Friday, July 31, 2009

Mediterranee

Recently I wrote about how our Northwest Territory is filling in so nicely this year. Well, the rest of the garden hasn't exactly been slouching either, as you'll see.

But first, a couple of recent acquisitions: from Pistils, a gorgeous blue eryngium. From Portland Nursery (with no tag to tell me its real name) a lime green kniphofia. The kniphofia was in completely the wrong part of PN and I told myself a story about the poor plant shopper who just couldn't stretch to that one extra purchase...and then I snapped it up!

Both these plants are now basking delightedly in the sun and heat of my new south bed, and trying to avoid the curling tendrils of the volunteer pumpkin annihilating everything in its path. (This pumpkin's days are numbered unless I can figure out a way to crop it back without cutting off the tiny pumpkins just beginning to form.)

In the back garden, the tropical area is filling in, with the colocasia leaves (back by Martha and George, the flamingos) making a nice counterpoint to the cannas. The huge monster breaking out of its cage on the right is Mr. Mulchmaid's favorite tomato: a Better Boy. Gotta have those slicers, and this is the summer for them.

This is our color spot and it's bee-central. Two species rudbeckias from Joy Creek I put in last year made many babies. The white potentilla has been blooming for four months now.

This is an overview of the south mediterranean area. The eucalyptus is higher than the fence now, and between it, the corn, the Karl Foerster feather reed grasses and all the sunflower stalks and leaves, we have pretty much covered the south fence for the summer. Privacy is achieved!

8 comments:

  1. The garden looks great! I especially like the combination of scarlet rudbeckias with whatever that pink thing is. I've thought I couldn't do pink with my yellow/purple/orange colors. I just wasn't brave enough.

    The kniphofia is wonderful, too.

    I'm coveting your garden.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jane everything looks fabulous! And I am so glad to know you named your flamingos. Your Eryngium looks so very healthy and you did the right thing to rescue the abandoned Kniphofia. Hope you have plenty of basil to enjoy with those tomatoes. BTW If you have a second can you drop me a quick email...my address is spikyplants@gmail.com and I've got a question for you - thx!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the tropical area, isn't that the great thing about tropicals? How fast they fill in. I have been eying kniphofia this year, and I didn't even know they came in lime green. Definitely going on my wish list, if you don't mind a copy cat.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It all looks wonderful, especially the colour of the rudbeckias. Enjoy the tomatoes (with the basil) when they come!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's been so long since I visited your garden! It is looking stunningly beautiful. I love the tropical section especially. I'm going to do a post on the little shade/rock garden area I'm attempting, and I sure hope you peek in and give me advice!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Amy, I wish you could visit now. It really is lovely here in Portland. And about that pink: they're just faded red achillea "Paprika" - nothing brave about that!

    danger garden, we had our first tomato tonight with a chiffonade of basil - delicious!

    Megan, yes, the tropicals are so rewarding! And I stole the lime green kniphofia idea from danger garden, so I'm the copycat!

    chaiselongue, I'm a sucker for rudbeckias. as I mentioned above we had our first tomato today- an Oregon Spring [specially bred for our (usually) cooler, wetter summers, but certainly not the case this year!]

    Tikimama, welcome back! I'll certainly pop over to see your shade garden - we're needing a bit of that up here!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lookin' good! Can't even see that chain link anymore, nice going. I have had rudbeckias on my list forever, wanted some dark ones like yours but ended up with some my mom gave me, not sure if they will even bloom in their first year, so the color will be a mystery revealed next July! I need some kniphofias, didn't realize they were still blooming at this time of year, since I saw some much earlier in the summer. Are your flamingos names after George and Martha, the James Marshall children's book character hippos? How hilarious, if so!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yippee! another Portland blogger. Found you via Danger Garden. I have a Kniphofia that looks just like that, and its name is 'Percy's Pride'...dontcha love it?

    ReplyDelete

Thank you in advance for jumping through the annoying but necessary word verification hoop to leave your thoughts!