Mad Dogs and Englishmen: Visiting Portland Avenue Nursery

So what does one do at mid day during one of the hottest days of the summer?  Why, go out to visit a nursery of course!   On this day, I decided to stop by Portland Avenue Nursery which is about six miles from my house.  PAN, first established in 1941 has been under the same ownership and management for the last 25 years and has grown from being a propagator/retailer of junipers and mugo pines into a full-scale four acre nursery.

Customers love to linger at this wonderful nursery as this truck in the parking lot can attest.

 

It's difficult to keep a nursery full of potted plants looking good during a heat wave but I didn't notice a single wilting leaf during my visit.  The friendly and knowledgeable staff is as attentive to their plants as they are to their lucky customers.


Happy looking Rodgersias in the shade house were tempting as were the clivias on the left!

Worth a visit all by itself, this huge old weeping Atlas cedar covers three sides of this building

 

 and part of the neighboring house!

 Here's the other side of the building with a view of some great Japanese maples, one of the PAN's specialties.

Here are two of the many Atlas cedars available for sale so that you too can cover a building or neighborhood with this lovely plant!

 

 

Dwarf conifers are also a specialty of PAN and they always have a dazzling selection!

 

They have several of these  Pinus contorta ‘Chief Joseph’ or Chief Joseph lodgepole pine.  They don't look particularly special now but from late fall through early summer the needles turn the most beautiful gold color!  They've been on my lust list since I saw them here several winters ago but they're still very expensive.

This winter photograph of Chief Joseph is from WBLA_Corky's flickr stream and is used with his permission.

 

Hydrangea paniculate 'Le Vasterival'  looking particulary lovely.

 PAN always has a tempting array of hardy fuchsias in full bloom at this time of the year.

 Bougenvilla seems quite fond of this heat!  I wish they were hardy here.. sigh.

There's even a Loree and Louis section!  I think I spy some Agave 'Blue Frost' that Louis has been talking about on his blog!

 I also wanted to see if they still had this Agave weberi which was one of two that were there in June when they were both the same size.  This one was still at the nursery.

 Here's the one that came home with me in June.  I'm thinking of how to build a plastic roof over this for the winter to protect it from the rain.

 

Not wanting to stay too long and have my vehicle meet the same fate as this one

 or this one,

 I put my Agave 'Blue Frost' on the wagon and checked out!

PAN always has great stuff in bloom and a very nice shade plant selection!  If you ever find yourself in my hood, do drop by the nursery!