State Parks

Baldassare, Rock Garden Plants, Eight Dollar Mountain, the Pacific Ocean, and Car Camping with Felix (My Cat)

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Last Friday Felix and I awoke at 6 am so we could be on the road, driving to Medford (Oregon) by 7 am. Our first stop during our 4-day weekend was the home of friend Baldassare Mineo, also the former site of Siskiyou Rare Plant Nursery.

The Medford Garden Club was having a meeting and tea there at noon so I knew I just had to get Felix there in time to meet new friends.

Felix feeling happy at Italio Gardens and Nursery. It’s also the home of his friend Baldassare Mineo.
Rhododendron occidentale, or western azalea, in the now retired nursery planting beds at the back of the property.

It was wonderful to briefly meet the group and to hear their speaker. Gardening community matters to me, and it was nice to be “on vacation” supporting others and hearing about their projects and interests.

After a fun time with Baldassare, Felix and I were off and on our way in the morning to the home and garden of Kathy Allen. While I am a NARGS member, I’m not exactly a rock, crevice or trough gardener, but I HAVE slowly been learning about these plants for both home and work. Visiting Kathy’s is always a treat and this time of year there are so many plants in bloom.

(Just be warned not to write to your friend Baldassare lol or he’ll remind you to reference his book. D’oh!)

Saxifraga longifolia being grown in a trough.
Penstemon grahamii also being grown in a trough.
Aquilegia scopulorum, another beauty being grown to perfection.

Mostly I shopped, but more on that later.

This trip was really more of a vacation for Felix than one of my usual botanical journeys. I didn’t want to admit that the Jeep had been purchased with the hope that Felix would enjoy camping and sleeping in it with me. If I could achieve that, I could feel safe sleeping in a campground alone with him. Yurts are great, but they’re rarely available, and I just cannot sleep in a tent alone and feel safe even if the campground is full as they often are this time of year.

Felix blissed out sitting in the car just above the Illinois River near Eight Dollar Mountain. “River” is one of his favorite vocabulary words and he associates it with driving and visiting Grandpa. He pointed out every river to me during our trip. He was very proud of himself.

Before we ended up at the campground, we did go to Eight Dollar Mountain. The other laugh about this trip was that Sean Hogan had joked with Dan Hinkley a year or so ago that Felix would go botanizing with them in Southern Oregon if they let him in the car. Honestly, while I thought that was funny, I wasn’t sure. I had just brought him in to work that day and was honestly kind of embarrassed that they hadn’t already left for their trip when we’d arrived. (Nothing like wheeling a cat around in a pet carriage when a famous plantsman is around. Talk about being taken seriously—as a crazy cat mom lol!)

Turns out though, that Sean was correct. And just like the rest of us, Felix arrived and immediately started to purr because he liked the area so much. I wandered about a little bit but we had to move quickly to get to Brookings and up the Chetco River to the campground at Alfred A. Loeb State Park.

I was nervous that Felix might begin to get more anxious. Nope.

Darlingtonia californica. Sadly I saw proof of some poaching at this site. Someone had not realized you can’t just rip this stuff out of the ground. Please don’t be stupid people and purchase plants ethically that are grown in cultivation.

We made it to the beach and it was amazing. Felix loves the beach already—especially when he can climb on nearby rocks. This allows him to feel safe since there are a lot of dogs off leash—even though there are signs saying that leashes must be used at all times. It’d be a losing war to fight anyone over this since most folks go there just to let their pups run free. All it takes is that one dog though to kill my cat.

So I use caution and love the beaches along the southern coast for these huge rocks. (We have a backpack carrier now as well and that was an extra piece of safety equipment for this trip.)

“What’s up there!?! Let’s climb higher!”

Car camping with Felix was amazing. He was not the least bit anxious and he enjoys people watching so he had a lot of fun. My only regret was not having a little heater for him in the morning. Luckily I was able to get a little attachment for a propane tank along our route. He loved it and so did I. We’ll be set next time.

The Umbellularia californica grove at our campground near Brookings was beautiful. During warmer days in summertime it smells nice too.

We stopped a few more times before we reached our next campground on Sunday. Of course I slid down a small hill I just had to climb in order to take a photo of a rhododendron. I kind of did end up sore from that but that only meant I slept well that night. With my cat. In my Jeep.

Visiting another beach after breakfast the next day.
Rhododendron macrophyllum and friends.

Bandon and Bullards Beach State Park were our next two stops. I avoided getting distracted completely by plants, and decided to just park it at the campground and enjoy myself “in the moment”. This of course meant buying firewood and hauling it back to our site.

I’d purchased a chair to sit in beside the fire and of course the cat took it. Felix stared at the other campers as they walked by—some with their dogs. Many of them absolutely loved him and he knew it.

Lots of people stopped to say “Hi” to him during our stops and I’m seriously proud of him. He travels far better than most people I know and now I know that I can take him out with Grandpa.

Speaking of Grandpa, tomorrow it’s back to Southern Oregon again to pay our respects to Frank Moore along with other fisherfolk or fisher-people.

Funny that this all relates back to my first trip to the Glide Wildflower Show last month but I haven’t posted about that yet since I wanted to wait until after the memorial service on Saturday.

Shore Acres State Park and the Darlingtonia State Natural Site

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The last night of my trip was spent at another yurt, but this time it was located in Sunset Beach State Park just outside of Coos Bay, Oregon. This is an amazing part of the state just south of our huge sand dunes. I didn’t have the time to visit them at length during this trip, but driving past them brought back memories from when I was a child. I’d also forgotten that once again, it is another unique environment with more unique plants so I will certainly return again soon.
In a way, I was kind of sad my adventure was over. I’ve been chronically ill for ten years and it was a relief to get out and travel at my own pace with all of the necessary comforts and without any kind of static from upsetting or worrying others. Illness triggers things in all of us in different ways and it is often the elephant in the room. Chronically ill people don’t like to be alone too much though, and we really hate to be told that we should hang out with other people like us so that we can find others who understand. Isolating all of us together can just hurt more. Anyone can understand what we are going through—if they want to do so. Many do not want to consider the time when they too will be faced with a health difficulty, but it will happen, and when it does, it will help a lot to have a friend who can help.
The trip has led me to make three resolutions for the upcoming summer months concerning how to keep healthy so that I can live in my garden and hunt plants from time to time in the woods or wherever:
  1. Ask for help when I need help and no more new projects so that I can finish whatever I’ve already started. I usually stop because I get to the point where I need help and then I won’t ask.
  2. Simplify my life and my home.
  3. Remember to have fun and to enjoy all of my friends while sticking to the activities that have always been essential to me. Even if my own life has changed, none of my friends will be upset for me so long as I remain who I’ve always been. We all return to comfort foods, and we all know who our comfort friends are, right?


Before I left for the day’s adventures I found these little beauties beside the car. The one on the left is another twinberry and the one on the right is native salal.

Twinberry bloom.
That last day was much drier than the one before but it was still cool and windy. I jumped into the car and headed out to see the views that I’d remembered as having been so beautiful.
I was so pleased that I’d chosen to go and as my eyes took all of this in for about an hour or so, my body was filled with a kind of pleasure that only the experience of art can replicate but it is always stunted by the surroundings of a museum and the disruptions of others’ gazes. Nothing interfered with my experience that last day and I took it all in for as long as I was able to do so.
My love of Romanticism is showing through, as this most obviously is a manifestation of my complete understanding and acceptance of the Sublime. I think that my trip to see what has always inspired me, was a complete success since I feel recharged and so much more calm now. I hope to return to this idea more and more in the future when it comes to discussing garden and landscape design and if I am well enough, I would like to really dig in to some great critical theory as applied to gardens.
Near the end of the road are the remains of an old estate built by a lumberman who’d made a fortune in the timber industry. Today it is Shore Acres State Park.

The home that once stood on the site burned down years ago but the estate garden remains and that is what attracts visitors to the park. Where the home once stood, there is now an information building and shelter that can be used as a shelter for whale watching during rough weather.

Can you imagine having a patio like this one beside the ocean? Those urns are amazing and the crashing waves incredible! It must have been a lovely home. I wish I had a patio with a view like!
Shore Acres Gardens
Don’t you just love the Giant Dracaena?
Hebe bloom.
Well-clipped Azalea x’Hino-Crimson’.
Garden Pavilion for weddings and concerts.
Azalea with the original gardener’s quarters in the background.
Entrance to the Asian garden and pond.
Close up of Berberis darwinii.
Garden gateway to cliff overlook and private beach below.
View looking back toward the entrance from the garden gateway to the ocean.
Some kind of hardy Heliotrope?
View looking back toward the entrance from the Asian garden.
Species Rhododendron. Not sure which.
Sorry for the blurry photo but I loved that this planter was so simply planted with only a Lamium.
This is a very interesting and simple water feature.
The much loved Monkey-puzzle Tree (Araucaria araucana).
Returning to the entrance.
Guest services and gift shop building that was added later. Its architecture really adds to the experience.
I seriously applaud all of the work that has gone into keeping the park open to the public. It is a treasure and I recommend that everyone visit it if they happen to visit the area.
Darlingtonia State Natural Site
Just north of the coastal town of Florence, Oregon sits a tiny little park. To get there from Coos Bay it takes about an hour and a half by car. Little did I know that again, my day would brighten even more with the kind of experience that you don’t get often when you are delighted by a sight and a child-like happiness lingering in your heart’s passageways just bursts out shocking you to discover you’re still able to feel that way. It is good to be reminded of that from time to time.
Here is more information about the Darlingtonia Wayside with information about how to get there.

The short walk to the bog was full of the typical forest imagery yet it was all made more beautiful that day by the rain and the light. Bright green moss clung to everything, and the skunk cabbage stink was working its magic with the bugs. The forest world was as it should be…

And then the magic hit me and I was seriously in awe. This was so incredible—even if the plants were not necessarily at their best.
Don’t you just want to make snake noises? Ssssssssssss. Sssssssssssssssss. Ssssssssssssssssssssss.

I hope to return to this site a bit later this year so that I can catch them in bloom.

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So, this is the last post from the trip. Though I have been home for awhile now, the posts have had to go on. I am still so grateful that I was well enough to travel on my own for a few days but I have paid heavily for the vacation and I am still not quite recovered. Believe it or not, my right calf is swollen from pressing on the gas petal. Stupid swelling problems that just get sillier and sillier.

The many seeds and seedlings I have cannot wait any longer, and I have to plant my new Burpee ‘Black Cat’ Petunias. I don’t usually fall prey to special new introductions named to make me crave them, but I totally fell for this one. They really are black and I am happy I spent a bit extra for them.