Portland: Floramagoria (part 2, up close)

In yesterday's post I established that the Floramagoria garden was a party. Today I'll show you why you want this to be one of those all-night-long parties: there are so many details, you'll need hours to enjoy them all!

Foliage, blooms, sculpture, containers -- all contribute to a space that you can really get your eyeballs into!

Portland: Floramagoria

The last day of the 2014 Garden Bloggers Fling in Portland was a busy one. After the Ernst and Fuller gardens, Rhone Street Gardens, then John Kuzma's garden (posts 1 and 2) it was off to Floramagoria -- I wasn't sure what to expect here. Was it a nursery, a private garden, or a public one? (I purposefully avoided reading about any of the Fling stops before the trip as I wanted to be completely surprised).

As the bus got deeper into a residential area, it was clear that this was going to be a private garden -- and as the bus pulled to a stop... The front garden was quite shady but had a wonderful mix of foliage colors and textures, some sculpture visible, and large rocks. But the front garden is just an appetizer (or is it a smokescreen?) for what's going on behind the house.

The different colors of the mantis

I've found several mantises in my garden over the last couple of days. Since I released dozens of them as babies this spring and dozens more hatched "in the wild", I shouldn't be surprised when I find them in the garden.

I am surprised though, and delighted, as these are one of my favorite insects! Although I don't know that I'd say that this species is strictly a "beneficial" insect (when it's living on a plant that is heavily visited by bees, what do you think it's eating every day?) I certainly would be sad if a summer went by and I didn't see a few of these around.

Portland: John Kuzma garden (part 2, up close)

Yesterday I showed you John Kuzma's garden from a rainy day last month in Portland. Today, you see the same wet garden up close. It's the details that make a garden special for me: the texture of the plants, the rocks, sculpture, etc. If you're not getting your face and eyes deep into a garden, you're missing half of the experience (at least)!

You got a small taste of this in the last post with some macro shots of the huge gunnera, from right up in the plant -- well, under it mostly. I'll start again from there...

Portland: John Kuzma garden

This weekend was hot and humid and although I did mow the lawn, prune some yews, and chase the deer family out of my garden (one was in the pond munching on water lilies), I didn't see a post materializing out of that. So it's back to Portland from last month's Garden Bloggers Fling!

I'm going through these gardens chronologically, and last time I looked at Scott Weber's Rhone Street Gardens. Today it's another private garden but on a larger scale: the John Kuzma garden.

A bit of a change...

It's been a while since I've done a post about a project in the garden: building a trellis, a bench, an arbor. My trip to Portland last month and the cooler weather that we had after returning motivated me though, and I created something!

The difference in this project though is that it's not ending up in the garden: it's starting there! This big log section has been in my garage since early last summer, taking up valuable plant storage space, reminding me that there are so many projects planned but not started. 

It's a wet papyrus morning...

Humidity nearly 100% after more rain last night, and temperatures reaching 97ºF (37ºC) mean it's a quiet morning, blog-wise.

Papyrus though... in the morning sunlight I can't resist getting my feet wet for some photos!

Portland: Rhone Street Gardens

Back to Portland, to the photos from the Garden Bloggers Fling in July. If you've been reading regularly you may remember that Saturday of the Fling weekend started with the Ernst and Fuller gardens. Next up on this rainy morning was Rhone Street Gardens, the small city garden of Scott Weber.

Scott's blog is one of those that I started reading just after I started blogging if I remember correctly, so I've seen hundreds of photos of his garden already. That just made me even more eager and excited to see it in person!

Summer lushness

We've had more rain recently, which at least in my garden means that summer is back to normal. The cooler, drier air is gone, replaced with the hot humidity that we're accustomed to in St. Louis.

This change in weather has seemingly awakened the plants, and I'd swear they're all growing before my eyes, filling up all of the available space. The only way to describe it is "lush". Let's take a look at the area just behind the house: the driveway, patio, stream, and deck.

Outgrowing camouflage

You know I love looking at insects in the garden, and that I especially love finding immature ones -- tiny copies of their parents or looking completely different from their adult form, it's always fun to discover the youngsters. It can be difficult though, as on top of their smaller size a propensity to hide keeps them from my eyes.

Once they reach mature size and begin the hunt for a mate though, it's a different story. What I couldn't see when actively hunting just a few inches from them when younger, I now can see from across the garden.

Wandering

Since we got that rain recently and temperatures have been well below normal, the garden has been awakening, changing. It's usually a bit sleepy during this part of summer (except for the heat lovers), but there's so much going on. (Maybe it's just my attitude that makes it feel different?)

In any case, I just want to show you lots of random stuff from my walk around the garden this morning. I didn't cover every corner, but there's plenty going on everywhere! There are also a few other tidbits, not from my garden...

Portland: Ernst/Fuller gardens (part 2)

Yesterday I looked at the Fuller half of this neighboring garden pair -- today I'll look at the Ernst half. If you remember, I left off last post at the door separating the two back yards.

Here I start by viewing that door from the other side, looking back somewhat into Joanne's garden that I just left. Linda's backyard space seemed much brighter if I remember correctly -- it's amazing how one big tree in the right (wrong?) spot can change a garden from shady to sunny (or is it the other way around?)

Portland: Ernst/Fuller gardens

Sunday on last month's Garden Bloggers Fling in Portland started with a visit to two neighboring gardens that actually connect -- each garden has its own personality, but each spills into the other a bit. These are the gardens of friends and neighbors Joanne Fuller and Linda Ernst.

As the bus emptied, most people went for the garden on the right (Linda's), so I went toward the other (Joanne's). An overcast morning made the shady front yard extra dark, but I managed to capture many of the great details: furniture, sculpture, pottery -- so much to take in!

Portland: Danger!

It's been a month already since our trip to Portland for the Garden Bloggers Fling, and I'm only about halfway finished showing you the gardens we saw. Today I continue with Saturday, a day when I wasn't with the rest of the Fling group but still ended up seeing a few of the sights that were on the itinerary: rose test garden, Japanese garden, and today's topic: Danger Garden.

When I started blogging over four years ago there were a handful of garden blogs that I found and started following: Loree's Danger Garden was one of them. Over the years I had seen hundreds of photos of her garden, and I felt like I knew "everything" about it -- and now I was finally getting a chance to see it in person! 

Thankful for the rain, but...

After what I believe to be about 3/4" (2 cm) rain total over the past two months or so, we finally got a good soaking here in the St. Louis area yesterday. I'm so thankful for the rain...

...but it's not all good news. Heavy downpours and upright ornamental grasses, well, they just don't go together. I had been enjoying the picturesque verticality of my grasses up until yesterday, and now that's gone.

Portland: Japanese Garden (part 2)

My look at the Portland Japanese Garden continues. Part 1 was yesterday, where I mixed wide shots with macro.

More of the same today - hope you don't mind the lack of textual narrative.

Portland: Japanese Garden (part 1)

Last month during the Garden Bloggers Fling in Portland, I excused myself from the planned tour for the day (Saturday) and spent the time sightseeing with my wife instead. It turns out that we went to a few of the same places where the bloggers would be touring, but as we had no schedule we could stroll at our own pace.

Saturday morning we headed to the Portland Japanese Garden, and since I took so many photos there, I'm breaking them up into two posts. In addition I've spent a lot of time trying to find the narrative for this post but I don't know that there's much to be said, so after a brief intro I'll let the photos do the talking.

Smile!

In spring 2013 I went to the native plant sale at Shaw Nature Reserve, the wild sibling of the Missouri Botanical Garden. (I've posted about this place before) I bought several plants, some that never got planted, some that are enjoyed by deer, and a few that have been integrated into the garden.

One of them that at first was in the "eaten by deer" category but has seemingly moved into the integrated group is Berlandiera texana or "Texas green eyes" (syn. Berlandiera betonicifolia). Imagine my delight the other morning when I saw one of the blooms literally smiling up at me!

Cup plant

A few days ago, the cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) that is next to the pond really started standing out.

Some might say that this plant has been a standout since June, when my garden was part of the Sustainable Backyard Tour and several visitors commented on how huge my cup plant was.

Some walkway love

A few days ago I showed you the front walkway, pointing out how difficult it was becoming to navigate, primarily because of the red whisker clammyweed (Polanisia dodecandra) that is getting leggy and leaning out, taking more space than it should.

Uncharacteristically for the middle of summer, I actually did something about this already. Cool summers give me energy! (Although much of that is spent watering...)