I haven’t been posting much in the last ten days. But it’s not because I’ve been lazy. Quite the opposite; I’ve been busy. Over Easter, I spent four jam-packed days in Portland, touring nurseries and gardens, shopping at Hortlandia, the giant spring plant sale organized by the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, and hanging out with a great group of plant peeps. And a couple of days after I got back, I visited my friend Justin in Pinole, about an hour from here.
I have plenty of blog material for weeks to come, but it’ll take a little time for me to edit my photos and find the right words. Here are a few teaser photos to tide you over.
PORTLAND
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| Driving all over the Portland area for four days |
My friend Loree Bohl, the author of the groundbreaking book Fearless Gardening (sadly out of print now) and the brain behind the popular blog danger garden, had organized a Spring Fling for a bunch of plant geeks from California and Oregon. The four days I spent in Portland went by in a blur, but we covered a lot of territory. Head on over to Loree’s blog for a summary of our adventures.
Here are some teaser photos I took:
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| Fern house at Little Prince |
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| I love the patterns created by hundreds of plants |
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| Aeonium ‘Wheels of Captivation’ |
The private gardens we visited ranged in size from 4,000 square feet to 30 acres:
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| Jeffrey found these pieces while living in India |
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| Rancho Cistus, Sean Hogan and Preston Pew’s private garden at Cistus Nursery on Sauvie Island |
We also saw two outstanding crevice gardens, both created by
Kenton Seth, North America’s leading crevice garden expert and co-author of the book
The Crevice Garden:
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| Crevice garden at Rancho Cistus |
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| ...Craig Quirk and Larry Neil’s garden... |
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| ...outside of Portland |
And, hands down, the two most spectacular private greenhouses I’ve ever seen:
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| Craig Quirk and Larry Neil’s greenhouse surrounded by crevice gardens |
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| Inside Craig Quirk and Larry Neil’s greenhouse |
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| Eric Peterson’s masterpiece, designed and built by himself — he even made most of the stained-glass windows |
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| Inside Eric Peterson’s greenhouse |
I was staying at Loree and her husband Andrew’s home, so I had plenty of opportunity to explore and photograph the danger garden:
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| The shade pavilion is still in winter mode, acting as a greenhouse for plants that need protection against the rain and freezing temperatures |
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| Shade pavilion on the right, garage in the center |
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| Loree has an ever-expanding collection of ferns |
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| Loropetalum chinense and Agave ovatifolia |
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| Agave ovatifolia and Yucca rostrata next to the front door |
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| The basement becomes a garden room in the winter |
As I mentioned earlier, there’s much more to come.
PINOLE
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| Davis to Pinole |
A couple of days after I got back from Portland, I made the 50+ minute drive to Pinole to hang out with my friend Justin. I hadn’t seen his garden in a while, and I was eager to see how things looked.
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| Justin’s Agave applanata is now 6 feet tall and wide — Justin for scale (he’s 6’3"). Also notice how small Agave horrida seems in comparison. |
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| Lots of spring color |
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| Agave shawii has the most colorful marginal teeth |
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| Impressive clump of seed-grown Agave utahensis var. eborispina |
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| Echinocereus × roetteri |
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| Justin planted a variety of Calochortus last year, and some are flowering now |
I took more photos of Justin’s garden and greenhouse and will have a dedicated post next week.
© Gerhard Bock, 2026. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.
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