Was it something I said?

I’ll admit it, I regularly say flowers aren’t all that important to me and foliage is what matters, and it's true. Still, I don’t dislike flowers, I view them as a bonus, the little piece of chocolate after a delicious meal. Who isn’t excited when a plant starts to bloom? The subject of this post is Aloe striatula. I have three plants, one in the ground…

Another in a container, where it’s lived for a couple of years…

Spending summers on the patio and winters outside, but undercover of the shade pavilion greenhouse. It’s seemed fairly happy with this arrangement.

The third is also in a container, although just since late last summer. Out of those 3 plants guess how many blooms I have? The answer is one.

ONE!

This is my next door neighbor’s plant, it’s in the ground and has been for a couple of years. It has no less than 10 blooms.

TEN!

Was it something I said? I didn’t mean it…really! Flowers are cool…

All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Rare Plant Research, 2013

The last few years my enthusiasm for the Rare Plant Research Open House had somewhat dwindled, a fact best illustrated by my declining purchases (maybe I already had all their cool stuff?).

However this year I felt a renewed excitement about the event, due primarily to the fact I was attending with my plantlust.com partners. Nothing like fellow plant nuts to encourage your addiction!

Well, that plus cool plants.

No doubt the fact I actually had a list of a few “must haves” helped too, for instance I knew I wanted another couple of bromeliads.

See those light green almost-glowing ones? They were even better in person.

Had to have one.

Oh Furcraea you taunt me so, yes I wanted to take you home but you know you won't be happy there...

The time had finally come, I took the plunge and grabbed one of these Asparagus Ferns...

This beauty was in the "look but don't even try to buy" section. Not that I could have afforded it anyway.

Blooming bromeliad, so pretty.

The trunking Yucca rostrata drew quite a crowd. There were both gasps of delight at the $150 price and gasps of shock. It all depends on your perspective I suppose.

This little beauty was sitting all by itself, not another like it anywhere. I was smitten. And I walked away.

But I came back, and someone else was picking it up! (NO!!!) But then it bit her and she put it down, looking at her finger where it drew blood. That's when I knew I had to have it (insert evil laugh here).

Haemanthus humilis ssp. hirsutus

Yucca whipplei...mine!

Now that's a lot of spikes!

Beautiful colors of Eucomis leaves.

Shocking!

Here's my co-plant lust'er Megan as she swings her purchases around to be paid for. Can that woman shop or what?!!

Makes my haul look downright pathetic! In my defense there is one other plant you can't see, a dark burgundy dyckia is hiding next to the orange aloe. Clockwise from the top...big NOID Bromleiad, Asparagus Fern, that cool variegated yucca,  Aloe dorotheae, Fire Ball Neoregelia (bromeliad), and the Yucca whipplei.

If any one has a guess on the I.D. of the variegated yucca I'd love to hear it, here's another close-up. I asked the owner, Burl, and he said Yucca aloifolia 'Variegata' but then started doubting himself. The Yucca aloifolia  that I'm familiar with has a wider, flatter, softer leaf. These are very narrow, hard and sharp.

Here's the car all loaded up with our purchases...it's a little deceiving too because that's a wagon, deeper than a normal trunk.

Even the backseat was full...I'd call that a successful outing!

All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

I’m watching you (walking the hood)…

I took a walk around my neighborhood back in early November, taking note of a plants I thought might not make it through winter, depending on what mother nature had in store for us. I thought it would be fun to look back once we were on the other side and see what made it and what didn’t; little did I know we were going to have a fairly mild winter! Of course there is still time for something unfortunate to occur, but with each passing day it becomes a little less likely, thank goodness! Our first contender is this little Aloe, which I think is sold as ‘Pink Blush’ from Proven Winners.

Planted in a raised bed (good drainage) and snuggled up against a container I thought it just might stand a chance at surviving.

This is what it looked like when I walked by a couple of weeks ago…

Not so good.

Just down the street Graptoveria 'Fred Ives' (I think), looking good back then but left out to face winter on its own…

And now…

That’s surprising! I should add it’s planted atop a rocky wall and under overhanging trees. Of course this also means it gets very little direct sun.

Graptopetalum paraguayense (I think) then…

And now…perfect!

Although this one has a few sad leaves. The colors they've taken on are interesting too, some of it is due to the light of the day, and my camera, but the actual plants are looking quite different.

The rest of my “then” photos were all taken at McMenamin’s Kennedy School and with the exception of this photo where the red blooms are really accentuating the green Echium pininana and powder blue Yucca rostrata…

...everything is looking pretty much the same, which is to say great! So the rest of these are all photos taken in February. Here’s a newly planted grevillea getting some protection and being held upright…

My original Magnolia laevifolia crush...

And one of the very first (if not the first) Schefflera taiwaniana that I saw in person (it's grown a lot since then!).

Tetrapanax in the same “pre-bloom freeze” state as mine…

Another of my plant crushes (especially this time of year) Garrya elliptica.

Here we are in my favorite part of this garden, the dry mound…

I don’t recall this agave ever having a bad day. All gorgeous all the time.

Colletia paradoxa (anchor plant), could it be? Uhm…really didn't think that would prove hardy here even in a mild winter...

Their Euphorbia stygiana looks good to…

I ran into these next two characters on my way home. They appear to be taking a rest after a wicked night of debauchery.

I should mention the coldest temperature we've recorded here in Portland this winter (at the airport) was 23F...we've had only a couple light dustings of snow and even though there were couple of pretty cold weeks in January we always made above freezing during the day, which is of course significant for the plants. All in all a pretty great winter! (knocking on wood)