Summer year round

Girls like flowers. Turns out guys like flowers, too (it’s been scientifically proven). Martin Meskers, owner of Oregon Flowers Inc., Oregon’s largest cut flower nursery, gave some garden writer friends and me a tour of his operation, a world where it’s summer every day of the year (except in the cooler, of course).

Started 25 year ago, Oregon Flowers specializes in growing year round oriental, Asiatic and tiger lilies for high-end florists and wholesale cut flower distributors across the country. The company also grows seasonal flowers such as tulips (Christmas through Mother’s Day) and hyacinths in the greenhouse and hydrangeas, viburnum, ilex (for their berries), and roses (for the hips) in the field for the trade.

The biggest flower days are Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. Replicating winter and summer conditions throughout the year so that blooms peak at just the right time is no small challenge. With the exception of a few too hot days during the summer, Oregon is an ideal place to grow lilies—less heating and cooling is required in the greenhouses because of our moderate climate. The trick, apparently, is ordering superior quality bulbs mostly from Holland, tricking the bulbs into believing its winter (they can be frozen up to 12 months but they need at least six to eight weeks vernalization), moving the bulbs into a cooler at just the right temperature for just the right amount of time to wake up the bulbs (two to three weeks), then slowly allowing them to warm up (bulbs start growing at 31°F) and stretch for the sky until it’s time to cut the stems. Bulbs are then ground up with the soil mixture, all of which is sterilized by steaming. About 15-20% new bark or peat is added to keep good structure in the soil then it’s reused as potting mix. And the cycle begins again.

Seven acres of sophisticated, computer-monitored greenhouses in Aurora automatically keep temperatures at the desired level. Lights help mimic needed daylight. On our gray winter days, lights can be on as much as 12 hours in a day.

It takes three months from when a lily bulb is taken from the cooler to when the flower is cut. Eight to 10 lily bulbs are planted in each tray, compared to 100 tulip or 60 hyacinth bulbs in a tray. Tulips take three weeks to fully form their blooms.

Tip from Martin to keep flowers fresh: Flower food helps a little but it’s really freshly cut stems and clean water that extend the life of a cut flower.

Share www.savedbythebud.com with any guy you know that wants to give his sweetheart flowers but doesn’t know where to start. And you'll find good ideas for decorating with flowers in the "Buds on a Budget" section.

About 80% of cut flowers sold in the U.S. are purchased overseas, 50% of which are from South America. To learn more about the floral trade, read Amy Stewart’s fascinating and well-written book Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers. It’s amazing the rigors flowers must endure to bring us pleasure.

Let me count the ways...

I try to squeeze in as many Yard, Garden & Patio Show (YGP) seminars as possible in amongst my official OAN duties. The full schedule can be found at www.ygpshow.com/seminars.php. I’ve got to say, there are so many great topics and speakers, it is going to be difficult to choose. (A HUGE thank you to Lucy Hardiman and Nancy Goldman for organizing the roster of talent and topics for us.)

If I had to identify one headliner, it probably would be Dan Hinkley, an internationally renowned plants man, author, plant collect and lecturer, who will be talking about “A Year at Windcliff”, Saturday, Feb. 13 at noon. Windcliff is Dan’s current garden where he has created a naturalistic concoction that is meant to hold interest throughout the year. He formerly gardened at Heronswood. Plants at Windcliff are slanted toward drought tolerance. (A special thanks to Monrovia for sponsoring Dan’s talk.)

Like so many others, my sweetheart is interested in growing his own food. He’s going to have a busy and informative weekend when I tell him about these seminars:

Friday, Feb. 12

• “DYI Seed Starting Station” (11am) – Willi Galloway
• “Techniques for Growing Heritage Vegetables Year-Round” (3pm) – Bill Thorness

Saturday, Feb. 13

• “Growing Food in Containers” (11am) by Rose Marie Nichols McGee
• “The Secrets to Successful Vegetable Gardening” (1:30pm) – Ed Hume
• “Growing Heat-Loving Veggies and Herbs in the Northwest” (3:30pm) – Willi Galloway

Sunday, Feb. 14

• “What’s New in the Vegetable Garden (10:30am) – Rose Marie Nichols McGee
• “Pruning Grapes, Blueberries & Fruit Trees (11am) – Glen Andresen
• “Edible Gardening 101 (2pm) – Jack & Mark Bigej

Me? I love pretty pictures and thinking about my garden in different ways so I tend toward design-related topics, of which there are many (too many to mention here). If titles alone were considered, I’d listen in on Laura Crockett’s “Bringing the Alchemy of Water into Your Garden” (Fri. at 10:30am), “Gardening Bloopers: Expert Gardeners Confess their Worst Bloopers” (Sat. at 1:30), or Sunday’s “Loquacious About Lilies” (3pm). Loquacious...what a luscious word!

Please join us at this year’s Yard, Garden & Patio Show.

Sanctuary

I’ve been forcing myself to feel what it’s like to be in a disaster situation such as Haiti is experiencing. I want to try to understand how I—and my fellow Portlanders—might react to and be prepared for “the big one” and the damage it would likely cause. It’s an unsettling feeling, to say the least. Then I look out into my garden and breath a sigh of great relief that I do not have to cope with what must be unbearable grief. I am blessed with many things I frequently take for granted: clean water, reliable electricity, the leisure to play with my dog and watch the birds at the feeders, a safe home, and a garden to escape to whenever my spirit needs replenishing.

Phormiums as Annuals?

A few people, even in our USDA Zone 7-8, have told me they treat roses as annuals (gasp!). They buy them bare root, enjoy them for the season then yank them out and start over the following year. It took me years not to feel guilty about composting Poinsettias after the holidays, so I could hardly grasp the concept of buying a new crop of roses every year. Well, a thought occurred to me this week as I was attending an industry seminar at Bauman Farms in Gervais (www.baumanfarms.com). The greenhouse where the seminar was held was decorated with plants, including some lovely Phormiums. My three Phormiums didn’t survive the winter of 2008 and I didn’t replant any last year. So, as I’m listening to the speakers and looking at the beautiful plants in the greenhouse, a small voice in my head said, “Why not plant Phormiums as annuals?” If they survive more than one year, great! If not, they add a wonderful element to the garden while they’re there. And they are so very hard to resist!

Signs of Spring

By Gardennia nutti

For many people, signs of spring are wonderful bulbs that pop up to greet us with their sunny faces, the fragrance and flowers of witch hazel, or a mist of beautiful yellow forsythia. For me, the spring litmus test is a bit different:

• A new bottle of Advil (or other anti-inflammatory over the counter drug) in the medicine cabinet. You laugh, but I know it’ll take months for my back to get in shape for the digging and lifting I need to do, and a stocked medicine cabinet is a wise precaution.


• A loud “What are these?!” from my husband as he trips over a box of new plants that sit innocently on the front stoop. For me, spring is that first real visit to an out-of-the-way nursery where I discover many plants I can’t live without. To qualify as a true sign of spring, my plant “haul” needs to be large enough to trip a grown male.


• The days get long enough to allow me a few minutes weeding time after I get home from work. I know...weeding isn’t fun...but it is a sign of spring growth.

What says “It’s Spring!” to you? Read on for some thoughts from the gardening community:

• The early and brave: Pink Dawn viburnum are blooming! – Kaitlin Kenegy, Garden World (www.gardenworldonline.com, Yard, Garden & Patio Show exhibitor)


• The first sign of spring that I look for is that glorious week of sunshine we get in early February. I know I can make it through the rest of winter when that sunshine comes. – Ann Nickerson, president, Association of Professional Landscape Designers (www.apld.com and Yard, Garden & Patio Show exhibitor, www.ann.nickerson.net)


• A favorite sign of spring is non-blooming but always has pleasant memories for me of my grandmother and her garden: the peony. When the red buds pop up through the ground, I know spring is on the way. So often when we refer to early spring color we think of a flower and that is not necessarily the case. The other sign of spring in my garden is, of course, the hellebore. Over the past few years, I have accumulated quite a collection and in spite of the very cold weather we had earlier, there are some in bloom now. What a delight it is to look over a rather bleak garden space and see these spots of color. I encourage people to plant hellebores because they are so easy to grow and give us so much early spring color. It is difficult to think of something that performs better with such minimal care. – Mike Darcy, In the Garden with Mike Darcy on 750 KXL. Mike does a live show from the Yard, Garden & Patio Show (Sat. morning, Feb. 13 beginning at 9am).


• I know its spring when the chorus of frogs occurs on a nightly basis. I often spend evenings potting up newly arrived plants preparing for spring sales while enjoying the peace and serenity of the frogs. – Carol Westergreen, owner, Out in the Garden Nursery (www.outinthegardennursery.com, Yard, Garden & Patio Show exhibitor)


• Although they bloom in January, I tell myself that my witch hazels (Hamamelis 'Arnold Promise' and 'Aphrodite') are the beginning of spring. The approaching Yard, Garden & Patio Show and shopping for echiceverias and other succulents. The urge to prune before my trees begin to leaf out. The bright blue Stellar jays returning to my garden. And slugs. – Kym Pokorny, garden writer for The Oregonian (blog.oregonlive.com/kympokorny/index.html). Kym will be speaking at YGP with Mike Darcy about their favorite plants (Saturday, Feb. 13 at 3:30pm).


• Noticeable longer day length, especially sunset time. I am always amazed at how hardy and optimistic the Hamamelis or Witch Hazels are. All of a sudden you walk through the garden and almost overnight they have spun their thread-like blossoms into bright pompoms, some of which are spicy and sweet in scent. Another true workhorse that most of the year fades into the shadows and gives backbone to a bed is Sweetbox or Sarcococca. I usually do not even see the flowers developing but once we have a bit of a balmy break in the weather, their perfume sets sail through the air. It is a welcome scent that delights the nose much more than the smell rotting leaves and stems from the last icy blast. The bulbous rock garden iris, Iris reticulata, also bravely step forward into the season and put on a show to rival any crocus collection. They are early, increase well, and love to bake in the summer. Of course, it is always with anticipation that I wait for the current favorite hellebore to bloom...and then it is on to the next to see if it is just a bit more exciting. My sure sign of true spring is the return of the swallows. I've been tuned into their arrival ever since my grandfather showed me how he noted their annual return on his calendar 40 years ago. Now we do the same and it is a marvel at how they always arrive around March 19. Finally, looking forward to a season of enthusiastic gardeners and plant fanatics – Leonard Foltz, Dancing Oaks (www.dancingoaks.com, Yard, Garden & Patio Show exhibitor)


• It may be a bit trite, but for me the first hint of spring occurs when my crocus pop out with color. In the midst of winter debris and muck, to see such hopeful energy surging through the soil does my heart good! Of course, even with that harbinger of spring, actual spring is still weeks away. But those first crocus lead a cheery parade of blooming bulbs—narcissus, muscari, tulips, and more—until before we know it, we are swept into the fullness of springtime. The days lengthen, the light changes, and the air itself softens and sweetens. And once again, we realize we've survived another cold, dark, challenging winter and are heading back to light and growth. – Linda Shively, Farmington Gardens (www.farmingtongardens.com, Yard, Garden & Patio Show exhibitor)


• "Enduring winter is an act of faith for gardeners. Spending time in the garden during our rainy season is an affirmation of what is to come.
  Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis, planted by the front door is the first portent--the delicate, spicy fragrance of sweet box, extends to the front
  door--what a welcome--throughout December. A lone Helleborus x hybridus, cotton candy pink blushed with merlot--looks good but wouldn't taste good--is in full fettle by Christmas day. A good present. Snow drops seem to just appear without warning--such little blooms making a grand statement mingled with the golden bowls of winter aconite, Eranthis hyemalis. My witch hazel, Hamamelis 'Arnold Promise' stands regal and resplendent in a coat of chrome yellow emitting a spicy citrus scent. Be still my heart--spring is afoot in the garden. - Lucy Hardiman, landscape designer, Perennial Partners (www.lucyflora.com; speaker at Yard, Garden & Patio Show: "From Sidewalk to Treetop--Maximizing Space in the Garden", Friday, Feb. 12 11am, and "Decorating Eden--Personalizing Your Garden", Saturday, Feb. 13, 11am).
  
  
  

Is it designed?

There are some gardens that cause me to pause as I’m walking by. When it happens, I often wonder if the garden has been professionally designed. Pleasing proportions, interesting design elements and textures, and exceptional plant combinations seem to be hallmarks of a well-designed—and often professionally designed—garden. I’ve designed parts of my own garden but I’m often frustrated with how plants don’t work together as well as I’d envisioned or I get distracted by a new plant or tree that necessitates rethinking my garden plan. Does this ever happen to you?

I needed to come up with a plan for a prominent area of my garden after Barney (my adorable golden retriever) and another dog that was living with us gleefully raced around the yard and created a big muddy mess in the middle of what used to pass for lawn. Carol Lindsay, a landscape designer (www.design-in-a-day.com) happened to be visiting one day. It took her about one second to suggest how to deal with the problem area; I’d been trying to come up with an economical solution for months!

Each designer brings an interesting perspective to a garden. I have the pleasure of being involved with the Association of Northwest Landscape Designers and Association of Professional Landscape Designers. Both organizations will be at the Yard, Garden & Patio Show, February 12-14 at the Oregon Convention Center. Stop by the association booths for a visit to understand the value of working with a landscape designer for all or part of your yard. Or visit some of their members and other garden designers and contractors exhibiting at the show. In addition to providing inspiration, they can save you lots of time, money, sweat and tears when it comes to planning a garden!

Coombs & Luthy
D & J Landscape Contractors
Dennis’ Seven Dees Landscaping & Garden Centers
Design Resource Group
Enviromax Landscape & Design
Froeberland Landscape Architecture
Gardens by Rebecca
Goodnight Design
Green Thumb Landscape & Maintenance
Homescaper, LLC
JP Stone Contractors
Landscape East & West
Landshaper
Living Gardens LLC
Oregon Landscape Maintenance
ProGrass, Inc.
The Gardensmith
White Crane Landscaping LLC

Oregon Clematis Collection Granted National Status

From Linda Beutler, Curator of the Rogerson Clematis Collection

The Rogerson Clematis Collection, the most comprehensive gathering of the genus clematis in the United States, has recently been granted National Collection status by the North American Plant Collections Consortium. Located in our own backyard at Luscher Farm in Lake Oswego, the Rogerson Collection has amassed over 650 species and cultivars of clematis, including a recent gift from Poland of rare and previously unavailable cultivars from the late clematis breeder Brother Stefan Franczak.

The North American Plant Collections Consortium (NAPCC) is a network of botanical gardens and arboreta working to coordinate a continent-wide approach to plant germplasm preservation, promoting education and high standards of plant collections management. The NAPCC is administered by the American Public Garden Association.

The Rogerson Collection is administered by the non-profit Friends of the Rogerson Clematis Collection (FRCC) and curated by Linda Beutler.

The Collection was begun in the late 1970s by Brewster Rogerson, who moved with his plants to Oregon from Kansas in the 1980s. After maintaining the clematis in private greenhouses for many years, he donated his collection to the FRCC for its care and preservation in 2005.

The FRCC leases a portion of Luscher Farm, a historic agricultural site operated by the City of Lake Oswego Parks and Recreation Department. The FRCC maintains a greenhouse and is currently developing a variety of display gardens showcasing the use of clematis organically grown in diverse landscapes by home gardeners. FRCC also offers classes to the public and provides research opportunities in clematis cultivation and propagation.

The designation as a National Collection links the FRCC to a network of other unique and outstanding plant collections across the continent, including the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University, the Chicago Botanical Garden, and the Huntington Botanical Garden in California. The Rogerson Collection is the second largest collection of plants to be granted this status.

Linda shared with us photos of two plants in the collection. The first shows the fabulous foliage of Clematis terniflora 'Variegata', the variegated Sweet Autumn Clematis. Variegated clematis are quite rare, and this plant was acquired through Dan Hinkley. The second picture is Clematis 'Esprit', a seedling selection of Mr. Rogerson’s, which the collection has registered and is propagating for sale. It blooms all summer and has been field-trialed for four years.

Meet Linda at the Yard, Garden & Patio show where she will be speaking about “Perennial Pleasures: Perennials for all Seasons” on Friday, February 12, at 1pm and “Pruning Clematis: Shattering the Myths” on Sunday, February 14 at 11:30am.

Learn more about the Rogerson Clematis Collection at www.rogersonclematiscollection.org.

Sharing Your Joy of Gardening

Experience the joy of sharing your gardening expertise and interests. Many gardening-related organizations can use your help. These are just a few in the area that would love to have your involvement for a few hours or longer term commitments. Do you know of garden-related volunteer opportunities? Please share them with us.

Bright Neighbor
Fruit and Nut Tree Community Project – On February 6th and March 6th, 2010, Portlanders from across all 95-neighborhoods will be participating in a fun fruit & nut tree pruning and grafting project, potentially creating thousands of new food-bearing trees in Portland. On Feb. 6, when the trees are dormant and sleeping, we’ll sneak up on them and trim off living branches that can be used to create new trees. The 8-inch cuttings will be refrigerated for one month, then on March 6, you’ll learn how to graft the cuttings onto rootstock. Learn more at the Bright Neighbor Web site.

Garden Partners
The mission of Garden Partners is to enhance the health and well-being of individuals through participation in community-based therapeutic gardening programs. The organization provides a new model for engaging individuals in therapeutic gardening activities. Activities are planned to maximize participants' sense of well-being and joy of life by enhancing cognitive functioning, increasing physical mobility, enriching sensory experiences, or impacting social interactions. Facility-based programs are currently held in five residential facilities, and one child and family services center. Community-based programs are in community settings, e.g., a garden center, community garden, community center or senior center, etc.

GROWINGGARDENS
GROWINGGARDENS promotes home-scale organic food gardening to improve nutrition, health and self-reliance while enhancing the quality of life and the environment for individuals and communities in Portland, Oregon. They organize hundreds of volunteers to build organic, raised bed vegetable gardens in backyards, front yards, side yards and even on balconies. Growing Gardens supports low income households for three years with seeds, plants, classes, mentors and more. Youth Grow after school garden clubs grow the next generation of veggie eaters and growers! Learn & Grow workshops and work parties, teach gardeners all about growing, preparing and preserving healthful food while respecting the health of the environment.

Before & After

In response to Random Acts of Gardening readers requesting before and after design stories, our first story and photos come from landscape designer Roger Miller, owner of Homescaper LLC (503.648.4879).
Roger’s clients live on vineyard property in Laurel, just outside of Hillsboro. The back of the house has a lovely view of their vineyard but the raised deck, which encompasses most of the back side of the house, is too narrow to provide entertainment space for outdoor activities.

Homescaper was hired to design a large entertainment space and planting beds that would remove a significant portion of the lawn and connect two sets of recently added steps. The design needed to provide easy access to the raised deck and create a comfortable space that encourages family, friends and clients to enjoy the beautiful setting.


A design for a 585 square foot stained and stamped concrete patio surrounded by raised beds was approved by the client. Constructed from segmental cement units, the retaining walls were filled with plantings designed to soften and hide the superstructure of the deck. Space was provided in the planting beds for the annuals and color spots that the clients enjoy growing in their greenhouse.

A contractor was hired to install the patio. The clients did all of the soil preparation and installation of the raised beds and flagstone paver paths. Homescaper procured, delivered and placed the plant material and the clients did the planting.

The “after” photographs were taken a little over one year after the plants were installed. What a difference a well thought out design and one year makes!

Roger Miller and his Homescaper portfolio can be found exhibiting at the Yard, Garden & Patio Show or by visiting www.homescaper.com.

Gardeners' Workshop for Individuals with Cancer

We've written about the mental and physical well-being gardening brings to each of us and have received some heart wrenching responses to those blogs. Legacy, which has a well-regarded therapy garden, is offering gardening workshops for individuals with cancer. If you know of someone that might benefit, please share this with them.

Gardeners’ Workshop for Individuals with Cancer
Learn adaptive gardening strategies, garden tasks for the season and year-round indoor and outdoor techniques for energy conservation. Explore the benefits of nature and gardening for restoration and renewal.

Instructor: Teresia Hazen, MEd, HTR, QMHP, Horticultural Therapist
Mondays, 6:00pm-7:30pm. 1/11/2009, 2/15, 3/15, 4/5, 5/24, 6/14
Contact: thazen@lhs.org or 503-413-6507 for more information and to register. Limited enrollment, registration required. This is a free workshop sponsored by Legacy Cancer Services.

Gardening Grin for Rainy Days

By Gardennia nutti

It’s wet, muddy and I’m feeling housebound. I haven’t had my “dig in the dirt” fix for too long. So what is a gardener to do until the weather can lure me outside in Feb? Dream...plan...investigate...and laugh! We all know that winter is the best time to plan your garden additions because you see with unabashed clarity all its faults. But for me winter is a great time to catch up on some fun sites that display a bit of attitude and make me laugh.

My favorites:

♦ Garden Rant (www.gardenrant.com): this site is one of my steady favorites and is guaranteed to bring a smile to my day when needed. Four women run the site and have a manifesto which starts with “We are: convinced that gardening matters, bored with perfect magazine gardens, in love with real, rambling, chaotic, dirty, bug-ridden gardens...”

♦ The Garden Professors (https://sharepoint.cahnrs.wsu.edu/blogs/urbanhort/default.aspx): this site is home to educated professionals who have fun debunking fiction and educating the public on many garden-related topics.

♦ Plant Amnesty (www.plantamnesty.org): This site isn’t one to visit over and over, but is worth the trip if you’ve never been there. “Plant Amnesty’s mission is to end the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs.” For a real laugh visit the “Madness Gallery” – something I know everyone can relate to in one way or another...

I know at some point in the next few weeks I’ll be tempted by a nice day to go outside and start pruning, and this will be unexpectedly followed with a freezing spell. (It happens almost every year and I never learn). When this yearly fiasco unfolds it’s nice to know a laugh is waiting for me on one of these sites. Enjoy!

Why is the weather so difficult to predict?

We had another unexpected snow storm December 30. I certainly didn’t expect snow; I didn’t even wear a coat to work that day. And I certainly wasn’t expecting it to take 3+ hours to drive my 15-mile commute! Rufus LaLone, author of the online Weather Café®, discussed at an OAN chapter meeting in early November the challenges meteorologist face when forecasting Pacific Northwest weather. His presentation was an eye-opener for me. I thought you might be interested, too. Follow Rufus’ 1-3 week forecasts, link to www.ovs.com/weather_cafe.htm. You’ll get some tasty weather tidbits with your morning coffee and be able to tell which day this week will be the best to get out in the garden.

Rufus gets a kick out of studying weather modeling and apparently there are many models from which to choose. There’s a lot of science behind the models but they can be interpreted very differently, that’s where “art” comes in (Rufus appears to be quite good at interpreting these models even though he’s not a trained meteorologist). Because we’re at the edge of the Pacific Ocean and most of our weather comes from the west, surface weather data aren’t readily available (there are weather buoys in the ocean but it’s not like having 3,000 miles of land mass and cities collecting data). That means meteorologists have a difficult time interpreting what’s going on between land and the 35,000 foot jet streams. (My notes from Rufus’ presentation are a bit sketchy about how the polar and subtropical jet streams influence our weather, so I won’t attempt to explain it but you can find Wikipedia’s interesting analysis of weather forecasting at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_forecasting). The west coast also has less long-term weather data than east coast cities, making patterns more difficult to predict.

I have a new appreciation for the challenges inherent in weather forecasting. It’s like predicting the future with a few more scientific tools at our disposal. I’ll try to be more understanding when “they get it wrong” but I’ll still keep my gas tank full just in case it takes me longer to get home due to unexpected adverse weather conditions.

Arkansas Blue Star named 2011 Perennial Plant of the Year

Seems like just yesterday Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ (Japanese Forest Grass) was selected as the 2009 award winner and as it is my favorite perennial, I applauded its selection. The 2010 selection is Baptisia australis (Blue false indigo). To learn more about B. australis, a full profile is available on the Perennial Plant Association home page. To give you a peek into the future, one nursery trade publications announced that Amsonia hubrichtii (Arkansas Blue Star) was named the 2011 selection. Its frothy golden fall color seen in the photo would be a lovely filler in the border but the plant appears to have many attributes including clusters of blue flowers in the spring and a compact—to 3 feet—form. To learn more about its habits, performance and how to pronounce its name, visit www.finegardening.com/plantguide/amsonia-hubrichtii.aspx. The site does say it’s a little gangly in its youth so some patience may be required before you get the full benefit of its nature. Seems early to make the announcement but growers need to start growing it this year to respond to demand for the plant in 2011. Have you grown this Amsonia?