Garden Tour: Early June Plant Highlights from My Portland Garden

It's been a few weeks since my last full garden tour—long enough for the garden to shift significantly. The martagon lilies are at their peak, the three stewartias I grow are opening in sequence, and clematis are blooming through almost every structure. This is the kind of tour where something new catches my eye every few steps.

I start at the back garden, reading the color echoes down the path—the burgundy of Lilium × martagon 'Claude Shride' picking up the clematis tones at the far end, the eye moving from the cordyline to a rhododendron to the pink roses and back. From there I walk through the north side, the south side yard (the former driveway), the front slope, the parking strip, and finally down the block to the neighbor's garden.

A few plants get more attention than a quick pass. Cotinus 'Grace' is getting a different pruning approach this year—cut back early, then cut again to encourage branching rather than long whips, growing it for foliage color and large leaves rather than the smoke. Clematis 'Margaret Hunt' finally figured out that it was supposed to grow into the beanpole taxus—a year later than planned, but it's gotten with the program. And Stewartia pseudocamellia is starting to come over the front patio in a significant way—I'm watching it and haven't decided yet what that means.

The containers off the back deck make a brief appearance here, and I talk about the Anderson pot technique I use to keep large plants moveable. I go deeper on that strategy in the Big Living in My Small Garden series—the containers video covers it properly.

There's also a candid moment with a rhododendron at the front entry. Healthy, good growth habit, never blooms, has had lace bug issues. I thought I was going to say "it's coming out" and then I wasn't sure. That's gardening.

Plants are identified on screen throughout the video. If you don't catch a name, drop the timestamp in the comments—you'll need to head over to YouTube to do that.

Explore the plant database and browse plant combinations at eGardenGo.