graffiti's Journal

Today I went out to pick peppers off of my dozen or so varieties of hot peppers and came up with such a beautiful bowlful I had to go in to get my camera and preserve these colors!! In about a half hour they will be all pale and charred on my grill getting them ready for salsa making.

The second image is a nice surprise I had today when the editor of Gourmet magazine wrote to me and asked to use one of my Portland Farmers Market pix!! I love this guy’s cheese and he took a wonderful photo as I was saying goodbye (after buying far too much delicious cheese…lol!)

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL ARTICLE ON GOURMET.COM

The next image is the first bloom on my brugmansia which is about 10 feet tall now. Covered in tiny buds but I sure hope they will have a chance to bloom this season. I plan to bring her in this winter into my studio with all the florescent lights and hope she makes it the winter.

The final image is the view from across the street of my art garden showcase perennial bed..Its’ on steroids I think!! Cannas and banana and grasses………you can hardly see the house.

Happy gardening my friends!!!
Sandra

Thank goodness yesterday is over with!! All I could do to keep from thinking about my tree was to actually photograph her removal …….I”m not quite sure why that made me feel better but I guess it’s kind of a “closure” thing. The 4th photo is Carlos is up in the tree starting to cut the first branch of many as he climbed higher and higher ….de nuding her of branches

Every branch was gently lowered to the ground with ropes and pulleys. This tree was the CENTER attraction of my big perennial flower garden and I was SO impressed at the precision of this team in making sure my garden would not be harmed. Each branch was then carried out over the top of the garden and put directly into the chipper.

What I was left looking at was virtually the worlds tallest telephone pole. What a sight seeing Carlos way up in the tippy top of that tree only held in by his shoe cleats and a repelling line. No heavy equiptment was used to get him up there. These are real lumberjacks!

The first photo shows the first section of the tree trunk dropping to the ground. Again with such precision that the garden was not harmed. The chunks were free falling with no ropes and each hit the ground with such force the entire house shook with each BOOM. Meg who hates fireworks was not a happy camper

The sun finally came out and the blue sky above Carlos really made for a nice photo. I’m sending all my pix to NORTHWEST TREE SPECIALISTS to use anything they want in their advertising or to show clients how tree removal in a garden is possible. Again I am Soooooooo impressed.

Remember the photo from the last post of the entry to my garden path?? Well this is the same view…..filled with my grand old girl in pieces. The chunks were so uniform and beautiful that I asked to keep a number of them to serve as stools and smaller end tables in the garden.

My tree stump was left at about 3 1/2 feet high for a nice bistro table. Boy did they cut that baby level. I’m going to treat the wood after it has a winter to dry out so the trunk doesn’t rot. I can make it last a good 20 years if I can treat it with organic preservative oil like this.

And a little silver lining to the cloud……the tree specialist said the wood is not diseased or full of bugs. For some reason the roots succumbed to rot but it shouldn’t affect my other trees.. WHEW thank goodness!!!!

Thank you all for your sweet sweet words about my “loss” and I have really enjoyed hearing your own tree stories. It’s comforting to know others are just as sappy (ohhhhhhh pardon the pun) as I am over the trees.

This is a very hard day for me and I know I am getting overly emotional but just can’t seem to fight the tears off. When we returned from our trip to New York I noticed my oldestDouglas Fir which is from old growth forest was shedding needles EVERYWHERE. Her “fir” was literally falling out by the wheelbarrow fulls.

This beautiful tree is one of 7 old growth firs on the property that provide shade and protection for my family as well as countless broods of owls, chickadees, Douglas squirrels, woodpeckers and hummingbirds etc etc etc. How many generations has this old girl ushered into the world!! The photo above shows the entry to my garden..the large trunk is my lovely lady!

I tried to put the inevitable out of my mind but last night was my last night being graced by her towering presence silouetted in the sunset. I had to do something to say goodbye so I set up a shrine with fresh picked flowers and incense and sat with my glass of wine in the garden and blubbered like a baby. I’m so hopeless!!!

Bling Bling (my little stuffed panda who is featured in my travel photos) was so overcome with sadness she wanted to hug the tree so I helped her up. You can see the weeping sap on the bark below Bling. It all happened so fast we still have no idea why the tree is dying

I asked the lumberjacks to leave a tall stump that is bistro table hight providing she didnt’ die of disease. I wouldn’t want anything to spread to my other gentle giants!! This will be my special sitting place for years to come. This graceful lady will be with me always.

Farewell my special friend…this quote below is from 1938 when you were starting your golden years

“The oaks and the pines, and their brethren of the wood, have seen so many suns rise and set, so many seasons come and go, and so many generations pass into silence, that we may well wonder what “the story of the trees” would be to us if they had tongues to tell it, or we ears fine enough to understand.”

~Author Unknown, quoted in Quotations for Special Occasions by Maud van Buren, 1938

CLICK HERE FOR A LINK TO THE JOURNAL CONCLUSION WITH PHOTOS OF THE TREE REMOVAL

But boy do we have a beautiful clump of banana trees this year!! She made it back 2 winters now here in Portland OR. Bananas are very touch and go in this area but with our location being up against a hill, we are in a sort of micro climate. I expect next year if this tree makes it through the winter again we will have fruit!!!

The middle shot is of some of my red cannas backed by the banana tree….and a few more shots of cannas today. It’s so nice to not have to dig cannas like I did in Minnesota. You just leave them in the ground here and the next year the corms are as big as massive yams!

I recently took a 2 week vacation visiting the east coast and took a ton of photographs for a book I’ve been working on. It’s interesting being in the larger cities and scouring the asphalt and glass skyscrapers for signs of vegetation but they are there..and if you are very observant they are actually plentiful

My favorite shot of the trip was the most minimalist you can imagine. The busy cobblestone sidewalk around Georgetown University in DC stopped me in my tracks when I saw this little mini “jungle” thriving in a missing brick hole. I am totally going to do a small garden feature with just one brick missing and plant it with a simple groundcover to mimic this image.

This Oriental Trumpet hybrid by B and D Lilies is so magnificent this year I simply had to do a blog entry JUST about this flower!!!

Below is directly from the B and D catalog
http://www.lilybulb.com/l9045.html

Classification: Oriental-Trumpet Hybrid Lily (USDA Zones 5-9, the colder climates of this range must provide winter mulching.)
bq. “Looking for a bold statement for your garden? How about a "red-hearted” beauty that will invoke “oohhs” and “aahhs” from your garden visitors? This flashy new OT has a large “splotch” of startling apple-red over most of the flower, and the petal edges are framed in mango-yellow. This no-fuss lily is great for beginners. The romantic fragrance of ‘Sweetheart OT’ is beyond compare, making it a good choice for the entrance of your garden. 3 to 4 Feet. Late July."

The fragrance blows me away it is so clove like in it’s spiciness and as you can see it is growing well in front of one of my alpine clematis. I am noticing a very long bloom period and fade resistance even in afternoon sun, but I do like the color on the ones I planted in afternoon shade the best

If you are looking for something to make a dramatic focal point…this is it!!

Garden On my friends!!

I am just blown away this year about the number of bird rescues and encounters I’ve had so far in 2008. Yesterday was quite the interesting day indeed!!

• First in the early AM as I’m sitting in the garden with my coffee, I hear screeches from multiple birds that sound like hawks. Sure enough out on the uppermost limb of one of my 200 year old Douglas firs are 2 baby birds of prey (still investigating what they are)…making all sorts of noise as mommy drops in with breakfast for them!!!!!

Oh what a sight. I had my camera in my hands and was so blown away at this unusual sight in the confines of the city that I zoned out taking a photo!!!! I have plans to set up the tripod today with the 400 mm zoom and hope for the best!!

• The photos in this journal entry are about my evening encounter. I went out in my yard with my hot tea in the evening ( I do love my hot beverages apparently…lol) and was sitting, taking in the garden and the peacefulness…..when I suddenly heard splashing in my small wildlife watering hole

I went over to investigate and here was a tiny chickadee in fledgling feather flapping for his life in the water. My guess is he must have just fallen in or he would have been more exhausted.

I scooped his little shivering body up out of the water and cradled him in my hands and called to Steve to grab the camera and he got these pix.

It’s a very hard call to know what to do with these “almost ready for flight” babies when I find them. He was fine but cold so I warmed him up and dried him, then back into the garden we went to see if he would fly.

He stood for about 5 minutes on my open hand while I talked softly to him and finally hopped off onto a dogwood shrub about a foot off the ground.

His mother was watching when I walked away she came down to see him so I hope he made it through the night. As long as mommy is feeding him things should be ok. (crossing fingers)

I love this series of 3 photos. Such a fragile little life in the safety of human hands

• Check out the blooms on my daylily “Custard Candy” this week!!! What a show with the 8" blossoms in mouthwatering custard cream topped with a raspberry eyezone. Such a favorite I wish I could force them to bloom year round. I a blooming clump they stop traffic on my street

• The second daylily pictured is Prague Springs…..A brilliant chartreuse /yellow blend in the throat and yellow ribbing make this one of my most unusually colored cultivars

• Hyperion is a soft bright yellow that is a very old vintage variety with a sweet scent which is rare in hemerocallis. I would not want to be without this flower in summer

• This Cherry red is a show stopper and I wish I had the name for you . Lost the tag but the name will come back to me eventually. It is very sun resistant with little fading in the afternoon hot sun

• A massive stand of Trumpet lilies are in bloom this week. the fragrance in the evening is almost overwhelming at times it is so sweet. The giant moths go crazy for this one

More pix on the way of the garden beds!!!

Garden On!!!
Sandra

We just returned from a 10 day trip to the east coast (ohhhhhhhhh it was hot!!) where I gave a talk about my China trip at the National Zoo in DC. What a fun time!!!

• One of the strangest sights was to see Tai Shan (the 3 year old panda) stomping around his enclosure filled with daylily plants. Well established mind you and not a stalk broken!! I asked the keepers if he ever stomped on them and they said no. Just as we were talking about it Tai flopped a big paw onto the bunch in front of him and crunched the plant down…LOL! The photo you see was right before he did it.

• When I got home I was greeted by a burst of bloom from my daylilies and asiatics in full swing. Pictured are just a few of them. I’ll update with more every day as they open

• The deep orange tetraploid is a breeders reject and one of my fave hot colored lilies.

• The double daylily next to it is incredible. I need to find the tag on that one and get it recorded. It blooms it’s head off all summer and repeats again in the fall.

• This heavily speckled asiatic is a gift from a breeder as well. No name but OH what a face! Such dark maroon speckles on pale peach petals

• Strawberry Candy is the last one. Always and favorite and I see that Custard Candy is just opened today too.

Have a glorious day all!!!!
Hugs
Sandra

Wow…going out in the morning to take photos is always an adventure but this morning I must have had 20 new varieties of clematis opening for the first time this year. It was insane!!

• The daylilies are well on their way coming into show as well and one that I absolutely TREASURE is “Red Resplendence” A friend gave this one to me because she hated the color..she had thousands of daylily varieties and I was blown away by this rich blood red spider variant with deep rich golden eyezone and ribs. It is HuGE….about 10" across on some blooms. I would not want to go a summer without being graced by Red Resplendence’ presence!!!

• The 2 clematis in the pix are both alpine varieties and are just jam packed with bloom pretty much overnight. I love the twisted ends of the purple petals.

• Another of my Abutilons I purchase this spring is "Jackie O’s Lipstick’ besides loving the name I adore the bloom. The calyx is deep reddish black with brilliant bubble gum coral pink blooms

• The final shot is another poppy seedling bloom that opened today. Every blossom is so unique and beautiful. I can’t get enough photos of these beauties!!!

Enjoy the week all!! Happy Gardening
Bug Hugs…Sandra