Skip to main content

Featured

The First Peony - 'Shima-Nishiki'

The Tree Peony 'Shima-Nishiki' is the first to bloom. The name means "fire flame" in Japanese, an apt title to describe the red blooms striped with white. Occasionally, there are solid red blooms. Every year this peony gets better and seemingly overnight, the puny-looking bare branches are suddenly fleshed out with a tremendous profusion of leaves. The bush is dense, forming a 4 ft. mound. Our plant resides at the top of one of the terrace beds in back where it gets some morning sun and dappled sun (mostly shade) for the remainder of the day.  We have many peonies in the garden and they all came from Adelman Peony Gardens in Salem, Oregon. It is worth a drive just to see their beautiful display garden in May. Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
3 comments
Read more

Laura Scott's Garden


Following the garden tour last Saturday, the gardeners who were on the tour got together for snacks, drinks and recovery. We met at Laura Scott's garden, who lives just a few miles from our house. I had not seen her garden before and it was a treat. Despite living so close, her house and garden is like being in the country. Very quiet, bucolic and big!

Laura has an artistic eye and she is very good at creating vignettes. The garden is a series of rooms with a vegetable garden, herb garden, perennial and shrub border, a mini-pond and the list goes on. And I just remembered there is an orchard and a peony field!

The photo above and below show the water feature. I absolutely love Clematis recta - a new plant to be on the look for!



 

Another plant that I loved was the pink Bowman's Root (Gillenia trifoliata 'Pink Profusion'). I have the white-flowered variety but didn't know that a pink variety existed. 




One plant that I'm vaguely familiar with but rarely see is the Gas Plant (Dictamnus albus).




Pineapple Broom (Cytisus battandieri)



Rose 'Kateryna'













Jerusalem Sage (Phlomis russeliana)




A sea of thyme in the herb garden

Did you see the cat in the window?


Thank you Laura for a tour of your wonderful garden!

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
Email Post

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 22, 2022 at 8:42 AM

    A massive garden! And you are right, there are many wonderful vignettes throughout. The slightly stressed sedum Angelina in a pot, or the potted chartreuse bamboo... great artistic combinations.
    I can't tell if it is a rusted shelf or a bench in the photo, but I want it! :-D
    Chavli

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kris PetersonJune 22, 2022 at 12:19 PM

    A peony field? I think I my husband and I may need to revisit our discussion of a move to the Puget Sound area...Laura's garden is absolutely fabulous.

    ReplyDelete
  3. hbJune 22, 2022 at 3:42 PM

    Wowza. Classic PNW garden. Looks like your area got a very rainy rainy season.

    Same reaction as Kris: a peony...field?!?!! I can only dream!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Phillip OliverJune 22, 2022 at 10:00 PM

      hb, she used to raise peonies. Yes, we've definitely had a rainy season!

      Delete
  4. AnonymousJune 24, 2022 at 6:32 AM

    nice

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 25, 2022 at 8:19 AM

    Laura Scott has an excellent eye for garden vignettes. The potted short bamboo agains the rusty metal, the heat stressed sedum Angelina in the urn with glass orbs, the totally drool worthy rusted shelf, or bench. Inspired combinations!
    Chavli

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts