Adjusting to autumn

Sick as a dog since I got back home from Raleigh, I've been watching autumn unfold its glorious color and splendor outdoors and it was starting to become a little unbearable until I gained the energy to bundle up and sneak outside to capture some images of the season.

The cold temperatures really came without warning for me this fall and many of the plants I've waited all season to really start putting on a show are already beginning to dwindle and succumb to the forties and fifties at night. I have colleagues already starting to winter their tropical container plants. Am I just really behind? Has a whole season completely passed me by in the five days I've been gone? I think I'm just not ready for the season yet as I've been on this constant work mode where I never fully savored the summer.

These images should hold me over for awhile as I recover from the flu and adjust to autumn.

Dahlia 'Weston Spanish Dancer' is one of the most intensely colored of the cactus form dahlias and also one of the most prolific bloomers. It looks absolutely smashing with a pale violet Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, a New England Aster. As annuals begin to fade or set seed, color impact like this is crucial in the landscape to compliment the other color action taking place all around the landscape. If frost stays at bay, I will be enjoying this spectacular show for a few more weeks. A plant that will hold up to some light frosts is the bold and dramatic Euphorbia mellifera.

Native to the Canary and Madeira Islands, this stunning plant can overwinter in a mild winter and keep its form, otherwise, it dies close to the ground to resprout the following spring. Seen here with Agapanthus, a Yucca and the fiery red blooms of Begonia boliviensis 'Bonfire' (one plant I will try to winter over in the ground), this plant absolutely stands out for its foliage alone. It supposedly flowers with honey-scented blooms, but I won't complain if they never appear.

Crocosmia 'Emily McKenzie' is still blooming strong and looked gorgeous with Agapanthus 'Elaine' and the sparkling seedheads of Allium christophii.


Clear fall days illuminate the garden in such beautiful ways and these lilies (Lilium 'Scheherazade') and ornamental grass (Miscanthus 'Gilt Edge') caught my eye.

Brr...not ready for fall. But these beauties sure were!

I may have missed the boat, but I've been hoping to expand my collection of Colchicums. These bulbous corms are popular among keen gardeners who long for their cheery color in late summer and into early fall. They are rarely bothered by pests (they're actually quite poisonous) and require almost no care and maintenance besides clean-up of the large, glossy, medium green foliage in late spring. Then they completely disappear in summer only to surprise the gardener in fall with spectacular flowers like these:





Local nurseries will sometimes carry them (Wells Medina has a pretty good selection), but getting them mail order is probably your best bet!

Brent and Becky's Bulbs (I met these folks recently at a Garden Writer's Symposium in Raleigh, NC. Wow, can Becky sing!).

Ok, next year I need to place my order early!

R

My stash of plants headed back with me to Washington! Boy, what a treat this all has been!

So, I just couldn't help myself. More plants were being offered for sale and I couldn't resist a great deal on a much sought after plant and then some....

Visiting the JC Raulston Arboretum was quite an experience. The clouds rolled it and it began to sprinkle and a gusty breeze made it difficult to really enjoy the experience, but the gardens and plant collections were superb!

To add to my collection of plants from the vendors and Plant Delights, I added the following to my haul:

SCHEFFLERA DELAVAYI!!!!!! Woot Woot..BOOM BOOM POW! $10.00 freakin' bucks for some really well grown plants in 4"!

Emmenopterys henryi

Cinnamomum chekiangensis

Persea species (it's labeled, but I can't remember it right now)

Gallardia aestivalis var. winkleri

Now, I think I'm completely screwed. I missed the post office time to ship these off and also, I'm still unclear if I need to get a phyto from the NC Department of Agriculture and get them inspected before I ship or bring them onto the plane!

I thought I had all this under control. ugh!

R

Plant Delights, oh baby!

Knowing I could get creative with how I pack my plants and bringing multiple boxes to ship them with. I made sure I would be coming home with selections I simply did not want to have to pay for to have packed and shipped when I could easily do it myself!

Plant Delights certainly lived up to my expectations and more so. With the help of my colleague, photographer David Perry, shot a video of my ranting on about the cool plants I saw in Tony Avent's Juniper Level Botanic Gardens.

Here's just a few things I picked up while I was there:

Woodwardia unigemmata (I pre-ordered these to make sure that they didn't sell out!)

Colocasia heterochroma 'Dark Shadows' (OMFG!, I hope lives for me)

Gloxinia namantanthodes 'Evita' (absolutely stunning color. I'll be posting photos I took of this plant on Flickr soon!)

Packed in a canvas bag I inherited from the trade exhibitions, I jammed it full along with an Aspidistra and a Edgeworthia I've been hoping to try in Seattle.

Off to the NC Farmers market, back to the convention for sessions and then an outing at famou JC Ralston Arboretum!

Sweating buckets having to rush and catch the bus,

Riz

Greetings from Raleigh!

So , I survived the red-eye flight and made it through Raleigh and completed by first full day of the Garden Writer’s Association Symposium.

It’s the second day and finally there’s a spot with free Wi-Fi. I just got through the second day of exhibits, meeting vendors and scoring on some new plants to grow and try In the Pacific Northwest. Overall, I think it’s been a fairly successful and productive trip. We leave for our first tour in about an hour or so and I should really try and catch up on some more rest, but gosh….the opportunities to network and things I want to mention, the numerous small chats with all sorts of really friendly and courteous people who love plants as much as I do and even more so. While I’m still most certainly the youngest person of the symposium (minus the tolddlers who had to come with mom), I’ve been pretty good at standing my ground, being more eloquent in communicating what I do (which still is a mouthful) and just taking in as much as I’m comfortable taking in. At times, having travelled such far distances for a symposium, you must make the most of the little amount of time, but our schedule is quite packed making it really hard to see the city. We have many wonderful tours over the next two days. I hope I see more of Raleigh.
The smorgasbord of people I’ve meet has been quite tremendous. It’s been so exciting to meet and greet with people representing companies I’ve only heard of and faces and the physical presence of those I only knew by name. I’d go down the list, but I simply don’t have the time and I’m passing in and out here at the lobby the Convention Center.

I better hustle and get my stash of sample plants and this laptop back to my hotel room before our field trip. I’ll post more on my finds and stories in a next couple of posts.
Cheers y’all!

R

Busy last few days and travel ahead

Man, do I love what I do! Thursday and Friday of last week was just crazy! A long anticipated lecture by a world renowned plantsman and the first of several fall plant sales took place and as much as I love and look forward to events like these, they can certainly be stressful and there are times where I begin to ask, "Is it still worth the time and energy":

So, here's my humble booth at thie year's NHS Fall Plant Sale held in Magnussen Park. The banner looked great, my new signs were clearly visible and informative, but the plants didn't fly off the tables as fast as I would of liked them to. The first day, Friday, was great in that the sun came out and everyone was so eager to get in and shop. However, I was still pricing plants, taping signs to wood stakes, deciding where things should go, making last minute decisions about offering certain things that didn't look so great after being unloaded from the car, being asked to remove my sign to use another type of tape for the walls, while at the same time I had to be a salesman and a robotic plant encyclopedia for people. Then there are the familiar faces, the friends and colleagues who want to catch up and know about "how EVERYTHING is going". It really can be quite overwhelming, but I know deep down I'm truly enjoying myself.

Events like this have always been a way to get myself and my plants out there for people to see. However, this sale really made me think about the 40% I "sacrifice" for being in such a setting. It's a considerable about of money NHS (and the Arboretum Foundation) takes, but where else would I be able to be in a large crowd of avid and enthusiastic gardeners willing to buy my product. Onsite sales at Landwave are almost non-existent becaue the garden is in such terrible shape and my house situation makes me almost close my entire operation all together. So, I guess I don't have much of a choice.

The previous night, however, was one I will definitely remember for a long long time.

In anticipation of Roy Lancaster's talk for the Miller Foudation Lecture Series, I was joined by a fellow "Next Generation Gardener" who sort of appeared out of nowhere. His knowledge, experience, enthusiasm, and unparalled charisma leads me to think that he has the potential to be an icon in Pacific Northwest horticulture. Yes, and his scruffy good looks is an advantage.

Matthew Berberich (I keep typing and thinking of Berberis, when I write out his last name) is his name. He lives and runs his own professional gardening business over in the Olympic peninsula and every now and then, he hops over to this side of the pond to attend classes, workshops, and special events. We actually met at CUH when I was out gardening and he joked that I was very late in spring clean-up with a large Kniphofia at work and he was giving me shit about it. Then we started to chat plants and the rest was history!

Incredible experiences his guy has: He is a graduate of the program at the highly renowed and fabulous (so I've heard and only seen in videos and photos) Longwood Gardens, he interned at the former Heronswood Nursery in Kingston, and he's travelled to New Zealand and lived there for 6 months! He's a baby at 29 (okay so two years from fetal Riz) and is engaged to be married (sorry ladies...and gentlemen!), but what a character he is. He's like the long lost gardening buddy I've always fantasized about! The one you'd go on roadtrips with to nurseries or up in the mountains botanizing and wrestle for the chance to see a rare and illusive plant. And the one to bitch to when your Cytisus battandieri refuses to bloom.

So, I picked up Matt from the ferry to attend the Roy Lancaster lecture and boy was it excellent. Mr. Lancaster was such a warm and pleasant speaker and some of the plants he showcased were just to die for! I had an opportunity to meet him to sign a copy of his book and also give him my card. Not sure what good that will do as I don't expect to hear from him ever, but I thought it was a professional gesture in the hopes that he might see my name again.

There will be more opportunities to meet renowned and wonderful plantspeople in just a few hours as I'm headed to Raleigh, North Carolina for the Garden Writer's Association annual conference. I hope to see some familiar faces and be introduced to many new ones as The Next Generation Garden heads east for the first time in his life hoping to make a great impression in that part of the country.

Wish me luck!

Riz

"Yay for Vegetables!"

I love news like this!

Way to go Mrs. President!