
Proof that you don't always want to choose the tree in the nursery with the straightest trunk.
More garden photos from my trip to Portland. If you ever go there be sure to visit the Portland Japanese Garden and the Portland Classical Chinese Garden. There were a few hundred garden writers moving around the gardens that day not to mention regular visitors. I felt a little bad for the regulars at the Chinese Classical Garden who had come in for a quiet contemplative cup of tea and found the place overun with people snapping photos as if their lives depended on (yours truly included).
More of the Fabulous Foliage Garden


Further pictures of Hardiman's Horticultural Haven:


Now that's a deck railing planter!

Shots from Iseli Nursery's stunning conifer and maple gardens. Iseli is one of the nation's best and well-known growers of conifers such as pine, spruce, false cypress, juniper, arborvitae, Japanese cedar and much more. Homewood buys from Iseli and the nursery staff is always interested to see what tasty treats will be unloaded from the delivery.







Peeking through from the inside of a living cave of weeping Canadian hemlock.

Portland's Japanese Garden. If you go to Portland, you must visit this place!







Some new and old friends and fellow "soil sisters" as my friend Pam says. (left to right, Pam Beck, author, Best Garden Plants for NC, Zika Wolfe, of Hoffmann Grasses, Tina Mast, of Homewood Nursery, and Margot Rochester, author, Earthy Delights).
