Garden of the Month: July 2023

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500 Holly Street.

Notice the welcoming stone entrance to the garden at 500 Holly Street.  This is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for July 2023, home to Kathy and Stephen French.  

July 2023 photo by Larry Rosengren

A massive redesign of the entire yard in 2009 was conducted by Kerry KenCairn of KenCairn Landscape Architecture, with graceful curved stairs featured in both front and back gardens.

Spring 2023 photo by Kathy French

The Frenches purchased the property in 2021 from Nina and Paul Winans who had masterminded the earlier redesign.  Kathy French especially appreciates the sequential blooming times for different components of the garden which include iris, rhododendron, tulip, and hydrangea.  And both Frenches enjoy the bounty of the many fruit trees that the Winans had specified in working with KenCairn, only two of which were already on the property and now include two apples, pear, sour cherry, and fig.  

Spring 2023 photo by Kathy French

Before the 2009 overhaul, Paul Winans personally dug up many rocks on the steeply sloped lot, which were later incorporated into the retaining walls in back.  Raised beds in the side yard allow for a fine kitchen garden, currently filled with tomato plants and an essential assortment of fresh herbs—including thyme, basil, rosemary, and chives—to season any meal.

Spring 2023 photo by Kathy French

Currently, Rudolfo Ramirez and his crew mow the lawns and do the more routine maintenance.  Kathy French averages about an hour a day more closely grooming the garden.  And Stephen French does the occasional big jobs, including pruning the many trees.

With thanks to Marilyn Love for suggesting this garden.

Article by: Ruth Sloan, AGC Garden of the Month Chairperson

The Oregon Gardens

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After years of hearing about the Oregon Gardens from garden club members, my husband and I finally visited this garden located in the charming town of Silverton, 12 miles NE of Salem, Oregon. The Oregon Gardens is a lovely 80-acre botanical garden featuring twenty themed gardens, many with water features and sculptures and it has a historic Frank Lloyd Wright house, called The Gordon House. When we arrived we first took the narrated tram tour. The driver told us the garden’s history and pointed out each featured garden and interesting facts. She explained that the wetland area in the gardens is used to cool the City of Silverton’s effluent water.  The water moves through a series of pools and is used to irrigate the gardens before it’s returned to the local river. We were impressed! After the tram tour, we purchased iced chai-tea from the Little Leaf Café in the visitor’s center, and then walked through the gardens using a brochure map to guide us.  The Conifer Garden was grand and we could have stayed here for hours, but we still had to visit: the Bosque Grove, the Sensory Garden, the Rose Garden, the Children’s Garden, the Medicinal Garden, the Garden Market Garden, the Tropical Greenhouse, and the water features. Picnicking is encouraged at the gardens, so we ate our lunch at a picnic table surrounded by trees and flowers. The garden is pet-friendly, too, there’s even a pet-friendly demonstration garden. I couldn’t leave without purchasing a plant from the retail nursery, so I bought a Dicliptera suberecta also known as a firecracker plant or hummingbird plant. This plant is a deer-resistant drought-tolerant herbaceous perennial with felty blueish-grey leaves that blooms early summer into fall. It has   clusters of tubular orange flowers that are a hummingbird’s delight!  It’s winter hardy in USDA Zone 8-10, and needs full sun. Visit the Oregon Gardens, you’ll love it. ~Carlotta Lucas Read more about the Oregon Gardens https://www.oregongarden.org/about/
Photo above was provided by the Oregon Gardens Website Photos below were taken by Carlotta Lucas, AGC Member

Native Shrubs for Southern Oregon

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RED-FLOWERING CURRANT, (BLOOD CURRANT)

Ribes sanguineum Purch

Mid-height deciduous shrub, 3–9-feet with many upright stems from the base. Gray-green leaves. Blooms emerge before foliage with pendant red/pink flower clusters bloom in late winter. Shrub produces blue/black berries with waxy bloom in the summer.

This plant is a rapid grower and is drought tolerant. There is a selection of varieties flowering currants available in shades of red, pink, and white.

Habitat: Dry open woods, Forest edge, Slopes

Flowers attract hummingbirds, Berries attract birds.

PACIFIC, OR WESTERN, NINEBARK

Physocarpus capitatus (Pursh) Kuntze

Mid-height, multi-stemmed deciduous shrub to 8′-10’. Leaves resemble a maple tree leaves. Produces small white flowers in dense 2–3″ clusters in late spring. Plant turns a rose-brown color in the fall. Older stems have shredding bark.

Habitat: Best used in moist locations, along creeks & streams.

Ninebark Varieties:

Summer Wine – Bright red leaves when emerging, turning dark purple. Upright arching branches. Height 5.5 feet, same width. Exposure: Sun, part shade. USDA Hardiness Zone 2

Little Devil – Red stems with green and Red glossy leaves – Height 3.5 feet, same width. Exposure: Sun, part shade. USDA Hardiness Zone 2

Diablo : Dusky dark purple leaves turn red in autumn. Upright and arching shape. Height 8-10 ft, same width. Exposure: sun, part shade. USDA Hardiness Zone 2

Dart Gold: Bright gold new leaves, sometimes tinged with red. Chartreuse color in the shadowed center of the plant. Grows in an upright fountain shape. Grows to 5-ft , same width. Exposure: part shade. USDA Hardiness Zone 2

Amer Jubilee: New leaves are a glowing orange and gold, with touches of purple. Growth is upright rounded shape. Height 5.5ft, Width 4 to 5 feet. Exposure: Sun, part shade. USDA Hardiness Zone 2

by Carlotta Lucas, AGC Member