May 21

Laburnum beautiful this year. Bechtel crab [Malus ioensis plena] lasting well. Hawthorns good color. These tree(s) bloom together. Iris in bloom by May 12^th. Poppy not yet started. Color combinations good are:

Side Garden.

Red Star Columbine [Aquilegia coerule] pretty with Hawthorn

Cherry Tulips [ Tulipa ‘Cherry Pink’?] tall & lovely just about gone—color not good with Hawthorn.

Iris pale lavender & I. ‘Susan Bliss’ good together – get darker shade near rock wall to place with this Iris. Purple violet nice with this Iris.

Elizabeth Lord Garden Journal 1937

 

It was a soaker of a Monday with sporadic rains so far this week.  The recently planted summer annuals welcome the moisture as they get established. One thing I have noticed from reading the journal entries is that a many of the biennials and perennials including Digitalis, Papaver, Peonies and Delphinium bloomed much later for Edith and Elizabeth. In the journals,  these flowers are often mentioned in June and sometimes into July. Surely makes one wonder about the changing weather patterns and the phenology study one could run comparing the bloom times listed in the journals to the dates we see today.  I would love to have the journals for the missing decades (1945-1965) as they might provide some insight into the changes over the years.

Happy Gardening!

Mark

 

If the decade was the 1950’s, and Edith and Elizabeth wanted to do some plant shopping, there was a good chance they were headed to Brydon’s Nursery. Located where the Pringle Park Plaza is today, it was just a stone’s throw from Gaiety Hollow.

Founded by Percy H. “Jock” Brydon, the nursery specialized in Rhododendrons and Azaleas. Jock was a founding member of the American Rhododendron Society and it’s first Vice President. He had an amazing horticultural career. In addition to being a Nursery owner and Director of San Francisco’s Strybing Arboretum, Mr. Brydon helped propagate the 2,000 original plants that would become the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden located in Federal Way, Washington.

In 1971, the California Horticulture Society gave Jock its highest award for Outstanding Contribution to Horticulture in California. Also in 1971, the American Rhododendron Society awarded Jock its Gold Medal Award. Finally, in 1976, the American Horticulture Society awarded him a Citation for Outstanding Contribution for Professional Horticulture.

 

 

 

It must have been nice to have such a great nursery just a few blocks away.  One can imagine Elizabeth and Edith strolling up Gaiety Hill on a beautiful spring day to browse through the plant selection when the Azaleas were in bloom.

Speaking of Azaleas, if you grow the deciduous types do check your plants for Azalea sawfly larvae this time of year. We have seen an outbreak on the Azaleas in the Scroll Garden at Deepwood and even removed a few larvae from the Evergreen Garden at Gaiety Hollow. These small, green caterpillar-like insects will do a fantastic amount of damage to your plants if unchecked, eating the leaves down to nothing but the midrib. Spinosad is an effective control measure after handpicking or washing them off.

It’s been a wet week at Gaiety Hollow. The Camellia pruning is almost completed for the year, just in time to shape the Boxwood and Rhodododenrons.

Happy Gardening!

Mark

“Petunia dble Purple, Petunia Elks Pride, Petunia La Paloma, Petunia Neore White, Purchased at Egan Gardens, Spring 1953”

Fortunately for me, Edith and Elizabeth kept meticulous records of plant purchases throughout the years. At the Lord & Schryver Conservancy, we rely upon those records along with hand drawn plans, notes on planting combinations and our pictorial archive to recreate the plantings that Edith and Elizabeth did over time in the Parterre Garden at Gaiety Hollow.

On a recent visit to Egan Gardens, I was happy to see the staff as busy as ever with the parking lot packed and the majority of patrons respectful of social distancing and wearing face masks.

I’m happy that we have such a longstanding relationship with this excellent grower of summer annuals. Edith and Elizabeth were long time customers and we continue that relationship today.  With the way Covid-19 has disrupted supply chains, having a local business that you can count on is a wonderful thing.

Someone once said, “You can’t buy happiness but you can buy local and it’s kind of the same thing.”

Every local business that we support through this rough time builds resilience in our community and that is no small thing. By supporting local companies, we are ensuring that the money spent stays as close to home as possible, creating opportunities for those around us.

Thanks to local nurseries like Egan Gardens, Rocky Mountain Nursery, Wavra Farms, Terra Gardens and the Chemeketa Community College Horticulture program for supplying us with plants and helping keep our community looking beautiful through these difficult times.

Hope all the Mothers had a wonderful day of celebration this weekend. We wish you many happy moments to come.

Mark

On a recent visit to Sebright gardens I was excited to see a selection of Dwarf bearded Iris in many pastel shades that Elizabeth and Edith would have been thrilled to encounter. Early journal notes show how they loved to combine dwarf and miniature Iris with low groundcovers such as Golden Alyssum and Violas. They were constantly playing with different color combinations.

Some time ago, I was talking to Mrs. Strand about the Prunus hedge in the alleyway. She told me that she used to pay a man to trim it every year and he would do it with a machete! She said it was the straightest, neatest work and the hedge always looked best after a machete trim. Recalling my days as a Christmas Tree farm worker, the cultured Christmas trees around the valley are trimmed with a thin-bladed machete-like knife that is so sharp you could shave with it. This seemed an ideal tool to do the Prunus hedge as the Strands did when they were caretaking the garden.

So, on a recent visit to the horticultural supply store, I picked one up and gave it a shot. I will say that, while it is much easier to get a nice straight line with the Christmas Tree knife, it sure does give the swinging arm a workout! A bit of advice, the German-made blades are thinnerso will only cut the finest new growth, while American-made blades are thicker with more backbone for cutting the woodier material.

It was a fun week of trying out some old, time-proven techniques in a garden with a long and storied past. The Camellias are finishing up the bloom so it is on to trimming those. No machete work there, just hand clippers and an orchard ladder for that task.

Mark