{"id":101261,"date":"2022-07-09T17:22:03","date_gmt":"2022-07-09T21:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=101261"},"modified":"2022-07-09T17:22:03","modified_gmt":"2022-07-09T21:22:03","slug":"herbaceous-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=101261","title":{"rendered":"herbaceous stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\"IMG_5487\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Flower bud on Centaurea macrocephala<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I admit I’m enthralled by the range of herbaceous plants that can be grown here on the Oregon coast, zone 8b. I should be putting my energies into building up evergreen and woody structure, but for the moment, aside from a few shrubs, I’m mostly playing with perennials, annuals, bulbs, and even biennials. I had some old seed packets of hesperis and dark sweet williams that I brought north and threw on the garden in early June, when it was still rainy. The germination was surprisingly good. I’m still seeing hesperis and sweet williams in bloom around town in July, so the hope is they will have early leaf presence and then continue to bloom spring into early summer in this cool climate, before the summer stuff gets going. I don’t want to shade out the back garden, and there are plenty of other trees and shrubs in town as far as providing habitat opportunities. (The neighbor to the east has large trees, and the neighbor to the south grows an epic 10-foot high evergreen hedge — maybe laurel? — but our backyard was all turf, no trees or shrubs.) Free-draining berms are in mind for the front garden, where hopefully some arctostaphylos will be happy. In the meantime, it’s the incredible range of herbaceous stuff that I’ve been exploring in the back garden. Transformational, dynamic, ephemeral, but not necessarily quicker to establish than shrubs. It takes a few years for many perennials to show their best. And when impatience is regularly tamped down, the exceptions to the rule that arise are even more thrilling, like a dierama that is getting ready to flower in its first year — who knew? — and a small Sanguisorba ‘Red Thunder’ is already throwing some crimson thimbles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is some of the random stuff that’s caught my eye so far this early summer — all photos are from gardens I’ve visited or local plantings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_5489\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Centaurea macrocephala opening into yellow, Sweet Sultan-type flowers. Reminds me in size and girth of Lobelia tupa. And similar leaf color but wavier leaves.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5481\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Madia elegans, Showy Tarweed — need to find seed for this next year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Showy tarweed reaches heights atypical of our native wildflowers, often standing more than 5-feet high, towering above the dried-out kin of earlier seasons. This late season bloomer also has the fantastically amazing ability to set deep tap roots that allow it to prosper in the latest, hottest days of summer, even in heavy clay soils, months after the last rainfall. Occurring from southern Washington throughout California, showy tarweed wraps up its short, dazzling lifecycle with small, sunflower-like seeds that attract goldfinches and other songbirds. This is an easy to grow garden plant, and one that more people should get up early to take notice of. ” <\/em>— Northwest Meadowscapes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_5468\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
tritelia\/brodiaea, a summer-blooming bulb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5367\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Love this sedum’s radial growth pattern. I think it is Sedum sieboldii, the October daphne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5485\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
calluna, helianthemum, yarrow and Calif poppies in the Wonder Garden, Manzanita, OR, a great mix of trees, shrubs and perennials<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5461\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
calluna, helianthemum, cuphea, and an evening primrose\/oenethera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5478\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Erysimum ‘Apricot Twist’ and Parahebe perfoliata, Wonder Garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5395\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Erigeron glaucus ‘Cape Sebastian’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5329\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5475\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Cistus ‘Jenkyn Place’ — I always prefer the white to pink-flowered cistus. I trialed a lot of varieties of cistus in zone 10 as well but tapered off as the Australian and South African shrubs took their spots in the garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5343\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
yes, this is the land of lilies…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5341\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
and clematis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5337\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
The martagon lilies are invaluable for blooming in shady gardens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5345\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Martagon lilies with bergenia and ferns — the shrub looks like a choisya<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5342\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
A fabulous, long-blooming foxglove, Digitalis x ‘Honey Trumpet’<\/a> I need to find. (Killed this in SoCal zone 10!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5386\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
eremurus, foxtail lily<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5354\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
The dark-leaved Clematis recta in I believe Mary DeNoyer’s garden in early June, draping over an osmanthus — another visitor’s jacket photobombing the shot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5302\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
shade is the springboard for some amazing textural plantings — I’m hopeless at identifying the incredible range of shade plants used in gardens here. But I do know that’s a podophyllum in the center. I think most of the shade photos were taken in the DeNoyer garden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5379\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
and this may be a podophyllum as well. The big leaves for shade are darmera, podophyllum, arisaemas, rodgersias…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5374\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5375\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
arisaema?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5353\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
I like setting off unusual hostas in pots<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5360\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
an incredibly happy pyrrosia maybe? Ferns are way out of my wheelhouse for the moment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5359\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
guessing asplenium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\"IMG_5394\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
variegated solomon’s seal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hope you’re finding beautiful things to look at this summer. I find it one of the strongest antidotes to the crazier-than-ever news cycle. More soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I admit I’m enthralled by the range of herbaceous plants that can be grown here on the Oregon coast, zone 8b. I should be putting my energies into building up evergreen and woody structure, but for the moment, aside from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[550,5119,36],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-qlf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101261"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101261"}],"version-history":[{"count":75,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101341,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101261\/revisions\/101341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}