A Winter Visit to Joy Creek Nursery with Friends

The weather might be chilly, but that didn't stop the Portland, Oregon area Garden Bloggers from meeting up at Joy Creek Nursery for a tour and talk on how to manage winter storm damage by Mike, co-owner of the nursery.

Some people know how to strike a pose...NW Style (i.e coffee in hand)

Joy Creek Nursery is a gem in our neck of the woods. They have a diverse open garden to wander where they specialize in clematis and hydrangea breeding (as well as many other species). Also, I will add, they have a great online catalog for those who are not located in the area.

A big January snowstorm brought temps as low as 11 degrees and snow 18" deep to the nursery. The weather created damage all over the Portland metro area and those of us gathered were very curious to see how the experts at Joy Creek would manage the damage their garden had sustained.

Mike discusses a the fate of a tall hydrangea aspera that broke at the base. Mike will keep the remaining upright trunk and see what happends. While this type of hydrangea sustained a lot of damage, the hydrangea macrophylla(s) did not. Those are maintained and pruned yearly keeping the plants more compact. 

Mike discusses a plant that sustained heavy damage at the base, with one of the trunks breaking off at the base. Mike intends to remove the broken piece and leave the others up providing additional supports hoping the plant will right itself with time.

Look at all of those fabulous garden bloggers!

Mike discussed that he will prune his phygelius down to about 4 inches to the ground. He also discussed damage sustained to their rhododendrons. He encouraged pruning some of the larger varieties into a more compact shape. They will recover with patience and time. 

This Pinus parviflora variety was greatly damaged. Mike is concerned that the next big windstorm will finish it off. It had a major, upper, branch that you can see, came off due to the weight of the snow. This tree will come down soon.

Below is a pic of a vertical juniper species that bent due to the weight of the snow and ended up like so many vertical species do when damaged..with a big hole in the middle.

Again...garden bloggers are the masters of 'strike a pose'

Mike plans to tie this juniper up with 'tree tie' a product that has more of a chain link quality. They will not tie the tree up too tightly, as they want air to circulate through it.

A newly built rose garden. Notice the seed heads still intact in the forefront. Keeping seed heads up for birds to eat is a great way to allow the garden to be multi-season and to keep it a source of food for birds in the winter months.

After our storm damage talk, we ventured to the barns where hot coffee and a tasty spread awaited us. Maurice, the other half of Joy Creek Nursery, gave us a slide show presentation of a fernery that he is building on his home property. 

WOW! Talk about inspiration. Maurice took down about seven mature poplar trees on his property and recycled them by building a fernery that is truly a work of art. I'm still awestruck.

Maurice, co-owner of Joy Creek Nursery, giving us a slide show presentation on a 'fernery' that he has build on his home property.

I have to give a special shout out to Tamara of Chickadee Garden blog and Ricki of Sprig to Twig, who organized the event and provided a delicious, home-cooked lunch. Tamara is the social media coordinator of Joy Creek Nursery and helped Mike and Maurice show their appreciation to our little bunch for all the support we have provided to Joy Creek in the past.

Well, it's a love love situation because an opportunity to hear from the pro's about the necessary winter work in the garden and a chance to hang out with some of the nicest people I know = a great day in my book.

And there were plants for sale. 

Need I say more. 

Interested in reading the blogs from some of the bloggers who attended this event? Check out my right side bar under 'Pacific NW Bloggers...'  You'll find them there.

Cheers, 

Jenni