NARGS Emerald Chapter

Archive for the ‘Gardens’ 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.

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 »