Part II of mine and Peter's grand adventure a week ago, when we embarked on a day trip to Portland, entailed a visit to
Joy Creek Nursery. (You can read Part I
here, which covers our visit at Cistus Nursery). Be sure and
check out Peter's post about Part I of our trip as well as
his post today about the Portland Bloggers Plant Exchange that we attended.
What was the first thing I noticed as soon as I got out of the car? Was it all the fantastic plants?
No, it was the nursery mascot Yowler, whose adventures I have followed on
Joy Creek's Facebook page. I recognized him immediately, as he sat on a table near the cashier's station.
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| Yowler is the adorable ginger kitty who resides at the nursery. And that's Peter, the Outlaw Gardener, my travel companion, in the background. |
Unfortunately, by the time we got there, we only had 15 minutes to shop before they were going to close for the day. But one of the nursery owners, Mike, was there, and he offered to give us a tour of the nursery's display garden when we were done shopping.
Score!
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| One of these Eryngium pandanifolium came home with me. Cool leaves, and it can grow to 8 feet high (if it survives the winter)! |
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| This Clematis Alpine Willy was so tempting. I should have bought one, but I don't really have a spot for another Clematis. I already had three waiting to be planted, and I had just gotten a free Clematis armandii from Loree at the Portland Garden Bloggers Plant Exchange. |
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| Our tour of the display garden started at this wonderful sunny, west-facing bed. Isn't that golden Hypericum delicious? |
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| This Magnolia was flowering profusely. I don't remember the variety, but it was so gorgeous! |
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| It had lots of great moss and lichens growing on its sprawling boughs. |
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| A red Primrose |
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| Yowler decided to accompany us. He was so funny as he scampered and frolicked in the garden! |
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| Using a tree as his personal scratching post |
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| He kept hopping in and out of the center of this grass. |
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| Such a bright true blue flower on this Pulmonaria |
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| This intriguing plant is Muscari macrocarpum 'Golden Fragrance' -- we both poked our noses into it, and the scent was just delicious! As we wandered through the garden, it wafted after us. |
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| Yowler sunning himself on the steps of the house, looking deceptively mellow |
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| An Arum look-alike, Arisarum proboscideum, also called Mouse plant. |
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| Doesn't the flower from it look like a wee mouse with a long tail? |
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| A rare Fritillaria -- I don't remember the name, and neglected to take a photo of the tag. |
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| "Does this tree make my butt look big?" |
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| "What?" |
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| A spider Azalea -- love those frothy pink flowers! |
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| This enormous Podophyllum clump made quite a statement at the top of the stairs |
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| There were lots of flowers hiding under the leaves. |
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| Lots of quite large Arisaemas are spread throughout the garden, all flowering. |
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| A pair of Jacks |
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| I forget the name of this Lamium too, but isn't that a lovely flower? |
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| It was quite a large clump. |
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| Gorgeous blooming Clematis, and Yowler |
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| These Euphorbia flowers remind me of Mr. Magoo. |
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| Yowler makes a good combo, the color of his coat matching the old Camellia blooms. |
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| Sedum flowing over a rock edge |
It was so nice of Mike to give us such a great tour, he took more than an hour out of the end of his day to show us around, time he could have spent relaxing. I've spent plenty of time poring over Joy Creek's online catalog. I really need to go back to do justice to the nursery. It's an excellent, well-stocked place.
But by now, we were both starving and tired and ready for some food. It had already been a long and very exciting day, and we still had an almost three-hour trip home to the Tacoma area ahead of us, not to mention having to empty the car and sort the plants out once we got back, in the dark.
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| I mentioned in Part I that Peter is a master at car/plant Tetris. Here is the back seat of the car stuffed with plants. |
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| And from the other side. |
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| Not to mention the trunk! |
I was hard at work in the garden every day last week, planting. We had such great weather for it, temps in the 60s and 70s and sunny, cloudless skies. After a day in the garden I often come in barely able to put two words together (usually 'Water! Food!" I often forget to eat and drink while I'm in the gardening zone.) I came in every evening so sore and tired, but I've gotten so much done! After some sprinkles of rain over the weekend, now this week is shaping up to be similar to last week.
If you're looking for me, I'll be out in the garden.
