A visit to Chickadee Gardens
I was excited to finally get to see Chickadee Gardens last week. I have followed Tamara's blog for years. She and her husband garden on 2 acres in Saint Helens, Oregon. When you look at the map, it appears that St. Helens is directly across the Columbia River and slightly to the north of us. However, there is no convenient bridge to get over to the Oregon side. You must go north to Ridgefield, Washington (about 30 minutes north of our house) and go across there or travel through Portland and then go north through Scappoose. Either way, it is about a 45 minute drive. I decided to try the Ridgefield route and I was glad I did. Not only did I not have to contend with Portland traffic (it was Rose Parade weekend), I got to see country on the Oregon side that was new to me. Tamara used to work at the beautiful Joy Creek Nursery (my favorite, but alas they are now closed) and she now works part-time at Cistus Nursery. She focuses on native plants and sustainabili...
OMG, Phillip. So sorry. As a tree and shrub expert I always told my potential Bradford Pear buyers that they had a tendency to split or break in high winds. BTW, love your header photo.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to meeting you here in my new neck of the woods at Springfling Asheville in May. Just started up my new blog at http://www.sweethomeand garden carolina.blogspot.com
Hi Carolyn, this wasn't my tree. I don't have any Bradford Pears. I saw several in town that wound up like this after the storms on Friday. I will check out your blog!
ReplyDeletePhillip,
ReplyDeleteI'm no fan of them either. I'd plant an American Plum instead, the butterflies and bees love the flowers and critters like the fruit, no brainer to me.
Yup there's always some around here like that too after severe storms.
ReplyDeleteThey have mostly been blown out of our area too.
ReplyDeleteAmen. In Connecticut we lost every single Bradford pear in town when heavy wet snow hit in October. Some fell over, some imploded in a flat circle, and the few left standing had more than half their canopies broken at odd angles and cracked up in total confusion. It will be interesting to see if malls and municipalities replant the same pears!
ReplyDeleteoh Dear! Love your new header Phillip!
ReplyDeleteI never miss an opportunity to trash talk this tree.
ReplyDeleteThe Bradfords are so pretty, but about three years ago a gentleman from Auburn spoke here about them. Not only did he enumerate all that could happen to them, he mentioned financial liability. Nuff said on that one.
ReplyDeleteI love fringe trees. I need to continue with my series "bradford pears not" on my blog. Spring flowers started blooming & I got side track. Mom called me after the April tornado's at 4 in the morning and the only thing she was worried about was the big limb which fell off of hers. I told her well they do that. When the neighbor came to cut the limb up I told her to get him to cut the whole thing down as it will continue. The next storm she called & every limb had broken in a circle. I told her again well they do that. She got mad at me for my lack of sympathy. Mary
ReplyDeleteWell, this is crap, huh?! Glad its not yours. It could have at least had the manners to fully make it through its bloom season before keeling over.
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