A May visit to Gossler Farms

I was in Eugene, Oregon, mid-month and of course that meant a stop at Gossler Farms. I (again) told myself I wouldn't be taking any photos, and left my camera in the car. However, when Roger called me over to see the Embothrium coccineum (Chilean firetree) in bloom, well, my phone came out of my pocket and the camera was called into action...

After that it was a slippery slope and I snapped pics as I walked around the greenhouses and the garden. Rhododendron 'Golfer'...

One of the greenhouses...

Astilbe thunbergii 'Chocolate Shogun' 

Callistemon all budded up to bloom soon, maybe 'Woodlander's Hardy"?

A shot of the container plants sunning themselves behind one of the greenhouses.

Back inside and admiring the new foliage on Rhododendron 'Ever Red'.

Rhododendron 'Yak-Pac'

Mahonia eurybracteata 'Soft Caress'

Rhododendron 'Frosted Jade'

Magnolia × wieseneri 

Back out and more potted plants to admire.

Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida’ (Cutleaf Emperor Oak)

In the garden now, no idea which peony this is...

Or which rhododendron, although I'm gonna make a guess that it's R. 'Wine & Roses'

The spiky "pet plant" collection gathered along the driveway near the office.

When I admired the Magnolia × wieseneri in the greenhouse Roger told me to be sure to smell the one blooming in the garden.

It was amazing!

No ID on this fern but it's a looker! I think it might be a Dryopteris wallichiana (?) 

Another dramatic rhododendron (give me the foliage, don't care about the flowers).

Snow!

I remember walking the display garden one visit when there was a small pond here and the pot with the bamboo was blown over thanks to high winds. It was nice to have decent weather for this visit.

Oh how I wish I could grow big clematis blooms (see, there are some flowers I like).

Rogersia

The display garden at Gossler was the first place I ever saw pollarded trees, many visits ago.

More rogersia!

And another NoID rhododendron with beautiful new growth.

I was in Eugene to give a talk on Dry Gardening for the Willamette Hardy Plant Group. I appreciated the contradiction as I wandered this lush garden with a creek on one side and a river on the other. The water table must be very high here.

Of course I visited the Daphniphyllum macropodum, both the solid green...

And the variegated...

I admired another peony.

And dreamed about having a giant tree fern like this.

Lucky people with plants on the way!

Here are my purchases, tucked in safely since Andrew was gonna be driving the car the next day and isn't one to drive with care for plant passengers.

And at home, Dryopteris wallichiana...

And Rhododendron orbiculare 'Edinburgh'

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Visiting Solana Succulents in Solana Beach, CA

Having read my friend Gerhard's many blog posts detailing his visits to Jeff Moore's Solana Succulents in Solana Beach, CA, I had a pretty good idea what was waiting for me when I visited last January.

That being a multi-level nursery chock-full of interesting plants.

I was not disappointed, Aloe arborescens 'Variegata'...

Variegated Agave victoriae-reginae 

This is not a nursery with tables of like plants grouped together, instead it's a multi-level treasure hunt.

Euphorbia persistens

At the street entrance level the Pyrostegia venusta blooms were off the charts.

There were several blooming aloes.

And more Agave victoriae-reginae...

All of that was on the entry level, a fenced area just off the street. Now we descend into the larger part of the nursery.

Interesting plants everywhere you look!

Large spiral cactus, Cereus forbesii 'spiralis', I took a photo of a $395 price tag, I think that was for the one with arms. A first for me.

I'm not naming many names here because I wasn't paying much attention to them at the time. I was just enjoying wandering through the space and seeing all there was to see.

Are you spotting the multiple spiral cactus throughout the shop? 

Climbing jungle cactus, epiphyllum sp.

Okay even though I knew every square foot of the space was packed with plants I was still in awe of just how much there was to look at.

Now that's a plant with personality! ($850)

The plants even spilled out into the street behind the nursery.

That's a lot of the same agave (variegated Agave attenuata), I wonder if they were for a garden install?

Look at the interesting pattern on top of the cut cactus...

A close-up.

Agave shawii

So many cool plants that I had no way to get home, and would have to baby even if I could have.

Labeled Agave Blue Glow 'Half Moon' and a price of $550... 

My single purchase was a small Hechtia tillandsioides I could stuff into my carry-on suitcase (pictured here). A reminder for Portland locals... tomorrow is the spring T.O.P.S. (The Other Plant Sale) and Andrew and I will be there (more info here). Please come visit!

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