Category Archives: flora

This is a picture I shot today of a Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’(variegated red twig dogwood) leaf from our garden: Fall is definitely here. I’m amazed at how closely this digital file resembles the actual leaf. It almost looks like the leaf was flatbed scanned. It wasn’t. The colors are true(at least on my monitor!) and [...]

today i finished up things in the taylor st. garden before new tenants move in july 1. primarily i finished the tea house floor and added a bit of edging to the tea house and a long neglected end of a river rock pathway: after 3 years in the ground the espaliered pear tree is [...]

More often than not roses are more trouble than they are worth in this humble gardener’s opinion. Rosa ‘Pat Austin’ is another story:

aphids are showing up. it’s that time of year. they’re actually pretty easy to manage unless you have a large scale infestation. our garden is dinky so it’s impossible to have anything large scale. no dinosaur food here. who would have thunk that texans dig gunnera? friends at edelweiss perennials have been vexed by some [...]

we have humming birds hanging out in our garden. it’s taken a year or so to lure them here. chilean glory flower(eccremocarpus scaber) did the trick. it’s an annual and this year overwintered probably due to our unusually mild oregon winter.

this unusual trillium is native to japan. the capture was made in late february 2005 outside of portland, oregon. the species normally blooms red(i’ll have to search for a picture of the red one and post it later) though 1 in 100 blooms yellow. two friends have a small corner of their magnificent woodland garden [...]