Welcome To My Garden

Front Gate Looking Out

Front Gate Looking In

     The main part of my garden is completely enclosed by fences and walls.  There is a metal gate at the front which is the equivalent of a front door, although there are several other gates out of the garden, too. The gate was made when all the hard surfaces of the garden were constructed, about 20 years ago, by a local iron worker. Above the gate is a little roof such as is found in Japanese gardens, but that roof is now completely covered in vines and cannot really be seen.
     The first shot above is of the gate looking from inside the garden to the outside. In that shot you can see the vines growing on the roof of the gate. These are what I call the clash of the titans.  One of these is Vitis coignetiae, a grape relative which is grown for its large beautiful leaves which turn crimson in the fall. The other titan is a form of the golden hops called 'Sunshine'.  This is not the usual golden hops. It is one I got many years ago from Nichols Garden Nursery in Salem, Oregon where a lot of hops are grown and it is a cultivar that is actually used for hops production. I think 'Sunshine' is a better plant than the usual Humulus lupulus 'Aurea' in that the leaves seem to be larger and they do not scorch in the sun as much. Both of these are very vigorous vines, capable of covering vast areas, and I am constantly having to cut them back so that they do not swamp their neighbors.
     I once had another titan here in addition to these--Clematis montana-- but it bit the dust when a neat freak garden helper decided to "tidy" it up. That, among other reasons, is why I don't have any garden helpers now. That same garden helper also weeded out all my Dactylorhiza seedlings which were growing in the pathways, but that is another story for when I do a post on dactylorhizas.
     The delphinium in the top picture is one of the New Millenium delphiniums from New Zealand. I will be having a post on these in the future, but suffice it to say that they are better than the Pacific Giant strains.