An excellent plant adventure; return visits to RPR and the BigJohn Hicks Oasis

Last Saturday was the annual Rare Plant Research open house, and naturally I was there. This is the 22nd year in a row I've attended this event, which is always held the 3rd weekend in May. How is that even possible? That I've been going for 22 years, and that I've been in the same place, on the same weekend (rain or shine), that many years in a row? Crazy. Burl (owner of RPR) mentioned he was going to be winding down operations, so who knows how many more years I've got?

I was rather taken with the flowers on this Euphorbia cap-saintemariensis, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't love the plant in its non-flowering stage—plus it was expensive. Thus I left it behind.

I was a rather subdued shopper all around, only picking out a couple things I went knowing I wanted, like another saracennia. One of mine has failed to grow new pitchers this spring, wonder if it had anything to do with the ginormous slug family I found living in the pot?

I love eavesdropping at this sale, listening in on the other shoppers. My favorite quote this year came from a lady who was thrilled to spot the bug-eating African violets (yes, she was talking about the saracennia).

Killing time hoping that the long line to pay would dwindle, we (my friend Scott—maker of this garden—was my partner in crime for the day) walked up to tour around the grounds of the house above the nursery, home for Burl and his wife Cyndi. We were rewarded with a blooming Agave parryi...

What beefy bloom spike!

The bromeliad vertical garden at the house is looking a little tired. Time to add some more plants to the mix!

Ah, nice ferns!

Matteuccia struthiopteris perhaps? (ostrich fern)

Okay, we're back down at the nursery now, and it's time to pay for our plants! Here's Scott's fabulous haul: Yucca rostrata, colorful bromeliad, a NoID brown plant with small leaves (perhaps Haloragis erecta ‘Wellington Bronze’), a sarracenia, Agave montana, and three very very very spiky opuntia.

My small haul: sarracenia, tillandsia, and a bromeliad.  

After we were done at Rare Plant Research we swung by Mike and Megan's garden, the BigJohn Hicks Oasis. I was there a couple of times last summer (post here) and wondered what it would look like in mid-May. Amazing is the word, it looked absolutely amazing...

Oh the tree ferns!

And the Polygonatum kingianum... (well I suppose the Impatiens omeiana deserves a mention to).

Mike has been busy putting together creative plantings, including these kokedama creations. I loved the combination of Arthropodium candidum 'Maculatum' and Pyrrosia lingua.

So good! (I wish my photos were better)

Rhododendron 'Ever Red'

More Arthropodium candidum 'Maculatum' (the San Marcos Growers website calls it "a grassy bulbous deciduous perennial from New Zealand").

I've got a couple patches of this plant in my garden now (thanks to Little Prince Plants), but Mike and Megan's plants are next level gorgeous. 

As are their Parablechnum novae-zelandiae (aka Blechnum novae-zelandiae).

These podophyllum! The were HUGE! I should have gotten a hand in there for scale. Mike said they came from Ernie and Marietta O'Byrne.

Oh look! More Arthropodium candidum 'Maculatum' and Parablechnum novae-zelandiae. Great combination.

*Sigh*... maybe someday I'll take the plunge and get a Podophyllum difforme -Starfish Form, so strange (in the very best way)!

More tree fern (Dicksonia antarctica) appreciation.

Damn! Astelia ('Red Devil'?) and Paris polyphylla var. stenophylla 'Luquanensis'. This combo gets me every time I visit.

I was so focused on the individual plants during our visit that I neglected to take any landscape images. This might be the most pulled-back shot I got. Can you believe their gunnera is so massive in mid May? The mild winter has certainly helped our PNW gardens start the season right. Sadly I keep hearing we might be paying for the odd winter with water restrictions later in the season.

The plant directly under the gunnera in the above photo, Scadoxus puniceus.

I didn't get the name of this bright happy bromeliad... isn't it stunning?

Okay, a few more new plants. We stopped at Mike and Megan's so I could drop off a plant, but ended up leaving with plants too! Schefflera  'Mato', Mike remembered I wanted one of these when I was last at Little Prince and he nabbed me one. It's not hardy here in Portland, but it will spend summer vacation outdoors.

The rest of my haul..."extras" Mike had at the house and offered up to Scott and I.

Abutilon 'Fairy Coral Red'

And a few Haworthia attenuata 'Concolor'  (green) and Gasteria 'Kaleidoscope' (brown, which may be a stress color, all the photos I saw online are green).

Okay, one last plant and it's a great one, Agave ovatifolia 'Orca', a gift from Scott. The poor thing has lived a rough life out there in the ocean (or rather being shipped across the country in a box) but from now on it's going to be treated like royalty. I'm so excited to have joined the variegated Agave ovatifolia club (one I'd been priced out of). Coincidently I believe one of the variegated agaves I featured towards the end of last Friday's RBG post (4th from the bottom) is an 'Orca'.

The Bit at the End

Do you know Niwaki? It's a Japanese company with all sorts of gorgeous garden tools and other things. They've just released a new line of garden clothing and accessories in a camo pattern, it's unlike any camo you've ever seen before, kinda fun... here.

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

The Eastman Griffin garden began Study Weekend 2025

I've never been one to rush home from a garden tour event, be it the Garden Fling, or Study Weekend, and start writing about the gardens I visited. Those events usually take place in the summertime when I'm too busy to sit down, edit and digest all that I saw. Plus I kind of like having a stash of garden visits to relive over the winter months. So, with that, I am ready to (finally) kick off my coverage of the 2025 HPSO Study Weekend held last June 27-30 here in the Portland area.

The first day's gardens (Friday) were in North Portland making it easy for those driving down from areas up north to stop by on their way into town. I had a little open garden event that morning, for friends coming in from elsewhere who wanted to see my garden (I wasn't open for the official event), so I got a bit of a late start. The Eastman Griffin garden was first on my list.

I'd been to this garden once before, many years ago (2013 to be exact, it's the second garden in the post) but much had changed, not the least of which was the sidewalk border which had burned a few years back (I think fireworks ignited the fence?) and was replanted with a tapestry of xeric sun lovers.  

What a gift to the neighborhood, to have all of these fabulous plants growing along the public sidewalk, Lobelia tupa...

Trachycarpus fortunei

Dierama pulcherrimum 

Allium sphaerocephalon, I believe.

The garden description from our tour booklet: "We live and garden on two city lots, just steps from the bustling Mississippi Historic District. We have been gardening in this space since 1988. In 2003, we purchased the vacant lot to our south and the main garden was created." 

"The garden is designed as separate garden rooms, starting with the "PNW garden" filled with large evergreen conifers and aspen trees. The understory is filled with shade-loving shrubs and perennials like rhododendrons, hydrangeas, camellias, fatsias, pieris, hellebores, fuchsias, hostas, and ferns." 

The first time I visited this garden their Wollemia nobilis was was about my height, it's much taller now. It also looks to have suffered over one of our nasty winter spells (above), but it seems to be growing out of that just fine. It was also in a container during that previous visit, and is now in the ground.

"Walking through a kiwi-covered arbor takes you to the "tropical garden." 

"Overstuffed beds filled with bananas, cannas, dahlias, gunnera, lilies, and abutilon great a riot of hot colors all summer long. Established perennial borders surround the tropical beds and are anchored by 12-foot obelisks holding climbing roses and clematis, which bridge the color gap between early spring and summer."

Of course I was rather taken by the acid-yellow (yellow/orange/green) bromeliads and the turquoise glass mulch. 

As I was writing this post I asked Andrew (my art-schooled husband who knows his colors) how he would refer to the bromeliad's color. That started a conversation where I shared that I sometimes feel and taste colors. He said that only happened to him if he was playing with Led Zeppelin.

The house belonging to the gardeners is the green one with the angled addition. That's a multi-family building looming over them from behind.

Agaves!

A nice collection.

Are those plants on the purple pedestal real? I found myself wondering looking at my photos. I know there were a couple artificial plants in pots adding drama, Dayrol Griffin has been the floral director for Portland's Grand Floral Parade (part of Portland's Rose Festival) for over 20 years and some things have followed him home.

Peter Eastman (the other half of the garden's ownership) is the tree and shrub buyer for Al’s Garden & Home.

My photo doesn't accurately show just how tall this palm is. It's crazy tall, maybe the tallest Trachycarpus fortunei I've seen. 

Turning back towards the tropical garden.

And taking the path back around to the front of the house.

There's definitely a lot of color in this garden!

And palms...

And shades of green... (many more Portland/HPSO Study Weekend gardens to come!)

The Bit at the End

Last month I received an email referencing a mention of my garden in a Sunday “At Home” section of the Seattle Times and asking about our pergola design (aka the shade pavilion). I was surprised as nobody had asked me for photos, but then when I found the story, and saw it was written by Erica Browne Grivas, I realized it was a photo taken during the open garden I mentioned hosting the morning I visited the Eastman Griffin garden. Here's the story; Building sheltering spaces for your backyard, if you're interested. Mine is the 3rd image in the series that starts a shot from Gillian Mathews garden. There are lots of great ideas!

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.