Oregon Garden

Founder’s Square: Monochrome Monday

/ SoyBend / 2 Comments

Founder’s Square features a large open-air pavilion at the Oregon Garden in Silverton, Oregon. At certain times of the year, the Silverton Market Garden, located behind the pavilion, is full of color.

Founder's Square

The Founder’s Square pavilion structure is beautiful year round. I’m highlighting its architecture in black and white. This pavilion is one of several venues available for rental at the Garden.

The Oregon Garden is designed to showcase foliage and flowers throughout the year. It’s easy to overlook the architecture and many outdoor sculptures. This is the kind of place where you will notice new details every time you stroll through it.

Monochrome Monday

Chinese windmill palm: Thursday Tree Love

/ SoyBend / 6 Comments

So, when you think of trees on the westside of Oregon you probably think of evergreens, right? However, trees associated with more tropical locations also grow there. This is a Chinese windmill palm, Trachycarpus fortunei, growing at the Oregon Garden in Silverton.

Chinese windmill palm

Windmill palms have been cultivated in China and Japan for thousands of years so their exact natural range is difficult to determine. This hardy palm has been planted throughout the world. The tough leaf fibers of the Chinese windmill palm have been used in making rope, sacks, and coarse cloth.

Wind palm trees reach a height of 10-40 feet. In southern China, these palms grow at elevations as high as 7,874 feet. They tolerate cold temperatures, wind, salt, and drought.

Thursday Tree Love

Garden art in Silverton, OR: LAPC

/ SoyBend / 27 Comments

Garden art may be realistic and small

garden art

Or tall and abstract, casting striking shadows

Abstract sculptures

You may hear garden art bark from the shadows cast by trees

Continue reading →

Daylily Trail: FOTD & WPWC

/ SoyBend / 13 Comments

A colorful daylily trail in the Oregon Garden in Silverton, Oregon.

These perennials have showy, long-lasting flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Daylilies grow well in full sun to partial shade.

daylily trail

Here’s a closer view of violet purple daylilies with bright yellow throats. I’m not sure what variety of daylily this is, but I loved its ruffled edges.

Close up of lily

Flower of the Day (FOTD)

Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge (WPWC) – Edge

Wheelbarrow planter: Wordless Wednesday

/ SoyBend / 2 Comments
Wheelbarrow planter

Wheelbarrow planter and garden shed at Oregon Garden, Silverton, Oregon

Wordless Wednesday

Natural frame scenes: LAPC

/ SoyBend / 17 Comments

A glistening serpent slithers through a natural frame of duckweed and sedges

White calla lilies, surrounded by leathery green leaves, enlighten

Crimson canna lily leaves punctuate a layered landscape of greenness

Continue reading →

Surrounded by green: Thursday Tree Love

/ SoyBend / 6 Comments

A fall Japanese maple surrounded by green trees at the Oregon Garden in Silverton, Oregon. The red leaves of the maple are surrounded by cedar, pine, and spruce trees.

Surrounded by green

Thursday Tree Love

Euphorbia up close: Macro Monday

/ SoyBend / 5 Comments

Here’s a photograph of Euphorbia, up close, growing in the fall. In spring, this type has bright yellow flowers. These plants, also known as ‘spurge’, are drought tolerant and easy to grow. There are more than 2,000 types of Euphorbia.

Euphorbia

Macro Monday

The power of red blossoms: SS & Sijo poem

/ SoyBend / 5 Comments

The power of red blossoms radiating in the garden.
Crimson petals briefly unfold, reaching towards a cloudless sky
And the memory of their fire burns deep within your soul.

Red petunias
Power of red
Red dahlias
Red flowers

Sunday Stills (SS) Monthly Color Challenge – Red

The details of leaves: LAPC

/ SoyBend / 16 Comments

The details of leaves,

Rounded, serrated leaflets bearing tidbits of sweetness.

Details of leaves strawberry
Wild strawberries Fragaria sp.

Arching narrow leaves falling in cascades of ombre colors.

Hakone grass
Hakone grass Hakonechola macra ‘Aureola’

Continue reading →

A bold blue sage border: Friday Flowers

/ SoyBend / Leave a comment
bold blue sage border

I saw this bold blue sage border in the 80-acre Oregon Garden, located in Silverton, Oregon. It’s impressive how they pay attention to all the plants surrounding bold flowers such as these. The framing brings out their best features.

Friday Flowers

The Oregon Garden in late summer: LAPC

/ SoyBend / 18 Comments

The Lens-Artists Photo Challenge this week is to pick images that go with five possible words. I chose to use all five.

I am featuring pictures from a late September trip to The Oregon Garden, in Silverton, Oregon. It’s an 80-acre botanical garden that is beautiful to visit during any season.

This mixed border is an “exuberant” mix of colorful flowers of various sizes and textures.

The Oregon Garden mixed border September 2018

This planting looked “comfortable” with every plant spaced out so you can appreciate the details.

Landscaping in botanical garden in Silverton, Oregon September 2018
Continue reading →

Oakleaf Hydrangea: Friday Flowers & FOTD

/ SoyBend / 3 Comments

Unusual hydrangea

Oakleaf Hydrangea, Oregon Garden, Silverton, OR 20September2018

This type of hydrangea has interesting flowers and foliage. This shrub blooms over a long period of time in the summer. The white flowers fade to pink in the fall. The large leaves turn maroon, orange-bronze, or red in autumn.

Flower of the Day – Pink hydrangea

Friday Flowers