Garden Shinanigans in Oregon Part 4: Doing the Dance of Oaks

It has been a real plant guys trip as we next hit up the boys over at Dancing Oaks Nursery.

I've heard so much about this nursery, purchased many of their plants and I met Fred last season at a North American Rock Garden Society meeting where I purchased some awesome things! So, it was really quite a treat to be able to see (AND SHOP at) their remarkable nursery and extensive display gardens. I also got to meet Leonard, a true plant fanatic!

From left to right: Fred Weisensee, Matt, Leonard Foltz, and Erik soaking up the sunbreak and chatting plants before we raided their nursery and scored some wonderful plants!

Much like the O'byrnes, they have excellent bones and structure in their landscape. They have this stunning plot of land in the Willamette Valley that's just so rich and it really is an excursion to get to, but WOW.

Though most of the wonderful herbaceous collections they have are dormant and marked only by blue flags to denote their location, the paths and the existing structures really help define what really is a remarkable garden that is really diverse in a way that people can re-create a lot of the elements in which they integrated in their landscape. With a basic bedding scheme like this simpled edged in stone, you can create an extravagant woodland garden just PACKED with treasures!




They also use conifers effectively and I love the simple stonework of the formal path that leads to a future focal point, which, I believe is a grand stand of HUGE Gunnera manicata aka DINOSAUR FOOD!









There were more Hellebores to be found and this patch growing amongst a grove of crook-stemmed bamboo was quite attractive.











So, luckily, Matt drove and brought his work truck so we could get as many plants in as we could. And boy did we PACK IT!!!

Complete with the O'Byrne's Hellebores, We strategically loaded it up! No, we weren't done loading yet! LOL!

As determined Matt was to get EVERYTHING in, he had to leave behind a few plants that Fred and Leonard would graciously bring up to Washington on their next speaking/plant selling engagement.

So, I thought this was their house. Nope. It's actually their guest house. Freakin' unbelievable.

They warmed up their guests with tea and baked goods in a most awesome kitchen that I'd want someday. Look at that open space and the island could also serve as a demonstration platform to give talks, lectures and even film a television show!!!

Fred kindly took this photo of us, but the group photo of all of us turned out blurry. I always strive to capture moments I want to remember, but all the more reason to return and pay the guys another visit and buy more plants for myself and client projects.

We were then treated to a nice rainbow that graced the nursery and garden making for a wonderful ending to a most awesome trip.

This is a definition of a true, retail NURSERY. It's not a garden center where you can find all your tools, composts, gloves, pots, fertilizers, aprons and other crap like that. It's an actual place where plants are grown, propagated, evaluated and truly take centerstage. OH, BUT THEY'VE GOT SOME OF THE BEST ORGANIC EGGS EVER!!  $3.50 for a wonderful dozen of assorted eggs, which Matt taught me how to fry them "over easy". Hhahhaha

Good times...good times....
 
R

Catching Up...

Ok, so it's been a crazy past few weeks. I've tried to post random photos and stuff just to say that I'm alive and still at it. Man, blogs are a lot of work!

Here's sort of a lil' timeline of my activities, where each one could be a potential blog subject/entry!


1) With severe reductions in state and departmental budgets, a prominent and critical position from UW Botanic Gardens was cut. It was so unfortunate to hear of the news and it basically resonated with what's going on with Botanic Gardens across the nation.

I'll try and elaborate on my thoughts about this New York Times article, but it basically states that many botanical institutions are taking on a new direction that isn't really so plant focused, but instead, they're catering to the gardens as simply places to be for non-horticultural events.

Even with this transition, you'd think that they'd keep up a position that produces the plant collections as well as provide outreach programs to instill in youth the importance of our native plants and environments. Ugh, it got me quite down and really unmotivated to work.

2) I prepared for and attended for the first time the Perennial Plant Association annual symposium held in Portland, OR this year. I spoke on "Perennials for Tough Situations" and aside from a supposed disappointing review from a very well known and respected individual in horticulture who attended my presentation, the feedback from everyone else afterward was most encouraging. I took the time down there to spend with friends, colleagues, and visit gardens and nurseries I've never seen before and so thrilled to finally have now! Definitely more soon!

3) It's time to scale back a bit. Each gardening season brings forth with it new challenges and this year, I've come to realize that my constantly full and unstable plate will continue to be occasionally unpleasant and intolerable if I don't make some pretty tough decisions in the next couple of months. Basically, a significant someone reminded me that I have a lot of life left to accomplish all that I aspire to do in horticulture. It's time to explore the country and the rest of the world more; gain experience that will help better shape me as a person and as a professional and realize that I have a whole arsenal of other skills and talents I must continue to nurture.

4) I've been thinking a lot about my "audience". Being somewhat of an outlier in the industry because of my age, I've worked diligently to appeal to an older generation of experienced gardeners, but now that I feel like I've got many of them on my side, I need to start collaborating more with my up and coming colleagues who are doing big and wonderful things to ensure that plants and gardening become not just a luxury for people, but a wonderful and fulfilling way of life! It's hard to bridge the generational gap at times, but I think it can be done with hard work, lots of patience, and a genuine respect and understanding between everyone.


There's lots to ramble about, but I promised myself that I'd try to really get more sleep than I've been getting.


Please stay tuned and thank you all for reading!



Riz