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Spring Beauties

Baptisia 'Purple Smoke' We are experiencing a rare day for June - drizzle and cool temps. But oh, things will change this weekend with 93 predicted for Sunday. I'm not looking forward to that.  We decided to take a break from the garden today because of the weather and the fact that we've been working our butts off. Our garden will be on the HPSO Study Weekend tour at the end of the month so there is much to get done. I would normally schedule tours of our garden now, in early June, because I feel that it the peak time. Thank goodness for hydrangeas to give them something to look at! I've been filling holes and pots, Michael has been pruning and dead-heading. A few days ago, we completely redid a rock retaining wall which just about did us in.  The weather has been lovely and I do hope the heat spell is a short-lived one.  Here are some highlights in the garden now. Peony 'White Cap' Rose 'Chinatown' with Elderberry 'Lemony Lace' (Sambucus), ...

Neighbor Gardens: Palmer & Friedlander

The HPSO Vancouver Mini-Garden Tour continued this past weekend with four gardens located on the east side of Vancouver. Two gardens were located just across the street from each other in Hockinson.

First up is the garden of Karen Palmer and John Emmett with gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains -




Another beautiful clematis - this one is "Happy Jack" - happy indeed!


Now this is unique garden statuary! Karen says this came from Tuscon, Arizona, a purchase motivated by their granddaughter.




Another unique feature of Karen and John's garden is "Yucca Hill", a collection of yucca planted on a steep hillside. 




This garden is five acres and there are many vegetable gardens and an orchard with one hundred heirloom apple trees as well as other fruit trees. It is all fenced in - Karen says they have deer, bears, cougars and other wildlife!

Across the street is the garden of Lucie and Mike Friedlander. They moved into the house three years ago and inherited a mature garden. 



This is a much more formal garden than the others on the tour. The description in the pamphlet said that most of the plants are deer resistant. There is lots of lavender but also roses and hydrangeas which I'm guessing are not resistant to deer. There was a lot of sun in the garden and that row of hydrangeas along the south-facing wall was surprising. I'm not sure how they look so good but they did.

There were many kousa dogwoods and they were very beautiful. I think these are the 'Satomi Pink' variety but that is just a guess based on ones I've seen at the nursery.







Ah, finally some shade! This was at the entrance to the property.


Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. Wow, this doesn't look real it's so perfect. How lovely to walk around these grand estates!

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  2. Beautiful, thank you for sharing these great photos.

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