14 I juStlOUt
JANUARY 19. 2007
Something Old,
Something New
Dan resolves to find love in 2007
ever shying away from stating the obvi­
ous, it’s 2007! The new year brings new
ideas and new plants. Although 2007
gives the illusion of a fresh start, so
much is exactly the same. It's still
January and it’s still raining and cold and I am still
thinking about what I’m going to do in the next
couple of months. Every winter I spend more time
inside than I would like to. A lot of that time is
spent with my friends, but some of it is spent playing
on the computer, looking for fun new plants to try
out. Like me, you have probably noticed that nurs­
eries are constantly introducing new things. They
boast plants with bigger flowers or smaller growth
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or even as a hedge. It’s so handsome that it’s a shame
unfortunately, all too often really good plants are
it’s not planted more often. In my opinion, Portland
tossed to the side to make way for the latest shining
needs more of these and less of some other plants like
star. Don’t get me wrong. Some of the new introduc­
red tip photinia.
tions are really great or real improvements over
Usually around this time of year, I start making
what’s already out there. I think one of my new
trips to Elk Rock Garden of the Bishop’s Close. It’s
year’s resolutions is going to be to fall in love with
an amazing garden to visit from late winter to early
some plants that have been around for a while. I’m
spring. It is a fully mature garden with many beauti­
sure that the new and exciting won’t be overlooked
ful old specimens. One of the first plants you
by me, either. They never are.
encounter is a beautiful Garrya elliptica. The coast
At some point this year, 1 am going to plant a
silk tassel is one of Oregon’s native plants, and soon
Podocarpus macrophyllus. 1 have liked this conifer
it will be in full flower, showing off its footlong
for years but have always overlooked it at planting
blooms. A 10-foot-tall, fully grown plant is incredi­
time. A friend of mine has really taken a liking to it,
bly impressive in flower. It always reminds me of a
and thanks to him, 1 am going to love it enough to
waterfall or a chandelier with hundreds of chains
grow it myself. P. macrophyllus has really nice dark
cascading down. Garrya has been grown in gardens
green foliage, with an almost willowy appearance. In
here for a long time and for good reason. It’s always
its native haunts, it grows to be a very large tree, but
fashionable ami always tough as nails. Oh, yes: It is
here it can be treated as a small garden tree, maybe
an evergreen, making it even better at this time of
growing 20 to 25 feet tall. It is easy to grow, handling
year. If you have never seen one in flower, I suggest
sun and shade just fine. I think this plant, which has
visiting the garden. The silk tassels are reason
been grown on the West Coast for so long, needs to
enough, but there are thousands of bulbs, hellebores
become more popular. It fits right into a garden full
galore and countless shrubs and trees that will be
of rhododendrons or one full of tropical foliage plants
blooming soon. The view over the Willamette River
is breathtaking, too, if you can take
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contribute at least 10% of my
habits or a tendency to lean this way or that. I think,
your eyes off all the greenery and
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flowers around you.
I am looking forward to what
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this new year holds. As gardeners,
we are really all about what the
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future is going to bring. Every time
a new catalog arrives, I wonder if
the next best thing ever will be
available soon, how something is
going to look in a year, in five, in
10, in 20 years or more. For as many
innovations that gardening intro­
duces, there are just as many plants
that are forgotten and overlooked.
I am sometimes too quick to judge a
plant. I need to remember that for
every blossom, someone before me
thought that plant was pretty, and
they thought so for a reason. ©
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For more information about E lk
R ock G arden of the B ishop ’ s
CLOSE visit www.diocese-oregon.org/
theclose.
MILLYNN JAMES
503.330.HOME (4663) «1.800.825.9948
Broker, Graduate Realtor Institute
To reach D irty D an , who will
answer any and all of your gardening
www.millynn.com • millynn@aol.com
ABR: Accredited Buyer's Representative
questions, simply e-mail
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Elk Rock Garden is fully mature with beautiful old specimens
dirty dthegardener@yahoo. com.