09 Holy Hostas!!!
August 14, 2020
11 Bamboo Hell to Heaven
August 28, 2020
(I haven’t even started to write and am about to pee my pants from laughing as I remember the first and last day of one our trips to Oregon...)
W e are heading north—well, I'm driving, so we are speeding north—along Highway 101 toward my hometown, Eureka. Approaching the town of Percy, I turn to Aunt Patti and say, "You have to be really careful on this stretch because the CHPs always hang out here." (California Highway Patrol, for my non-Golden State readers.) Just as I turn back, wouldn’t you know it, there's one of them now, sitting on the opposite side of the road. (If they're supposed to be on "patrol," why are they always parked off the road pretending like they can hide?)
And yup, sure enough, flashing lights start up as the patrol car flips around behind me and pulls us over. The officer comes to my window and asks me, "Do you know how fast you were going?" Well of course I say, "No." So he tells me. And eek...I'm in trouble!
So I explain to him, "Officer, this is a rental car that I just picked up today, and I am still getting used to...the gas pedal." (OMG I am falling over laughing writing this. How did I say that with a straight face?!)
He takes my license and rental papers and—lucky me and Aunt Patti—he decides to have a 10-minute chit-chat with the other officer in his car. I glance at Aunt Patti and she gives me this look of death that says, “Good job, Sheri, now we won’t make our last nursery of the day.”
Finally the officer comes back and says, "Okay I will clock you officially at only seventy-eight to keep you out of jail." (A joke, right?) He hands me the ticket. "But not out of traffic school." Ugh.
When I get back on the highway I use the gas pedal only enough to set the cruise control. After a minute Aunt Patti looks over and says, "How SLOW are we going NOW?" (I have tears rolling down my face remembering the tone of her voice.) I tell her, "Seventy-three."
"It feels like thirty-five!" she says. And it does.
The good news is that we made it to Pierson’s a half-hour before they closed. Their garden shop has quite an eclectic mix of plants, some of them rare even—such as this one I bought there—Polygonatum kingianum (Orange Flowering Solomon’s Seal), so named because of its orange bell-shaped flowers.
This particular Solomon's Seal can grow up to 12' tall, however mine is at about 4'. I’ve only had it a year and have gone through one season of blooms—which is supposed to be from May to June, but mine bloomed in April.
Mix of Loropetalum chinense, Polygonatum kingianum (not in bloom), Aspidistra elatior, Helleborus, and Ferns
Polygonatum kingianum is a spreader, which is why I put it in a container. I want to see how it performs in my climate before I move it to its permanent home. It does tend to "lean," so luckily I have a Loropetalum chinense in the ground next to it which I have trained onto an arbor. Now as the Solomon's Seal grows, I can put its bamboo-like stalks up into the Loropetalum to stay put—which it does due to "hooks" on the leaves.
(I absolutely HATE staking plants. I just don’t like the ugly contraptions. Now if I had a She-Shed...I am sure I could get crafty and make some artsy looking stakes!)
The Solomon's Seal variety you mostly come across at nurseries—and in my garden—is this one: Polygonatum x hybridum (Common Solomon's Seal).
This common variety has cream color flowers in spring and blue-black berries in the Fall. It can grow up to 2' tall by 2' wide and prefers part- to full-shade. I like white and cream in gardens because they make the surrounding areas seem clean and crisp.
Since the roots are runners (rhizomes), both the Orange Flowering and Common Solomon's Seal are simple to propagate and can be easily separated with a shovel, scissors or knife.
Here's another lovely plant I bought at Pierson's...
Disporum cantoniense ‘Moonlight’ (Chinese Fairy Bells) has creamy-white bell-shaped flowers and grows 10" to 16" tall and wide.
I am not really a fan of variegated plants because, remember, I like solids. But I felt really drawn to this plant and so I do not question myself. (Why bother? It’s useless.) I think perhaps due to the wavy white in the leaves, they are not all perfect from leaf to leaf. This is part of the charm. And this plant loves shade, so it's an awesome way to brighten up an area.
I already had the more common Disporum cantoniense (Chinese Fairy Bells) in my garden. Sorry it's not picture worthy due to the extreme heat we are having right now, but it has plain green leaves with white-greenish flowers. I had it in a container until it out-grew it, so I performed some surgery and was able to obtain 10 more plants.
Disporums remind me of tiny versions of bamboo because, not only are they evergreen, but new growth pops up out of the ground like bamboo shoots. They have very sturdy stalks, have the same growth pattern as bamboo, and the leaf shape resembles the leaves of bamboo. I realize only while writing this that, at Pierson’s, I must have been going for a theme, since both plants I bought there are similar in nature to bamboo.
After five fabulous days of nursery-hopping (the best drug ever!!!), Aunt Patti and I approached the Oregon/California border with crossed fingers, hoping the California agricultural border patrol was not in session. Picture this: having to open the back of the car to haul out hundreds of plants onto the pavement (probably in 100-degree temps) and presenting every single receipt from every single nursery for the agricultural agent to compare and check off. Luckily (for the agent) the booth was empty and we sailed through.
Since Highway 5 South is sooo boring, I tell Aunt Patti to drive the rest of the way home. A few miles down the highway, I look over at the speedometer. "Hey, Patti," I say, "look how fast you're going..."
She checks the needle. "Wow! This car goes fast!"
No shit, Sherlock. It's the damn gas pedal.
Photos courtesy Sheri Lynn Burke. All rights reserved.
Additional from Pierson's Building Center website.
