What's Blooming Oregon
Jane McGary (Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:59:21 PDT)

We've had several posts on this topic from western Oregon, where I
live too. Ken wrote,
This garden is in what is now USDA Zone 8, though for many years I

It got down to only +17F here this winter, probably because Ken lives
at a lower elevation and there was a temperature inversion. I would
not depend on plants rated Z8 in this garden, though. It depends
where they come from. Western American woody plants with that rating
do fine, but eastern American and Asian ones usually die. I can't
grow Agapanthus or Begonia grandis, but Ken does. "Callas," by which
he probably means Zantedeschia aethiopica and not Calla palustris,
are hardy here in the ground, but Canna would not be. I had some
Crinum for years and never got a flower, probably because it's not
warm enough for it, so I gave it to someonel down in the valley and
it flowered for them.

He writes:
"Alstroemeria--the first opened a day or so ago, a hybrid,

I kind of doubt that a real Alstroemeria pulchra would survive in
those temperatures. I wonder if Ken has A. ligtu ssp. incarnata? I
grow the latter, and I'm afraid I may once have misidentified it as
A. pulchra ssp. maxima and he may have obtained seed under that name.
I don't think, though, that I sent it to the NARGS exchange. It is a
very large plant with "warm" pink flowers. A. pulchra has flowers
with very rich markings of gold and purple. I flowered it in the
solarium this year, out of a half-gallon pot, which really surprised
me; I'll have to get it into something bigger.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA