This is Why I Hate The Oregonian

It is amazing how a little thing, going on from week to week, month to month, year to year, can slowly make you crazy.

Here in Portland, The Oregonian delivers a free Food Day newspaper to my neighborhood - it comes in a non-recyclable plastic bag.

For years, I have removed the paper from the plastic bag and put the paper in the recycling and put the plastic bag in the garbage can.  Week after week, the same thing...

Not infrequently, I have to crawl to the back of the flower bed to retrieve said paper, because the driveway is apparently too small a target for the paper delivery person to hit.

Personally, I don't believe in reading newspapers. I think it is a waste and it is not my lifestyle. Some people enjoy it but not me. I prefer to get my news off the internet, so no trees are harmed and there is nothing to recycle.

I've called The Oregonian MANY times to ask them to stop delivering this paper, but to no success.

While I'm sure some high school student is better off for having this paper delivery job - I'm sure they are also smart enough to not deliver a paper to someone that doesn't want one. 

Perhaps I should just be thankful I didn't have to crawl through the flower bed to get this one.

Oops I Did it Again!

It all began with a bouquet of flowers.  I was feeling down and out the last few months.  Seems like everyone I know has health problems or is on the verge of dying.

My darling partner sent me these flowers to cheer me up, little did he know that it was going to happen after.  I absolutely fell in love with the red peony as it opened into a huge red bomb.

After researching the interwebs, I deduced that it was mostly likely called 'Red Charm', which was later corroborated at the PSU Farmer's Market. All the flower vendor's had zillions of them. One of them being Adelman Peony Gardens in Salem, OR and they had a lovely catalog to take home.

So Sunday we took a drive down there to check it out.

 

Adelman Peony Gardens had a lovely display garden with peonies, iris and lupines blooming.  Some of the peonies were bloomed out already, but there was still a lot to see.

One of the best attractions was the short walk from the parking lot to the adjacent growing fields, where you could see rows and rows of still flowering plants and walk among them.  It gives a great opportunity to see the size of the plants, the foliage and the true color of the flowers. 

They had a nice plant sales area. I already had a catalog to drool over for several weeks, so I knew what I wanted and had the names, colors and prices sort of figured out in my brain beforehand.

Paeonia lactiflora 'Leslie Peck'

Adelman Peony Gardens is only open May 1-June 15, so in the future I will go earlier than later, as a couple of my desired plants were sold out already.

Paeonia lactiflora 'Sword Dance'

I kind of shot myself in the foot because when all was said and done I had eight new peonies. Which is great!  But now I need to dig out some lawn and make a new flowerbed for them...

But I guess I needed more room to plant anyway.

Plants I Love

This post is just some plants I love.

Not every plant in the garden needs to have big, bold flowers - sometimes texture, color and pattern are interesting too.

Dryopteris erythrosora (Autumn Fern)

Sedum pulchellum 'Seastar'

Hebe cupressoide

Sedum spurium 'Green Mantle'

Silene uniflora 'Druett’s Variegated' (Catchfly)

Athyrium niponicum 'Pictum' (Japanese Painted Fern)

Sedum repestre 'Angelina'

Hebe ochracea 'E.C. Stirling'