A visit to Tangly Cottage Gardens

I first met Skyler during the Portland Garden Bloggers' Fling, held in the summer of 2014. I started following her blog, Tangly Cottage Garden Journal after that, and I have been entranced by her easy writing style, self-made gardening career, and her serious gardening and propagation chops ever since. 

In late May, I had the pleasure of a real visit to Tangly Cottage Garden just prior to Skyler's spring plant sale. Everything was as tidy as possible, and Skyler's partner, Allan Fritz was just finishing up mowing the grassy paths when we arrived.

The first plant I set eyes on blew me away; Fremontodendron (californicum?) or flannelbush, has been on my lust list since I saw it at McMenamin's Edgefield property. This one was in perfect flower and showed the gorgeous range of warm color that makes it uniquely appealing.

We were trading plants via the garage, so I somehow missed going inside the front garden. As a result, I have just a few pics of the driveway area and side garden.  I loved this juxtaposition of the foxglove with the Agave americana variegata.

A Grevillea I have forgotten the name of. So pinky-red, with such bright green foliage!

Skyler loves a container, and can cleverly integrate almost anything that holds soil (and even a few things that don't) into her planting groups.

Here she is doing some last minute weeding behind one of her largest containers, a decommissioned canoe that's being used as a pond.

The canoe floats up a stream of Allium christophii, punctuated by Rosa sericea f. pteracantha and geraniums.

The freshly mowed paths lead me throughout the sizeable back garden beds.

With a garden this size, Skler can grow the really big plants my modest urban garden can only dream of, like the Gunnera manicata, above, the Fremontodendron at the beginning of this post, or Calycanthus ('Hartlage Wine'?), below.

This green and purple portal is about halfway down the garden, and seems to mark the change from more intensively cultivated beds to beds of bigger shrubs and trees.

There's lots to discover and enjoy as you head deeper into the garden

Cistus x hybridus 'Mickie'

 

Turning back and approaching the house, you see Skyler's love of strong color come into play again.

It was a delight to to actually tour the garden Skyler blogs about almost daily, as she chronicles her work and home gardens, what she's reading, and her philosophies and musings, in the small Washington coastal town of Ilwaco. If you give it a read, I bet you'll be as hooked as I was.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - July 2020

Like many of the gardeners I know, I have been spending even more time in my garden this month. So you'd think I'd have even more flowers to show for my efforts on this July Bloom Day. Not so much. The flowers in my garden typically peak in June, so there's generally more foliage and fewer blooms as summer moves along. But I still have flowers, so here come the stars of my July garden.

Aesclepias tuberosa is winding down but still happily attracting pollinators.

Catananche caerulea is hitting its mid-summer stride.

The odd but pretty flowers on a Syneilesis aconitifolia hybrid. I like the dark and light contrast.

Callistemon 'Woodlander's Hardy Red' has pushed out a few last blooms.

I know it's Bloom Day, but I think the foliage of Eryngium pandanifolium var lasseauxii rivals its blooms. Let's enjoy them both!
Bloom:

Foliage:

And here are the bigger, fatter blossoms on Eryngium agavifolium.

A surprise, late-blooming Lewisia cotyledon 'Sunset Shades'.

It's Agastache time. My all-time favorite, below, is Agastache 'Acapulco Orange'. 

And here are A. 'Apricot Sprite' in back, and A. rupestris in front.

Keeping it red hot (with apologies for the equally hot exposure) is Echinacea 'Sombrero Salsa Red'.

And heating up the shade, Clivia miniata 'Belgian Hybrid Orange'.

An unknown heather, putting on the pink.

Eucomis comosa 'Sparkling Burgundy'.

Helenium puberulum had a rough go of establishing itself, but it has stabilized and is blooming with lots of goofy round flower-balls.

Dianthus barbatus 'Green Ball' was a novelty impulse purchase a few years ago. I never expected it to winter over for multiple years, but it's better than new. (ummm, kindly ignore that tuft of oxalis I missed weeding out.)

I love the waxy look and the peachy-pink color of Hesperaloe parviflora flowers.

Let's conclude with the vine and flowers whose scent epitomizes summer to me, Trachelospermum jasminoides.

And that's it for blooms at Longview Ranch, where I'm joining Carol, of May Dreams Gardens, to celebrate the flowers of July.

Happy Bloom Day!