Dirt Therapy

Pamela Harper died on July 14th at the age of 93. She was one of the greats in the world of horticulture, authoring five books as well as documenting plants and gardens in over 100,000 photographs.   A native of England, she first became interested in gardening in 1955 when she and her husband Patrick purchased a house on an acre of land. The twelve years spent making that garden was chronicled in her first book, The Story of a Garden , published in 1972. In the introductory chapter, she said that neither she nor her husband had gardened before and didn't have an inclination to do so but "what began from necessity became a deeply satisfying hobby." For some gardeners, that "hobby" can become an obsession and that was the case with Pam as she began reading magazines, books and visiting gardens (Windsor Great Park, an hour's drive, was a favorite) to learn all she could on the subject. Pam's first garden (from "The Story of a Garden") In 1968, Pa...

I've been trying to catch up on visiting some of the HPSO Open Gardens this summer and one that I can't pass up is Thomas Vetter's garden in Portland. It continues to inspire me. He is a master at putting plants together.  Persicaria 'Painter's Palette' The above photos are from the back garden. He also has a nice collection of succulents - In the front, a large Parrotia was recently removed. Of course, he used the logs to make an artistic monument - And, in the back again, one more photo of the lovely Robinia Tree along the back border- I highly recommend a visit when his garden is open.  The Open Gardens directory can be found on the HPSO website .  Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

On our trip to Sebright, Linda and I made our first stop at the Rogerson Clematis Garden in West Linn. Michael and I had visited a few years ago. The timing was perfect this time because a lot of clematis were in bloom. Plus I had a gift certificate that I received from the nursery when we were on their garden tour!  The garden was the creation of Brewster Rogerson in 1971 and boasts the largest number of clematis varieties in the United States. Since 2004, it has been maintained by Friends of the Rogerson Clematis Garden. I took a lot of photos, mainly of individual varieties, so apologizes for such a long post. First though is to answer the question "What did you get?" I purchased two clematis (well, one was courtesy of the gift certificate) - In my quest to find the truest red-colored clematis, I was enticed by 'Charmaine' and Linda Beutler gave me some great advice on growing this one. Any gardener who is serious about clematis needs Linda's book " The Pl...

I've wanted to visit Sebright Gardens in Brooks, Oregon since moving here and finally got the chance this week - many thanks to my friend Linda who invited me on this excursion. It has been eons since I've ventured beyond the house and workplace and it was fun getting away. We also stopped at the Rogerson Clematis Garden and I will share photos of it later. Sebright Gardens specializes in hostas, epimedium and ferns. I was mainly interested in seeing their display gardens but of course I could not escape without buying something. I did practice restraint, however, and only purchased one epimedium and one fern. I did look at the hostas but so many varieties was frankly overwhelming and I gave up. The bright midday sun was discouraging for good photos and I'm afraid these are not the best. Hopefully they will give you an idea of the wide array of plants. I was astounded by trees and shrubs, most of them unfamiliar to me. The retail area for visitors doesn't fully include...