Hortlandia 2015

Hortlandia is the name of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon's spring plant sale.  To find out more about the sale, the vendors, and the HPSO, checkout the website here.

What could be more fun than going to Portland to experience the largest plant sale west of the Rocky Mountains?  Going with two knowledgeable, kind, and downright funny plantspeople!  It's funny how people who are passionate about plants and gardening never run out of  things to discuss.  While our time at the sale and visiting nurseries (posts to follow) was enjoyable, my favorite parts of the day were the rides down and back.  (Thanks, Alison, for driving!)  We didn't stop gabbing and laughing for long, especially when we were driving to a nursery and  the lady in my phone said, "Your destination is on the left."  On the left for probably a mile was a large cemetery.  Was the phone trying to flout it's superiority to organic life forms by pointing out that we'd end up in a cemetery?

We arrived at the sale thirty minutes early and got a great place in line.  

I didn't take a lot of pictures this year as there were so many plants to see and once we'd made our rounds for an hour and a half, the crowd became quite dense making it difficult to photograph things without being in the way.

Solanum quitonse seedlings.  I've got a couple older plants in the greenhouse that look a bit bedraggled after the winter.  They usually bounce back once they get their roots into new soil and spend some time outside. The plant with orange thorns on the right is Solanum pyracanthum.

Interesting combination.

Gentian.  One of the few true and beautiful blues of the floral world. 

Watch out, these are carnivorous plants!  Luckily, thy prefer smaller snacks than humans...for now. 

 Succulent treats.

This Haworthia pretty much glowed.

Labeled "Milk Cactus," it must be a Euphorbia.

Another Podophyllum beauty.  

 Trillium grandiflorum flore pleno.  A thing of beauty!  I'm still nursing along my 4" pot!

Can you believe it?  The Bovees have been at this since 1963!   What a grand way to spend fifty-two years of one's life!

Acres of Acers.  Don't remember the name of the vendor but think that would be a good name for a nursery specializing in maples.

Hardy palms and a couple of yuccas.  One of the plants jumped off the table in an apparent suicide attempt.  One wants to look away but can't stop looking.  Soil, pearlite, broken limbs.  Although it looks horrific, a full recovery is predicted.

Epimedium something or other.  Wikipedia says that common names include  horny goat weed, rowdy lamb herb, and  randy beef grass.

The educational tables containing foliage and flowers from local gardens are a favorite part of many sales!

 Other highlights of the show included running into and chatting with a lot of Portland area bloggers!
Here's my haul this year.  I was especially happy to find Aeonium tabuliforme, that flat as a pancake Aeonium on the right, as I'd not seen it for sale in the area before.