forming! (BIG SMILES)…I didn’t expect to see any flowers until next year! Meanwhile the hunt will continue for just the right structure on which to grow my Clematis. Remember the supermarket Taro Root I was happy to see growing? It’s really looking good… I love the big leaves! I posted a couple of pictures when my Astelia nervosa 'Westland' started to bloom, now it has beautiful orange berries forming. My pathetic little overwintered Ensete maurelii have actually put on some growth (they each started with only a single leaf) and are now larger than when I dug them out last November. I think I’ll try it again this winter, maybe next year is the year they become “tree-like”… Did you spot the Tillandsia in the first Ensete photo? When I originally posted about this creation a few people who know how sunny the front of my house can get expressed concern that the Tillandisa needed a shadier environment, once the sun blasted them on a few hot days they could get crispy. I’m happy to report that’s not the case. They’ve colored up nicely… But even during our stretch of 90 degree + sunny days (I think we had all of 6 in a row?) they’ve been just fine. And to wrap it up…last May I was very worried about my trio of Tetrapanax. Were they dead? Even once I saw small signs of life I was upset about the height I’d lost since the new growth was either way down the trunk, or starting from the ground. Turns out I was silly to worry! The pair in the front garden has morphed into five plants, the oldest taller than their predecessors and the others adding nice mass to the planting. In the back garden my “focal point” Tetrapanax at the end of the paver path and behind the patio has once again attained the desired size. Resprouting from the side of its severed trunk (it’s even had a couple of offspring!). And the senior T of the bunch…well it’s gone to town (as they say) populating the stock tank with baby T’s…
And it now has two branches off the former trunk! And that concludes our follow-up on the danger garden developments…no doubt there will be more in the future…