Some plants I grow and some plants I lust after, at the RSBG

I’ve been shopping at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden on-site nursery long enough to have accumulated a nice little collection of their plants. In addition, there are several plants I’ve bought elsewhere, but they’re growing at the garden and I like to check in on them and see how they’re doing whenever I visit.

Rhododendron ‘Ever Red’ grows in a large container right next to the nursery area. I lust after it every single visit, that’s it on the left/top. On the bottom are some of the ‘Ever Red’ that were for sale during my February visit. Since I bought one at the Hardy Fern Foundation’s FernFest last September (RSBG was a guest vendor at the sale) I didn’t have to stop and ponder the purchase!

I don’t think I’ve ever shared a photo of the garden’s Rutherford Conservatory, instead focusing on the plants inside. Can you make out that planting island in the shadows in front of the conservatory?
That’s where this creeping strawberry pine, Microcachrys tetragona is growing. The dwarf conifer from Tasmania is planted in the perfect spot, where it can cascade down over the rock wall…

…and show off it’s small fruit, the “strawberries”, which of course aren’t really strawberries at all, and this isn’t a pine either, but rather part of the podocarp family.
My plants (I have a couple) have never looked this good!
I always take time to admire the toughs in front of the conservatory, but I don’t remember them ever being grouped together like this, perhaps it’s a winter thing.

That little cutie is Asplenium ceterach. I was given a pair last summer from a Portland gardener. Mine have kind of disappeared over the winter which is a problem since they’re evergreen. Perhaps I need to lift them and plant them in one of my (smaller, not as cool) troughs.
I believe this Cassiope ‘Askival’, I was able to bring one home on this visit.
I also grow Cassiope lycopodioides, which this might be?
And I’m fairly certain this is another cassiope…
Sinopanax formosanus, I think there are three of them growing here, mixed in with the ferns, rhododendrons and other characters.
Here’s the same planting from the opposite side. The Sinopanax formosanus are the shrubs with leaves vaguely shaped like a maple leaf. I only have one and last spring I moved it to the far west end of the garden to grow up in front of the neighbor’s fence.
Rhododendron forrestii ssp. forrestii
I’m on my third attempt to grow this plant, but I think maybe this one might make it, yay! This is another plant I purchased from the RSBG at last September’s FernFest.
I’m going out on a ~~limb~~ frond here, perhaps getting a little too confident with my fern ID. I think this might be Polystichum tsus-simense aka Polystichum luctuosum (Korean Rock Fern).
If that’s the case then I’m currently growing this one inside the house on the fern tray I put together after the holidays.
I was very excited to find this plant again on my February visit (as I mentioned Wednesday, sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge to retrace your steps and re-find a plant off the beaten path), Rhododendron cardiobasis…
Another score last September at FernFest and a plant I was sure to protect over our brief bit of winter this year, since it had only been in the ground for a few months. Fingers crossed mine looks this good eventually!
Just one more “I grow that!” plant, the ground cover Lonicera crassifolia. I was stunned to see it carpet a the ground like this…
For the second part of this post, a few plants I don’t grow, but lust after at the garden, Rhododendron platypodum…
And another, in different light.

I’m not sure if this little cliffbrake fern (pellaea) is new since my last visit, or if I just never noticed it before.
It’s a tiny thing!
I have no idea what this little creature is, but it’s leaves had a sort of oily sheen that reminded me of the Microsorum thailandicum (blue oil fern) I got at Little Prince.
Agapetes serpens SEH#25095
This one’s growing inside the conservatory though, so likely not hardy.
Rhododendron mallotum, such a distinctive plant, that indumentum is thick!

Rhododendron roxieanum var. oreonasters
I want one just like that with the green furry trunk.
Just one last plant, this one I may have actually grown briefly, and it succumbed to a bad winter (planted in the fall, something I rarely do). Polygonatum mengtzense f. tonkinense
How cool is that!?

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