NARGS Emerald Chapter

Author Archive

For the spring NARGS Speaker Tour, Alan Bradshaw is touring chapters on the West Coast, with Eugene as one of his first stops on April 5. Alan has operated his seed business, Alplains, in Colorado for over 20 years. He shared his considerable skills and knowledge with us, explaining how to germinate different species, showing us his propagation set up, and giving us valuable tips such as planting flat seeds like those of milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) sideways, so the radical will have an easier time reaching down into the soil mix. Read the rest of this entry »

For our March 1st meeting, we took a look at the wonderful insects who do such a valuable job pollinating plants. Nan Vance, a US Forest Service research plant physiologist who splits her time between Corvallis and Idaho, showed her photos of pollinators interacting with native Western wildflowers. She shared fascinating stories about the complicated connections between insects and flowers.

One species of Cypripedium (lady’s slipper) is pollinated by a wasp that is attracted not to the orchid but to the fungus gnats that are attracted to the flower. It parasitizes the gnats. Many pollination relationships are equally complex. I learned a lot about the large bumble bees (“bumbling Bombus“), smaller short-tongued bees, wasps, and flies. Flies are better able to handle cold temperatures and pollinate many of the early-blooming wildflowers. Yesterday, I saw lots of small flies on the snow queen (Synthyris reniformis) that are blooming right now as we are closing in on spring.

Thanks to Nan for teaching us about pollination and for encouraging us to look more carefully at the activity going on among the flowers we so enjoy. Nan brought several copies of a booklet on growing native plants from seed. For those who didn’t get one, there is one in our library now, or you can download it at http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr823.pdf

This past Saturday (February 12), we were lucky to have Christine Ebrahimi from the Columbia-Willamette chapter of NARGS as our speaker for our meeting at the Corvallis Library. She’s a terrific speaker, and her photos (and some from fellow C-W chapter member Dave Dobak) of the Bighorn and Beartooth Mountains of northern Wyoming were excellent. I am definitely putting the Bighorns on my must-get-to list of places to visit. Christine has been kind enough to share with us her wealth of information on traveling and botanizing in the Bighorn and Beartooth mountains. Below is her terrific advice on visiting this gorgeous area. And for those who didn’t get a slide list or want to see the names of some of the beautiful plants that were shown, here is the slide list: Wyoming slideshow.

View into the White Cloud Wilderness

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Peter photographing in the lava.

Last week, the Emerald chapter was host to Peter Korn, an extremely knowledgeable gardener from Sweden. He was in town for three days as part of this year’s NARGS speaker tour. His October 14th talk, “Building for Growing: How to Create Different Environments in the Garden from Deserts to Bogs,” was a virtual tour of his 5-acre botanical garden near Gothenburg. For the last 8 years, he has been transforming the original spruce forest into an amazing garden where he seems to be able to grow almost anything. Much of it is an extraordinary rock garden built by dumping huge amounts of glacial till sand (he brought a little for us to feel!) directly onto old lawn and his soil, which he claims is so bad even the weeds don’t grow in it. His site is blessed with a natural bog, something he has taken full advantage of, growing numerous wetland plants and also growing tricky plants that like the good drainage of sand but need cool conditions and moisture from below. I don’t think I was the only one in the audience to be inspired to go home and redo their garden. Read Loren’s write up (Building for Growing: An Inspiring Talk from Peter Korn) for more details about the talk. For more about Peter’s garden, visit his website at http://peterkornstradgard.se/english/eindex.htm. Read the rest of this entry »

On Sunday, September 19, eleven hardy members drove out to Fall Creek to join me making troughs for our plant sale. We also decided to try something new and have our annual end-of-summer picnic at the same time. Despite a few showers, we had a good time and got a lot of work done. Most everyone made a couple of troughs, one to keep and one for the chapter. We’ll have a good selection of troughs to sell next year including a few left over from this year’s sale. We’ll need people to “adopt” and plant some of these, and we’ll sell a few empty ones as well.

Thanks to all who made the drive out to the country to help out. It was great to catch up with members after we’ve all gone off to do our own things this summer. I think combining the picnic with the workshop worked well. Maybe we’ll do it again in the future.

Looking across Kathy's garden to some of her sales tables

The Siskiyou Chapter of NARGS is really lucky to have Kathy Allen as a member. Not only does she have an amazing garden down in Central Point (2850 Taylor Road, click here for map), but she shares many of her treasures by propagating her plants from seed. She also grows an amazing assortment of other unusual rock garden plants from seed she buys. Each year, she holds at least three plant sales at her house. It’s a long drive, but going to one of her sales and visiting her garden is well worth it.

Loren and Kathy examining plants in some of Kathy's many troughs and planters

I just went to her fall plant sale this week. Loren Russell also made the trip down. He purchased extra plants for members of the Portland Chapter, where he’ll be speaking next week. I bought a number of plants for my own garden and some to bring to sell at our meeting in October. These will be sold at cost as a favor to our members. We know it is hard for people to get down to southern Oregon.

As usual, she had many new plants in addition to plants she’s grown in the past. There were at least 8 kinds of Penstemons, lots of different species of Aethionema, and a number of gentians. It’s hard not to want to buy one of everything. You’ll never see a selection of rock garden plants better than this anywhere else. We’ll announce her spring sale next April for anyone who is interested.

Tasha King photographing a drift of fawn lilies

Last Sunday, eight of us headed up to the Portland area for a day of garden visits. While the weather was overcast and gloomy when we met at the Sebring Garden in Eugene, as we drove north, the weather steadily improved, blessing us with a wonderful warm spring day for our trip. It didn’t cloud up and start sprinkling until we headed back down the freeway at the end of the day. Perfect timing!

We started our day at Elk Rock Garden at Bishop’s Close (www.elkrockgarden.com), just north of Lake Oswego, and one of the hidden gems of the Portland area. The garden was as beautiful as I remembered. It was first built by Peter Kerr around World War 1, making it nearly 100 years old, and was given by his daughters to the Episcopal Bishop of Oregon with the stipulation that it be open to the public. It contains an amazing collection of some of the grandest trees you’ll ever see in a garden. Rather than high maintenance perennial borders, it is mostly filled with mature woody plants. Their fresh spring foliage and flowers color the grounds in an elegant manner. Many of the trees were clearly chosen for their attractive bark, and there is an amazing variety of foliage texture from both deciduous trees and conifers. Read the rest of this entry »

Basic Trough Mix for Hypertufa:

• 1.5 parts fine peat (may substitute coconut fiber)
• 1.5 parts perlite (may substitute sand or cinder)
• 1 part Portland cement, regular (don’t use concrete)

Directions:
To prepare peat, sift it through a screen or mesh. For coconut fiber soak in water until the bale falls apart. Put 1.5 buckets of peat or coconut fiber into a wheelbarrow or other large container. Make sure all lumps are separated. Add perlite, sand or cinder and mix thoroughly. Add 1 bucket of Portland cement. It’s a good idea to have a dust mask on for this and gloves so you don’t get the cement on your bare hands. Add water slowly and mix until it is stiff and holds together, and has a consistency about like cookie dough or cottage cheese. You should be able to squeeze a handful and just barely get a drop of water out.

part of Siskiyou chapter member Kathy Allen's amazing collection of troughs

Mold into a plastic-lined box or other container, making walls and bottom 1-1/2 to 2 inches thick. Punch drain holes in the bottom with your finger or a tool. When firm, one or two days later, remove from box and plastic, carve to your satisfaction, and, if desired, moisten and then coat outside with dry Portland Cement to create a smooth appearance. Trough may be planted as early as one week.

For a more freeform shape, make a mold by digging a bowl shape in hard-packed wet sand or by making a mound of wet sand using bricks or hard objects underneath if necessary to build it up. Put your hypertufa directly in or on your sand mold, taking care to make sure your wall thickness is adequate.

Basic Trough Soil Mix:

• 2 parts Sand
• 1 part Peat
• 2 parts Pumice

Mix. Add granite grit or red pumice rock for a courser mix, leaf mold or more peat for a softer, more acid mix. Cover planted trough with a mulch of granite grit, small gravel, or cinder

Selaginella scopulorum, a spikemoss native to Oregon

At our March 9th meeting, Judith Jones spoke to us about her favorite topic—and one of mine—ferns. She showed us photos of many of the wonderful rock ferns, hard to find but worth seeking out, as well as larger ferns suited for the woodland garden. Lately Judith has been growing spikemosses (Selaginella sp.). These look very much like mosses, hence the name, but they are actually vascular plants. Many grow on sunny rock outcrops and are quite suitable for rock gardens. She brought loads of wonderful ferns and a few spikemosses with her for sale. Quite a few now have new homes in Oregon!

Judith is one of the experts on ferns in the Pacific Northwest. We were very lucky to be able to get Judith to speak to us on her way back to Washington after Western Winter Study Weekend. For more about her and her lovely ferns, visit her Fancy Fronds Nursery website at http://www.fancyfronds.com.

The Siskiyou Chapter hosted this year’s Western Winter Study Weekend March 5–7 in Medford. Members of our chapter who attended included Holly Helton, Robin Hansen, Tasha King, Paula and Ted Hewitt, Loren Russell, and Tanya Harvey. It was great to catch up with other NARGS members, some of whom we only see at these events.

Robin with her terrific door prize

The speakers entertained us with talks about buildings rock gardens, rock garden plants, and mountain areas here and abroad. Many wonderful door prizes were handed out. Our own treasurer, Robin Hansen, won an extra special door prize—a $200 gift certificate to Siskiyou Rare Plant Nursery!

The Siskiyou Chapter members’ gardens are always a highlight when they host. Their climate just seems to bring out the best in rock garden plants. The weather was perfect for garden tours on Sunday, and there were many gardens to see. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to come home from the weekend with new treasures to plant in my rock garden from the plant sale.

Thanks so much to all the Siskiyou Chapter folks who did such a wonderful job putting on the conference.