{"id":110948,"date":"2026-08-31T15:34:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=110948"},"modified":"2026-08-31T15:34:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:34:23","slug":"last-weekend-of-august-garden-touring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=110948","title":{"rendered":"last weekend of August garden touring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I attended a couple HPSO Open Garden tours last weekend, one close to home in Manzanita on Sunday, and the other on Saturday about 60 miles east. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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some of the wonderful containers in the Kuestner garden in Manzanita on Sunday August 30<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the first garden visit on Saturday I took home only plants, no photos. The exact inverse result of most garden tours! The owner has been recovering from medical mobility issues that unfortunately began in spring. For decades the garden had absorbed the owner’s horticultural passions, first for penstemons and now with salvias. We both go way back with salvias<\/a>, so there was lots to discuss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Salvia broussonetii in my Los Angeles garden 2011<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And then I stumbled on the table in back staged with 4-inch nursery pots. Of course I had to inquire about this small nursery operation. Not for sale, take them, please, he said. I thought he was joking. No joke, he said, you have no idea how hard it is to give away plants. (I’m still trying to process this remarkable assertion that runs completely contrary to my simple world view.) And yet he couldn’t stop propagating. There were some nice salvias, including some Canary Islanders like broussonetii that I was pretty sure would become large, non-blooming shrubs for me in Oregon and then die over winter. I wouldn’t bring it home to the Los Angeles zone 10 garden either, where regular irrigation is uncertain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Salvia sclarea Los Angeles garden 2012<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But I could definitely use hardy biennial Salvia sclarea, which I had been trying to grow from seed. Now I had two more to add to the one that successfully germinated. Take more, take more, he pleaded. I grabbed a Salvia ‘La Trinidad Pink’ just because its reputation precedes it, and also because I’ve never grown this microphylla found by the Yucca Do nursery near Nueva Leon in Mexico some years ago. I hope next year will be easier for this generous household and keeper of so many salvias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Senecio cristobalensis, one of many in the Kuestner garden, including one that has wintered over in the ground in this coastal Zone 9-10ish garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The garden I visited on Sunday I had seen just a few weeks before, but I really wanted to check out the progress of Mark’s tithonia, which was way ahead of mine. I took a few photos of this garden but not as many as I would if Mark wasn’t also a friend. And Billie was with me roaming the paths too, as if that’s not enough distraction. But you could point a camera anywhere in the Kuestner garden and come out a winner. It’s a mostly shade garden filled with rare evergreen trees like eucryphias that Mark dotes on, with pockets of sun carved out for summer stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the tithonia in question, unlike mine, was heavily watered and fertilized. Manzanita gardens are built on sand. Mark continuously adds lots of compost to beef up the free-draining conditions. This tithonia is just getting going and should blaze on until frost.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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happy aeoniums in summer on the coast — I really need to bring up some of mine from the Los Angeles garden. Mark does have a small greenhouse to shelter these in winter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Dahlia ‘Forncett’s Furnace’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Seems like everybody I know is growing Windcliff begonias this summer — sorry, didn’t get the name<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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on an arch the very elegant Berberidopsis corallina, an evergreen climber from Chile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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lower down a passiflora also shares the same arch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Grevillea victoriae, part of a boundary planting, photo taken from neighbor’s driveway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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also taken from the neighbor’s driveway — so many abutilons in the Kuestner semi-shaded garden. Overhanging shrub on the left is a very large flannel bush<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

I attended a couple HPSO Open Garden tours last weekend, one close to home in Manzanita on Sunday, and the other on Saturday about 60 miles east. From the first garden visit on Saturday I took home only plants, no … 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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[112,550,5119,898],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-garden-visit","category-journal","category-oregon-garden","category-pots-and-containers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-sRu","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"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=110948"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111002,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110948\/revisions\/111002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}