No Nekkid Bicyclists

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Wishing a bon voyage to the garden bloggers flinging their way to Portland, Oregon for the 7th annual Garden Bloggers Fling.  Lucky gardeners!!  Oregon Bounty is the Oregon gardening battle cry and appropriately so, because (it seems to me) that Oregonians can grow anything.  I’ve spent some time in Portland and other Oregon venues (love the Willamette Valley!) over the past few years and love it more with each visit.  Polite drivers, Stumptown coffee (which is available here in Austin at selected places), Saint Cupcake, Powell’s Books, Moonstruck Chocolate, fabulous eateries everywhere, great climate and nice people.

Oh, yeah–incredible gardens, parks and miles of trails.

I was in Oregon for a couple of weeks in June and can share a bit of Portlandia.  I promise there are no pictures of nekkid (as we say here in Texas) bicyclists.

Really I don’t think anyone wants to see that.

But you might want to see a photo of a lovely Portland painter in the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park.

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Or a photo of a winning dragon boat during Portland’s Dragon Boat Race along the Willamette River during the Portland Rose Festival.

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Outside of Portland, where I spent most of my time this trip, maybe you’re interested in seeing some beautiful wildflowers that I saw.  Most of the wildflowers I observed were on my hikes in and around the Three Capes area of the Oregon Coast.

My college roommate, maid of honor and long time great friend, Dr. Linda Hardison, heads up the Oregon Flora Project and I’m plugging the Project’s work. I used the Oregon Flora Project’s newly published smart phone app to identify the flowers that I saw.   Here is a tiny sampling of the almost 1000 native wildflowers of Oregon.  Any identification mistakes are mine alone due to the less-than-stellar quality of my photos and my limited abilities as a botanist.

Great Betony or Cooley’s Hedge Nettle, Stachys cooleyae:

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Short-styled Thistle, Cirsium brevistylum:

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Oregon Bigroot, Marah oregana:

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Littleleaf Miner’s Lettuce, Montia parvifolia:P1050098.new

And some of the same growing out of a fallen log:

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Small Headed Clover, Trifolium microcephalum:

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Fewleaf Thistle, Cirsium remotifolium:

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Sylvan Goatsbeard, Aruncus dioicus:

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Oregon Iris, Iris tenax:

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Common Selfheal, Prunella vulgaris:

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Cow Parsnip, Heracleum maximum, with the Pacific Ocean in the background:

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Big-ass Slug:

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I think it’s a Banana Slug, but I’m not quite sure.

A Texas girl enjoying a stroll through an old-growth forest–in June–with a sweater on.

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Sweet!

Oregon bound garden bloggers, have fun because there’s so much to do–just watch out for those nekkid bicyclists!

 

8 thoughts on “No Nekkid Bicyclists”

  2. Oregon IS beautiful and I thank you kindly for sharing some of your adventures there. Looking forward to more as the Garden Flingers report back in as well.

    Almost as much as the images you shared I enjoyed reading the names of the plants and flowers you spotted – so lyrical! – Littleleaf Miner’s Lettuce, Slyvan Goatsbeard, etc. so when I hit the Big Ass Slug caption it stopped me dead in my tracks and I just had to laugh. Love a Texan who calls ’em like she sees ’em!

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    • I also love the lyrical names of the wildflowers. One of my favorite western flowers is called Pussytoes–isn’t that cute? Pussytoes. And the slug? Well, what I wrote was exactly what I said on the trail when I saw the slug. My son suggests that I misspelled “Big-ass”–I don’t know, it seems there could be a variety of spellings for that word.

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  3. Love all these shots but the fallen log! Oh, that reminds me of home. I need to do some kind of Texas equivalent in my garden. Thanks for the inspiration.

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    • Well, you’ll have to use succulents and cacti, I’m afraid. No moist, verdant, plants here, I’m afraid. I keep telling myself that “every place has its beauty” but I’m drawn more and more to the beauty of the PNW–specifically, Oregon. Good luck with your project–let us know its progress!

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      • I wouldn’t be able to use that plant but my idea was to hollow out one of the fallen pecan limbs, fill it with soil and maybe plant some maidenhair ferns which does happen to grow happily here. Maybe put in some oxalis or something to get that lacy white flowery feel. But I really like the succulent idea. How much sun do succulents need? I am not sure I get enough.

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      • Oh I like the idea of the maidenhair fern. It’s so pretty. You know, there are some of the gray leafed plants (specifically, ponyfoot and wooly stemodia) which actually do pretty well in shade, or, a least, dappled shade. I have both of those in containers and they get no direct sun. If you have that situation, you might try either or both. The stemodia blooms in full sun, but if you’re only caring about foliage/texture, that could work. As for succulents, I don’t really know much about them. I have a few and they do best with a few hours of sun, though again, it doesn’t have to be all day. Also, yarrow might work. It has that fern-y look and might even bloom for you in the right conditions. Oooh, I’m excited!! Let us know what you decide!

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