Begonia

Monthly Top 10 Plants at Campiello Maurizio (June 2023)

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Summer has been flying by but I have to say it’s been a beautiful one. This year the garden has been easy to love and I’ve really enjoyed it for the first time in a long time.

There’s always great happiness when you find just the right plant. Rosa ‘Altissimo’ is a pleasure to grow.

One: This climbing rose, introduced by Delbard in 1966, is a jaw dropper when it’s in bloom. Sadly, mine needs to struggle a bit in the small and not-so-fertile bed where it is forced to live, so it’s been growing slowly, but at least it continues to put out those incredible blooms.

Heralded as disease-free, so far it looks great to me.

This Begonia aff. palmata was purchased from Shayne Chandler during a visit to the Olympic Peninsula a year or two ago with my friend Theo.

Two: As an act of kindness a year or two ago Theo decided to take me up to see Heronswood as a break from working so hard during the pandemic. It was great to see the garden, and it was even more fun to visit the home garden of Shayne Chandler. Long a fixture in the PNW, with his designs, and his public friendship with Dan Hinkley, it was nice just to spend a little bit of time talking to him.

And his garden, wow! (I don’t think I posted photos but maybe sometime soon I can get back up there and report here about it.)

It took me wwwaaaayyyyy too long to get this Pteris wallichiana from Evan’s old garden into the ground.

Three: Last fall my close friend Evan had to move away from the garden they’d lived in for many years. It was the family home, and it was time to downsize. Instead of throwing in the towel and just saying “Whatever, I’m out of here,” they jumped into action with organized lists of plants for folks to dig, as well as their own rescue plan for what they’d be bringing to the city. One of the plants on the list I knew I wanted IMMEDIATELY was this fern. Grown from spore, I divided a batch of them at Cistus last year, and I knew I wanted one then. So finally, after many months, this one is in the ground!

Mission accomplished!!!

A Cistus introduction from before my time there, Abutilon ‘Tiffany Sconce’.

Four: It’s not breaking news to say I have a thing for abutilons… This is one I reencountered while helping to inventory which ones we had at Cistus. It’s a lovely one, with a sheen just like the best art glass, and purportedly hardy-ish, so of course you know I wanted to plant one in the garden this summer—and so I did.

This goatsbeard planted itself here. I’m fine with that since Aruncus dioicus is one of my favorites.

Five: Not as many native plants this month, but I don’t think that’s a surprise. So many non-natives really shine as this time of the year.

Overall, so long as Aruncus dioicus is planted in the shade, you’ll easily be successful with it. Planted in swaths, it looks much better than this one does. We do have more of these at Secret Garden Growers so I’ll be adding a few friends soon.

Was happy to bring home this Pittosporum patulum home with me.

Six: A regret about leaving a job like the one at Cistus is that I will always be sad about the plants I DIDN’T try while I worked there. (My garden is just not big enough for much more though, and I honestly could not afford to buy a lot.)

That thought is absurd though since I can always go back to look for them, or even try something else now that I’m a civilian shopper and no longer a talented and beloved team member. Before I put in my resignation—a thing I didn’t want to do but had to professionally since there was no pathway forward for me—I thought long and hard about fun stuff that I urgently wanted to try, and I was so happy that this was available.

Have I planted it yet? Well… that’s another story… ask me in a few more weeks.

After several years in the stock tank, the Schoenoplectus acutus, continues to show how awesome it is!!!

Seven: A few years back I purchased this stock tank to change things up a bit in the garden. Having grown up on a creek, and then having had a family home on a river, I love water. If I’m not near a body of water, I feel a bit off balance in some way. It’s a comfort to me. One of the interesting challenges though has been to make this work year round, and to include more native plants in the blasting sun.

Tule grass for the win!!! With that tall vertical appeal, I don’t know why more folks aren’t using it. Lots of insects are attracted to it too and while I rest in the hammock nearby I enjoy watching them buzz right by.

Sideshow Bob or Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyersii’?

Eight: One of my many collections is of asparagus plants. I love the edible sort as well as the ornamental, and the family fascinates me too. This plant is a common ornamental one, but this year, it feels especially pretty displayed on this plant stand in the big container.

I enjoy that it adds humor and amuses me. Laughter therapy is good.

A Holodiscus dumosus I grew from seed now happily planted in my front garden.

Nine: Years ago when I first started working at Cistus I was asked to go on a trip to Southern Oregon with Sean and Preston, another employee, and our mutual friends from England. It was during that trip I became more aware of this plant, one I’d seen before, but at that time I mistakenly thought it was some form of Holodiscus discolor instead of a whole different plant.

So, this my readers is Holodiscus dumosus, and it’s one I grew from seed. I grew a crop or two of these at Cistus Nursery but I can’t say for sure if any are available.

Be on the lookout for it though, and if you find one, plant it!

Last year I ordered a Pelargonium ‘Vectis Glitter’ and it didn’t make it. This year, I’m glad I tried again.

Ten: Pelargoniums are also mostly non-hardy plants I love but I don’t think they always love me back lol. Last year I was excited to buy this one from Geraniaceae. I LOVE the stellar forms. This one needs to grow a bit more yet, but I’m being patient with it.

The blooms were perfect, so I guess it was worth the hassle of waiting another year.

I’ve been slowly working on the site again over at Spiffy Seeds.

If you have any extra special seeds from your garden that you’d like to send me to include in my shop, I’d be grateful and can likely trade with you for something else. Just send an email to: ann@amateurbotannist.com

I’ll be posting about seed-related topics there too from time to time on the Journal page. You can read my most recent post here: Seeds Matter to Me

Unintentional February Break—Part Two (The Deep Dive)

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Life hasn’t been all bad these last few weeks. I have much to look forward to this year and I intend to shine and use my talents a bit more than I’ve been able to during the last two decades. Maintaining my health came first and foremost. It took a lot of my time and energy. Thanks to medical science, I can grow a bit beyond all of that now.

I no longer need rest quite as much after I exert myself. It’s surreal to have more mental energy. I’ve been relearning how to use that time, and I’ve thought a lot about where I want to exert more effort. It’s time to create new memories, and to work on personal development beyond what I’ve been able to do.

I have been thinking a lot…

Not the most lovely specimen, but it’s an old hybrid that I inherited from someone and I look forward to it getting larger. I need to propagate it soon but it’s not yet bloomed. (Begonia ‘Tewksbury Red Compta’, introduced in 1940.)

It’s funny to have gardened here for so long and to not have completed projects. Before my health changed, I always accomplished what I set out to do. I want to wrap a few things up around here before I celebrate having lived here for 20 years in August of 2024.

I plan to ask for help though, and to hire help, and to finish projects that I’ve dreamed of finishing for a very long time. Last year I pushed on several things, and it really helped me to better enjoy my space. I don’t have the financial security to do anything dramatic, but I can be resourceful. I want to at least try harder.

Sitting in the NE corner of the back garden taking it all in at the start of the month. This space will be changing quite a bit soon. I want it in top form. It’s time.

The garden began, and was inspired by, the Islamic gardens of Spain, something kind of classical, something touching my roots—and likely those of my ex as well but we never tested his DNA. While I’m an Italian-American, like many others, I’m also of North African descent, and this is meaningful to me while it isn’t always to other Italian-Americans. (Yes, of course many of us have heritage from all over the Mediterranean!)

I had one Moorish ancestor in Spain who left for Sicily at the end of the Spanish Inquisition in 1612. I’m not sure of what he did for work, but I can only assume that he worked the land, and it’s what my family did in Sicily for many more generations. Spain was the first foreign country I ever visited, and that experience of better understanding my own “Otherness” at 20, changed and enriched my life in ways I could never have imagined.

We all come from somewhere, often, somewhere else… While my current husband was born in Italy, and is half Croatian, thanks to his DNA he now knows that he’s of Sámi heritage.

But he is ok with whatever I do in the garden. His nostalgia is always solely for his memories of Italy, and the garden here in Portland that his Italian mother made.

Who I am is very much reflected in my garden, and I’m proud of my heritage, and of the many who lived before me, and of the many I know little to nothing about…and for my own accomplishments and interests. This coming year, I plan to make this all more coherent, and enjoyable in my outdoor space as I borrow from these cultures, in a time when cultural appropriation has led to many uncomfortable but necessary discussions.

Felix was able to get out and see people a few weekends ago. He really misses being social and going places. As it warms up, he’ll do a few more nursery visits with me.

In the world of garden decor, there can be a lot of borrowing from other cultures. This is an issue I’ve not wanted to ever discuss publicly, but it’s time to do so from my own perspective, and I know that many want to “go to the garden” to escape such uncomfortable topics. The garden can be an escapist fantasy, and it can be an homage to a place you love, maybe even obsessively so. It can also be a place to showcase your wealth, status, and class, but for many, it’s about beauty, order, balance, happiness, and even pleasure.

With so many different ways of seeing and experiencing across cultures and people, it’s interesting to me how these visuals are then ranked and can be judged. For me, the real pleasure is seeing the complex network of factors at play here. Right now, we’re at an amazing crossroads and I’m enjoying being an observer. I’m also going to create my own ideas about design. Funny since I wrote a lot about art and design and was in a very significant relationship before my first marriage that I never speak about with a talented designer and artist who works in advertising. There was the other relationship too with an artist and now professor who was at Cornell and in now in NYC. I’ve actually been thinking about reaching out to him to have some conversations about my world. I come from a collaborative background and I very much believe in collaboration.

I know a lot more than I let on. Poor health forces you to make decisions. Years ago I decided to let it all go.

I’m not dead yet.

As one friend moves away from the PNW, another one is about to arrive. One evening recently I had dinner with these two goofballs. While I’m a bit older, thankfully I’m not old enough to be a parent to either of them. (L to R: Caleb, me, Evan)

How we communicate about these things, makes a difference. Recognizing that imperialism (and colonialism) in our hobby helped to create it in the first place matters. I choose to educate myself mostly through knowing where plants come from, how and when they were introduced, how they’re used at their origin, and how they’ve provided capital and discoveries to science and horticulture.

I’m going to push myself a bit to go beyond all of that this year. I know, how sad, right? Why would I want to lighten up after all of that serious stuff lol.

I don’t have to even worry about intersectionality like I did as a young woman. That stuff kept me up at night. I can focus now on the basics, and enjoying the life I have back now.

Nothing like discovering the rare Nesocodon mauritianus in a greenhouse at work. I vaguely remembered it being dropped off, but forgot who’d brought them to us. Am happy we’re going to try for seeds now to propagate more of them.

I don’t know a lot about the world of garden designers and design trends—other than the work of those whom I work for… So this year I intend to find some more designers afield that I really like, but that’s a whole other journey I’ve yet to embark on. I guess I’ll look for those who enjoy Marxist and epistemological analyses (kidding sorta!), but that may take some digging lol. It would be fun to learn some new tricks and hear others expound a bit upon why they do what they do.

For me, focussing on getting to know thousands of plants, the communities to which they belong, how they grow, the conditions under which they grow in the wild, and finally, how to propagate them in captivity is what has absorbed my attention. I’ll never know enough about all of these things, but I might as well join in the fun and create stunning combos while playing the thriller, spiller, filler game in my urban garden.

I hope I can afford this…

And at the same time I really do want to get to know the work of others. Maybe.

Sometimes it’s confusing when a planting by one can look so much like a planting by another. And then there’s the personalities, and I just want to know the plants! But I will persevere. I admire the courage it takes to become a designer or an artist. I couldn’t do that job with any focus at all. I very much enjoy what I do, making the plants that we all enjoy growing and getting to know that are not easily purchasable at most nurseries.

This year will be more fun though! I need fun in my life again. Don’t we all!?!

For me, this means I plan to go nuts with all of this and dance up a storm while wearing my headphones. I really want to play with plants again. I want to lighten up a bit, and for me, design and crafting objects is lightening up a lot. It will be about letting go…

Carving out a bit of a work space for me at work. While my desk is truly at home in my office, it’s nice to have this space, along with another in Plant Parenthood where I share space and work with Kris and Sean.

So, in addition to tracking a few plants along with the plant hunters, breeders, and botanists—just to learn more about my own field, that of propagation and production horticulture—I’ve become increasingly interested in the continued cultivation of older cultivars that are a challenge to find on the market.

While new innovations in breeding are fun, there are many great cultivars which simply are not found as often due to marketing and gaps in the market that occur over time. “New” is almost always more thrilling to a consumer on the hunt for something exciting and novel. “Available via wholesale” creates a stir too for designers and nurseries that are not doing their own production work. We need smaller nurseries to keep many of these older varieties going, but it’s a balance, and it takes true plantspeople to help keep the work of independent (or vintage) breeding work going. Keeping those genes out there is a good thing in a time when we’re producing a lot of tissue culture plants. Mix it up a bit. Believe it or not, but those genetics can be used again, and are often bred into another new, novel and improved variety. It’s a complicated and fun system to be part of to be honest.

When you’re out shopping this year, try a few of the old standards that are hard-to-find. You might really enjoy them!

Speaking of my coworker Kris, the primary propagator of all things cuttings related at Cistus, have I mentioned yet how much he cracks me up? As a fairly serious dork, I need this stuff in my life. Even Lando Calrissian apparently knows we’re “hott”.

And lastly, please don’t think that I’m overthinking all of this. I’m part of the Plant Nerd Herd (though many of my friends would NEVER want to identify as such) and I know it, and that’s ok! Diversity is good on so many levels, and it’s why being paired with a quick, sharp art school graduate like my co-worker Kris has been so much fun for me.

So 2023 will be the time to relax and play with plants in my garden and have some fun! I look forward to making the most of my space, and enjoying the beauty of the many plants I’ll have grown from seed again.

I know I’m valued in my corner of the green industry, and I look forward to reaching out more to folks I want to value and learn more about in the months and years ahead.

It’s time to leave the safety of my bubble a bit. Let’s all just hope I’m more resilient than some of the plants I keep under glass.