NARGS Emerald Chapter

Archive for the ‘NARGS Events’ Category

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.

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.