Thursday, May 30, 2013

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Fuki Alert!


Well the Petasites japonicus (known as Fuki or Giant Butterbur) has again far outpaced Chiyoko's ability to keep up with eating it :^)..

Friday, May 24, 2013

New Quercus pontica grafts.


This past winter we were able to buy ten 3' tall well branched Quercus pontica trees. So the first thing we did when they arrived was chop all the branches off them :^).. This gave us lots of scions & a lovely crop of liners that should be available by this fall.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Looking up at May Apples!


Our garden patch of Podophyllum peltatum gets slowly but surely a little bit bigger with each passing year but you have to lay dawn on your back & look up to enjoy the flowers :^)..

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Quercus macrocarpa 'Ghost'

Quercus macrocarpa 'Ghost'

Presenting Quercus macrocarpa 'Ghost', not your typical new plant introduction, it's of know commercial value & there is only one :^).. It's the name I've put on this chance seedling that I have had in our shade house for the last 10 years or so. It throws a few leaves that are almost entirely green while the rest look like this! Just enough chlorophyll to keep it going! I'm sure it wouldn't last 5 minutes if we planted it outside in the real world!

Monday, May 20, 2013

Sinocalycalycanthus raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine'


One of our favorite plants looking fine in the garden this week!

Catchin' some evening rays!


This 'Mocha Rose' lives under 3 of it's giant Big Leaf Maple cousins. The pink colour of the new leaves has faded already but I thought the plant looked cool as it caught a few rays of evening sunlight while everything else around it was in shade. 

Friday, May 17, 2013

A new Ginkgo....



We saw this plant for the first time last year & were lucky enough to be able to procure one! The Silver coloration on the leaves is quite striking & lasts all year. There doesn't seem to be any signs of reversion as there so often is on variegated Ginkgos. We haven't dared put this plant out in the sun yet but we have started making more of them :^)..

Thursday, May 16, 2013

A Black Dragon!


A single flower raceme of the lovely double flowered Wisteria floribunda 'Black Dragon'. There is a bit of name confusion over this plant's name as to weather or not the plant is synonymous with Wisteria floribunda 'Violacea Plena' There are some other photos of the plant here

Toona sinensis 'Flamingo'


We came across this great looking plant at Greer Gardens a few weeks ago & thought it looked great. A small one was purchased for the Plantmad Garden!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Some old wire netting!

Corokia contoneaster

Corokia contoneaster is native to New Zealand it makes an interesting garden plant often seeming to be completely lacking any leaves giving it it's common name "The Wire Netting Bush". It has these lovely yellow flowers in the Spring that are followed by orange berries. It's often listed as being not a particularly hardy plant but for us it's been a solid USDA Zone 8 performer. It's come thought some pretty tough Oregon Winters over the last 5 years with only minor tip damage.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Back in Service!

So Greenhouse 6 was pressed back into service today after several years of sabbatical ;^).. New floor, new poly, all we have to do now is fill it :^)..


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

A Chilean Fire Bush comes home.


This Chilean Firebush is perhaps my favorite plant in the Plantmad Garden, well at least at flowering time anyway :^).. This tree & hundreds like it were grown from seed I collected off the large plant growing at the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle back in the Early 2000's when I had permission to pick seed there. Several were sold to Norbert Kinnen of Big & Phat Special Plants where under his care they grew into lovely trees.

Norbert past away a couple of years ago & his son Anthony now runs the business. Last year Anthony very kindly gave us one of the last of these Embothriums in his field so that we would continue to have seed & seedlings in the future. Transplanting an Embothrium always requires crossing your fingers & saying a few prayers but after a year we can say that the plant is happy to be back were it started out it's life! It will be the source tree for many more Embothrium seedlings to come!





Monday, May 6, 2013

Some Hartlage Wine anyone!


Our cuttings of Hartlage Wine are flowering & itching to be potted up! We should have a good crop of these available by September.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

The Fun House!

This is the greenhouse where we lose some of the money made from the others :^)..

Thursday, May 2, 2013

A tortured Wisteria Caroline!


The second Wisteria to flower at Plantmad this year is Caroline. This Cultivar hails from New Zealand, we don't currently have it in production but that doesn't mean that it isn't a great plant. Plants of Caroline flower at a very young age, often one year after grafting. This one is somewhat tortured though as it's been gorwing in this little pot for the last 10 years or more!