My most excellent weekend

The best thing about February is that it provides the perfect time of year to celebrate a birthday. Nothing else of note is usually going on except the long President's Day weekend, and occasionally, the holiday weekend coincides with my birthday. It happened this year, so I took full advantage of it, beginning with the Portland Yard Garden & Patio show on Friday.

Loree, of Danger Garden, and Scott, of Rhone Street Gardens, have posted excellent reports and photos of the show on their blogs, so I'll just share a few of my impressions, and at the end of my post show you what I schlepped home with me.

Although this effect was a bit more elaborate than I usually like, the look of the copper pipes and the vertical sedums was lush and attractive.

Yes, I know: big rocks. But the Mulchman is reworking some of the Northwest Territory at Longview Ranch, so we have rocks on the brain.

I loved these metal chairs.

I spent quite a while looking at the Hardy Plant Society's display tables. Since I want an Aucuba, this showy specimen originally from Heronswood stopped me in my tracks.

Likewise, the bright yellow-green of this Choisya ternata  'Sundance' was compelling.

Here's another plant on my want-list: Carpenteria californica 'Elisabeth'. This was just a display, but now I see where I could get it.

On Saturday, the Mulchman and I set off for Astoria. The drive out was spectacularly sunny and bright. On Sunday, we lunched at Baked Alaska on the waterfront. We'd avoided it in the past, thinking it was a little too starched-tablecloth for our style, but the food was excellent and reasonable. I enjoyed a marinated mushroom and fennel salad and watched as the Pilot boat docked right next door to let two people off.

For my birthday dinner, we went to our favorite Astoria restaurant, Clemente's. The building has some intriguing planters with the top and exposed sides planted in sedums, ferns, herbs and some perennials.

I like the effect, although I'm not entirely sure about the red painted wood.

River traffic is one of the cool things to enjoy in Astoria, even when the weather turns cloudy. Some of the lowest (and highest) tides of the year occurred while we were there, so I understand lots of people were clamming.

Back home on Monday, I got to play with my new YGP plants and clean them up for their portraits. This was done with great care: three of them are pretty pointy!

From Gossler Nursery, I got Agave parryi ssp. 'Huachucensis'. This specimen is even flatter than my A. parryi var. truncata.

Loree tipped me off to some agaves at the Bauman's Farm and Garden booth. I scored Agave geminiflora 'Rasta Man'.

Also from Bauman's is Agave victoriae-reginae 'Porcupine'. I love the white markings on its fat leaves.

I had been hoping for an inexpensive Red Tiger Abutilon to grow as an annual this summer, but the only ones I could find were large and more than I wanted to pay. When I saw this cheap 'Lucky Lantern' abutilon, I went for it.  I thought that it would be tall, like other abutilons, but I found out as I was checking out that it won't get much bigger than it already is. Looks like this baby is destined for a container when the weather warms up enough.

From Dancing Oaks Nursery, I picked up Yucca linearifolia. In the past this was called Y. rostrata var. linaris but recently it has been treated as a distinctly different yucca, so Yucca rostrata goes back on my plant want-list.

I also got three Eucomis 'Sparkling Burgundy' bulbs from Rare Plant Research. Even the bulbs have some burgundy on them!

Here's a group portrait of the newest acquisitions. It's fun coming home to birthday weekend party favors you can grow!

Tiny gardens at Terwilliger Plaza

I visit my Dear Old Dad several times a week at Terwilliger Plaza. The building he lives in has a sloping drive up to the parking lot, with a sidewalk running alongside. Beside the sidewalk, in narrow alcoves in the building are several small, finely-tuned gardens with a dry stream bed running through them.

These tiny gardens were designed and are maintained by the residents of Terwilliger Plaza, but by their maturity I'd guess some of the evergreens in them have been here longer than most of the residents.

An interesting fern adds winter color.

Conifers are the mainstay of these gardens, but a carefully rounded boxwood provides some contrast above.

This section is a little less minimal. I look forward to seeing the Lewisias in bloom.

As full as a couple of the beds are, it's hard to imagine they are less than a foot wide.

And some of the gardeners clearly believe less is more.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, February 2011

There's a lot of "almost!" in the MulchMaid's garden this February 15th, and a few out-and-out actual bloomers. First up this month, the ones that are trying harder.

Ribes sanguinium is nearly there and already showing gorgeous color.

Mahonia aquifolium has never been this late (not) to bloom. Although blossom trusses are forming, it's holding on fast to winter.

The big fat buds of our inherited Camellia japonica will be a few more weeks at least.

And now for the few that are actually in bloom this month.

Daphne odora 'marginata' smells intoxicating.

This young Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths' is blooming! I felt awful after killing my three-year-old Austin Griffiths last year by moving it, so I'm thrilled to see this baby plant has made it safely through winter.

Grevilla juniperina 'Low Red' is off to a running start on 2011 blooming. The firecracker blooms on this plant lasted an amazing eight months last year. These blooms are small, but they're spunky!

Sarcococca hookeriana var. 'Humilis' is perfuming the front of our home with its pungent scent. Although the intensity of the smell is a bit too much for some, it apparently attracts certain nectar feeders.

This big moth (who wouldn't hold still long enough for a clear shot) was intent on covering every flower he (she?) could find. I'm delighted to know I'm supporting the local insect life, as long as it manages to stay outside!

Visit Carol at May Dreams Garden to enjoy blossoms all over the nation and the world. Happy Bloom Day!

Union Station

Union Station had a lot of renovation work done to it some years ago when it was nicely restored inside and out with a more historic look and feel. While I was there to pick up our train tickets for the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, I took another look at the landscaped beds in front of the station that were revamped at the same time. For public plantings, they have a lot going for them.

This is either a Yucca rostrata or a Dasylirion wheeleri in a prominent place in one bed.

Hellebores are everywhere this time of year, and the train station is no exception.

Lots of spiky, pointy things in this bed. And is that some kind of echium in the foreground?

I'm loving this yucca, which might be 'Bright Edge', but looks a lot more colorful than mine.

Several of the beds are anchored by Trachycarpus species that are starting to get some height.

I'm guessing this is some kind of daphne (maybe D. mezereum?) but I didn't detect any scent. I haven't seen a deciduous daphne  before this and it looked very healthy and happy.

Another happy yucca.

Some of the beds are edged with Sarcoccoca, which was in full bloom.

Others of the beds are edged in boxwood and hebes. And roses and grasses will fill out the summer look.

For public plantings in a well-used space, these beds are a fun green oasis of interesting plants and shapes, with some tried-and-true favorites mixed in. There's a little something for everyone here.

Mystery Plant, Revisited

I'm beginning to feel like I'm in some kind of garden time warp.
It's still here. And it looks exactly the same.

Last summer I posted about a strange, cool plant that had showed up in my garden.

It was a wide, flat rosette, maybe 24 inches across, with broad, crinkly leaves set with little hooks along each leaf half. I expected to see it eventually mature, send up a flower spike, show its true weedy style, or something.

No one could identify it at the time, and it's showing no new identifying characteristics to help me out now.

Same lush, hooked and amazingly green leaves.

Same flat, unrevealing center rosette of new leaves.

Aside from a little winter wear-and-tear, exactly the way it looked in mid-July.

Maybe it's a biennial and spring will produce some different growth that will help me decide whether to keep it or haul it out. But for now I keep wondering ... just what IS this plant?

More MG goodness

Two Fridays ago, our OSU Master Gardener units were on soils, compost and fertilizers. As I have in each unit presented, I learned an unbelievable amount about components, properties, benefits, problems and ways they can be addressed. The sessions were taught by Claudia Groth, (a.k.a. Doctor Dirt on KEX radio), a Master Gardener and a consultant to the horticulture industry. She was dynamic, humorous and a wealth of information (Did you know there was an Oregon State Soil? It's Jory, and it's found in the foothills around the Willamette Valley.)

Claudia brought examples of many soil components and amendments to share. She talked about soil biology, the relatively new field of soil microbes and the way microbes work to nourish plants and fight pathogens.

I always knew I shouldn't walk on wet garden beds, but now I really understand what happens when soil is compacted. I learned how soils hold water, about soil pH, and what loam really is.

In the fertilizer unit, Claudia taught us how they work, the differences between organic and synthetic fertilizers, and why you might want to use one vs. the other. She taught us to read and understand fertilizer labels, application instructions, and explained what agencies regulate fertilizer ingredients. True to form, I took seven pages of notes to supplement the day's PowerPoint handouts.

This could all be tedious, difficult stuff to absorb, but with instructors of the caliber of Claudia Groth in the MG program, each unit becomes accessible and fascinating. I'm loving my Science Fridays!

Popweed be gone

My garden nemesis.

They drift in from my neighbor's garden ... I must have pulled up 687 of them today.

Addendum: Thanks to Grace of Gardening with Grace for her ID of this as Little Bitter Cress (Cardamine oligosperma.)

Master Gardener classes begin

Wow! A room full of 80 passionate gardeners! I'm pumped, yet slightly sobered by what I've taken on.

Yesterday, I attended the first in my series of eleven OSU Master Gardener classes. I've been looking forward to this for years, and it didn't disappoint: I took eleven pages of notes.

And just look at the vast binder of reading assignments provided.

They even gave us a snazzy zippered tote bag in Gardener Green to carry the notebook.

I love botanical nomenclature, but science is not my strong suite. So after sitting through the Botany for Gardeners unit, I began to realize this would be work - fascinating, of course, but definitely work. With class only once a week, I'll have time to read the chapters ahead, listen to the presenter, then review again after class. After all, I want to get the maximum value from this experience.

Time to hit the books!