These plants are for sale obviously. I want to say I love the weeping cedrus flanked by Tibouchina and a row of Rudbeckia in front. Nice!
Leucospermum. I don't think I've ever seen one so red.
Into the garden...
Driftwood in the garden: Yes, yes, yes!
I rather like the Eucomis collapsed under this enormous grass.
This was a surprise.
This garden is known for its heathers.
I regret not taking more time to compose the pictures a little better so you could see the way the colors work together. These pictures only hint at that. As it was, I couldn't even see how the pictures looked in my camera because the sun was so bright.
A fence encloses everything above, plus much more, to prevent deer browse. But you can pass the fence at gate points, and hike straight out to the ocean.
Acres of doug iris.
If you've never seen the Pacific Coast, it varies on this theme for hundreds of miles.
Armeria.
Erigeron.
There's a little teaching room out here overlooking the water.
This is cool... a whole wall of moss and lichen i.d.
Guy stayed with his parents close to the base because they're too old for the hike out, and I don't want to leave them waiting around for me while I dawdle over mosses and lichens. So, I head back in.
What's August without a dahlia garden...
Cemeteries as garden features: works for me.
I love a vegetable garden!
The welcome garden element is an old plow blade.
And I like this little scene across from the vegetable garden.
You'd have to grow basil in a cold frame out here.
What I enjoyed most in the vegetable garden were these single plantings of squash, so you can see exactly how much space a single squash would use if it could.
I found this extremely informative.
They're like ground covers. You can even get ones with variegated foliage.
Chuck B. says, "thumbs up" to the squash planting in the vegetable garden.
This looks like CA native Lilium pardilinum, but I'm moving pretty fast at this point.
Back at the nursery, I'm amazed how much I know about plants after gardening and volunteering at Strybing for a couple years. I used to be overwhelmed by plant choices at the nursery. Now I make short work of them.
I buy a passionflower to go with the Dahila imperialis I've decided to keep from last year...
Mahonia aquifolium 'Compacta' for under my back steps...
and two Sisyrinchium 'Quaint & Queer' (I shit you not) as an impulse.
16 comments:
Chuck: I'm still LOL at your way with words! Great pictures all and thanks for sharing the coastline with us. I will have to take some here (although I am as far from the coast as one can get in RI-35 miles)! I love those 'Tootsie Pop' dahlias. Like something out of Alice in Wonderland.
This was such a treat for my Friday. The heathers are amazing! And the dahlia garden is lovely. Ooo's and aaah's all around!
I agree with Phillip, What a TREAT !
Thanks for the photos and the essay.
It is always eye candy to come to this blog.
I have a couple of question Chuck, if you don't mind ?
1. Did it appear the heathers were at their peak or do you think I should wait another couple weeks to go up to Mendo to view them ?
I ask because I have a large heather garden that I designed just south of Mendocino and want to bring a professional photographer up there with me to shoot the heather garden.
2. - You post a lot of photographs, which I and so many other people greatly appreciate.
Do you have a special software program that compresses the size of your photos and is it something that would work with a Mac ?
My camera takes a 8 mega Pixel picture so when I want to effeciently upload the photos I have to resize them which takes a fair amount of time when doing a dozen photos or two.
I would like to post more photos but it sure does take a lot of time.
Thanks for any information.
Your blog is such a treat.
Michelle.
The heathers looked to be in full-swing to me!
Which is interesting/surprising, because at Strybing I think of them as a winter favorite.
I really was buzzing through that garden at a fast clip, snapping photos left and right as I went, so I didn't pay a lot of attention to botanical names. I did see genus name Calluna at least once, but never Erica. We mostly have Ericas in the heather collection at Strybing, as far as I know. (I say "we" like I'm part-owner or something.) Definitely, this is not a plant group I'm super-familiar with. So many subtleties in color and form; I imagine with all the different combinations and colors, they get a long season out of a mixed planting like this.
About the pictures, I upload everything to a Flickr account (which I paid for once a few years ago, and they keep renewing without more money from me).
I believe I re-set my camera defaults to take a picture whose file size is just slightly larger than the one you see on the blog (so I could fit more on my memory card). Then, in Flickr, I select the size (from four different preset options) I use on the blog. It's a time-intensive process, but my fingers have gotten pretty fast at it. This post probably took me 45 minutes--which is an outrageous use of one's time, I know. I usually blog while I'm watching TV or listening to music so it doesn't seem as pathetic. Plus, the result is worth it, imo.
Let me make that a little clearer... The re-sizing is automatic in Flickr. What takes me so long is cutting and pasting.
On behalf of Armchair Garden Travelers everywhere, Chuck - thanks for doing it!
Annie
Well, you're all quite welcome!
P.S. Michelle (and also Germinatrix) I love hearing all the jobs you professional types have worked on. Always very interesting.
Nice Sisyrinchium!
Also, flickr is the way to go in terms of end user ease of use. But do not try to read this blog on dialup.
Thanks again for your information Chuck.
I think I can safely say that anyone who visits your blog whether they be a regular ( like me ) or who luckily stumbles across it via another link or blog is incredibly appreciative of the time that you take to post your photographs and write your essays.
It's always a joy to stop and drink in your blog.
with great appreciation,
michelle
Aren't those two big clumps of Angelica gigas in pictures four and five?
I really have liked all the heather garden pictures I have been seeing, including yours Michelle. I could not comment at the Rant on the Filoli knot garden. TypePad freezes me out of comments sometimes.
That look though of low mounding drifts of color could be put to good use in my sunny utility valley.
Oh, is that what it is? Those were taller than I am.
chuck, I'm so glad you don't mind spending an "outrageous use of one's time" to put together these cool photo montages. Along with your laugh-out-loud comments, I think you're doing the blogging world a service!
"Okay, this is me trying to cover 47 acres in one hour for you."
WOW! Thank you!
And Tsuga, tsuga tsuga in shots 8-10. Love the way that sounds. Silly, I know. Tsuga!
Were the purples Colchicum? They look like they might be:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchicum_autumnale
That ocean looks lovely from here. We had a break in our weather, it was a cool 90 degrees today. Ah, cold ocean water... I was born in Michigan, and summers traditionally had a visit to one of the great lakes. Only Superior rivals the cold of the Pacific, but cold water? Something I miss terribly. Our 'cold' water comes out of the tap at something like 75 degrees. Sigh.
Ahh! I didn't know there was an autumn crocus. I should tho', I just wrote a report on colchicine. Very poisonous. They prescribe it for gout, but it's very risky.
Nice tour! I like the heathers...wish they would grow for me up here. The coastline is beautiful!
Hi Chuck,
I was looking for folks bloggers who might be interested in our Mendocino guide -- http://71miles.com/destinations/mendocino -- when I can across your photos. Really nice. We love the Botanical Gardens in Mendocino.
Best,
Adam
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