Oregon in March

[Diane Whitehead]

I've just returned from the Western Winter Study Weekend in Medford,
Oregon, the home of Siskiyou Rare Plant Nursery and a lot of exciting
gardens.

The first lot of pictures are from Kathy Allen's garden.  She is a dedicated
seed sower and has three plant sales a year.  A lot of her plants came
home with me, mostly penstemons, gentians and Turkish campanulas.

I was disappointed that she did not have any of her spiny sentinels for
sale, and she has not been able to find out its name.

The first set of pictures are mostly shapes, except for one with a name:
Iris attica.
Kathy has identified some of her plants.
"The plant that someone thought might be Dianthus erinicus(msp) and scorched on one side is acantholimon confertiflorum(I think it is winter burn).  The flattish light green mat is Arenaria alfracarense.
Yes, one of the large cactus types was from okla and one was from a start given to me
by a stranger that wandered in one day and thought it would be at home in my garden."
The small cactus is  Escobaria orcuttii v. koenigii

[Diane Whitehead]

Now for some with names.

Three Saxes:  Saxifraga X apiculata,( a hybrid of S. marginata and S. sancta)
Saxifraga marginata var rocheliana, and Saxifraga grisebachii.

[Diane Whitehead]

Corydalis malkensis was happily putting itself into the path,
or maybe I was stepping off the path?
Note from Kathy:  the corydalis is bulbosa alba.  
At least that is the name it had when it was given to me about
35 years ago.  It was given to me by Lawrence Crocker. (of
Siskiyou Rare Plant Nursery)


Parrya kokandica from Tadzhikistan maybe was new, as there was
just one plant.  Or perhaps Kathy collects all its seeds.

Synthyris  stellata is much more luxuriant than my winter-flowering
reniformis.  I wondered if I was starving mine, but I've just looked
it up, and in the wild, stellata is twice the height of reniformis.  I
seldom see anything written about these "kittentails" and wonder
why they are not more widely grown.

[Diane Whitehead]

A pulsatilla, and a section of the nursery.

[Maggi Young]

Oh, Diane, I was so hoping we'd get a report from the NARGS Study weekend.... good for you!

[Lori S.]

I was disappointed that she did not have any of her spiny sentinels for
sale, and she has not been able to find out its name.

Looks like a lovely place to visit!
Assuming the "spiny sentinel" is North American, and not something more exotic, is it not a cholla, Cylindropuntia ssp., possibly C. versicolor, staghorn cholla?

[Diane Whitehead]

I think she said she got it from Oklahoma, but I don't know
whether she meant it was native there, or just from a nursery
or collector.
From Kathy:  I think the close up of the large cactus
(I call them all cactus) is the one from Oklahoma and the other two
 pictures are of the one the fellow fished out of the back of his pickup
 to give to me.


I took a close-up photo which I'll resize and post.  It'll be great
if you can identify it.

[Diane Whitehead]

A few more from Kathy's garden.

I'm amazed at how she can grow cactus and a couple of metres
away, hepaticas are thriving.

Purshia tridentata, Antelope Bush, is native from Oregon to
New Mexico.  not right - the leaves should be small
with three tips, and it should have five petals, not four.  I'll have
to ask Kathy. "I'm sorry that I don't know the
name of the plant with the yellow flowers. I have had it for so many
years that I have lost touch with it.  I do know that I bought it from
Forest Farms Nursery in Williams, Oregon. "

The iron rooster is standing beside a zigzag bush, but I don't
know its name.   "The spiny 'zig zag' plant is Poncirus
trifoliate(hardy orange)."

[Lori S.]

I took a close-up photo which I'll resize and post.  It'll be great
if you can identify it.

I'm no expert, but it still looks like a Cylindropuntia... maybe C. acanthocarpa (buckhorn cholla) or C. versicolor (staghorn cholla). 

[Susan Band]

The iron rooster is standing beside a zigzag bush, but I don't
know its name.

Charlie?
The bush could be what we call the wire netting bush Corokia cotoneaster

[Susan Band]

The white Corydalis looks like Corydalis malkensis.
Susan

[Afloden]

The Cylindropuntia is probably C. imbricata if it is from Oklahoma. It has a large native range and bright pink to fuschia flowers.

 Aaron

[Diane Whitehead]

Thanks Susan, I'll change the Corydalis name.  There was a label that
I couldn't quite make out, and it must have been malkensis.
There was also C. bulbosa alba in another part of the garden.

[Diane Whitehead]

The next sets of pictures are of wild plants in the Illinois Valley,
along Highway 199, west of Grants Pass.

Every time we go, we go along our favourite roads, but always
add a new one, as each road has different plants.

The new one this time was Waters Creek Road, which has an
interpretive trail along the creek.  It was mossy and moist near
the creek.

Hillsides were covered with the little yellow daisies of Gold Fields,
Crocidium multicaule.  Saxifraga rufidula grew on rocky slopes,
and was tucked under rock overhangs. Cardamine nuttallii grew
here and there.

[Diane Whitehead]

There are about eight yellow viola species in this area of
Oregon, but I think this one near Waters Creek might be
Viola sheltonii.

The gorgeous rosette of leaves is a complete mystery,  I'll
have to go back in a few months to see what it is.
Aaron identified it for me:   Hydrophyllum spp.
Likely H. fendleri or occidentale