The Huntington Desert Garden as I saw it last November (Part One)

I wish I would have gotten around to posting these photos closer to when I visited, but life gets busy and as it is I've got a backlog of interesting plants and gardens to write about. So here I am, finally  sharing my visit to the always stunning Huntington Desert Garden some six months after I visited...

Aloidendron dichotomum, formerly Aloe dichotoma. 

The entrance to the desert garden has been under construction for awhile now. I feel like I read that this plant was a new donation to the garden, but I might be making that up. Maybe it was recently moved within the garden?

I didn't see a label for this aloe, but isn't it lovely?

Very photogenic...

In addition to close-ups I aimed for some landscape shots too.

This tall palm had a jungle cactus climbing almost all the way to the top.

Rather impressive.

Maybe Euphorbia monteiroi?

More landscape images...

The dead (?), cut-back tree (above) had a nice epiphyllum growing in it...

There were so many aeonium, in many different states of growing. All interesting...

Another wide-angle.

That's a serious gang of aloes there in the distance.

The same gang, from a different angle. That's Dracaena serrulata in the foreground.

Deuterocohnia lorentziana

I saw more than just one of these signs around the garden. Pretty pathetic.

There were several stapelia blooming, always a fun flower to see.

Stapelia and barrel cactus is a nice combination.

Hechtia glauca, with stapelia.

I didn't manage to cut down the photo offerings to a single post size, so yes, there will be more from the Huntington Desert Garden on Friday. not a bad thing really.

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

A May visit to Gossler Farms

I was in Eugene, Oregon, mid-month and of course that meant a stop at Gossler Farms. I (again) told myself I wouldn't be taking any photos, and left my camera in the car. However, when Roger called me over to see the Embothrium coccineum (Chilean firetree) in bloom, well, my phone came out of my pocket and the camera was called into action...

After that it was a slippery slope and I snapped pics as I walked around the greenhouses and the garden. Rhododendron 'Golfer'...

One of the greenhouses...

Astilbe thunbergii 'Chocolate Shogun' 

Callistemon all budded up to bloom soon, maybe 'Woodlander's Hardy"?

A shot of the container plants sunning themselves behind one of the greenhouses.

Back inside and admiring the new foliage on Rhododendron 'Ever Red'.

Rhododendron 'Yak-Pac'

Mahonia eurybracteata 'Soft Caress'

Rhododendron 'Frosted Jade'

Magnolia × wieseneri 

Back out and more potted plants to admire.

Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida’ (Cutleaf Emperor Oak)

In the garden now, no idea which peony this is...

Or which rhododendron, although I'm gonna make a guess that it's R. 'Wine & Roses'

The spiky "pet plant" collection gathered along the driveway near the office.

When I admired the Magnolia × wieseneri in the greenhouse Roger told me to be sure to smell the one blooming in the garden.

It was amazing!

No ID on this fern but it's a looker! I think it might be a Dryopteris wallichiana (?) 

Another dramatic rhododendron (give me the foliage, don't care about the flowers).

Snow!

I remember walking the display garden one visit when there was a small pond here and the pot with the bamboo was blown over thanks to high winds. It was nice to have decent weather for this visit.

Oh how I wish I could grow big clematis blooms (see, there are some flowers I like).

Rogersia

The display garden at Gossler was the first place I ever saw pollarded trees, many visits ago.

More rogersia!

And another NoID rhododendron with beautiful new growth.

I was in Eugene to give a talk on Dry Gardening for the Willamette Hardy Plant Group. I appreciated the contradiction as I wandered this lush garden with a creek on one side and a river on the other. The water table must be very high here.

Of course I visited the Daphniphyllum macropodum, both the solid green...

And the variegated...

I admired another peony.

And dreamed about having a giant tree fern like this.

Lucky people with plants on the way!

Here are my purchases, tucked in safely since Andrew was gonna be driving the car the next day and isn't one to drive with care for plant passengers.

And at home, Dryopteris wallichiana...

And Rhododendron orbiculare 'Edinburgh'

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.