January 18, 2001

Gotta start writing a Morning Edition story, excellent time to procrastinate. How about some winter garden highlights from Monday's trip to Portland's Gardens Of Elk Rock, a.k.a., Bishops Close?

This is our native silk tassel (Garrya elliptica), draped in liquid strands of flowers, not scented but nevertheless intoxicating. With its arms wrapped around this aged, stone bench, this is one brilliant placement of a plant.

And what about this composition? Two stunning witchhazels (Hamamelis) in a clipped corral of knee-high boxwood.

I realize this looks like a truncated shrub swaddled in moss, but look carefully and you'll see that these branches are exploding with pink-blooming flowers. You can smell the fragrance from this viburnum (V. x bodnantense)twenty feet away!

Never mind that I can't take a picture worth a damn w/this cheap camera, just imagine sticking your face into this mass of viburnum flowers and inhaling Bach's Double Violin Concerto. If fragrance could sing...