Category Archives: garden travel

CSSA 2015 Biennial Convention, June 14-19, 2015

agave at South Coast Botanic Garden, a former open pit mine for diatomite extraction, then landfill, now botanic garden I should probably split this glut of information into several posts, but if I don’t sit down right now and do … Continue reading

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2015 Dates to Remember

I’ve been working on 2015 plants sales and plant show dates under the heading Dates to Remember, top of the page. Please feel free to send along info on anything I’ve missed or something worthy that must not go unmentioned. … Continue reading

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“The Artful Garden” featuring Shirley Watts, Portland, Oregon 2/15/15

Detail of mural in the new reception hall at Rancho Los Alamitos. I don’t suppose there’s the smallest chance we’ll ever see a “bullet train” built that runs to Portland, Oregon, since the voter-approved Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed train has … Continue reading

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completion of the High Line September 21, 2014

“Before it was constructed, the New York Central Railroad had operated a rail freight line at grade, or street level, along Tenth Avenue, and men on horseback (“West Side cowboys”) had ridden ahead of the train with red flags or … Continue reading

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meeting plants in person for the first time

By now you’re probably wondering will this blog ever stop dining out on the Portland garden bloggers meetup. Just one more for now on the plants that really had my number. Which is undeniably an odd number, but the heart … Continue reading

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got flowers?

Some photos of Portland, Oregon gardens visited mid July that welcome flowers to varying degrees. Procreation is messy (to paraphrase a former secretary of defense), and zero emphasis on flowers and their disheveled aftermath is the answer for some gardens. … Continue reading

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back on the home front

It’s finally happening. Miraculously, after a couple close calls resulting in an almost fatal wilt, Musschia wollastonii has survived and begun to hoist up that much-anticipated chartreuse candelabra of blooms. The Madeira Giant Bellflower must be an unforgettable sight in … Continue reading

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contain your enthusiasm

Creating a small, plant-rich garden in zone 8 can be a brutal business. Faced with so many tempting choices in such an agreeable climate, a small garden runs the danger of sinking into visual chaos. Wielding the power of refusal, … Continue reading

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garden chairs

“A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous.” – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Continuing my monomaniacal, object-specific tour of Portland gardens, which brings us around to chairs. Because I’ve … Continue reading

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Portland Pots It Up

There’s so many reasons for plants to spend some or even all of their lives in containers. Aside from the practical reasons — fine-tuning sunlight, better drainage, more moisture, less moisture, special soil mixes, protection from chewing and digging creatures, … Continue reading

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