A Winter Casualty

One plant that succumbed to our February Snow & Ice was our large Grevillea victoriae in the front garden. It's come through worse snow storms in the past but this last one nailed it!

Still Grafting!

Still busy grafting at Plantmad, we are about half way through our Wisteria crop. Here Chiyoko is busy putting another days production onto the callus bed.

Our 'Mirranda' isn't a 'Firefly' .........

Recently is was brought to our attention that the plant Hydrangea anomala petiolaris 'Firefly' is sometimes being incorrectly labeled & sold with the name Mirranda™ attached to it. If this is happening then it is incorrect, Hydrangea anomala petiolaris 'Mirranda' is not the same plant as Hydrangea anomala petiolaris 'Firefly'. Even though they are both variegated climbing Hydrangeas and may even be indistinguishable they both arose as variegated sports on different plants in different parts of the Country.

The Firefly clone was introduced by Daniel Benarcik of Wilmington Delaware & patented in 1997. The Mirranda clone was selected & developed by me from a small variegated sport on a one gallon plant of the species here in Oregon in 1992. The plant is named after my daughter Mirranda, hence the spelling with the double R as I also misspelled my daughters name on her birth certificate when she was born! After several years of evaluation & successively propagating new generations from the most variegated shoot tips we released the plant as a stable variegated cultivar without patent or trademark protection in 1999.

The Mirranda™ designation would also be incorrect even if it was on our plant as being the Cultivar Name it is part of the botanical plant name & so not eligible for Trademarking. Hopefully this will help clear up some of the labeling confusion that may be happening out in the industry.

Left to right: Chiyoko, Guy, Anwen & Mirranda :^)

Elk Lake Oregon, August 2009. 

Testing the limits!!

The Arctic Blast of last December followed by the Snow & Ice of February has really tested our Kniphofia northiae to it's limits! It looks pretty ugly at the moment but we are hopeful that it's going to pull through & regain it's former glory!

A Day of Seed Sowing....

We received 2 large bags of stratified Stewartia pseudocamellia seed today from a local nursery friend yesterday. This was doubly good because it meant I could spend time in the greenhouse sowing seed rather than being outside in the rain cutting & collecting Scion wood :)..

Snowpocalypse 2.0 Ends!

Last Summer's rooted cuttings snug under frost blanket in our snow covered mist house.

It was a busy 3 days of raking, banging & knocking snow off the Plantmad greenhouses. Just when we thought we were going to get through the winter without a big snow event this year! We still had time time take a few garden & nursery photos though!

Chiyoko hard at work!

Blue sky, a red Which Hazel & a yellow Winter Sweet!

Photographed on a Blue Sky Day in the Plantmad garden last weekend!

Chimonanthus praecox 'Su Xin La Mei'

Chimonanthus praecox 'Su Xin La Mei'  was imported from China by a friend of ours a number of years ago. It came with this name but this may not be a valid Cultivar name. I believe the "La Mei" part at least is just the Chinese word for Chimonanthus. It looks very much like the the cultivar 'Luteus'.

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Ruby Glow'

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Ruby Glow' is an old cultivar & it's flowers are not that large but it's deep red color is still something that is hard to beat.