Random Acts of Gardening

Photo: Getty Images

Information provided by the Regional Water Providers Consortium (RWPC)

Using resources wisely and understanding water conservation is important in the Portland metro area. Portland receives about 37 inches of rainfall annually. Only about 12 percent of that precipitation falls June through September. We tend to use the highest amount of water during summer months when our water supply is at its lowest—water use can often double in our region during the summer months due to outdoor watering. This summer, the Regional Water Providers Consortium encourages you to hand your kids a bucket and shovel and turn gardening into a learning experience.

Living in rainy Oregon can make it tough for kids to connect the dots about saving water. Here are three activities that promote water conservation and produce tangible results.

1.    Introduce your kids to the joy of gardening using native [and xeric plants]. Children love gardening. Helping kids plant a seed, start or fully rooted plant, care for it and watch it grow and bloom into a beautiful flower is a great way to introduce an understanding of the value of natural resources. Choosing native plants for children’s early gardening experiences is a great way to set them (and the environment) up for success. Once established, native plants are very low maintenance, require little to no pesticides or fertilizers, and survive on minimal water. [Editor’s note: Even native plants require water for the first year or two to get established.]

2.    Give your soil a healthy boost with compost. Adding organic matter such as mulch or compost can greatly increase your soil’s ability to absorb and store water (especially important in our region, where the native soil is dominated by clay). Plus, it’s a great excuse for kids to dig! [Start a compost or worm bin to turn food scraps and clippings into garden gold.]

3.    Use a watering gauge to make sure you water your garden efficiently. A watering gauge helps you see how long it takes your sprinkler to water an inch—about what grass needs each week. Once you know this, you can adjust your watering to meet your garden’s needs so that it gets just the right amount of water each week. Request a free watering gauge kit from RWPC, and follow the instructions together. The kits are available from July 7-31 for anyone who lives in the RWPC service territory (while supplies last; one per customer, please). Request your free watering gauge kit by calling 503.823.7528, emailing RWPCinfo@portlandoregon.gov or visiting RWPC’s Facebook page. Please include your mailing address, water provider name and how you heard about the offer.

Here are some additional resources offered by RWPC to help you create a waterwise garden that will be enjoyed by kids and adults alike:
•    Water-Efficient Plants for the Willamette Valley: an online guide packed with photos and information about waterwise plants
•    Planting & Maintaining Your Lawn: a brochure to help you get the most out of your lawn, with information on grass alternatives and waterwise maintenance
•    The Weekly Watering Number: the amount of water in inches that your lawn needs each week, tailored to your zip code

The Regional Water Providers Consortium (a group of 20+ local water providers plus the regional government Metro) is committed to good stewardship of our region’s water through conservation, emergency preparedness planning, and water supply coordination. The Consortium provides resources and information to help individual and commercial customers save water.

Hydrangea macrophylla'Wayne's White'

Hydrangeas offer some of the best garden value for the dollar: Months of blooms and, in some cases, stem and leaf color and a fall foliage show. You have the macrophylla (mophead and lacecaps), paniculata, quercifolia (oakleaf), serrata, and even the occasional aspera and arborescen. Every year, more new hydrangeas appear on the market. The hottest new characteristics are compact form (three feet tall and wide) and multi-colored blooms on the plant at the same time. I did a tally in my head and the number of Hydrangeas I have in my yard is … 40!

When most of my Hydrangeas were just starting to form buds, Twist-'n-Shout was already in full bloom. It blooms on new wood, but it blooms much earlier and more prolifically on old wood. It is a stunner with bright blue, eight-inch wide lacecap blooms. Last year I was given a ‘Lemon Daddy’; its foliage is a lovely chartreuse. It has a few blooms forming and I suspect the mophead will be a light pink.‘Wayne’s White’ is one of my favorites. It’s a lacecap, but it seems to have fewer fertile flowers than other lacecaps, either that or they are just covered by the massive, showy, sterile flowers that open with a tinge of pink and age to pure white.

Twist-'n-Shout

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Lemon Daddy'

‘Glowing Embers’ (a.k.a. ‘Alpengluhen’) is hard to beat for intense, magenta mophead flowers. It is reliable with dark green leaves and a nice size (about four feet tall and wide). The dark purple-black stems of ‘Nigra’ beautifully offset its deep pink blooms. ‘Zebra’ is a compact mophead with white blooms and sturdy dark stems, and it is blessed with a much smaller stature than ‘Nigra’. This is its second year in my garden and I’m impressed. And of course, H. serrata'Preziosa' offers dark maroon stems and lots of flowers.

Hydrangea macrophylla'Glowing Embers'

Hydrangea macrophylla'Nigra'

Hydrangea macrophylla'Zebra'

Hydrangea serrata 'Preziosa'

Regrettably, I’ve lost the tags on many varieties in my garden. I wish I knew the cultivar names of three in particular. One is a small-stature lacecap with intensely blue three-inch blooms. Another blue lacecap is a larger shrub with sterile blooms and bead-like fertile flowers that intensify in color as they mature. Another is a paniculata. Paniculatas often feature reddish stems with pyramid-shaped flowerheads. The one I’m so enamored with is rather course in texture with a balanced mix of creamy sterile and fertile flowers.

Unknown small stature lacecap Hydrangea

Unknown lacecap Hydrangea

Unknown Hydrangea paniculata

And then there is the oakleaf hydrangea ‘Snowflake’ with its double white blooms. It’s a bit floppy, but the blooms age beautifully and the leaves turn a lovely purplish red in the fall.

Hydrangea quercifolia 'Snowflake'

There have been a few disappointments, too, but those I gave away and they are thriving in the gardens of friends. Few pests bother Hydrangeas and they make beautiful cut flowers. Other than a little fertilizer and some pruning, Hydrangeas are delightfully carefree. A nice mix of species and cultivars generally can be found in garden centers and a vast selection can be found at www.HydrangeasPlus.com.

Do you have a can’t-live-without-it Hydrangea?

Wrist Stretch for the Gardener. Photo: www.StacyBest.com

I don’t like gyms or to “work out,” but I do like gardening. In addition to walking Barney, my adorable Golden Retriever, and dancing, I consider gardening to be a vital part of my fitness, health and well-being program. I used to be able to work in the garden for hours and hours, now a four to six hour stint is about all I can muster. What I don’t do—but should—is prepare for working in the garden by stretching. Stacy Best is a garden coach with a blog offering tips on gardening for health, including stretching. A few well chosen stretches might make a day in the garden—and the next day—even more enjoyable!

Gate by Mike Suri, Suri Iron

Finding inspiration. Spending a day with friends. Reveling in what gardeners—and garden designers—have accomplished. Seeing how garden and lifestyle challenges are solved. These are a few reasons to take advantage of garden tours. In the case of the ANLD Designers Garden Tour which took place June 28, visiting six urban gardens also raised funds for ANLD’s scholarship fund. (ANLD stands for Association of Northwest Landscape Designers.) Click here and you’ll see more photos and explanations of the projects. I’d like to share what my takeaways were for the gardens.

However, before launching into the ANLD garden tour photo essay, if you live in the Portland area, I encourage you to join the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon to take advantage of the hundreds of open gardens that its members so generously share. The open gardens alone are worth the price of membership!

Art in the ANLD gardens played and important role.It created focal points and whimsy, distracted the eye from vistas best left unseen, added punches of color, and visually pulled the visitor to destinations in the garden, not to mention creating the "Wow!" factor.

The rusted metal rooster added an element of surprise in an otherwise sophisticated Japanese-inspired garden. Rooster was designed by metal artist Zoe Bacon in the garden designed by Barb Hilty.

Garden owner Linda Ernst created these lively glass panels to add color in her already colorful edible garden.

Also in the Ernst garden, this contemporary gate acts as art.

The forms in this garden gate by Mike Suri, Suri Iron, were inspired by the poppies found on the property and saved by the homeowners when they built their new eco-friendly home on the lot. Garden designed by Marina Wynton.

St. Francis is one of my favorite sculptures by artist Patrick Gracewood, Gracewood Studios. Garden was designed by Bruce Hegna.

Structures define space and add functionality to a garden. Both of these garden structures were used as light-filled tool sheds that can also shelter tender plants.

Shed with green roof designed by Marina Wynton.


Shed was crafted by Patrick Blakeslee. Lion in foreground was sculpted by Patrick Gracewood.

Water features can contribute visual appeal, drama, color and sound to a garden. The sound distracts the ear from unappealing neighborhood and traffic noise, a very practical application, but overall the effect is usually one of relaxing the soul. Ahhhh.

Found granite was the inspiration for this custom water feature. Its scale is large for the garden space adding a lot of zen drama, if one can use both those words to describe something. Garden designed by Barb Hilty; refreshed plantings designed by Adriana Berry.

The small birdbath-like fountain provides just enough movement and sound to make it a welcome destination for wildlife. Garden was designed by Darcy Daniels.

This contemporary water feature design incorporates the owners' glass artistry. Designed by Laura Crockett.

Sometimes it is the very subtle that is of great interest in a garden design.

Brass Buttons (Leptinella squalida, formerly Cotula squalida) made a tidy and attention-grabbing ground cover for this parking strip in the garden designed by Donna Giguere.

The design challenge was to manage a steeply sloping slope (solution: beautiful concrete retaining walls that compliment the 1905 house), create off-street parking (solution: carve space out of the sloping yard and use attractive permeable pavers), and use low maintenance plantings. Designer: Donna Giguere.

Rain water was redirected to this simple and stylish rain garden. Designer: Donna Giguere.

Believe it or not, this is a Mahonia! Fabulous evergreen texture. Look for Mahonia eurybracteata'Soft Caress'.

Salad Burnet (Sanguisorb minor). Photo: WikiCommons

New is in the eye of the beholder and these plants are new to me even though one has been around for hundreds of years.

A potluck dish of deviled eggs was decorated with a plant with intriguing oval, tooth-edged pinnate leaflets. Turns out the plant is a perennial herb called Salad Burnet (Sanguisorba minor, syn. Poterium sanguisorba). “Salad what?” I said, stumped by the name. When I popped a leaf in my mouth, I didn’t taste much flavor, although some sources say it tastes of “light cucumber.” Brought to the New World by the first English colonists, it does well in containers as it is drought-tolerant, compact (12 – 18 inches tall and 12 – 24 inches wide), clump forming, hardy (USDA zones 4 – 8) and heat tolerant. Plant it in full sun to part shade conditions. Use the youngest leaves in salads and dressings. Click here for more detailed information, including its medicinal properties. It spreads by rhizomes and self-seeds. It looks like it would be an attractive addition to the garden, and it almost always is a plus that it is edible.

Amaranthus 'Illumination'

Eucomis Aloha Lily® Tiki

While at Portland Nursery for an espalier fruit tree pruning class, I walked by the stop-you-in-your-tracks Amaranthus‘Illumination’ and had to take a photo. Wow! This three to four-foot tall plant would be lovely sprinkled among other sun-loving plants in well-drained soil. An annual, the sturdy stems hold darker green leaves below the densely-packed gold and red foliage above. Color holds from mid-summer until frost.

Another intriguing find also requires full sun and good drainage: Eucomis Aloha Lily® Tiki. The Aloha Lily series are compact (18 inches tall and wide). Pink flowers appear July until frost. USDA Zone 8. Cute!

What new-to-you plants have you seen this year?

Orange. Chartreuse. Burgundy. I finally found success with my containers using a combination of these colors. Until this year, I’ve never been happy with my efforts to produce lush, lovely containers, but inspiration struck when I saw zonal geranium (Pelargonium) ‘Tricolor’ and I’m thrilled with the results.

A grouping of pots near my front steps exudes chartreuse. This year, its brassy color is tempered with splashes of orange and accents of burgundy to tone down the color temperature. The mixture includes a chartreuse and burgundy sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas‘Marguerite’ and ‘Blackie’, respectively); a long-throated, orange, tender fuchsia; a burgundy and chartreuse coleus; and the gloriously beautiful, variegated Canna‘Bengal Tiger’ (syn. Canna‘Pretoria’) with its yellow and green striped leaves. Also out front in another pot is Abutilon‘Salmon’ with its coral colored flowers and speckled yellow and green leaves. (I haven’t attempted to winter over an Abutilon. Have you?)

On my back patio, the color combo continues. Geranium ‘Tricolor’, Oxalis ‘Molten Lava’, Begonia Waterfall® Encanto Falls® Orange, coleus ‘Yellow Fin Tuna’, and an orange monkey flower (Mimulus) flaunt their colors. Tucked under all the exuberant foliage and flowers is Platt’s Black Brass Buttons (Leptinella squalida), which doesn’t stand a chance with its diminutive size and subtle coloration.

What are your favorite container combinations this year?

Abutilon Salmon

A Tree of 40 Fruit

Can one tree be an artwork, research project, and form of conservation? If the tree is “sculpted” by award-winning artist Sam Van Aken, the answer is “Yes!” Scheduled to be demolished, the artist stepped in to preserve the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station’s stone fruit orchard. With its 250 varieties, the orchard was a living museum of the 150-200 year history of stone fruit agriculture in the U.S. He believed creating a living form of art – the Tree of 40 Fruit – was the best way to preserve the orchard’s diversity. From the rootstock stage and over the course of five years, forty varieties of stone fruit—peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries, plums and almonds—are chip grafted onto a tree. In spring, the normal looking fruit tree turns into a magical tapestry of pink, crimson, white and magenta. It returns to a normal-looking tree until it starts to bear 40 different fruit.

Why did Sam Van Aken create the Tree of 40 Fruit? He believes:

•    As artwork, the tree interrupts and transforms the everyday. Van Aken designs and sculpts a tree by how it blossoms.
•    As a research project, his stone fruit collection and a Tree of 40 Fruit creates a comprehensive timeline of when varieties blossom in relation with each other, important information for the study of pollinators.
•    As a conservation project, he grafts heirloom, antique and native species on each Tree of 40 Fruit and places them throughout country, creating his own type of diversity and preservation.

One person can make a difference.

Van Aken spoke at TEDx-Manhattan. Listen in here. Read an Epicurious interview with the artist here.

Pachysandra terminalis 'Green Sheen'

Pachysandra terminalis‘Green Sheen’ started it all. With its incredibly shiny reflective leaves, it’s impossible to stroll by without noticing it. Except for its sheen, it’s a rather unremarkable plant, but in my shady garden, its shiny surface shouts, “Pause and look at me!” So I started looking for other leaves that had the same effect. Ajuga reptans‘Metallica Crispa’, Osmanthus rotundifolius, Polystichum setiferum (Shield Fern), and Leucothoe fontanesiana‘Rainbow’ are shiny standouts in my garden, especially ‘Metallica Crispa’. I was curious about other plants that offered shiny foliage, which is especially useful in a shady spot. I happened to be at Portland Nursery for a class, so I took a quick stroll around to see which plants offered intensely shiny foliage and here’s a short list of what I found:

Angelica pachycarpa (so incredible I bought one even though I knew nothing about the plant!)
Bergenia cordifolia (virtually any cultivar, and its broad dramatic leaves heighten the effect)
Cyrtomium falcatum (Japanese Holly Fern)
Euonymus japonicas‘Macrophyllus Butterscotch’
Fatsia japonica (I am on the fence about this plant, but its leaves are big and shiny)
Heuchera‘Midnight Ruffles’ or other dark-leaved cultivars
Ilex x meservae‘MonNieves’ PP21941 (Scallywag™ Holly)
Quercus robur x bicolor‘Long’ PP12673 (Regal Prince® Oak)

Do you have a favorite shiny leaved plant?


Ajuga reptans‘Metallica Crispa’

Osmanthus rotundifolius

Polystichum setiferum (Shield Fern)

Leucothoe fontanesiana‘Rainbow’

Angelica pachycarpa

Bergenia cordifolia

Cyrtomium falcatum (Japanese Holly Fern)

Euonymus japonicas‘Macrophyllus Butterscotch’

Fatsia japonica

Heuchera‘Midnight Ruffles’

Scallywag™ Holly

Regal Prince® Oak

Created by Lori Vollmer, co-owner of Garden Fever!

The Farwest Trade Show, a wholesale show for the horticulture industry, wrapped up August 23. On the show floor we organized a display of sculpted plants, which we defined as plants that have been sheared or trained into a form. Sculpting plants can turn the mundane and common (think Thuja/arborvitae, juniper, spruce, pine or boxwood) into something strikingly visual and attention-grabbing. Several years ago, I decorated a spiral arborvitae for Christmas and was thrilled with the results. So I asked a landscape designer, a garden center owner and a garden center merchandiser to decorate a sculpted plant in the display. The intention was to spark the creativity of people attending the show and to get them to think about sculpted plants differently. Perhaps it will spark your creativity and get you to take a second look at sculpted plants.

From sentimental to creating a statement for the doorstep or event, the creative possibilities are limitless! Have you decorated a sculpted plant with good results?

Created by Paul Taylor , ONCP Garden Design and Consultation, titled Gardening Through the Ages, it is decorated with well-used gloves, children's garden tools and family photos.

Lori Vollmer from Garden Fever! created this 16-foot tall topiary titled Namaste. Perfect for a bridal event or other celebratory gathering.

A close-up of the bottom ball of Namaste, created by Lori Vollmer from Garden Fever! Luscious!

Celebrate Fall with this or a similar design. Created by Sheressa Dolph from Al's Garden Center in Woodburn using a juniper spiral. Her creation is titled Fashionable Fall Fanfare.

My attempt at decorating an arborvitae spiral with a rainbow of plastic ornaments and twinkling white lights that put me and my neighbors in a festive mood.

PS: I’m throwing in some photos of other sculpted plants, many of which were stunning, including the 16-foot tall Heuchera tree by Garden Gallery Iron Works (the Terra Nova Nurseries plants were grown by Blooming Nursery for the display).

I was strolling through an open garden and shot this image. Can you guess what plant it is? It certainly offers fabulous texture and color!

Insects fall prey to these carnivorous plants. Their modified leaves form a deep cavity filled with liquid that entices then traps and drowns insects. The plants are fascinating to children and adults alike. While the culinary habits of their leaves are intriguing and possibly off-putting, the shape of the Sarracenia genus and its many hybrids is undeniably elegant and luscious. According to Wikipedia, the plants derive mineral nutrition from the insects dissolving in the pitcher’s liquid. Known as trumpet pitchers, they look tender yet they are typically hardy in USDA zones 5a-9b. So hardy in fact, that Sarracenia purpurea is the floral emblem for the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

I’ve seen pitcher and other carnivorous plants at plant sales and garden shows and have been tempted to give them a try, but so far I’ve resisted. Then recently I saw them in a garden (see photos) and once again I’m tempted. They need a sunny or part sun location and a wet environment during the growing season—May through October. It sounds like they may need some additional attention during their dormant season. That’s a conversation I’ll have to have with a nursery … or perhaps you know the secret to their winter survival?

To learn more about Sarrocenia and other pitcher plant genus, check out www.carnivorous-plants.com. One local source for Sarracenia is Dancing Oaks Nursery.

Rocks in the garden are the equivalent of mascara for blond eyelashes. (Note: This is the opinion of a strawberry blond that is seldom seen outside her neighborhood without mascara.) Rocks make elements in the garden stand out ... and they add a little magic. Prior to last year, I had two rocks in my garden. Now they define entry points onto paths, define space, add water elements, act as stepping stones in my mushy grass (I can now traverse my garden without muddy feet even in the wettest of weather) and provide seating in the form of a semi-circular rock wall. I dream of lining my gravel paths and beds with them, too. I have books filled with ways to use rocks in the garden, and Pinterest offers lots of inspiration. The use of rocks is virtually limitless in a garden setting. If I had three wishes from a genie, I very likely would use one of them to make rocks weigh less. Moving the darn things is probably the biggest obstacle to using more of them. Do rocks play an important role in your garden?


Three basalt columns. On with still water; the other two with bamboo spouts.

One of my all time favorite fountains.

Rock as an eye-catching mulch.

Perhaps easier than building a short wall? Photo: Pinterest

Mary-Kate Mackey created her own alpine scree where dwarf conifers and Lewisia thrive.

Loose Mexican pebbles (with concrete keystone) add color and stature to my garden's gate.

Rocks aid in managing stormwater runoff. From a courtyard designed by Steven Koch, FASLA.

Rock as art - painted green and used as sculpture in this case. Michael Schultz designed this garden.

Hosting a miniature gazebo. How adorable is that?!?! Photo: Pinterest

This looks like the fantastic work of Jeffrey Bale. Photo: Pinterest

A magical mix of stones. Photo: Pinterest

Photo: Pinterest

A rock "chair" in the dry stack wall.

Photo: www.simplyrecipes.com

Until now, I’ve never grown tomatillos and have seldom eaten them, yet I decided to buy and plant four varieties earlier this year in my community garden plot. (Click here for how to pronounce tomatillo.) I had no expectations other than hoping that they would grow and provide a few fruit. It’s a good thing I was enthusiastic with my initial purchase, because unbeknownst to me, two or more plants are needed for proper pollination.

My tomatillo experiment is wildly exceeding my initial low expectations. Currently, many are bursting their inedible, paper-like husks, a sign that they are ready to be picked, eaten fresh, or fried, boiled, roasted or steamed before being consumed. An unexpected advantage of tomatillos is that they store well: they will keep refrigerated for several weeks, longer if the husks are removed and they are stored in sealed plastic bags in the refrigerator (one source said up to 3 months). They can also be frozen whole or sliced.

As part of the nightshade family, tomatillos (Physolis ixocarpa and P. philadelphica) are a cousin to tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplant. Native to Mexico and domesticated by the Aztecs around 800 BC, tomatillos are an important part of Mexican cuisine and the key ingredient in green sauces. They need full sun, well-drained moderately rich soil and plenty of water. Plant at the same time you set out tomatoes when all danger of frost is past and the soil is warm. The plants are sprawling, growing 3-4 feet tall and wide. I didn’t provide any support for them this year, but will use tomato cages when I plant them next year to minimize the growing space they require.

Many green salsa recipes using tomatillos can be found online. I made an easy refreshing cold soup using mine. Here’s how I did it:

•    Roast/char the tomatillos under the broiler
•    Put them in the food processor with fresh tomatoes from the garden (about a 1:1 mixture), pulsing until little pulp remains
•    Add a little cumin, salt and a wee bit of sugar to taste
•    Serve cold or at room temperature

Baby Blue Spruce

Blue is the favorite color among men and women in the U.S. and Europe. It is associated with harmony and infinity. Blue grows well with just about every other color in the garden. It is a cool color that recedes, unless it has a silvery edge to it, in which case it sparkles in the garden and creates a focal point.

One of Oregon’s finest wholesale growers, A & R Spada Farms, started the Blue is Cool® campaign to promote various forms of blue-needled conifers. The impetus was a new introduction to the trade: Baby Blue™ Spruce (Picea pungens var. Baby Blue). The first photo is of the Baby Blue spruce; it was about two feet tall when the nursery gave it to the OAN three or four years ago. It hasn’t been pruned nor has it had any supplemental water, yet it has a perfect shape and looks great! Baby Blue spruce is notable because it is grown from seed, not grafted like most other blue conifers. Heavy bud formation on the leader results in very compact growth and the needles grow out evenly around the branches giving it a very full appearance.

Sticking with conifers for a moment, there are dozens of blue-needled conifers worthy of consideration for small and moderately sized gardens (many of which are deer resistant), including Cedrus atlantica ‘Horstmann’, which has a narrow upright habit and icy blue needles; Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’, low-growing and mounding; and Abies pinsapo‘Glauca’ with its layered branches and stiff, intensely powder blue colored, short needles. To see more blue conifers, click here for Peace of Mind Nursery’s “Blues Garden” photo gallery.


Cedrus atlantica 'Horstmann' Photo: Monrovia

Juniperus squamata'Blue Star'

Abies pinsapo 'Glauca'Photo: Richie Steffen/Great Plant Picks

Yucca rostrata‘Sapphire Skies’ with its spikes of blue foliage (Sean Hogan, Cistus Nursery, used this plant in a rain water capture bio swale in a Portland commercial parking lot and it is thriving!), Agave, Dianthus, Euphorbia, and fescue grass also add blue points of interest in the garden. And we can’t forget all the beautiful blue-leaved hostas, the most diminutive of which may be ‘Blue Mouse Ears’.

Yucca rostrata'Sapphire Skies' is planted in a bio swale in a commercial parking lot. Designed by Sean Hogan, Cistus Nursery.

Hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears' Photo: Sebright Gardens

Cool your heels – and the garden – with blue foliage plants. Blue will encourage you to linger in the garden a little while longer.

What’s your favorite blue foliage plant?


Pumpkin topiary. Photo: www.bhg.com

Fall has arrived. Even though it is the perfect time to add new plants and move around existing plants (both of which I need to do), a gardener can’t be blamed for wanting a little diversion and decorating for fall instead. Pumpkins are filling the garden centers and stores and they are just begging to be part of the outdoor décor.

The new guinea impatiens on my porch have been unceremoniously replaced with a pumpkin — or probably more correctly, squash — “topiary.” Other white, green and orange squash are now sprinkled about the approach to my front steps in anticipation of trick or treaters. In my search for ideas, I thought your fall decorating might be inspired by these project photos and videos. If you’re not up for doing a pumpkin project on your own, Cornell Farm is offering two Painted Pumpkin Workshops on Sunday, October 5 (the family-friendly version is offered from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the adult version, which includes beverages that might help your creativity, is offered from 3 - 5 p.m.). There is a fee to participate ($20 and $30 respectively for three pumpkins). Please call 503.292.9895 to reserve your space.

Hanging Pumpkin Planter: Owner Jon Karsseboom and his staff at The Garden Corner are always thinking up creative ways to use plants and decorating for fall is no exception. In this video , Jon uses artificial pumpkins to create unique hanging planters. To my way of thinking, he’s creating little cathedrals for the plants. Consequently, I would shape the openings more like Gothic windows. If the inside of the pumpkin was painted with a glow-in-the-dark paint, I wonder if that would create interesting silhouettes at night …

Pumpkin Owl: I marvel at the creativity of some people. Add a few sunflower seeds with a glue gun to a pumpkin and what can you get? An adorable little (or big) owl! Check out the how-to video.

A Better Homes & Garden project: Metallic Pastel Pumpkins

Metallic Pastel Pumpkins: Shimmering pumpkins team up for an eerie evening. Use iridescent spray paint to cover light-color pumpkins (gray, tan, or white). While the paint is still wet, sprinkle the pumpkins with iridescent glitter.

Project: Better Homes & Gardens

Welcoming Pumpkin Wheelbarrow: Place an antique wheelbarrow or old wooden wagon near your door and fill it with a cheery mix of fall gourds, berry vines, and pumpkins. Then, use paint, permanent marker, or sticker letters to decorate the pumpkins with a friendly fall welcome.

Faux Bois pumpkin. Project: Martha Stewart Living

Faux Bois Pumpkin: The Martha Stewart Living creative crew gave this pumpkin a cool, unexpected twist. They used what they call a carve-by-color technique, which is scraping away the skin and sawing holes in strategic spots to create a pumpkin that looks richly textured and multi-tonal. The faux bois design is done freehand. Improvise to create much of the wood-grain pattern. They offer knot templates to help get you started. Scrape the design with a linoleum cutter and then make free-form lines to fill in the design. Make the eye of each knot by piercing the pumpkin wall with a ceramic hole cutter, apple corer, drill or knife.

Modern Swirly Pumpkin from www.HGTVGardens.com

Modern Swirly Pumpkin: HGTV created this pumpkin with silicone and paint. Very elegant. Check out the how-to photos here.

Project from Better Homes & Gardens

Pumpkin Flames: Better Homes & Gardens came up with this idea and they provide a template for the flame design. Enlarge the flame-shape stencil to suit the sizes of your pumpkins. If you want every pumpkin to have a different look, use the stencil as inspiration for creating your own flame designs. Gut and carve pumpkins, leaving the stems in place. Create a log surround then stack the largest carved pumpkins on the bottom, and work your way up with progressively smaller specimens. Light real votive candles or flickering LED votives in the pumpkins to create the flicker of flames.


Tulipa acuminata Photo: www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com

Tulips probably originated thousands of years ago in the harsh growing conditions of a mountainous corridor that stretches along the 40th parallel north between Northern China and Southern Europe. Hybrid tulips usually receive all the attention and glory, but species tulips and their hybridized brethren typically offer more longevity in the garden.

Species tulips can be described as “the wildflowers of the tulip family.” Under favorable growing conditions, they will come back year after year and usually increase in numbers. They are smaller and considered less dramatic than the beautiful hybrids, but they also offer several advantages. Because they have short sturdy stems, they are less vulnerable to stormy spring weather. Additionally, it's like having two flowers in one. Their flowers usually remain closed through the morning or on cloudy days, showing off the outside color of the petals, and when warmed by the sun, they open to reveal their inside petal color.

In the maritime Pacific Northwest, late fall is the time to plant tulips. Because of their smaller size, you’ll want to plant more of them to create a visual impact. And like the larger tulips, plant them with perennials requiring the same growing conditions (sun, excellent drainage, no summer water) to cover dying foliage after the blooms are spent.

T. clusiana var. chrysantha Photo: www.vanengelen.com

To get a glimpse of rare wild tulip species growing in their remote native habitats, explore www.tulipsinthewild.com, a site created by the Amsterdam Tulip Museum and the U.S. wholesale bulb seller Colorblends.

Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm in Woodburn, Oregon, sells a selection of species tulips via mail order.

T. praestans'Unicum' Photo: www.woodenshoe.com

The National Gardening Association offers these tips to increase your success at perennializing tulips:

When and where to plant. Plant tulips any time the soil six inches deep is 60° F or colder. As a general guide, plant in September or early October in USDA Climate Hardiness Zones 4 and 5; October to early November in zones 6 and 7; November to early December in zones 8 and 9; and late December to early January in zone 10. In zones 8 through 10, refrigerate tulip bulbs for six to eight weeks before planting. Place them in a paper bag away from ripening fruits (the fruits produce ethylene gas, which destroys the flower bud within the bulb).

How to plant. Tulips grow best in full sun in well-prepared soil with fast drainage. Avoid planting where water collects, or in locations that are prone to late frosts.

The rule is to plant tulips pointed end up and six inches deep, meaning four inches of soil above the top of the bulb. Plant a little deeper, to eight inches, if soil is light or sandy, or if pests such as voles are a problem. (Those two extra inches put them just out of reach of voles.) Deep planting also keeps the bulbs cooler, an advantage in mild-winter areas. Note: If you add mulch to the surface after planting, include its depth as a part of your overall planting depth. (For instance, five inches deep in soil plus three inches of mulch = eight inches deep.)

For an attractive flower display, plant five tulips per square foot, or 250 bulbs per 50 square feet. Space individual bulbs about five inches apart. When planting a grouping, take the extra care to plant at exactly the same depth; this ensures that they all will bloom at the same time. With a shovel, excavate soil to create a level planting base. Set bulbs into the bed, fertilize with a low-nitrogen granular fertilizer specially formulated for bulbs, and follow label directions about the amount to apply, and then cover with excavated soil. Fertilize each fall thereafter.

After planting, firm soil and water thoroughly. Water is especially important right after planting to ensure that the plants develop a strong root system before going into winter dormancy. Don't water again until leaves appear. In cold-winter areas (zones 3 through 6), apply straw mulch about a month after planting. This gives the bulbs time to begin growth before the soil freezes solidly. The mulch also protects the bulbs if snow cover is light or nonexistent. In mild-winter areas, mulch after planting to help keep soil as cool as possible for as long as possible.

In the spring, after the blossoms have passed their peak, clip off the flower heads and allow the green foliage to die back. This lets the plant put all its energy into building a strong bulb for the next season.

Nature is good for us. In Japan where more than half the population is stressed, they advocate a practice called Shinrin-yoku, translated as forest bathing. Developed in Japan during the 1980s it has become a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine. If a person simply visits a natural area and walks in a relaxed way there are calming, rejuvenating and restorative benefits to be achieved.* Paraphrasing John Muir: “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home. Wilderness is a necessity.” I’m taking a leap of faith that we experience similar physical, emotional and mental wellbeing benefits with a garden “bath.”

I had the pleasure recently of forest bathing at Lost Lake near Mt. Hood on a perfect early October day and felt the relaxing results for days. I also get a similar feeling of stillness and connectedness in my garden. If you don’t have a garden, take advantage of the many public gardens in Oregon (click here for a list).

Take a garden “bath.” Go into a garden. Walk slowly. Breathe deeply. Open all your senses. Ease into happiness.

To learn more about “Forest Bathing” visit these sites: *http://www.shinrin-yoku.org, http://www.hphpcentral.com/article/forest-bathing; http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/wellness/Take-Two-Hours-of-Pine-Forest-and-Call-Me-in-the-Morning.html; and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2793347/.


Nymphaea thermarum, the smallest water lily in the world		. Photo: NPR.org

Why should we care if a rare plant is stolen from a botanical garden, dug in the wild for collecting, conserving or propagating for profit, or bulldozed because its habitat is planned for a “higher” use? In January, an endangered tiny tropical water lily, Nymphaea thermarum, was spirited away by a visitor from Kew Gardens, the world’s largest collection of living plants. So what? In a fascinating article, The Guardian reporter Sam Knight investigates what happens when plant obsession turns criminal.

Getting back to the tongue-in-cheek “so what” question, as the article points out, plants are the basis of most medicines. If a plant becomes extinct, who knows what illness might not be curable as a result? Who knows what other species need it to survive? And as Kew Gardens’ plant ‘codebreaker’ Carlos Magdalena poetically explains: Each chromosome is a letter. Each gene is a word. Each organism is a book. “Each plant that is dying contains words that have only been spoken in that book,” he said. “So one plant goes, one book goes, and also one language goes and perhaps a sense of words that we will never understand. What would have happened with Shakespeare with no roses? And Monet with no water lilies?”

Plants Make Our Lives Better artwork by Annabelle, age 9.

Just in time for the holidays, the Oregon Association of Nurseries (OAN) is publishing its first ever e-calendar, which features the artwork of elementary school children, ages six to 11. We asked classrooms to encourage their students to create artwork that celebrates how plants make our lives better. The resulting art is beautiful and inspiring! The calendar, which includes monthly plant recommendations by Great Plant Picks and fun facts about how plants make our lives better, can be downloaded at www.PlantSomethingOregon.com.

The OAN, and nursery and landscape associations in 11 other states, are using the Plant Something™ program to encourage more gardening and education about the health and well-being, financial and environmental benefits of plants and gardening. To learn more about the program, visit the national Plant Something website and stay in touch with the Plant Something initiative via its Facebook page.

Some more Plant Something artwork for you to enjoy. Lots of trees. Lots of clean water. And lots of birds and pollinators.

Alberto, age 9

Conor, age 10

Isabella, age 10

Alexandra, age 8

Sherifa, age 10

Joy, age 11

Tomas, age 10

Lauren, age 10

Chloe, age 10

Nathan, age 10

Megan, age 9

Carmen, age 9

Riley, age 10

Cheyenne, age 11

Sierra, age 11

Jakob, age 11

Tariq, age 11

Abdulkadir, age 11

Manar, age 10

Katya, age 10

Mohammad, age 10

Natallie, age 10

Alan, age 11

Aiden, age 11

Logan, age 11

John, age 11

Jake, age 11

Cierah, age 10

Luke, age 9

Emily, age 9

Matthew, age 10

Paisley, age 7

Cruz, age 7

Sophia, age 7

Abigail, age 8

Jenna, age 9

Asclepias speciosa (Photo: Wikipedia Commons)

The act of gardening – tending and cultivating a plot of land – lets us actively participate in/with/for nature. One of the actions I’m taking to create a healthy slice of nature is planting for wildlife. Case in point: milkweed (Asclepias speciosa). A few years ago, I didn’t know what milkweed looked like, but I did know Monarch butterflies rely on it for sustenance during the caterpillar life stage. I actually smelled a milkweed before I laid eyes on it. Lured by its lovely fragrance -- perhaps like its pollinators? -- I found its clusters of intricate flowers by following its scent.

There are well over 100 species of milkweed, but only a few are native to the Northwest. Most species are toxic to vertebrate herbivores if ingested due to cardenolide alkaloids contained in the leaves and stems. This toxicity makes the Monarch caterpillar and butterfly unpalatable to potential predators. Asclepias speciosa is said to be the least toxic of the milkweeds. Named by Carl Linnaeus after Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, it’s an unusual plant in a number of ways. Its pollen is grouped into pollen sacs (pollinia), rather than being individual grains as is typical of most plants. “The feet or mouthparts of flower-visiting insects such as bees, wasps and butterflies, slip into one of the five slits in each flower formed by adjacent anthers. The bases of the pollinia then mechanically attach to the insect, pulling a pair of pollen sacs free when the pollinator flies off.” Its sap contains latex and milkweed filaments offer good insulation properties. Milkweed is grown commercially as a hypoallergenic filling for pillows. And Native Americans used it as a source of sweetener due to the high dextrose content of its nectar. [Source: Wikipedia]

If you have a sunny location, milkweed is worth planting for the fragrance and flower form, but it is also worthwhile planting to help save the migrating Monarch butterfly population.

For more information on milkweed and its importance to the survival of Monarch butterflies, check out these sources: Wikipedia, Monarch Joint Venture and Monarch Watch. For information on butterfly gardening, visit the North American Butterfly Association’s website. Click here for information about Monarch butterflies.

Waterwise Gardening with Kids this Summer

Investing in Hydrangeas

Gardening as Exercise

The Value of Garden Tours

New Plant Encounters

Container Combinations

The Magical (and Real) Tree of 40 Fruit

Shiny Leaves in the Garden

Topiaries Herald Seasons and Occasions

Name that Plant

Hardy and Hungry Pitcher Plants

Finishing Touches in the Garden

Tomatillos for Twenty

Blue is Cool®

Playing with Pumpkins

Species Tulips for Repeat Performance

Garden “Bathing”

Rare Plant Theft

Planting Inspiration

Gardening for Nature