Oregon winter garden pictures

[Cody Salem]

I thought I would post a few pics of my garden I built about 2 years ago, now that the plants are filling in nicely.  Being from Oregon (8A/B), with 5 months of maritime winter,  I wanted to put together something that would look consistently good year-round.   I have some nice palms that stand out in the garden, but I tried to steer away from a lot of the typical perennials that die back every winter.  There really are a lot of broadleaf evergreens that blend well with the tropicals.  I was kind of inspired by our last trip to Hawaii when I noticed some of the natural forest there looked surprisingly like Pacific madrone trees with an understory of Oregon grape.   

So this last week was kind of a test and these are the "after" photos.  We had 10 consecutive days that were in the mid 20's with the lowest being 21 F.  I knew everything would survive, but I wanted everything to still look good.   I'm pretty pleased with the results. 

  

The obligatory Trachy and Cordy and a dwarf magnolia.  I used a lot of colorful euphorbias to fill in some of the gaps.   My imitation needle palm is on the left.

 

Looking the other direction,  yuccas and agaves.  This area is more of a desert theme that gets more sun.  

 

I love this aloe striatula in the middle back, but I need to relocate it.  I didn't expect it to grow so fast.

 

 

Desert area from the other side.  Chamaerops humilis with black mondo grass.  I like the wild-untrimmed look,  it seems to fit in better here in Oregon.  

Wrapped mule palm in the back.  Probably didn't need protecting, but I'm no purest, and it would cost $500 to replace.

 

This is the mule palm right before I wrapped it last week.  BTW if you want the tropical look go with whiteish stone or sand for a mulch and not the tree bark.  This was sold as pumice meant to be mixed into a soil blend.

 

Also taken on Jan 17th - Trachy from the other side.  Hellebore planted underneath it, evergreen with winter flowers.

 

My sago turned 21 this year!  Last year i built this box for it and and added some wheels.

[Las Palmas Norte]

That's a lot of work laying that all out. Looking good!

[Zone7Bpalmguy]

@Cody Salem Beautiful, I love the stacked stone beds. The plants look great. That sounds like some crazy cold, was that any kind of record for consecutive days below freezing?

[Cody Salem]

10 hours ago, Zone7Bpalmguy said:

@Cody Salem Beautiful, I love the stacked stone beds. The plants look great. That sounds like some crazy cold, was that any kind of record for consecutive days below freezing?

 

I really liked the stones too.  They are actually just the blocks from Lowes with a pattern etched into the face.  The cap layer on top really makes all the difference and gives it a polished look.  I'm kinda disappointed that they are already covered in algae, but that's Oregon for ya.

Longest cold since I've lived here, but Ive seen old black and white photos of the Columbia river frozen over.  It was a very unusual cold snap for us because it was also dry and sunny.  We were actually about average for the daytime high temperatures.  It was weather that would be more typical of somewhere like New Mexico.  I would say that it was a very gentle 21°f.  Before this week, I don't recall being able to see a sunrise in January before.

[Chester B]

Looks great.  One of the best things about gardening in Oregon, is the massive amount of BLE's that you can grow.  It's much tougher here in Texas.

[Darold Petty]

14 minutes ago, Chester B said:

Looks great.  One of the best things about gardening in Oregon, is the massive amount of BLE's that you can grow.  It's much tougher here in Texas.

What is this acronym, ? thanks

[Las Palmas Norte]

30 minutes ago, Darold Petty said:

What is this acronym, ? thanks

Broad Leaf Evergreen.

[Darold Petty]

Thanks !

[Las Palmas Norte]

Some of those BLE's are poor at handling wet snow loads.

[Cody Salem]

15 hours ago, Chester B said:

Looks great.  One of the best things about gardening in Oregon, is the massive amount of BLE's that you can grow.  It's much tougher here in Texas.

Just the amount of natives here is great, 

Umbellularia californica,

Chrysolepis chrysophyll,

Quercus chrysolepis,

Notholithocarpus densiflorus,

And the best of all,

Arbutus menziesii,

And thats just the trees.

Not too many of them in the nursery trade, but I have been seeing some true Arbutus menziesii (different from strawberry tree) in the nurseries the last couple of years.

 

 

 

[Harry’s Palms]

Very nice layout . It looks like the extended cloudy days that you have in the winter have not set your garden back too much. Harry

[Banana Belt]

Another close relative to the Madrone Arbutus menziesii, is the Arctostaphylos manzanitae.  There are many forms of this plant throughout the west with some of the largest and most beautiful around Redding, California.  The picture below taken off the web shows the bark color, but I have seen some near Lake Shasta that were 30 feet tall and a 3 foot diameter trunk.   They prefer lateritic soils of poor quality and grow very slow and do not transplant very well, but they are beautiful.

[Zach K]

On 2/1/2025 at 8:27 PM, Cody Salem said:

I thought I would post a few pics of my garden I built about 2 years ago, now that the plants are filling in nicely.  Being from Oregon (8A/B), with 5 months of maritime winter,  I wanted to put together something that would look consistently good year-round.   I have some nice palms that stand out in the garden, but I tried to steer away from a lot of the typical perennials that die back every winter.  There really are a lot of broadleaf evergreens that blend well with the tropicals.  I was kind of inspired by our last trip to Hawaii when I noticed some of the natural forest there looked surprisingly like Pacific madrone trees with an understory of Oregon grape.  

I had the exact same thought about the forest. Those strawberry guava trees look almost identical to our arbutus when I saw them on Oahu. Apparently, the strawberry guavas are super invasive there. 

[CascadiaPalms]

Looks good!  Beautiful outdoor space!

[palmnut-fry]

On 2/2/2025 at 3:32 PM, Cody Salem said:

 

I really liked the stones too.  They are actually just the blocks from Lowes with a pattern etched into the face.  The cap layer on top really makes all the difference and gives it a polished look.  I'm kinda disappointed that they are already covered in algae, but that's Oregon for ya.

Longest cold since I've lived here, but Ive seen old black and white photos of the Columbia river frozen over.  It was a very unusual cold snap for us because it was also dry and sunny.  We were actually about average for the daytime high temperatures.  It was weather that would be more typical of somewhere like New Mexico.  I would say that it was a very gentle 21°f.  Before this week, I don't recall being able to see a sunrise in January before.

Sounds like what we got in NE Texas! A dry cold sun but not crazy cold, and for not as long, thank gawd. I am surprised the Cordyline was not damaged-i brought mine in in a big old pot half full of soil. Also, it seems like it would be way too wet to grow Agaves up there, raised beds no doubt help! 

Everytime i try a Euphorbia they croak but there are some cool ones esp if you like dif colors. That New Zealand Flax is a plant i want to try here!

Hopefully this next Arctic blast coming is not as severe! 🤞 

[Cody Salem]

On 2/4/2025 at 6:02 AM, Banana Belt said:

Another close relative to the Madrone Arbutus menziesii, is the Arctostaphylos manzanitae.  There are many forms of this plant throughout the west with some of the largest and most beautiful around Redding, California.  The picture below taken off the web shows the bark color, but I have seen some near Lake Shasta that were 30 feet tall and a 3 foot diameter trunk.   They prefer lateritic soils of poor quality and grow very slow and do not transplant very well, but they are beautiful.

Those are some nice ones.  It seems like there are many species here but I haven't taken the time to learn the differences.  I did try transplanting one that I found with particularly silver-ish leaves but of course it didn't take.  My theory is that they grow in such poor soil that it is hard not to butcher the roots when digging them up.   I also read an old study saying that they have problems with girdling roots.

[Cody Salem]

10 hours ago, palmnut-fry said:

Sounds like what we got in NE Texas! A dry cold sun but not crazy cold, and for not as long, thank gawd. I am surprised the Cordyline was not damaged-i brought mine in in a big old pot half full of soil. Also, it seems like it would be way too wet to grow Agaves up there, raised beds no doubt help! 

Everytime i try a Euphorbia they croak but there are some cool ones esp if you like dif colors. That New Zealand Flax is a plant i want to try here!

Hopefully this next Arctic blast coming is not as severe! 🤞 

Cordylines do well here, as long as it's the plain green and not one of the designer colors.  Same with the flax. Our weather is really similar to parts of New Zealand except they don't get that Arctic blast we get every once in a while. 

The freeze we had last year took 90% of the Cordylines around here down to the ground, (mine made it, protected) but they pop right back from the roots.  I read somewhere on these forums that a sign of a true 9A zone is a mature Cordyline, and we don't have those here.  Seems like they make it about 8-10 years before starting over.  

Agaves have been pretty rare around here until recently.  The Agave ovatifolia seems pretty bulletproof.  The other big one is Agave x protamericana 'Silver Surfer'.  I'm not quite as confident, but it's been great so far.  Also have a couple little Queen Victoria Agaves that I planted as an "annual" but they have made it just fine too.  The Euphorbia actually self-seeds here, but the little seedings pull easily and don't come back from the roots like other weeds.

[Banana Belt]

5 hours ago, Cody Salem said:

they grow in such poor soil that it is hard not to butcher the roots when digging them up

That is the problem when digging Manzanita up and transplanting.  The roots go out a long distance because of the prefered poor soil they grow in.  I have not looked up all the different species, but have seen them growing from the high deserts up into the mountains and down to the sea throughout Wash, Oregon and California.  There are probably several dozen different species all different from each other.  They grow very slow and the wood is very hard and dense even more than Madrone.  The largest species I have seen occur in dense thickets around Redding, California, where they can be up to 35 feet tall and 35 feet wide with a single waist high trunk of 2 to 3 feet thick.  All the manzanita have red shininng bark which peels off annually like Madrone.  They do have fire resistance but I don't know why.

If one wants to transplant a Manzanita it is best to get a small one, the smaller the better for transplant.  But of course it takes more than a  lifetime to get it full grown.

The thicket pictured above caught my eye as it looked like blood veins in a medical diagram.