{"id":106238,"date":"2025-05-20T18:18:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T22:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=106238"},"modified":"2025-05-20T18:18:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T22:18:00","slug":"rainy-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=106238","title":{"rendered":"rainy May"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Two divisions were spilt off from this main clump of Cirsium ‘Trevor’s Blue Wonder’ and replanted. With the help of overcast skies, they’ve settled in and have already started to bloom. The cirsium, geum and hesperis are all early arrivals that give April\/May a sense of occasion. The geum and hesperis are usually finished by July, but last year the cirsium threw flowers all summer. And they all love this heavy, wet soil. Hesperis is a biennial that reseeds, similar concept to a Verbena bonariensis for spring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Believe it or not, I was worried I might miss the tail-end of the rainy season when returning to the coast in early April. I was hearing reports of a dryish winter, and I seem to remember 2024’s summer dry season commencing at the end of April. Instead, to my great joy, May has provided the best drizzly, overcast skies for shuffling and resettling plants. And I got the rain fix I needed — Marty is not quite as appreciative of the wet weather. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Anthriscus ‘Ravenswing’ is another strong early presence in April\/May that knits together surrounding emerging foliage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Another good plant that was disturbed in its spring foliar glory is Filipendula ‘Red Umbrellas.’ I’ve been brooding over the lack of softly mounding shapes this spring, which this filipendula does so well. The main clump was dug and split into thirds, and once again rainy May worked its magic on the transplants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eryngium guatamalense. Until Windcliff, the only source was from Europe. Jimi Blake grows it at Huntingbrook in Ireland, where his soil and climate conditions strike me as very similar to the Oregon coast — I had to try it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Knowing that Dan Hinkley would be coming to the coast to give a talk in April for the Hoffman Center of the Arts’ Wonder Garden, I assumed he would be bringing some Windcliff plants for the plant sale also in April. But he wasn’t. No idea why I assumed this. So turns out my request to Ketzel to ask Dan to bring Eryngium guatamalense could be construed as very pushy because there wasn’t an overall plant sale order. Incredibly mortifying. Yet they laughed and wouldn’t even let me pay for it. Oh, the shame (but oh, the excitement to see if it likes my garden!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eryngium ‘Big Blue’ has been reliably returning since 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For me Dan’s talk was a fascinating continuum of the (to me) familiar story of his wildly successful nurseries, plant hunting, and gardens. I knew Windcliff suffered severe damage from winter 2024, and a large section of it was solarized in anticipation of replanting. To hear Hinkley admit how things began to go “sideways” at Windcliff due to septic tank issues, winter damage, and how he managed to become excited all over again from a rogue patch of volunteer opium poppies — for me it answered a lot of questions I had after visiting Windcliff in summer 2024. I mention this because I did hear one comment from someone perhaps not so familiar with the Hinkley chronicles, and his rollicking, often droll speaking style, who wished there was more talk of individual plants. (Which strikes me as expecting recipes from Anthony Bourdain.) But the talk seemed very enthusiastically and warmly received. Loree of Danger Garden gives the next one on May 30 — unfortunately I’m out of town. Go Loree!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eryngium agavifolium looks strong after winter. Nearby Morina longifoliia bloomed well for a few years but did not return this spring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Digitalis ‘Honey Trumpet’ from the Wonder Garden plant sale, discovered by Xera Plants. Digitalis purpurea would be another early presence for spring but I’m just not a fan, but I do like the rusty summer foxgloves and am trialing Digitalis lutea, <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Also strong in May, Lysimachia atropurpurea. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear to reseed so new plants were added in April.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Finally, a little leggy, but Crambe maritima is in bloom, a first. Hopefully the pea-like seedpods ensue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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new this spring Deschampsia ‘Tatra Gold’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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front garden, view east from the open gate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The front garden has been both receiving and supplying plants in the ongoing shuffle. All the nonblooming ‘Helen Von Stein’ lamb’s ears have been moved from the back garden to the front. They thicken up too fast in the back garden and are more useful where they will be kept drier over summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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front garden Cistus ‘Jenkyn Place’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sobaria sorbifolia has a similar effect to Rhus typhina but purportedly less invasive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Siberian iris classic ‘Caesar’s Brother’ was a Wonder Garden castoff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I’ve tried various small euphorbias like ‘Dean’s Hybrid,’ ‘Blue Haze,’ but this is the one I’ve been waiting for, ‘Copton Ash’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

More soon, AGO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Believe it or not, I was worried I might miss the tail-end of the rainy season when returning to the coast in early April. I was hearing reports of a dryish winter, and I seem to remember 2024’s summer dry … 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],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-rDw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106238"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106285,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106238\/revisions\/106285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}