sprig to twig

It’s easy to love a plant that weathers the storms and comes through looking as perky as ever. Such a plant is Yucca ‘Bright Edge’. The sedum ground cover around it is equally sturdy, so this is one little spot in my garden that doesn’t cause me to flinch as I pass by.

Can you see Bright’s baby in the background? I separated that pup from its mom at the time of planting in the fall of 2009. It has put on very little growth since then, but I can wait…satisfied that it lives.

When you see what it had to contend with last month (and the month before that), you can see why its survival instincts are cause for celebration.

So hooray for ‘Bright Edge’! Now why not hop on over to the Danger Garden to see what Loree has in store for you.

Holy moly, I am so stoked to be doing a reading from BeBop Garden at Drake’s Seven Dees in Raleigh Hills. Their presence at the Yard, Garden and Patio Show last week was nothing short of inspirational. Their store at 5645 SW Scholls Ferry Road, PDX 97225 is well worth a visit. I was there to hear Ann, The Amateur Bot-ann-ist talk about starting seeds. It was a blustery day, but the rain beating on the greenhouse just added to the cozy atmosphere and they had all the goods on hand to go home and put Ann’s excellent advice right to work.

So if you already have one of my books, bring it for me to sign. I’ll also have books available. I’d love to see you there Saturday, March 8 at 3pm. If you can’t make it, here’s a promise: I will take pictures of the nursery and do a post to lure you to this delightful nursery on one of your next plant-seeking expeditions.

Those Kalanchloes are an odd bunch. I wrote about K. beharensis here, where I showed where I took a cutting to start a new plant. While the cutting took on the characteristics of the mother plant, the new growth on said mom came in looking like this:

In case you don’t feel like following the link, here’s a photo of the original leaf shape…certainly not the rounded leaves seen above.

I let this Kalanchloe fedschenkoi do its own thing. I’ve often been amazed at the many personalities taken on by this plant, but here’s a new one. The stems stretched out and most of the leaves fell off, leaving just these little tufts of leaves at the tips. Look…new little leaves are sprouting around the edges of those leaves (much like another in this family called ‘Mother of Thousands’). I plan to continue to leave it to its own devices just to see what it will come up with next.

Poor, poor bunny. I knew it would hate damp, but I thought it would be OK with cold. Sorry, bunny.

Back when bunny was thriving, a pad fell off and I stuck it in a pot. It hasn’t done much since then, but I guess bunny lives on.

Another goner may be Acanthus sennii. Only time will tell, but it left behind these lovely ghost leaves to remember it by should the worst happen.

Some of the buds of Euphorbia wulfenii are nodding in the usual way, getting ready to raise their heads and burst into bloom…

while others (on the same plant, mind you) are demonstrating what is meant by the expression “nipped in the bud”.

Here’s another casualty of my faulty reasoning. Loree, do you think it’s truly dead? Even the central spike of this Agave has turned to mush.

The Eucalyptus has been peeling and dropping leaves like mad. Not sure if it is reacting to the freeze or if this is normal.

No matter how bad things get, we can depend on things like the sedums to be nosing out of the ground, pushing out little rosettes of new growth. Thanks, Mom: you may keep us guessing, but some things we can depend upon.

…but who can resist snapping photos in the snow? Not me.

We’re not shovelers, so this was what our front steps looked like this morning.

Our mission was to knock the snow off the evergreens before the freezing rain hits. So far, it’s been a dry, light snow, but even so the branches were weighted down with it. We were afraid that an ice storm would result in broken branches. Apparently there are two schools of thought on this. Do you think we did the right thing?

Usually, Cupressius macrocarpus ‘Citrodora’ holds her branches reaching upward. Here, she’s bowing under the weight of our ten inches of snow.

It was a joint effort, with all the trees that we have. Here’s Richard, doing his part to liberate ‘Citradora’

Delusional Drive looks pretty good in costume, don’t you think?

I was complaining about Hamemelis ‘Diane’ having stubby petals. I guess I was just being impatient. They elongated over time, to give us a bright spot in all the white.

The lavender walk is nearly buried, but at least it shows us where the path is to the studio.

Buds about to burst on the Enkianthus were in for a surprise. Think they’ll make it?

Looking to the future, or dreaming of things past?

Does this not look like something out of ‘Game of Thrones’? The snow is up nearly to the rim of the big green pot holding Yucca aloifolia ‘Spanish Bayonet’.

There’s something not quite right about Eucalyptus in the snow, but it sure is purty.

The Bonnie Lassie said it best when she described the snow as bringing out a graphic quality in some plants. It surely does so with Rhododendrun ‘Seaview Sunset’

I can almost hear Euphorbia wulfenii muttering “shiver me timbers”.

Now here’s the view out the front…

and out the back

Right now, the snow is turning to freezing rain. I can remember a number of “silver thaws” in years past. Deadly…but absolutely beautiful. Hope my gloves dry out in time so I can bore you with even more photos.

I fell in love with this plant when I saw it in Darcy Daniels’ garden. I had a small urban garden at the time, so Amy warned me off, saying it would reach monstrous proportions. Now that I live where such considerations are moot, I couldn’t wait to indulge myself.

It forms a dense mat and I have visions of it sprawling far and wide. Much to my surprise, I’ve seen it reaching for the sky instead, most notably in Julie’s Portland Tree Tour blog, here. She refers to it as a broad leaved evergreen and backs that claim with some swell close-ups. Mine is starting to send up leaders, but I’m told that if I cut those out, it will continue to sprawl and spread along the ground. We already have plenty of vertical elements in the “Berm of Sorrow”, so that is what I will do.

Pay no attention to the molehills in the distance. Those are my least favorite feature in the garden right now. You can visit Loree here to see her fave and the faves of her fans in her comments. Join in, won’t you?

I’ve been anxiously awaiting the opening of the New Seasons on Williams because it is right on my way to Ristretto’s cafe in that neighborhood. It outdid my expectations, with these sculptural trees marching down the side facing Vancouver Ave.

Metal mesh panels are bolted to the wall behind the trees to support climbing vines. I like this idea, though I’m not sure the trees will stand out as much once the vines fill in to cover the mesh.

All is not fantasy on this site. Plenty of real, living trees have been incorporated into the landscape design.

Unlike so many commercial projects, a nice variety of trees has been introduced.

Instead of pulling up to the nose of another car, the parking areas are divided by these grassy raised beds.

A nice selection of seasonal plants greets you at the entrance.

Plants for urban gardeners line the walls near the entrance.

Right outside the doors are banks of cut flowers. Step through and find succulents and house plants. They have even begun labeling their succulents with correct botanical names. Isn’t it nice to know that someone is listening to our concerns? All New Seasons stores offer a pleasant shopping experience, but this one has special appeal for we who call ourselves gardeners.

I’m liking the textural effect of this composition. The planting along Delusional Drive is coming along. Some editing will soon be in order due to my impatient nature. I think Grace referred to it as “cramscaping”.

The heathers almost look like they are in bloom, but it’s just because I didn’t do any cutting back. What I really like about it is the coloring of the new growth.

This is a very common Juniper, Juniperus procumbens ‘Green Mound’, but I love the way it mounds and creeps (8″ tall by 6′ wide, so look out, neigboring plants!). There I go again.

I love the way this noid yucca catches the light. I think I need a couple more of these in this border so that it doesn’t look like an afterthought.

Cryptomeria japonica spiralis ‘Granny’s Ringlets’ is slow growing so far, but will eventually reach ten plus feet…oh dear.

The drive winds from the road to our house, so it is impossible to get a wide shot of the whole thing. This is what one section looked like in 2014.

Here it is, taken from the same spot, today. Softened by fog, but not much I can do about that.

Looking back from the other direction.

And stepping back further you can see the extension that is sparser. I add some each year, to eventually line the entire drive with a border that is almost exclusively evergreen and foliage dependent. A few of the shrubs, most noticeably Ceanothus and Arcostaphylos, do flower, but that is almost incidental to my intent. That is why I decided to focus on Delusional Drive for this winter installment of Pam’s Foliage Follow Up.

I love the deep red color of Hamemelis ‘Diane’, but after seeing other posts where the petals are much longer, with that torn paper look, I’m a little disappointed with her. Sorry, Diane. You will not be replaced, but you may need to share space with a showier, more fragrant cousin: perhaps ‘Early Bright’, as featured in Danger Garden’s bloom day post.

Enjoying safe harbor in a pot on the porch, Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ surprised me with these early blossoms while I wait for the real show to begin. The new foliage comes on with fiery orange energy.

The foliage is brown and tattered, but the feathery blooms of the Miscanthus ‘Grazillia’ continue to catch the light and wave in the breeze.

Winter jasmine is just getting started but the star of this show is the post bedecked with moss and lichen. Also in bloom but not especially photogenic are snowdrops and primroses (the prim girls make up for their shyness by blooming pretty much year-round). Some parts of the world are enjoying more abundance. You can tap into that resource by visiting May Dreams Gardens. Have fun!

Planted in 2010, Juniperus recurva butanica is the anchor plant and inspiration for R’s ‘bed of sorrow’, which sports several weeping forms of various trees. I just happened to be out there when the sun was highlighting it, making it my favorite plant this week.

In the denser portions, the branches fall in irridescent curtains.

Topside, it thins out, giving it a lopsided pyramidal profile.

I didn’t get a good shot of it, but at ground level it drapes over the stones forming this raised bed, reminding me of the gowns stars struggle to walk in at the Oscars. Plant Lust can tell you the basic requirements for growing this, but they do not list sources. We got ours from Portland Nursery. It was a good sized specimen to start, and has almost doubled in size in four years. Want to find some others’ faves? Hop on over to Danger Garden. Loree started this whole thing, you know.

My Euphorbia ‘Blackbird’ has been in place since 2007. At first, I was disappointed with it because it seemed to have reverted to plain green, losing the deep color for which it was named. Now, as you can see, it is back to earning its name.

Depending upon how the light hits it, it can take on different personalities.

Sometimes it looks almost pink, with droplets of dew refracting the light.

At a time of year when so much has gone dormant, the vigorous presence of ‘Blackbird’ is ever so welcome. The best profile I found was on the Fine Gardening site. Since I’m basically lazy, I’ll send you there to learn more about this satisfying plant. While I’m at it, let me send you to Danger Garden to see what Loree is most in love with this week. Don’t forget to check the comments for links to others’ favorites.