2007 Classes and Celebrations -Winter Containers - Sunday, September 30

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

September 30 - Winter Containers
Basic container maintenance and strong design elements are essential for creating interesting and elegant containers for the winter months. Join Ramona Wulzen in creating winter container combinations.

Ramona Wulzen received her love of all things wild from her mother. She has gardened both on a city lot and on three acres in the woods. She has also listened long and hard to the problems and solutions that other gardeners have experienced. The nature of her current garden has lead to her passion for ground covers and container gardening. Ramona is a veteran of our retail department and now works in our landscape department.

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Low-Water Gardening - Sunday, September 23

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

September 23 - Low-Water Gardening
Drier, warmer summers. Increasing costs of water. Stubborn Northwest clay. What do they have in common? They are part of the background of experiments conducted in the gardens at Joy Creek Nursery that have resulted in reduced water usage and, ironically, an expanded plant palette. Maurice Horn presents the findings.

Maurice Horn, as co-owner of Joy Creek Nursery, has had the opportunity to trial a vast variety of perennials and shrubs. He is ever eager to find ways to create exciting gardens that use low to no water. Recently he has conducted gravel gardening workshops for Metro, the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon and Heronswood Nursery.

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Ornamental Grasses - Sunday, September 16

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

September 16 - Ornamental Grasses
Ornamental grasses bring movement and texture to the garden. With so many choices and such a range of colors and sizes, it can sometimes be daunting selecting the most suitable grass for your site. Learn about care and maintenance, and take a tour, with Carolyn Jones.

Carolyn Jones is director of the Elizabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden in Seattle, Washington. One of her duties as director is to oversee the Great Plant Picks program which is designed to educate the public about plants well-suited to the Pacific Northwest. She has worked in horticulture in the Northwest for 30 years in retail and wholesale sales as well as at botanical gardens.

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Fall Wreaths - Sunday, September 9

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

September 9 - Fall Wreaths
Get ideas about gathering the abundant dried plant material found in the garden in late summer. Nadine Black will demonstrate how to use these materials for autumn decoration.

Nadine Black tried on many hats in our industry - from private gardener to wholesale plant sales - before she discovered that her real passion was helping retail customers create gardens. At Joy Creek Nursery, she has found a new set of hats, managing retail sales, conducting on-site garden consultations, and teaching workshops. In addition, she has acquired the Lifetime Certified Oregon Nursery Professional certificate from the Oregon Association of Nurseries.

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Ground Covers - Sunday, September 2

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

September 2 - Ground Covers
Ramona Wulzen will recommend plants to enhance problem areas in your garden and offer suggestions on how to keep them looking good, whether in dry shade under evergreens or in a sunny hot spot that gets little water.

Ramona Wulzen received her love of all things wild from her mother. She has gardened both on a city lot and on three acres in the woods. She has also listened long and hard to the problems and solutions that other gardeners have experienced. The nature of her current garden has led to her passion for ground covers and container gardening. Ramona is a veteran of our retail department and now works in our landscape department.

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

Joy Creek Plant Introductions from 2005

In 2005 we released our only patented plant. Eight years earlier, we had discovered three seedling Miscanthus in our garden and planted them in our stock field for evaluation. All of them were distinctly barred in gold, but of different heights. One of them, which stood between 3 and 4 feet, seemed ideal for a home garden. Its leaf blades were dense with horizontal gold stripes - up to seven of them per inch. It was very tightly clumping at its base and its blades were very stiff, revealing its parentage in Miscanthus sinensis 'Strictus.' We counted the fact that its inflorescences did not emerge until late October as an asset because it suggested that it might never have the chance to produce viable seed in places where Maiden grass has become a problem.

At our nursery, visiting nurserymen and customers alike were attracted to its luminous quality. We were even offered money for it. Dan Heims, from Terra Nova Nursery, advised us that we should patent the plant. We realized that we could not profitably produce it at our small mail order nursery. It was through the graces of our friend David Culp that we were introduced to Sunny Border Nursery where the grass was trialed for a year. Sunny Border liked it and agreed to help us go through the complex patenting process with the help of patent writer Penny Aguirre. In 2004 we received the patent number PP15193 for Miscanthus'Gold Bar' and released the grass from the nursery the following year.

In 2005, we also introduced a new penstemon. The history of this particular seedling is somewhat humorous. It was originally scheduled to be removed from our garden with a crop of other seedlings because its color was too similar to others. Fortunately, our propagator, thinking it was the same as its neighboring plant, made cuttings of it while it was not in bloom. Eventually three of those cuttings were replanted in the stock field with the wrong name and only after they bloomed did we realize the mistake. By then, the more mature plants revealed some interesting characteristics. The flowers were immense, wider than any others in our collection. Interestingly, the flowers formed a one-sided raceme that was pleasingly deltoid in shape, giving the raceme dramatic impact. We later traced the parents back to Penstemon 'Raspberry Flair' and P. 'Wine Kissed' although we do not know which was the seed parent. Soon after, we wedded those two names together and called it Penstemon 'Raspberry Wine.'

Photos: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Dry Shade - Sunday, August 26

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

August 26 - Dry Shade
Northwest summers are notoriously dry and many common shade plants cannot survive the competition for water from larger shrubs and trees. Yet, there are a surprising number of plants that are up to these difficult circumstances and Richie Steffen will provide suggestions.

Richie Steffen is the Coordinator of Horticulture for the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden where he manages the rare plant collections and heads acquisitions of new plants for the garden. He currently serves as a selection committee member of the Great Plant Picks program and is always ready to share his enthusiasm for this excellent regional resource.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Small Water Features - Sunday, August 19

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

August 19 - Small Water Features

It is not as hard as you think to have water in the garden. Nadine Black will provide ideas for water features that are easy to install and maintain. We will examine everything from water rocks to small fountains.

Nadine Black tried on many hats in our industry - from private gardener to wholesale plant sales - before she discovered that her real passion was helping retail customers create gardens. Here, she has found a new set of hats, managing retail sales, conducting on-site garden consultations, and teaching workshops. In addition, she has acquired the Lifetime Certified Oregon Nursery Professional certificate from the Oregon Association of Nurseries.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Paths & Circulation - Sunday, August 5

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

August 5 - Paths & Circulation

John Caine leads a discussion about how moving through your garden is elemental to your enjoyment of that space. Paths also help define your planting areas. In a sense, paths are the lungs and arteries of the garden, facilitating all kinds of circulation.

John Caine comes to his job as landscape garden designer for Joy Creek Nursery not only with a degree from Michigan State University but also with thirty years of practical experience as an estate gardener. He gave Joy Creek Nursery its master plan and continues to help us refine our gardens.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

Joy Creek Plant Introductions from 2005

The year 2005 brought five introductions to our catalogue. We will describe only two of them in this issue.

Over the years, we have been frustrated by seed crops of yarrow which have produced inconsistent plants. We have long looked for a seedling Achillea that had good flower color that held up for a long time in the summer garden. We eventually found such a plant in a seedling from Achillea ‘Paprika’ which we gave the working name Achillea ‘Paprika Joy Creek Select.' The name, although it is not very fanciful, represents our selection process. The rich red flowers with yellow eyes are gathered into flattened heads. If bloom spikes are cut back, it will continue to bloom all summer. As with other yarrows, the flowers do fade but not quickly and not unattractively.

In our gardens, we have towering Euphorbia characias var. wulfenii that make a glorious display from spring to early autumn. They are so large that they sometimes lean on their neighbors and we have had to cage them to keep them upright. Not every garden can handle such large plants and so we set to work to find a seedling that was shorter and more compact but offered the same bold, bracted flower-heads in spring. Once again, we chose a not too imaginative working name, ‘Joy Creek Dwarf’, and that name has stuck as a description. At three feet tall and three feet wide, our selection can easily be accommodated in almost any garden. In habit, it is upright and does not flop. In addition, it has mid-sized, somewhat rounded floral-heads.

Photos: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

2007 Classes and Celebrations -The New Western Garden - Sunday, July 29

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

July 29 - The New Western Garden

Gardeners in the Northwest are facing all kinds of challenges - smaller urban garden spaces, growing pressures on limited resources like water and the shift to more environmentally friendly practices are but a few. Gardeners are also challenged to find ways to incorporate shrubs, trees, perennials and annuals in ways that mimic and complement our native landscape but still allow the freedom of personal expression. Paul Bonine will educate attendees about some exciting new plants that can meet these challenges.

Paul Bonine is co-owner of the wholesale nursery Xera Plants Inc. with his partner Greg Shepherd. He has worked in the nursery industry since 1992 beginning in Eugene and then moving to Portland. Paul's special interests include plants that are adapted to low water usage, perform well in the Portland area and expand the plant palette for Northwest gardeners. By the way, Paul is a Taurus.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

Kym Pokorny shares 'Going Dry' suggestions

Last week, in The Oregonian's HGNW (Homes & Gardens of the Northwest) section, garden writer Kym Pokorney referenced Joy Creek Nursery co-owner Maurice Horn and other garden experts in her article "Going Dry: The right plants and practices can tame the garden's thirst." The piece, about drought-tolerant plants, can be accessed on the OregonLive.com website.

Pokorny mentioned several related, upcoming Joy Creek classes in the article:

• The new Western garden, Paul Bonine, co-owner, Xera Plants, Sunday, July 29

• Gardening in dry shade, Richie Steffen, coordinator of horticulture for the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden and a committee member of Great Plant Picks, Sunday, Aug. 26

• Ground covers for dry shade or hot sun, Ramona Wulzen, Sunday, Sept. 2

• Low-water gardening, Maurice Horn, co-owner, Joy Creek Nursery, Sunday, Sept. 23

For more garden-related news and information, be sure to check out Kym Pokorny's blog Dig in with Kym

(Note: The graphic shown in this blog entry is courtesy of The Oregonian and may be downloaded in PDF form at the OregonLive.com link above.)

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Ferns - Sunday, July 22

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

July 22 - Ferns

The Fern Lady is back with delightful tales and information about what she calls the most architectural of plants. Learn how to chose ferns for specific sites (including hot, dry ones), how to care for them and grow them well.

Judith Jones' unmistakable laugh belies the joy that she brings to her work as owner of Fancy Fronds Nursery in Gold Bar , Washington. Judith reports that she is an avowed "pteridomaniac." She says, "Ferns just make sense as exquisite architectural living forms - they are incredibly elegant while being eminently grow-able." Any one who has seen one of her 18 display gardens at the NW Flower and Garden Show has experienced her great theatricality. "I don't have any formal botanical training as I studied Children's Theater and 17th and 19th century English literature. Great prep for a person to roll about in peat and horse poop thereafter!" She gleefully adds, "I can sing Shakespearian ballads loudly off-key and dance through the ferns to Mozart or the Muppets."

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Advanced Propagation - Sunday, July 15

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

July 15 - Advanced Propagation

1:00 p.m. - Backyard Plant Breeding - Diana Reeck
How are new plants made? Discover the secrets of plant sex and get hands-on experience with several genera. (Please bring your own tweezers!)

Diana Reeck, co-owner of Collector's Nursery in Battleground, Washington, is an amateur plant breeder whose passions include erythroniums, small-flowered clematis and epimediums. She is also an avid plant explorer and her adventures have taken her throughout the Pacific Northwest and, indeed, as far as China.

2:15 p.m. - Propagation 102 - Scotty Fairchild
Growing plants from seeds can be tricky for the home gardener. The various techniques for coaxing seeds to life will fascinate you.

Scotty Fairchild has been employed as the Garden Steward at the Leach Botanical Garden since 1990. He is responsible for the development and maintenance of the garden's extensive plant collections and the sustainable stewardship of the 15-acre site. In addition, he has developed the garden's nursery facility which currently has over 2,000 accessioned taxa, the majority grown from seed. His most recent academic studies were at Oregon State University.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

2007 Classes and Celebrations -What Color is Your Garden? - Sunday, July 8

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

July 8 - What Color is Your Garden?

Understanding the way that color works can bring out the artist in any gardener and help to personalize a garden. Lucy Hardiman will help you create your own color palette, refine your sense of color, or possibly go wild with varied hues.

Lucy Hardiman, former president of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, and vice-president of Friends of Rogerson Clematis Collection, is a driving force in the Portland plant world. Through her garden design company Perennial Partners, her lectures and her writing in national publications, she expresses her sophisticated sense of design and color in the garden.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

Clematis Cages

The Joy Creek Nursery hillside collection of Clematis is not the easiest or most preferable environment for the Clematis we grow. The plants there have to hold up to a hot, southern exposure, occasional spring hail storms, overhead watering and summer drought. Despite these obstacles, we have been pleased with the performance of most of the members of the collection.Many of them have performed beyond expectation and taught us valuable lessons about the resilience of this versatile genus.

There is, however, one area on the hillside that has refused to flourish. At first we thought it was the fault of the plants themselves, mostly newer cultivars from Poland. On closer examination, we began to realize that this particular section was repeatedly undermined by moles. Last year, our gardener Manuel decided to build cages to protect the roots of a few of the plants. His efforts paid off. This spring, the plants he protected survived; those that he did not protect, perished. This year he built more cages and now the entire row should give us a good show. The first photo shows the tunnel system of the moles. The second shows the cage itself set into the hole before planting. We will report more on the success or failure of this technique in the coming year.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

Photos: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Revitalizing a Tired Bed - Sunday, July 1

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

July 1 - Revitalizing a Tired Bed

Has a section of your garden lost its appeal? Are you wondering what to do about it? Acquire some techniques, from Jolly Butler, for assessing the situation and making the changes that will make you happy with your garden.

Jolly Butler became familiar to gardeners throughout the Portland area through her "Gardening 101" column in Garden Showcase magazine. Also, many gardeners learned their gardening basics in her classes at Portland Community College. Recently, she ran a two-hour, call-in radio show called "Gardening with Jolly Butler" on KPAM in Portland. She is an Oregon State University Extension Service Master Gardener and is active in the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. Oh, yes, and she is a gardener.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Tastefully Labeling the Garden - Sunday,June 24

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

June 24 - Tastefully Labeling the Garden

How to know what you have in your garden without the use of miniature billboards! Dan Moeller has some innovative ideas that you won't want to miss.

Dan Moeller was a garden manager at the Chicago Botanic Garden before he made the big move to the West Coast to become the plant collections manager at the Hoyt Arboretum in Portland , Oregon. Dan also serves on the tree committee of the Great Plant Picks from the Elizabeth C. Miller Botanic Garden in Seattle.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Carnivorous Plants and Other Bog Treasures - Sunday, June 17

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except as noted.

June 17 - Carnivorous Plants and Other Bog Treasures

There is growing interest in bog gardening because of all the unusual and unfamiliar plants that dwell in those special conditions. Scott Vegera will speak on how to grow and care for them at your home either in a garden or in a container. Venus fly-traps, pitcher plants and sun-dews will soon be part of your plant palette.

Scott Vegara writes "if you need a one sentence bio, say that one of my prized plants was a variegated poison ivy." That shows his passion for plants, but it does not tell the depth of his involvement with horticulture. He has done genetic research, been a college educator, worked as plant development coordinator, and served as director of two botanical gardens. He is currently the Executive Director and Director of Horticulture at the Berry Botanic Garden in Portland, Oregon. One of his passions is carnivorous plants.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

2007 Classes and Celebrations -Conifers - Sunday, June 10

Joy Creek Nursery offers customers educational classes, workshops and special events throughout the gardening season. Classes are conducted in the outdoor classroom in our gardens, 18 miles north of Portland at 20300 NW Watson Rd in Scappoose. Please follow the signs to our workshop parking when arriving at the nursery.

June 10 - Conifers

Let an expert guide you in finding the best, choice evergreens for your garden. Don Howse brings an extensive knowledge of and experience with the conifers best suited to our climate. There will be selected specimen plants for sale.

Don Howse is co-owner of Porterhowse Farms in Sandy, Oregon, and past president of the Western Region of the American Conifer Society. He has been collecting rare and unusual conifers for more than 30 years. Anyone who has visited his nursery knows that his interest in plants extends way beyond conifers. He himself confesses that he is a plant addict.All Sunday classes begin at 1:00 p.m. and are free to the public except unless otherwise noted.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery

Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved