Hot Stuff in the World of Garden Design – Agaves!

For a special Agave surprise, click here.

The Agavaceae family of plants includes many well-known desert garden plants such as agave, and yucca. The bold, sculptural, symmetrical forms of this family of plants add drama to any garden. Most agaves are native to Mexico and the arid southwestern United States. The most well known, A. americana is called century plant because it was reputed to bloom only once in 100 years, but that's an exaggeration. Actually, it blooms once after at least seven years—although sometimes it can take up to 20 years to bloom. Like the century plant, all agaves are monocarpic: the main plant dies after blooming and setting seed, however most species produce side shoots that will take over and grow to maturity. Extraordinary flower spikes reach for the sky and a few can have a bloom spike up to 20 feet or more!

Will they do well in the Pacific Northwest? Indeed they will, provided they are grown from hardy parent plants found at high elevations in the southwest United States. It is also essential to grow them in full sun and gritty, well-drained soil. If winter rains drain quickly away from the plant, success is assured according to Blooming Nursery. Agaves love the dry summers of the Pacific Northwest and rarely need supplemental irrigation. Drama in the garden, water wise and hardy. Go figure!

Keep an eye out for the hardy agaves described below in Pacific Northwest garden centers, spring 2010.

Agave americana var. protoamericana - The ghostly blue-gray evergreen foliage has pronounced bud imprints on the leaf surface. This exotic architectural plant grows 3-4’ tall and can be used as a focal point. Zone 7







Agave gentryi ‘Jaws’ - The name reflects the fantastic shape of the glossy evergreen leaves, which are concave and heavily toothed. It forms a large clump 24” tall by 36” wide. Zone 7








Agave harvardiana - The stout gray evergreen leaves are armed with marginal teeth and a sharp terminal spine. Over time, it will form a large rosette of foliage 3' tall and wide. Zone 6









Agave montana ‘Baccarat’ - This agave features broad, blue-green evergreen leaves with beautiful silver markings on the back of the leaf, reminiscent of crystal etching. Perfect for desert rock gardens, it grows 24-36” tall by 24-36” wide. Zone 7




Agave parryi - Striking blue-green, sword-like succulent evergreen leaves have long spines. This classic desert garden plant is perfect as a dramatic focal point in the garden, growing 30” tall by 40” wide. Zone 7

Thank you to Blooming Nursery for the photos and information on agaves. Check out their Reference Guide listing 1,800 plants with photos and plant characteristics at www.bloomingnursery.com. It is a useful tool for home gardeners. Blooming Nursery plants are easily recognized by their burgundy pots.

Seeing Red!

By Gardennia nutti

I’m seeing red. In my yard, on my street, along the highway….Red! At first I thought it was the result of my new rose colored glasses, but alas, even when looking through clear lenses I still see red. Leaves contain pigments: chlorophyll (green) and carotenoids (yellow and orange). Both chlorophyll and carotenoids are present in the chloroplasts of leaf cells throughout the growing season, but during the growing season the amount of chlorophyll is so high that the green color masks the other pigments. When the days grow shorter in the fall, chlorophyll production stops and that pigment breaks down allowing the carotenoid pigments to show through. This explains the wonderful gold and orange leaves, but why am I seeing red? The answer lies with anthocyanin pigments which are produced in response to bright light and excess plant sugars within leaf cells. Warm days in early fall encourage sugar production in the leaf, and cool nights cause leaf veins to close, thus trapping the sugars in the leaf. Light plus abundant sugar creation encourages production of anthocyanin – the red and crimson I’m seeing this fall.

Dancing Oaks Nursery Fall Sale

If you didn’t make to Dancing Oaks during Le Tour des Plants, consider making the trip to take advantage of their fall sale: 14% off everything and up to 40% off some things through October 31st. Be sure to allow sufficient time to enjoy their extensive display gardens. www.dancingoaks.com

Great plants are in your future…

I asked several wholesale nurseries to share what they think are the up and coming hot plants. Several new barberries are on the market that are smaller in stature and offer excellent foliage color. This selection is a Plant Haven introduction called ‘Admiration’ and is grown by Van Essen Nursery, a wholesale grower located in Lebanon, Oregon. Another is offered by Monrovia called ‘Golden Ruby’. Generally, I’m not a huge fan of barberries (although I do have three lovely small chartreuse barberry “buns” in my front yard that I enjoy), but the coloration and the small size of these new introductions cause me to reconsider. Do you have a favorite Berberis? Send photos!

Berberis thunbergii 'Admiration'
This compact and colorful deciduous shrub offers glossy, oval leaves that are a vibrant contrast of purple-orange-red with a yellow edging. The coloration holds throughout the summer. Grows to 2 ft. by 2 ft.; no pruning is necessary to keep it compact. Excellent as a container plant but due to its small size, any size landscape should be able to accommodate it. It is hardy to USDA Zone 5 and adapts to many soil types. Sun exposure would be best for the most intense coloration. In the Northwest, look for it in the larger garden centers in spring 2010.

Woolly Bear Caterpillars; Predictors of Weather?

By: Gardennia nutti

I was on a wonderful fall hike with friends last week and came across a fuzzy friend: a wooly bear caterpillar - the larval stage of the Isabella tiger moth. I don't know about you, but I've always loved these insects. Who can resist small, wooly, striped creatures? One friend looked at the caterpillar and quickly pronounced that we were heading into a mild winter.

At first I just thought she was carrying something stronger than water in her container, but after seeing the look of confusion on our faces she quickly told us all that it was "widely known" that if the brown stripe between the two black stripes is thick we could expect a mild winter. She then pointed to the caterpillar as proof of this "widely known" concept.

Not willing to give up hope on a mild winter I did a little digging on this theory and discovered that this is indeed a "widely known" myth. It's so widely known that the American Museum of Natural History conducted a study to see if there was any correlation between wooly bear markings and the severity of the upcoming winter. As you might imagine, there is no correlation. So the next time you see these wonderful creatures, think of them as extremely good predictors of Isabella tiger moths, but not of our winter weather.

Seminars schedule announced

Early registration is now open for the seventh annual Willamette Valley Green Industry Seminars, presented by several partners including the Oregon Association of Nurseries. The seminars are open to homeowners and garden enthusiasts, as well as nursery industry professionals. These afternoon workshops take place every Tuesday from Nov. 3-Dec. 15 at the Natural Resource Education Center, The Oregon Garden, Silverton, Ore. Topics include Managing Edible Home Landscapes (Dec. 8); a complete list and descriptions can be found on the series brochure (PDF). Early registration includes a discount and is available through Oct. 20. Fees range from $35 for one seminar to $200 for all seven. Register online at http://wvgis09.eventbrite.com using a credit card, or register by mail or FAX (instructions are on the brochure).

Eye Candy

If you know you want year-round color and structure in your garden, think CONIFERS! (In the interest of full disclosure, I have a HUGE bias for conifers...I think they are so cool, so diverse and so useful in a garden.) Peace of Mind Nursery, a nursery specializing in rare and unusual conifers, is a wholesale nursery primarily, but the owner Dave Grotz, will meet with and sell to home gardeners by appointment.

His Web site (www.peaceofmindnursery.com) offers an extensive photo gallery—in fact, there are 31 photo galleries. They showcase the plants he grows by color (Blues Garden, Pot of Gold Garden), by use in the garden (The Pillar Garden, Hedging Our Bets) and by genus (Chamaecyparis, Firs, Cedars). Because Dave has a sense of humor and loves his conifers, you’ll find galleries dedicated to The Weirdos and What’s Cool. You’ll also find a gallery titled “The Process” that provides a pictorial description of the nursery trade from grafting to shipping a truckload of specialty conifers. Of the aspects of the industry he features in this gallery, I consider several to be true art forms and many nurseries use teams of specialists in these areas: digging root balls, grafting and loading trucks for regional and transnational shipment. Take a look. It’s the last photo gallery listed.

Gardening Saves Sanity!

You are a gardener, so you likely have experienced the connection between your emotional and physical well-being and your garden. I call it Plant Thrall and it happens regularly when I visit nurseries and garden centers or I’m in a garden. (Webster’s defines “thrall” as a state of complete absorption, which is exactly correct in my case.) As a creative person, I love the textures, colors and variety of plants but there’s a lot more to it than that: I have a need to touch, smell and be entranced. Gardens and plants change my emotional state, either revving it up (when I’m at a nursery looking at plants) or calming it down (when I’m in a garden).

Several women have told me that gardening saved their lives when they were going through particularly challenging times. About this time last year, I am quite certain getting my hands in the soil and becoming immersed in my garden—in addition to talking to myself a lot—helped maintain my sanity during a particularly stressful few months. What’s the most important aspect of gardening to you?


I just ordered a book by Charles A. Lewis titled “Green Nature/Human Nature: THE MEANING OF PLANTS IN OUR LIVES” to learn more about this strong urge I have to plant myself in my garden. It’s what some academics refer to as socio-horticulture (there’s scientific term for it, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it is).
On a lighter note, I heard an Ohio extension agent refer to this affliction as CHAD: Compulsive Horticultural Acquisition Disorder. Good for my soul. Good for the environment. Bad for the budget!

We still have a few more weeks of great gardening weather so Happy Gardening!