The Wonder Garden is a volunteer-driven, horticultural branch of the Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita, Oregon. Since I’ve been volunteering the past several years, the Wonder Garden seems to evolve effortlessly from strength to strength. But having participated in an April work party that expanded one of the beds a few feet in circumference, I can attest to the effort required in growing a garden on a former parking lot. Pick axes are involved to break through the substrate to reach…beach sand. (I bet even Beth Chatto’s famous garden made on a former parking lot had soil beneath the rubble.) When not busting up parking lot, routine maintenance includes shoring up the berms, cutting back after winter, and applying mulches every spring to add some organic matter to an incredibly free-draining site that gets no rain all summer. All in addition to the usual division of perennials, weeding, and shuffling of plants as needed.
Of all the WG plants I crush on, Erysimum ‘Apricot Twist’ rates high on the list. It is an electrifyingly acidic tonic in early spring. Last fall it looked like it had finally succumbed to that sparse, woody fate that awaits the short-lived erysimum clan. Except there is no known local source for ‘Apricot Twist,’ and none had been successfully propagated from the mother plant! Volunteers jumped to, and several cuttings were taken in fall and rooted over winter. I have one in my garden, and several others were farmed out for future sources of cuttings of this amazing plant. One other has been planted elsewhere in the WG. I can’t imagine the WG without it. Early and incredibly long blooming all summer. I noted an inferior strain of erysimum seeding around upon moving into my home garden in 2021 — they seem to love life on the rainy coast.
I took a spin around the garden late afternoon last Friday while waiting for a talk by Neil Bell at the Hoffman across the street. Colors come on strong in spring, on a framework that is predominantly evergreen from the range of choices available in this zone 8-9. Eucalyptus pauciflora, Acacia pravissima, cistus, manzanita, callistemon, azara, halimium, hebes, calluna, Ugni molinae, coprosma, Fabiana imbricata, ceanothus, leptospermum, luma, Pittosporum ‘Tall & Tuff,’ even a thriving Leucadendron galpinii. Fabulously shrubby and textural with carefully considered seasonal jolts of gorgeous color from herbaceous plants too. I am such a fan of this garden.
The Wonder Garden’s wealth of interesting and diverse evergreens paired with seasonal dynamism makes it worth checking out all season. There’s some seriously good planting happening in the little beach town of Manzanita.