2012-05-28 Around the Yard

A couple nice things are open now. Cypripedium pubescens, for a starter. I've had this for many years, but it declined during our 2008 move and the subsequent 2008 winter. Down to just one blooming stem, up from one not blooming stem last year and the year before.


My Phyteuma scheuzeri is open. Very cute little buds that look like horns.


More Phyteuma.


Seed grown Ixia scillaris from Silverhill Seeds. I was hoping for a more maroon flower, but it ended up pink.


Aulax cancellata is blooming for the first time. It has long pine-like needles and fragrant, but a bit musky, flowers.


x Halimiocistus wintonensis Merrist Wood Cream. A lovely little intergeneric.


Calochortus superbus.


I think this is Iris 'Moon Glow'


That's all for now.

2012-05-21 Cypripediums for sale locally

The Gardener's Choice Nursery, on Hwy 99W in Tigard, has blooming Cypripedium kentuckiense and reginae (and an ugly macranthos hybrid) for sale, many with two or more blooms. You don't often see large sized Cyps at your average corner nursery, so this is something special. So special that each pot is going to run you $80 to $90. It's what they're worth pretty much anywhere for plants with multiple stems and multiple flowers so you're not really getting robbed as much as you might think. No, I didn't buy any: I have hundreds of seedlings already. Though I was tempted...

2012-05-19 New Bog

After the rock wall was finished (dry stack), I dug out and shaped the earth into a trough with a slope that runs down to the end of the rock wall. I used a scrap of pond liner that was left over and covered the rock wall side and bottom of the trench, but left the greenhouse side, which had been painted with tar, open, so that water would drain out on that side and never be permanently stagnant. The Darlingtonia tend to like moving water and the guys at Sarracenia Northwest said that the instant that they punctured a hole in the bottom of their Darlingtonia tub, the plants turned around and improved. The mix is about 2 parts XLP perlite, 1 part small sized orchid bark, 1 part pumice and a 1/2 part peat moss. I plan on mulching over the top of the bog with regular shredded bark after the plants are a little taller: maybe next year. There's a drip irrigation hose with mini-sprayers that will come on every day, and sometimes more as needed.

Planted are all things californica: 4 flats of Darlingtonia californica that have really suffered since last year after being in small pots for too long, 4 pots of Cypripedium californicum and Narthecium californica. All of these are grown from seed I collected from southern Oregon.




Just above the bog will go my collection of Lewisias under the eve where they won't get rained on too much during the winter. That's next on the itinerary, but I'll have to get some rocks for them and replace the soil with pumice/perlite (but without a rubber bottom like the bog).

2012-05-17 Lilium columbianum

This is a seed grown Lilium columbianum. Quite nice. I have a much larger one with a dozen flowers still in bud.

2012-05-16 Pergola and Yard

I haven't posted a photo of our finished pergola over the deck yet. It really looks excellent. It provides a bit of shade at the end of the deck and the Trachelospermum jasminoides is planted and will grow there at the end on a trellis between the two supports. There are already two hardy Kiwi planted to grow up and over top in the next few years. It's a 4x4 treated post structure with a 2x8 struts and a hollow plastic lattice. It was an incredible pain to get the treated wood painted. I tried using latex primer and paint, but it took 10 coats. I'll definitely try something else next time.


One more of the Protea nana as it opens.


This is a seedling of what is probably a Lilium columbianum.


My Penstemon grown from seed is finally planted. I planted them en masse so they will form a nice round, evergreen blue leaved shrub in no time.

2012-05-14 Around the yard

Got several things blooming now that the heat is out (despite my requests to put the heat back in the box for another couple months... I was perfectly happy with 72F days).

I'm not really that knowledgeable about our native Irises. I also think that the plural of Iris should be Irii. Anyway, I'm a bad gardener and collected seeds and then lost the original tag... so this is the first flower of some seed I grew probably from somewhere around Mt Hood probably 3 or 4 years ago, probably Iris tenax or douglasiana. It's pretty one way or another.


My Callistemon viridiflorus that I got from Jeffery Allen a few years ago. The leaves are prickly but the flowers are very soft. This is supposed to be hardy to 10F and will get planted in the South Africa/Australia garden when that exists.


A new Gardenia 'Chuck Hayes' is opening. Smells great.


New thing for the garden that I finally found abundant this year at the nurseries. Crinodendron hookerianum. Cool dangling red bell flowers from the Himalayas. Supposed to be semi hardy here in Portland and doesn't do well with the non-draining clay soil, so I planted it under the eve to provide extra warmth and keep away the flood.




Lewisia cotyledon is still blooming. These are seedlings from 2010.


A little Loropetalum chinense.


Sarracenia flava opening a full month later than those that grow in the South. In the brand new bog. I no longer have to worry about the water saucer running dry! That's a load off.


A new Rhodododendron 'Emily Allison' that I got at the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden Mother's Day sale. It has a good fragrance, very sweet without being spicy, especially after the flowers have fully opened. This thing will probably smell up the whole yard once it has 50 flower heads.


We are going to have so many strawberries this year... Bring a bucket over.


Thalictrum aquilegifolium blooming. It's not the prettiest plant, but it goes well in between a bunch of other compact and dense foliage plants.


While I was out looking at the strawberries, which were originally called Strew Berries because their runners were strewn all about the place, I heard quite a loud buzz. Some nice California Bumble Bees have taken up residence in one of our birdhouses. Pretty cute. They usually only have a population of 50 or fewer bees and form rudimentary combs. The bees all take care of the queen until the fall when they all abandon her to start their own colonies and she dies, if I recall that sad story correctly. Bumble bees are far less aggressive than other bees (besides, perhaps, Mason bees) and pollinate a bigger variety of species. They just don't produce human-usable quantities of honey.

2012-05-12 Protea nana open

Protea nana grown from seed. Occasional dilute fertilizer. Outside in full sun in the summer. It's still in the greenhouse right now because the usual growing area has been usurped. I hope to have it outside by midsummer, back in the greenhouse for the winter and then planted in March 2013 with the rest of the Protea test subjects.



The little center part opens filament by filament (these are the real flowers and the red part is just a protective bract, just like most inflorescences)


Scale


My Dichelostemma capitata are still open.


Calochortus albus rubellus from Telos Rare Bulbs is open for the first time.

2012-05-09 Protea nana opening

This Protea nana plant is tiny. It's well less than a foot tall and already has a flower, so when it becomes a lovely 3ft tall shrub, I'm hoping for hundreds of flowers... Seed from Silverhill Seeds. I only got 4 plants to grow: for some reason this species wasn't easy for me to germinate. They grow quite lanky naturally. I'm sure I should prune them, but I haven't had the heart to cut them yet. The flower is a little globe with a diameter of 1 inch. I'm hoping it will open slightly more over the next few days. Favorite question of the day: "Why is your pine tree blooming?"



For scale.




On the other hand, I have about 20 Protea pityphylla that germinated very well and look quite similar, but much more compact and slow growing. No flowers on those yet. Maybe in a year or two.

2012-05-06 Around the Yard

In lieu of actually going anywhere, I'm sticking to the garden for photos for quite a while... In alphabetical order.

My Agapetes serpens has got quite a few flowers. It actually *might* just barely be hardy here, if planted in a protected spot and mulched heavily. Sweet whitish berries in the fall. It is a blueberry family after all.


This came in a pot with something else. My guess is that it's Anemonella thalictroides flore pleno alba, but I could be well off on that... It is cute though.


Our Arctic Raspberries in the garden are spreading well. They're an herbaceous ground cover.


This came to me as Babiana ringens seed in 2009. Since that species is bright red and has an interesting spathe for sugar birds to sit on, I'm guessing that this seed was mislabeled. Oh well.


Calceolaria biflora 'Gold Cap'. Hope it forms a nice clump of little shoe flowers.


All of my Dicentra oregana got planted this spring. Finally!


Dichelostemma capitata from seed. First flowers.


Dryas octopetala from seed.


The Foethergilla looks nice this year.


Leucadendron modestum female plant. From seed.


Lewisia cotyledon alba in bloom from seed.


The regular Lewisia cotyledon. From seed.


When we were in Hawaii last winter, I collected a few seeds of what I thought was Metrosideros polymorpha growing around the Ka'a Crater (a great hike, if you like to sweat and slip down steep waterfalls). After looking at photos on the web, I now think it's more likely Metrosideros rugosa, but it will be a while before I can really confirm that. Either way, both are species endemic to Hawaii.


A cute little No ID plant I got in a pot of something else.


Rhododendron linearifolium.


Last, a very old plant of Rhododendron benhallii that will, we hope, like this sunny spot in the garden.