Wetland System
Before we start the tour Eric would like to talk about one thing that is foundational to this site, it goes back to the origin of Oregon Gardens, and that's the WETLAND SYSTEM. Back in the day they wanted to develop a botanical garden somewhere in the Willamette Valley. At the same time the city of Silverton was trying to figure out what they were going to do to cool down their effluent wastewater coming out of their sewage treatment plant. Silverton ended up procuring this piece of land and installed a system of effluent cooling ponds. Currently there's a good 150 feet of elevation drop from the top pond to the bottom pond, it's all gravity fed.
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Water Remediation At Home
Eric wonders what are some ways that the home gardener might engage in WATER REMEDIATION? First, consider drought tolerant plants. Additionally, Ty has two staff members with beautiful planted gardens and at their homes they have a system of rain barrels combined with 25,000 gallon cisterns. That set-up gets them through the entire summer. Rain barrels or water storage systems are effective. Some folks out here actually have some extra land and they will dig large, basically, pond systems, get those lined out, then have an aerator going to kind of keep the algae down.
For More Information Click here
Conifers
When we think about horticulture in Oregon, it's hard to not have CONIFERS be one of the first things that pops into our minds. It's such an amazing and diverse grouping of plants. Conifers love living here at Oregon, and The Oregon Garden has a wonderful collection. It's a great place for people to come explore plants, learn about different species and cultivars and figure out what might work in their garden or what may not be as ideal. The Oregon Garden is a reference garden for the American Conifer Society, it's one of the crown jewels of that organization.
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Witches Broom
A lot of people wonder where these cultivars come from. Are they just grown from seed? The little pine cone drops down and this plant grows, or did somebody breed it? A lot of this is just WITCHES BROOM. It's plant nerds out there growing this stuff.
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Small Form Conifers
The architecture is pretty nice, one can fit it in a smaller area while still having that giant sequoia look. Ty has one of the world's smallest sequoias, sequoiadendron giganteum, it's 10 years old and only about 2-3 feet tall. Ty enjoys showing people that plants can have very similar genetics with the exception of one weird little tick. One can plant a giant pine in their yard or any of those things one would typically think would be big but have it in a SMALL FORM. The plant dorks are producing this stuff and making it available and this garden is where they get to showcase all that material.
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Companion Plants For Conifers
Eric would next like to talk about COMPANION PLANTS. Conifers provide a wonderful backdrop as well as a great foreground. Eric thinks they've artfully put in splashes of color as well as added interesting textures like ornamental grasses and that's what really makes this garden super special. Anytime of the year one is going to see plants flowering in and amongst this garden. They come at this stylistically as kind of a fusion between a Japanese sort of style garden but with a northwest flavor.
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Bees
BEES have been in the news a lot lately and for very good reason. The pollinators are responsible for the lion's share of our food supply. As we see things like hive collapse going on the importance of the role that bees play in the garden is something that we should be very concerned about as gardeners. It's so cool to see beehives up close and personal. Eric has been involved with bees most of his life, his Dad had multiple beehives growing up. The guys visit some hives at the Oregon Garden and it's obvious that these are very active, happy hives.
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Broodstock
Initially they experimented with sourcing some BROODSTOCK and some queens from all over the place, but, primarily California. That meant they were sourcing them from as far away as 1,000, 2,000 miles. But two of the hives were actually sourced on site where they had found some big swarms. Obviously, they were doing very well in the area and they're still doing great. Not so much for the imported bees.
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Beekeeping
Eric would like to talk a little bit of about BEEKEEPING. Many people may be afraid of bees. We are standing right outside the flight path of a large number of bees. Surprisingly they're very docile animals, and they're not too difficult to take care of either. The biggest problems Ty has would be mite issues. There are several other fungal issues they may have because in the winter time, it is very damp, and cool. But there are times in winter where one can come over to the hives on a cloudy day, not have anything on, kind of lift up the lid and see what's going on in there. As long as you're not messing with them, they're really not going to mess with you.
For More Information Click here
Beehive Collapse
The guys next talk a little about HIVE COLLAPSE because that is the hot button topic nowadays. Eric believes it's an important reminder to think about what we put on our plants. If we're spraying a lot of pesticides on plants that we know pollinators are going to be attracted to, just think about the potential danger to that hive. Just be careful about the way we use things in the gardens. Ty tells us that was something they were actively thinking about, let's say, 10 years ago when it was really just starting to come out in the news like, "Oh, my gosh. what's happening to these bees?"
For More Information Click here
Plants That Attract Pollinators
Also, it's really influenced a lot of RECENT PLANTING. Surrounding the area and within easy access there are large groupings of echinacea and rudbeckia, plants that bees are attracted to. And they're implementing a lot of teucrium hedges. Many people would utilize boxwood for small garden hedging and boxwood does flower, and it does attract bees, but it's for a very specific amount of time. Ty was trying to come up with a planting that would deal with some crummy soil conditions - real hot, real dry, maybe real wet at times, and something that was green, looked nice and maybe had a little flower. He propagated 4,000 teucriun which is easy. Just dip and stick.
For More Information Click here
Honey
Outside of being wonderful pollinators, one of the other great advantages that bees have is they make HONEY. Eric wonders if they have been able to harvest any honey from their hives yet? Absolutely. Last year was the first year they harvested and got five gallons. This year they have two new hives and they will actually be able to harvest six gallons out of one of the hives. Which is like, "Oh, my gosh pretty incredible"
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Fuchsias
Hardy FUCHSIAS have always been a fascinating plant to Eric, the vibrance of the colors and a lot of diversity inside of that. Also, to be honest, he's always been quite envious of people that were able to grow them effortlessly because they don't like the intense humidity in his neck of the woods, so they struggle. Ty has an amazing collection, Eric would love for Ty to tell us about them. Sounds good. They had this hillside and were trying to figure out what was going on, what were they were going to do with it, what were they going to plant?
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Wide Range Of Fuchsias
Eric finds the trial aspect of different plants a real treat. When we visit public gardens the trial aspect that's going on is fascinating. For him as a gardener he's able to see a collection of plants that would be impractical for him to have 135 of anything. The WIDE RANGE of plants allows him to evaluate "Okay, these are the ones that either worked particularly well, or plants that he just particularly likes." There's an incredible range here. Eric asks Ty to describe the breadth of this collection. Obviously, a lot of them are hybrid species, but they also have some just straight fuchsia magellanica.
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Trillium Collection
Another one of the super impressive collections of plants at the Oregon Garden is the TRILLIUM COLLECTION. Of course they're fascinating woodland plants, and most of the trilliums that we see in our gardens are actually native to North America. And that makes it particularly special to Eric as a gardener. Ty agrees and they do wonderfully in this climate. In the spring time, the whole understory is just nothing but trilliums, that and dicentra. It is absolutely incredible. And this collection is great.
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Long Season Of Flower
One thing Eric really likes about this particular collection is the way they've integrated a lot of different woodland plants, this results in a LONG SEASON OF FLOWER. The lenten rose is going to be very early, then it's going to move into the dicentra, then the trilliums, then, of course, the tricyrtis that's blooming right now.
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Care And Culture For Trilliums
Eric would like to talk a little bit about the CARE AND CULTURE FOR TRILLIUM. Oftentimes, gardeners think that it's going to be a tricky plant. It can be if not sited correctly. But what does one need to know to be successful with trillium? At the end of the day, number one is siting. Look at the plant label or open up any number of literature pieces out there and review the growing conditions.
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In this Episode GardenSMART visits a plant collector's paradise situated on 80 impeccably manicured acres in Silverton, Oregon. Silverton is known as the gateway to Silver Falls and located on the banks of the Silver River. This burgeoning community is known for its cafes, restaurants and shops, as well as having a deep sense of community.
Oregon Gardens is an 80 acre botanical garden featuring more than 20 specialty gardens that showcase the diverse botanical beauty that can be found in the Willamette Valley and throughout the pacific northwest. In its' Conifer Garden, Oregon Gardens hosts one of the largest collections of miniature conifers in the country. Also of note is the wetlands habitat, which cools the city of Silverton's treated wastewater through a series of pools that brim with local wildlife. The garden also promotes sustainability through green roofs, composting and edible landscaping. Ty Boland, the Gardens Botanical Curator, is our guest host and takes us behind the scenes to look at this amazing garden
Eric welcomes Ty to GardenSMART. Thanks so much for joining us. Ty appreciates the opportunity to show off this beautiful garden. Eric comments that Oregon Gardens is such a beautiful place, it's obvious that so much heart and so much work has been put into these gardens, one can readily see the impact of all that effort.
Before we start the tour Eric would like to talk about one thing that is foundational to this site, it goes back to the origin of Oregon Gardens, and that's the WETLAND SYSTEM. Back in the day they wanted to develop a botanical garden somewhere in the Willamette Valley. At the same time the city of Silverton was trying to figure out what they were going to do to cool down their effluent wastewater coming out of their sewage treatment plant. Silverton ended up procuring this piece of land and installed a system of effluent cooling ponds. Currently there's a good 150 feet of elevation drop from the top pond to the bottom pond, it's all gravity fed. The water is pumped up two miles from the city of Silverton, it enters the very top cell, heads all the way down, and about halfway through the Oregon Garden utilizes that cleaned water for irrigation purposes. What they don't use, continues on down to the lowered mediation ponds where it enters into Brush Creek. The idea is that with each pond, there are plants that are soaking up heavy metals and other impurities that might be in the water. Natural settling occurs in each pool. It's a manmade wetland. It is a tool, along with the plant material, all of it is a tool, it was all put here for a purpose. A lot of the large trees help shade these ponds because, as mentioned, the water was a little bit too warm. Importantly they gave great thought to the plant material. Obviously, native plants like cattails, arrowroot or wapato, a very important carbohydrate source for native people, grows very well in the area and are utilized because they have large roots which provide a lot of carbo storage. Those help to mitigate any of the high nutrient loads and also will take up any of the extra material that could possibly be coming through this effluent. It traps it biologically so it does not enter into the stream system. But, like any system, it has to be maintained. The plants out here are tools, by no means can one just let them go. In fact, last year, the city of Silverton came out and dredged all of these ponds to increase the flow as well as to remove some of the invasive material. As one can see, six months on, everything is filling back in. They were actually able to get back a lot of the earlier plantings that were put in, i.e. the wapato and some of the other select plant material. Many of the plants that were introduced came in naturally like on the feet of birds or whatever. It's a beautiful, bio-diverse place and provides a wonderful lesson in the power that plants have to actually clean our water. It's a wonderful system and great for people to come and actually see how it works. They have trails that are set all around and through the wetland portion so one can really get sneak peek and look at what's going on.
Eric wonders what are some ways that the home gardener might engage in WATER REMEDIATION? First, consider drought tolerant plants. Additionally, Ty has two staff members with beautiful planted gardens and at their homes they have a system of rain barrels combined with 25,000 gallon cisterns. That set-up gets them through the entire summer. Rain barrels or water storage systems are effective. Some folks out here actually have some extra land and they will dig large, basically, pond systems, get those lined out, then have an aerator going to kind of keep the algae down. They will do that all winter, then in the summer, they'll throw a pump in there, and they'll be able to irrigate. This is important because if you don't have a water source, even if you're close to streams or the rivers, you can't water. There are a lot of different ways one can utilize the natural rainfall to irrigate. Additionally Ty is starting to notice a trend where people are utilizing their gray water. Plumbing and other systems are a little different but typically sink water or shower water is utilized and that water can be used for some of your plants. Eric comments that in so many parts of the country we're surrounded by pavement, that means there's roof shed water basically just going into the storm water system and that can oftentimes cause flooding. This water can be retained on the property and used for irrigation. It's a very sustainable approach.
When we think about horticulture in Oregon, it's hard to not have CONIFERS be one of the first things that pops into our minds. It's such an amazing and diverse grouping of plants. Conifers love living here at Oregon, and The Oregon Garden has a wonderful collection. It's a great place for people to come explore plants, learn about different species and cultivars and figure out what might work in their garden or what may not be as ideal. The Oregon Garden is a reference garden for the American Conifer Society, it's one of the crown jewels of that organization. This garden is set up as though it would be someone's backyard, by no means is it a scientific sort of a thing. Its' purpose is to display all of this beautiful coniferous material. It also has a lot of different companion plantings and other material. When a lot of people think conifers, they think they're just giant pine trees. And although they do have a lot of large specimens here they really try to focus on the dwarf and miniature conifers because they find them incredibly interesting. They pack a whole lot in and show a wide range. As mentioned in this region, conifers are the backbone of any good landscape. That's what's really going to provide one with a four season garden. By incorporating them, having a lot of these different cultivars on display out here, it gives a lot of people some really good ideas. "Oh, I never thought about introducing that into my garden." As mentioned, out here in the Willamette Valley, there are so many growers, there are all kinds of resources for people to go and find a lot of this material. The dwarf conifers are also a great way to experience a plant that would be impractical for most gardens. Eric's garden is quite small, he doesn't have the luxury of being able to grow a deodar cedar. That's probably more in line with most people's gardens they don't have acres and acres that they can plant. So, the dwarfs are a great fit.
A lot of people wonder where these cultivars come from. Are they just grown from seed? The little pine cone drops down and this plant grows, or did somebody breed it? A lot of this is just WITCHES BROOM. It's plant nerds out there growing this stuff. They come across something different and are like "Oh, what's that little bunch of stuff going on there, that's weird." They then graft it and grow it on stock plants.
This garden is actually a wonderful tool to educate guests as they come in. For instance they have a very, very large sequoiadendron giganteum, a blue one. It was getting in the way, they were going to chop it down but then it got struck by lightning, so now they're going to keep it because it's beautiful, it's incredible. They have it as a natural form. Then across the way they have sequoiadendron giganteum pendula. Somebody just noticed that there was a weird little woofy thing coming off of it. They cut it and grafted it. One sees a lot of sequoiadendron giganteum pendula in this area around buildings. The architecture is pretty nice, one can fit it in a smaller area while still having that giant sequoia look. Ty has one of the world's smallest sequoias, sequoiadendron giganteum, it's 10 years old and only about 2-3 feet tall. Ty enjoys showing people that plants can have very similar genetics with the exception of one weird little tick. One can plant a giant pine in their yard or any of those things one would typically think would be big but have it in a SMALL FORM. The plant dorks are producing this stuff and making it available and this garden is where they get to showcase all that material.
Eric would next like to talk about COMPANION PLANTS. Conifers provide a wonderful backdrop as well as a great foreground. Eric thinks they've artfully put in splashes of color as well as added interesting textures like ornamental grasses and that's what really makes this garden super special. Anytime of the year one is going to see plants flowering in and amongst this garden. They come at this stylistically as kind of a fusion between a Japanese sort of style garden but with a northwest flavor. There's a lot of basalt rock here and there are many different alpine plantings. They also have a lot of heaths and heathers as well as small little native irises, things like that. A lot of things that will come up, splash color, then just kind of fade away, with the exception of the grasses, they provide a different texture. It's all just about color and texture.
BEES have been in the news a lot lately and for very good reason. The pollinators are responsible for the lion's share of our food supply. As we see things like hive collapse going on the importance of the role that bees play in the garden is something that we should be very concerned about as gardeners. It's so cool to see beehives up close and personal. Eric has been involved with bees most of his life, his Dad had multiple beehives growing up. The guys visit some hives at the Oregon Garden and it's obvious that these are very active, happy hives. Ty provides some background - About four years ago they decided they wanted an apiary display specifically for the reasons Eric mentioned. They're a botanical garden, open to the public, their job is to educate people about all things gardening. One of the most important things about gardening is the pollinators, be it bees or anything else. This display has been really interesting and educational.
Initially they experimented with sourcing some BROODSTOCK and some queens from all over the place, but, primarily California. That meant they were sourcing them from as far away as 1,000, 2,000 miles. But two of the hives were actually sourced on site where they had found some big swarms. Obviously, they were doing very well in the area and they're still doing great. Not so much for the imported bees. So for anybody out there that's interested in starting hives Ty would definitely say there are all kinds of resources as far as the materials and how to handle them. But make sure to source your broodstock and your queens from the local area. Most everybody and most every state has an apiary society. A lot of times, they're affiliated with the land grant university of that area. But there are a lot of resources out there for the care and cultivation of bees.
Eric would like to talk a little bit of about BEEKEEPING. Many people may be afraid of bees. We are standing right outside the flight path of a large number of bees. Surprisingly they're very docile animals, and they're not too difficult to take care of either. The biggest problems Ty has would be mite issues. There are several other fungal issues they may have because in the winter time, it is very damp, and cool. But there are times in winter where one can come over to the hives on a cloudy day, not have anything on, kind of lift up the lid and see what's going on in there. As long as you're not messing with them, they're really not going to mess with you. They're just trying to live and do their own thing. They do have have a fence around the hives and the hives are far enough away ensuring that people aren't going to be tapping it. But close enough to educate people and give them an up close view. These big happy collectives allow one to walk around and folks find the bees aren't going to bother them, they're just trying to do their job.
The guys next talk a little about HIVE COLLAPSE because that is the hot button topic nowadays. Eric believes it's an important reminder to think about what we put on our plants. If we're spraying a lot of pesticides on plants that we know pollinators are going to be attracted to, just think about the potential danger to that hive. Just be careful about the way we use things in the gardens. Ty tells us that was something they were actively thinking about, let's say, 10 years ago when it was really just starting to come out in the news like, "Oh, my gosh. what's happening to these bees?" In the local area there have been some big bee die offs. A lot of it was just because of imidacloprids or some of the other neonics and systemic insecticide as well as some of the other things people aren't necessarily too sure about. Maybe it's something going on in the ground, there are a lot of different things that can cause this problem. With Ty it directly influences their IPM program as far as what chemicals they're going to use, if any, what they're going to be spraying, what times of year, etc. They're not 100 percent organic, but they try really hard to be mindful of the pollinators and use things that are fairly natural as good practice but also to just keep their hives healthy.
Also, it's really influenced a lot of RECENT PLANTINGS. Surrounding the area and within easy access there are large groupings of echinacea and rudbeckia, plants that bees are attracted to. And they're implementing a lot of teucrium hedges. Many people would utilize boxwood for small garden hedging and boxwood does flower, and it does attract bees, but it's for a very specific amount of time. Ty was trying to come up with a planting that would deal with some crummy soil conditions - real hot, real dry, maybe real wet at times, and something that was green, looked nice and maybe had a little flower. He propagated 4,000 teucriun which is easy. Just dip and stick. In fact, you don't even need to dip it half the time. Planted those, two years later, they have an abundance of native pollinators, not just the European honeybees and the introduced ones, but the bumblebee populations and the mason bee populations have just exploded because that plant has about a two and a half month blooming cycle. Ty believes that for homeowners or people that want to introduce bees into their yard, even if they don't want to keep bees but instead want to keep them in their yards and gardens, the most important thing is just think about things that have a long bloom time. Anything in the mint family is obviously going to attract a lot of bees, as will lavenders. There are so many resources out there that address pollinator attractor plants. But be mindful when planting a big block of something, to then include plants that will bloom at different times of the year or include plants that bloom for a long time. Bees are going to stay in your yard because if it's easy food, they're going to keep coming back.
Outside of being wonderful pollinators, one of the other great advantages that bees have is they make HONEY. Eric wonders if they have been able to harvest any honey from their hives yet? Absolutely. Last year was the first year they harvested and got five gallons. This year they have two new hives and they will actually be able to harvest six gallons out of one of the hives. Which is like, "Oh, my gosh pretty incredible" A lot of people say, "Oh, are you going to sell that in the visitor center?" The answer is no because it's all ours, in fact, we shared the honey amongst the staff, some of their members and a lot of the volunteers. It was a nice little treat at the end of the season to be able to have that. It's wonderful to talk about different pollen sources and different nectar sources, but additionally Ty has been able to utilize some of the wax in the hives to create some really nice topicals. He's kind of a nerd. The honey is wonderful stuff a real deep, deep amber, kind of goldenrod color and the smells coming off are amazing. The bee hives are a wonderful thing, he's learned so much about bees in the last four years. It's really fascinating.
Hardy FUCHSIAS have always been a fascinating plant to Eric, the vibrance of the colors and a lot of diversity inside of that. Also, to be honest, he's always been quite envious of people that were able to grow them effortlessly because they don't like the intense humidity in his neck of the woods, so they struggle. Ty has an amazing collection, Eric would love for Ty to tell us about them. Sounds good. They had this hillside and were trying to figure out what was going on, what were they were going to do with it, what were they going to plant? His experience with fuchsias was being at grandmas' house and popping off the little carpels on the fuchsia baskets so they would keep blooming. It was kind of fun, throw them at your sister, that kind of thing. But with hardy fuchsias he didn't know too much about them, he figured that they were more of a shade plant and needed real rich soils. But he found that fuchsias just thrive in this setting. They're in an area where there's a little bit more shade, but further down just blazing sun. As long as they receive water, that's really it, water and nutrients.Ty is continuously surprised at how well that they do in this climate, especially in a challenging situation like this, they're just absolutely wonderful.
Eric finds the trial aspect of different plants a real treat. When we visit public gardens the trial aspect that's going on is fascinating. For him as a gardener he's able to see a collection of plants that would be impractical for him to have 135 of anything. The WIDE RANGE of plants allows him to evaluate "Okay, these are the ones that either worked particularly well, or plants that he just particularly likes." There's an incredible range here. Eric asks Ty to describe the breadth of this collection. Obviously, a lot of them are hybrid species, but they also have some just straight fuchsia magellanica. They seem to be a little bit more upright, a little woodier. The others are a little bit more herbaceous. A few of these species will defoliate and leave all the woody material up top where the others just melt back down into the ground. They have variegated material out here, any number of different flower forms, shapes and sizes. They have some very small compact varieties as well as some tall material, more upright. Their collection covers the whole gamut of forms and colors.
Another one of the super impressive collections of plants at the Oregon Garden is the TRILLIUM COLLECTION. Of course they're fascinating woodland plants, and most of the trilliums that we see in our gardens are actually native to North America. And that makes it particularly special to Eric as a gardener. Ty agrees and they do wonderfully in this climate. In the spring time, the whole understory is just nothing but trilliums, that and dicentra. It is absolutely incredible. And this collection is great. Ty can't quite recall the exact number of specimens or cultivars but they have over seven different species of trilliums. It's an absolutely incredible collection.
Ty had mentioned dicentra earlier and they need to plant more of that material as well as incorporating some of his favorite plants, which are a tricyrtis or toad lilies. They have quite a few really cool species of those as well. As the garden is getting mature they are trying to focus on these amazing collections as opposed to planting ones and twos. They want to plant similar material in the ground in an aesthetic way, but also show their visitors what different plant materials look like because again, that's half of what they're doing out here - put a bunch of plants out there, then everybody can select what they like. The collection programs they're starting right now are very important to the Oregon Garden.
One thing Eric really likes about this particular collection is the way they've integrated a lot of different woodland plants, this results in a LONG SEASON OF FLOWER. The lenten rose is going to flower very early, then it's going to move into the dicentra, then the trilliums, then, of course, the tricyrtis that's blooming right now. Unlike many, more intensive plant collections where it's just a whole field of whatever, this actually shows one the possibility of what one could do in their own garden if they had a nice shady, more woodland environment. And that's exactly what they are going for.
Eric would like to talk a little bit about the CARE AND CULTURE FOR TRILLIUM. Oftentimes, gardeners think that it's going to be a tricky plant. It can be if not sited correctly. But what does one need to know to be successful with trillium? At the end of the day, number one is siting. Look at the plant label or open up any number of literature pieces out there and review the growing conditions. Consider things like sun, shade, dry. Site prep, it's all about site prep. Just think about that plant, what would it like in nature, then recreate that. Once you've done that with the trilliums, once you get them established, they're going to be there for a long time. Shoot, they have a root that goes down about 2 or 3 feet. It's just proper site prep and making sure that you're doing what the plant would love.
In this Episode we had the pleasure of touring an amazing garden and learned about the role that plants play in water remediation, as well as learning about bees and maintaining stunning plant collections. And Ty has played an integral part in this educational process. Eric thanks Ty for sharing his time and knowledge, we had a wonderful day. Ty appreciates GardenSMART visiting and adds "You guys are the greatest." Thanks Ty.
By Dan Heims, President, Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc.
Photographs courtesy of Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc.
Terra Nova’s breeders have created a series of outstanding world-class echinaceas that are consistent in size, bloom power, color intensity and are a pollinator buffet. What’s not to like.
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