Danger Danger! It's Danger Garden: Part I

I am honored to present a post about Danger Garden, Loree Bohl's spiky paradise. "Careful, you could poke an your eye out!" is her motto, so be careful! Not only is she the gardener who got me hooked on garden blogging, I am also lucky enough to count her as a gardening friend here in Portland. Loree has been very actively blogging since 2009, and for those of you unfamiliar with her, she's horticulture royalty in these parts.

One fine day after the Garden Blogger's Fling wrapped up (she was one of the incredible volunteer organizers for this year's Fling AND had her garden as one of the stops on the tour just like Scott of Rhone Street Gardens - meaning they are both super heroes to pull it all off), we decided it was time for me to finally visit her garden for my first time. Yes, it's true, for various reasons I had not seen it up until this point. I would have seen her garden on the Fling, however we were both showing our gardens at the same time. It was the same situation I faced with visiting JJ De Sousa's garden.

 As I pulled up I knew this would be a special visit and it certainly was. I not only had some time to visit with Loree after what was a very busy gardening season for both of us, but I had the garden, Loree and Lila all to myself. There was so much to see and I took so many photos that this shall be two posts, one for the front garden which we will visit today and the back more private garden for the second post.

 After seeing something for so long in photographs and thinking I knew what it looked like, it was a pleasant surprise that it was in no way how I had pictured it in terms of orientation. Loree has been quite generous with images of her incredible garden over the years, so many aspects were certainly familiar to me. To experience it in person, however, deepened my appreciation and changed everything.

First of all I must say we had a terrible winter and I know Loree especially lost many plants. Having said that, her garden looks amazing.

Eryngium maritimum, sea holly. Notoriously difficult to grow, Loree had this beautiful species right up front and looking quite healthy.

The flower heads of Eryngium maritimum.

How about this color combination? Cotinus and yucca. Loree recently wrote about the fabulous color changes in this tree, you can read about it here. Even though she's not a fan of autumn, the color it turns this time of year is a thing to celebrate and makes me want to plant one at Chickadee Gardens.

Arctostaphylos and I believe Dasylirion wheeleri. 

What says "welcome to my home" more than spiky yuccas and Fatsia japonica?

One of my favorites, Juniperus conferta 'Blue Pacific'. I'm glad to see it growing with such vigor as it serves as a connecting element to the other plants, just like she likes it. You can read more about her Juniperus conferta philosophy here in a blog post from this spring. It is a truly beautiful plant.

Not your grandmother's garden!

Tetrapanax looking very good and seemingly well-behaved.

Wow, just look at all the great plants in there..opuntia, agave, callistemon, arctostaphylos, yuccas and more. Spikes galore, this is one stunning street side garden. She has, via her many posts, turned me on to several plants which now happily reside at Chickadee Gardens, callistemon and yuccas are just two of the many I could name.

There is a fine balance in textures here, the soft fluff of the grasses and the spikes of the opuntia leave my senses a bit confused but visually, very happy.

Here's that wonderful Eryngium maritumum again and a Euphorbia rigida. The same color but differing textures are a wonderful pairing.

Euphorbia rigida seedlings, some sempervivums, agave and cannas. What I especially appreciate in Loree's garden is the rock mulch she uses, it ties the differing textures and colors together so well and gives the sense of a hotter climate than would the use of bark mulch or something more traditionally Pacific Northwest.

Callistemon, rosemary and yucca. This gardener likes her spikes. I like them too.

Here's her Brachyglottis greyi, she blogged about it here. I even spied a yellow bloom that I promptly removed from the plant for her sake. Had to do it.

Pittosporum  tenuifolium 'Silver Ruffles' I believe in the background, the foreground plant is licorice plant, an annual she used to fill in some of those gaps created by freezing temperatures last winter.

Dasylirion wheeleri.

Here it is again with black mondo grass and wingthorn rose.

Here is her Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls', she blogged about it this summer, you can read about it here.

Here's the front garden facing east along the walkway.

A welcoming sweep of black mondo grass.

Oh, opunita, you look so glowy and fuzzy, what a teaser you are.

 As promised, here's another shot of sweet Lila, the blueberry loving pug. Thus concludes our visit to the fabulous Danger Garden, at least Part I. There are so many plants to see, such textures and variety, you could linger for hours and talk to Loree about each and every plant. It is all interesting and she has managed to pull off something I struggle with, that is to be a collector of plants you adore and also present them in a meaningful visual display - in other words, garden design. Next week we'll visit her back gardens and see more of her design style.

 And now for something completely different:
Here's a little surprise for you, Loree's husband Andrew is an excellent professional artist. At one time I worked at a gallery which represented him and got the wonderful opportunity to get to know him, his work and that's when I initially met Loree all those years ago.
Loree allowed me to take a few photos of work he had in their home, have a look!

His art is so well-executed and inventive, really I've never seen anything like it. His little creatures with plant like extensions are so odd and wonderful.

Detail of one of his works in the round.

Isn't it great?

When I worked with Andrew, I coveted many of his works. That's the trouble working in a an art gallery, there is so much to want.

In any event, even though Andrew is no longer with that gallery, it's great to know he's still working and just as creative as ever. These works in the round are a real delight, a cross between sculpture and two dimensional works.

They are reminiscent of crowns to me, or a mural in the round, in miniature.
A whole world in each wonderful work of art.

So very cool. Thank you Loree and Andrew for the wonderful tour of your charming home and garden, it was a special visit for me and I hope to see it again someday.

Thank you for reading and until next week, Happy Gardening!