Hortlandia gets the buying season off to a flying start. I had a cold. This is where gardening buddies are invaluable (as well as in many other ways). Loree asked if she could be on the lookout for anything for me. I immediately thought of a plant I’d been admiring in her Danger Garden, Acanthus sennii, above. True to her word, she looked, and she found. Woo hoo…add another star to Loree’s crown.

Means Nursery is so nearby that I can easily pop in whenever I have a special need. Two ipomoea batatis ‘Mardi Gras’ and one Coleus ‘Chocolate Drop’ filled the bill…

to fill this red pot that had been standing empty.

When it comes to plants, I can never stick to a list. I’ve been wanting a daphne, so Daphne odora ‘Mae-jima’ came home with me too.

Next up: the Oregon Bloggers’ Swap, with the welcome addition of several Washingtonians. Starting from the top, let’s go clockwise, skipping the two pots disappearing from the bottom of the photo. A nice flaming Euphorbia whose name I can’t remember…maybe Dixter?; Rubus lineatus; Pacific Coast Iris; Polypodium scaulen; Dicentra spectabilis

Sorry, that big pot still fails to show off Iris confusa, but believe me, it’s a beauty; Arum ‘Jack Sprat’; Pulmonaria; ‘Ron Davidson’; and a pretty little frosty Heuchera whose name escapes me (it’s ‘Snow Angel’. You guys are so good!). The bloggers are all true plant nuts, and they bring fabulous stuff to our swaps. By the time someone has spieled about a beloved plant, I’m a convert even if I never noticed that plant before. What a fabulous way to introduce new material into the garden. Somehow I failed to get photos of the nice big clumps of Polygonatum and Convellaria majalis, but they’ll be showing up in future posts, you can be sure.

Last Sunday, Linda and I met up at Joy Creek to wander the display gardens and shop for plants. Linda never arrives empty handed. This time she brought me a couple of primroses I had admired in her garden and a Hellebore to try. She says to plant it in sun, so that may be the problem with those I have (all in shade).

Heading to meet Linda, I stopped by Means to get a few things for porch pots: upright Fuchsia ‘Firecracker’ to put in a cachepot; two Impatiens and Lysimachia ‘Midnight Sun’ to spill from a wall pocket.

And finally, here’s my haul from Joy Creek: center front, Erodium chrysanthum; front left and right, Zauschneria ‘Everett’s Choice’; top left, Phlomis italica; top center, Oxalis ‘Klamath Ruby’ with purplish undersides to the leaves; top right, Oxalis oregana. I probably should have waited for cooler, overcast days to do the planting, but I’ll just have to be a diligent waterer until we get back to some Oregon weather. We will, won’t we?

With the last stretch of nice weather, I was finally able to address the issue chronicled at the end of this post.

Digging out the area and storing the soil in wheelbarrows and tarps was the hardest part.

Meanwhile, I unrolled the wire mesh and weighted it down with rocks to help it uncurl. The plain old garden dirt was mixed with 1/4-10 gravel and dark hemlock mulch before returning it to the screened bed.

Several plants had been waiting in pots (one for years) for this day. Two Acorus gramineus variegatus from Home Depot were divided into enough plugs to cover a large area. The pot in the above photo contains Itea ilicifolia, a plant I have high hopes for. See it here on Plant Lust. I’ve killed it before, but maybe the care that went into preparing this bed will do the trick.

In the foreground is the lovely small tree that inspired the making of this bed. It has lived in a large pot for several years, and it was showing signs of longing for liberation. I thought it was ‘Red Bells’, but when I compare it to the excellent photos on Plant Lust, I think, instead, it is Enkianthus campanulatis var. sikokianthus. To its right is Hypericum inodorum ‘Albury Purple’. Impossible to see at this stage is Disporum hookerii. The sweet flag plugs take up the middle of the bed, where their root system is meant to protect the water lines beneath. In the distance, on the left, is a Pineapple Guava (Acca sellowiana). An Osmanthus too small to see is somewhere there in the middle distance, and on the right is the Itea. Where the new bed joins an existing bed a vigorous ground cover of Hypericum ‘Brigadoon’ will pretty rapidly migrate into the bare patches.

Looking west…

And one last shot, looking east. Take That! evil gophers! With this project taken care of, I guess it’s back to weeding for me.

Excuse me…I don’t mean to go all Biblical on you, but after playing the acquisition game for a while there’s nothing for it but to get some of that new stuff in the ground. And what a day for it! Yesterday was bright and clear and today a gentle rain is watering in all of the new plantings.

First up, the group of plants I got from the Yamhill native plant sale. A friend told us about this, and volunteered to pick up our plants when he took the drive to collect his. The prices were good, and the website was easy to navigate. I ordered five Camassia leichtlini var suksdorfii to plant at the woodland’s edge, hoping that they will naturalize over time; two Asclepias speciosa (showy milkweed); one Disporum hookerii (Hooker’s fairy bells); three Sequoia sempervirens (coastal redwood); two Arbutus menziesii (Pacific Madrone); and two Cornus nuttalii (Pacific dogwood). I asked Bob to pick up some huckleberries if they had any on hand, and they did, shown bottom left and center. Turns out they had run out of dogwoods and sequoias, so they substituted extra Madrones, a couple of Cascara (Rhamnus purshiana) and nine crab apples (Malus fusca).

Not sure what to do with all of those crab apples, I potted them up to grow on for a while. They can reach thirty five feet and enjoy moist conditions. I might put a couple of them in the front hedgerow, but if they appeal to you, let me know…or I can bring some to the next plant swap.

What to do with five Madrones, when they can top out at twenty to fifty feet was an even bigger challenge. Well, they’re supposed to be slow-growing and appreciative of poor soil with good drainage, so I just stuck them at intervals along the border I’m developing approaching the house. We’ll see what happens. I can always cut them down or, if I don’t wait too long, dig them up for relocation. As you can see by the first photo, most of the things in this batch of plants pretty much disappeared when planted. If they prosper and put on a show, they are sure to show up in future posts.

The Yard, Garden and Patio Show came next, and the only plant I bought was this Dyckia hybrid. It is meant to take the place of a deceased Echeveria in a pot of succulents. I hope I will have better luck with this. I rarely go on a buying spree at the show, because I don’t want to haul plants around with me, especially when there are so many stellar nurseries nearby where I can just drive up and load plants into the car. I am kind of kicking myself for not picking up a few of the unusual dahlia bulbs (or whatever you call those things) on offer, though.

A quick and dirty stop at Means to pick up a couple of things to stick in porch pots yielded this perky Primula Elatior Reno mix (I like the way the flowers rise above the rosette of leaves) and a surprise. As I browsed the tables, a young man approached and inquired if I needed help finding anything. What?! He proved to be quite knowledgeable and friendly, running counter to the reputation of an outlet that has sold boring plants in quantity with no one in the place knowing anything about the merchandise. When I called this to the attention of Ransom, he chuckled and allowed as how that was their reason for hiring him. Guess I’ll be pulling off the road on my way to Freddy’s more frequently in the days ahead.

I was surprised to find small pots of Hellebores for a mere $6.50. See how nicely ‘Pink Beauty’ nestles into the cachepot that sits next to our front door? I’ll find it a permanent home later.

I’ve long admired the foliage of Salix integra ‘Hakuro Nishiki’, but hadn’t realized how colorful the bare branches were in winter. This will be a great addition to the driveway border that is oh-so-slowly coming together.

The Open House at Dancing Oaks yielded more than plants. Who could resist the cold pressed hazelnut oil at right? As you can see, we didn’t even try, as we have already drizzled it over the incredible (and colorful) eggs. Front, left, is Nandina domestica filamentosa, which will form a dome similar to Japanese maple, but lacier and more see-through. Behind that is Acanthus Syriacus to add to my “collection” of three. In the center is Cyclamen coum, silver form. New stems form in cunning spirals. This may go under the Nandina. The last plant is hiding beyond the frame, but wait…

There it is: Corokia cotoneaster and yes, I’m ready to give it another go after having destroyed a couple of them.

On Sunday, Scott, of Rhone Street Gardens brought me this wonderful bunch of grasses: three Muhlenbergia cappilaris, a huge (like its name) Stipa gigantea and in the bag, I believe, a Miscanthus, but which one escapes me (Scott?). Next time the sun breaks through, I will get these into the ground. Since Scott was mainly making room in an already crowded garden it was not quite a swap, but I did serve pie…and on our walkabout we identified a couple of things he’d like (next time).

Now that I have most things planted, I can forge ahead into Spring with a clear conscience. Hortlandia will be coming up soon, after all.