Photos of Plants Other Than Dahlias 2025

blown_dry · 2025-01-07T21:27:53+00:00

Some wild columbine from May of 2023 to get the thread started. 🙂

blown_dry

Madrones

Redwoods

Teddahlia

Madrone trees ought to be a protected species. We have some near our property but very few and they struggle. They are beautiful.

calico20hill

Teddahlia I had native Madrone trees on my property on Vashon Island, WA. They are messy but also beautiful. They continually shed bark, exposing their cinnamon colored limbs.

Teddahlia

Madrone is said to be one of the very best for firewood. Not good for the madrone.

blown_dry

Teddahlia I'm not super knowledgeable, but I believe madrone grows in with fir and maybe other commercial species and I know timber companies let independant contractors come in and take the madrone and other unmillable trees after logging to process and sell as firewood. I went on a hike recently to a rare stand of old growth douglas fir and madrone and there were madrones that I couldn't put my arms around. The old growth redwoods are fantastically charismatic so people took action when they were about to be logged out. Because of this, there is 5% still existant instead of 0. But Doug Fir and madrone didn't get that kind of attention, so old growth stands of those species are even more rare than that. Madrone is really dense and hard, so I am not surprised it makes good firewood.

calico20hill

I vaguely remember something about this. I think it takes a lot of kindling to get it started but once burning it burns pretty slow and steady. We only burned it when a limb came down in one of our autumn wind storms or
occassional heavy snows.

calico20hill

No photos to share yet, but this was the 2nd day of renewing and rejuvenating my rose border around the front of the house. I think one more day will finish it. The roses are all either David Austin English roses or other similar ones from Heirloom Roses here in Oregon. I've been buying roses from them for over 25 years and through changes in ownership. Growing roses in heavy clay that is very wet in the winter has been a challenge. I've worked out answers to some of my questions...as in, yes, some roses will do OK in the ground but mostly they do much better planted into big pots...Really big pots! They survive winter freezes and summer heat best that way. At least as far as the watering system work! I started with some in the ground, some in pots, then decided they would do better in the ground and then discovered that was not necesarrily true. Now they are all in huge pots, with the best soil and good supplements and drip watering on timers. I was able to rescue some of the old ones and had bought a big order of new ones. Unfortunately with changes in the world of rose growing, One of my favorite businesses(Palatine, in Ontario, Canada) retired. They grew their own root stock and it loved the Pacific NW acid soil! So I have half a dozen of their roses that are huge bushes now and always healthy. And growing in our native clay as well. The others will now all be in the big pots where drainage is good, drip tape will supply the water and they are easy for my old bones to prune and care for.

Now I am going to quit pretending I can do this all organically and go for the healthiest compromise I can find...Husband has been working hard along side me, doing the heavy work. The big pots have aged chicken litter mixed in as well as good garden soil we purchased. And I am actually going to spray for those invisible insects that suck the sap out of the leaves and make a mess of them.

Dahlias, roses, hydrangeas and a few perennial other flowers and foliages keep me a pretty happy camper. Photos after we finish tomorrow....

MissyWeitzel

calico20hill A friend and I traded rose cuttings last year of some off patent DA's and I'm not very good at rooting roses. Only 2 out of 14 lived. I have watched a bunch of videos about it and think I can do better next time I try. Anyway, here's one of my first Carding Mill rose blooms!

Bessie

MissyWeitzel roses can be challenging to root. I've not had great success over the years. I watched a really detailed video from Floret a few months ago, and was surprised to learn the best cutting material is taken from a branch after it had bloomed.

calico20hill

OH, that is so pretty! Carding Mill is not one of the ones I have grown. My favorite of all is Jude the Obscure. I've grown most of the older ones except those that don't have a good defined color or do not hold up as cut flowers. But I will take a shorter lasting rose in a bouquet if it has an exceptional fragrance! I have one healthy surviver that is one of those soft flesh colors and wish I could trade it back in for one of the colors I love. I went looking for a Charlotte (It was a pretty yellow) but not available. THat was my mother in laws name and I liked her a lot...I wanted her rose by my gate. Alas. Now I am debating, which climber to I want around the gate from lower lawn to upper mixed food garden....What is fragrant and takes full sun all day and is still gorgeous? (And I don't have elsewhere). I am good on the pinks. I am thinking a sunny yellow perhaps?

Tomorrow I have 4 very large lavender plants that have survived and need to get then relocated in pots that will drain well over winter.

When I started this I did not know how the climate would vary from our Island home in Puget Sound Country, now did I realize that we were on solid heavy clay. The climate is only really different in summer when it gets about 10 degrees hotter down here. And in the winter it gets a few degrees colder without the salt water surrounding it....but it is moving from loamy soil to solid clay that has been the hardest lesson. The dahlias are all in raised beds, so I guess my big pots are really individual raised beds for the roses and lavenders. And oh yes, I bet we have thousands of voles living in the clay! My dog finds it very entertaining to try to dig them out of the lawn......It is a good thing I am not a lawn freak needing an expanse of even green year round!

Justafewdahlias

calico20hill

I got a book from the WSU master gardeners sale this year and it’s “cuttings throughout the year.” It goes month by month saying what plants to take cuttings of during what month. I mean I took a rose cutting on a 90 degree day in August and it grew into a plant, buttttt only one out of 6 cuttings lived and it really struggled to grow. But I think this book highlights the ideal time to stack the odds in your favor. It says October for roses so maybe time to try coming up soon!

Claire Austin is a rose with high fragrance, thornless, and very good health/durable. It is also a climber. White/cream colored.

There is a book called “growing roses in the Pacific Northwest”. I read it via the Libby app. It talks about some of the “best” varieties for this environment.

MissyWeitzel

Justafewdahlias October is a surprise to me! I always heard soft wood cuttings on thin branches after blooms are spent in early summer. But like I said - I haven't been all that successful so I'll give it a try next month!
I lost a favorite rose to rose rosette this year and I read that mites from the invasive wild roses are often the cause. Unfortunately we have massive thorny roses all over in the wild part of our property so I'm hesitant to spend any money on good roses now. I'm gonna keep trying to improve my rose cuttings skills for new plants until we decide if we are gonna sell or stay here long term.

calico20hill

That would be an interesting read. I usually go with the advice of Heirloom Roses, whose farm is south of us a bit in Oregon and where I buy most of my heirloom type roses. My new roses are all from them.

Justafewdahlias

calico20hill I can’t say I followed any of the advice in the book…but I can see how it could be useful….I usually “shop” my friends gardens and see what I like the look of growing and what they can grow easily and take a cutting from them. I should visit the rose trial garden at pt defiance and see what is growing well. I think I have to see it and smell it myself before getting the desire to grow it when it comes to roses

BackyardBouquets_17

I simply take a cutting from a spent bloom. Put it in the ground in a shady spot n pop a glass jar over the top. I let the jar on until the next spring, Last yr I did 3 in July n every single one rooted n survived the winter. I had covered them with straw for the winter but that’s the only special care I gave em. This is in zone 4 WI.

I did hear of people who will stick em In a pot n then the pot in the ground with a jar over top to b able to pull them out easier instead of having to carefully dig. Also important the jar isn’t in direct sunlight so it don’t fry your cutting.

Justafewdahlias

BackyardBouquets_17 I think the humidity dome is key. My FIL is really good at propagating plants and grafting plants. (Purchase a plant? He would never 😂) He uses a milk jug cut in half over a pot for rose cuttings. If there is something I realllly want the cutting to take I pass it along to him. I always tried to take the cutting before it bloomed (not knowing any better/thinking it was better that way) but the one that actually rooted I believe could have been from a spent bloom where I cut the flower off of it as a last ditch effort to try to get something to root at the end of its display for the season

Justafewdahlias

MissyWeitzel At the bottom of the page it has a guide. I think it’s talking about “hardwood” cuttings can be taken in October. I am sure there are other types of rose cuttings to be taken in different months. I just must have seen the Oct page first and assumed it was the only one. I didn’t notice the letter H = key for what type of cutting at first glance. This book also may be PNW specific. Another book I like is “the plant propagators bible”. Here is a page from the plant propagators bible showing all the possible methods for propagating rose. Some I am sure are easier vs other

This book also gives instructions for different methods, so if one has had a low success rate maybe worth trying to test out another one.

calico20hill

We finished up the planting/replanting project. All roses are back in the ground or in big pots and the 4 big lavenders are in big pots where they can simply sit out the winter here. They have already been through several winters in this garden, and all were in big pots where the roots could drain well.Now we wait for nature to take its course....It is quite possible that we will have one more round of blooms before frost. One pink single rambling rose goes to the back fence between the lawn and dahlia garden, as it makes big hips to feed the birds over winter. That is my Birds and Butterflies garden. THe rose is called "Dancing in the WInd".

And now, back to the dahlia garden, where mildew reigns and I wish it would RAIN and wash the leaves! Some of the mildew preventatives should not be sprayed where ducks roam, so I just haven't gotten beyond that yet. I continue to thin, and remove seedling we won't keep over hoping to increase air flow, but the winds and rains have not arrived .

calico20hill

The rain arrived this morning! Its pouring down right now! I am excited and this old body needs a good rest after the last few days! I hope we get rain all day :-)

calico20hill

I do miss living so close to Pt Defiance Park. I frequently visited both the dahlia test garden and the rose garden there, as well as having occasional picnics along the beach, or eating at the waterfront restaurant with friends. I wish we could have found a retirement smaller acreage near there...but....cities...and I do like being closer to family and being part of the Portland Dahlia Club. It is much harder making new friends here then it was on the Island where we lived. I had "Credibility" there, LOL. I also had friendlier soil to garden in if you didn't mind arsenic and lead fall out from the old smelter in Tacoma. The air is good down here in our little community, but the soil is wretched clay.

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