Note: All our classes for 2011 are being submitted to the Oregon Landscape Contractors Board for approval for Technical Continuing Education Hours (CEH) credit toward recertification of Oregon Landscape Professional licensing.  Pending approval by the O.L.C.B. we charge $10.00 per class for recording and processing attendance.  A registration for credit will be available in the barn in  the retail area.  Please sign up and make payment prior to the start of the class.  A certificate will be mailed to you during the week following completion of the class.

BASICS --“Pruning” - Mike Smith 

The health and beauty of a garden's living structure depends on thoughtful shaping and pruning of its shrubs and tress.  Mike Smith will demonstrate how to evaluate and prune to reveal the hidden beauty of your older trees and shrubs.  This year, special attention will be given to the pruning, shaping and training of a large climbing rose, different species of hydrangeas and other selected shrubs and small trees.  Be sure to bring your questions about pruning plants that suffered damage during this past winter's November freeze.  Dress warmly, bring an umbrella and we will see you then.

Mike Smith is co-owner of Joy Creek Nursery.  You can see his pruning handiwork throughout the nursery, especially in the large rhododendrons around the house and behind our lavender path and in the numerous shrubs shaped into small trees that are grown throughout our gardens.  Mike is a passionate gardener who retired from a management job in corporate America, got bored and then started the nursery.

BASICS --“Eating Ornamentally” - Willi Galloway  

Why would you grow rows of basil in your backyard when you could plant a swath of this lush herb alongside cannas, hardy bananas and fuchsias to create a tropical-looking border by the front door? Adding edible plants into ornamental borders and mixed containers dramatically expands your plant palette and increases the productivity of your garden. Edibles can be grown alongside pathways, tucked into containers, grown up trellises, twined around tuteurs, and mixed into hedgerows and ornamental borders. They add color, texture, height, and architectural presence to your garden and you get to eat them! In this lecture Willi gives her recommendations for the best ornamental edible plants and varieties for the Pacific Northwest, share practical ideas for adding edibles into existing and new ornamental gardens, and discuss strategies for getting the most out of the vegetables, herbs, and fruit you choose to grow.

Willi Galloway  - As an award winning writer and radio commentator, Willi Galloway spends her days teaching people how to eat from their gardens. Willi is the creator of DigginFood, a popular gardening and cooking blog that serves up organic vegetable gardening advice, DIY projects, and seasonal recipes several times each week. Each Tuesday morning, Willi offers vegetable gardening advice (along with fellow gardeners Marty Wingate and Greg Rabourn) on Seattle’s popular NPR call-in show, "Greendays".

Willi served for six years on the Board of Directors of Seattle Tilth—a nationally recognized non-profit that teaches people to cultivate a healthy urban environment and community by growing organic food—and is a volunteer for the King County Master Gardeners. She also regularly speaks at gardening events around the country and frequently hosts workshops at major nurseries and for gardening groups in the Pacific Northwest.  

She is working on her first book—a food lover’s guide to vegetable gardening that will be published by Sasquatch Books in January 2012—and also teaches a joint gardening cooking class with chef Matthew Dillon at the Corson Building in Georgetown. She and her husband also host an online garden to table cooking show, "Grow. Cook. Eat.", and she was the West Coast Editor of Organic Gardening magazine from 2003 to 2009. After gardening for years in containers and at community gardens, Willi now gardens at her home in Southeast Portland, Oregon.

VENDORS who will be on hand with Willi:

Daisytoes Nursery began when owner Leslie Gover had her first daughter.  As a long-time gardener and nurserywoman, she wanted to create a nursery that got back to the original elements that turned her into a gardener – curiosity, fun, a sense of exploration and joy!  She says she wants to stimulate a new generation with these elements.  As she adds, “The economy is bad, the housing market is down the tube, sounds like it is time to go play in the dirt.  It worked for us when we were kids.  Try it again.”  

Consider the three basic elements necessary for your plants to thrive.  Learn how your garden uses these elements and discover how to enhance their effect on your plants.

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.  Indeed, she likes to say, “I’ve been in horticulture for 20 years and 10 of them have been with Joy Creek.”  In addition, she has acquired the Lifetime Certified Oregon Nursery Professional certificate from the Oregon Association of Nurseries.

Spring is the time of renewal   It is also the time for rejuvenating the garden.  Come join Leslie Gover for a hands-on class to learn when, why and how to divide, down-size and transplant in order to keep your garden looking its best.

Leslie Gover - With a plant production background from Oregon State University, Leslie’s horticulture degree serves her well as Joy Creek’s propagator, vegetable nursery supplier and staff “bug-getter”.  Over the years she has spent lots of time in the Plant Health Care field.  With two small children, pets, and her own Daisytoes Nursery, she is a woman on the go. 

The single most important thing a gardener can do to improve or sustain any soil is to make and use compost. It’s not hard to make and the results in your flower or vegetable garden are immense. This workshop will include tips on starting the process, what materials can be used, a realistic start-to-finish time line, and the best and easiest ways to use compost in your garden.

Since 1994, Glen Andresen has been Metro’s lead natural gardening educator.  The program offers presentations and information on how to have healthy yards and gardens without the use of pesticides. Glen has been a Master Gardener since 1991. His home garden includes about 40 fruit trees; a row each of raspberries, Marion berries and strawberries; plus blueberries, grapes, 15 raised vegetable beds, and honey bee colonies—all on a city lot that measures just 60 feet x 100 feet. 

Since 1985, Glen has tended a 3/4-acre organic garden at a retreat center near Eagle Creek in Clackamas County. He is the host of the 1/2-hour edible gardening show, "The Dirt Bag," heard the second Monday of each month on community radio station KBOO, at 90.7 FM in Portland; he also writes “Ground View,” a monthly gardening column for The Portland Alliance newspaper.  

Glen is an avid hobbyist beekeeper, keeping approximately 50 colonies of bees – give or take a swarm or bear attack.  

Ornamental horticulture is full of words and phrases that serve as a form of short-hand.  Sometimes it’s challenging to understand a garden book, website or catalog.  For instance, have you ever wondered what “USDA climate zone” means to you as a gardener?  What’s the difference between a hardy perennial and a tender one, and why should that matter?  Does the stated height and width mean that’s as big as it gets?  What does “cut a plant back hard” mean and why should you do it?  What is soil pH, and how does it affect what you do for your plants?  What can you expect if a plant is described as “self-sows or naturalizes well.” And if it’s a vigorous grower, is it also invasive?  Let Jean Natter remove some of the mystery and help you become a more confident gardener.  

Jean R. Natter obtained a degree in Ornamental Horticulture during the years she lived in California.  Even before her studies were complete, she began teaching college-level classes in Horticulture at a community college; writing a weekly garden column for a large metropolitan newspaper; and teaching gardening at a botanic garden.  

Shortly after Jean moved to Oregon, she trained as an Oregon State University Master Gardener volunteer in 1999.  Since 2001, she has been an instructor during the Annual Training for Master Gardeners locally and in other Oregon counties.  Her topics are Soil, Entomology, Household Arthropods, Plant Disease, and Diagnostic Clinic. 

Spark your imagination and widen your experience in the garden by including a variety of plants that offer you fragrance throughout the year.  

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.  Indeed, she likes to say, “I’ve been in horticulture for 20 years and 10 of them have been with Joy Creek .”

Most of us think of containers as after-thoughts when we really should consider them as part of any thoughtful garden design.  A well-chosen and well-planted container becomes much more than an art object when it is used purposefully.  Imagine a container as the focal point of a garden bed or as a complement to a plant vignette.  An exuberant container can screen an unsightly view.  A series of containers can be used to indicate transitions from one part of the garden to the next or give visual cues about how to move through a space.  Containers can also provide seasonal interest in borders that are past their prime.  They can become the means of showcasing special collections of plants, especially beloved tender ones that need winter protection.   

Lucy Hardiman was to the garden born—and is a fifth generation Oregon gardener.  She is the principal of Perennial Partners, a garden design collective recognized for their innovative approaches to garden design.  Her garden and those of her clients have appeared in many magazines and books.  A popular speaker who lectures and teaches throughout the country, she writes for regional and national publications and is a contributing editor for Horticulture Magazine.  She serves on many boards of horticulturally based organizations in the Northwest including the Great Plant Picks committee and the Friends of the Rogerson Clematis Collection and is a past president of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon.

Mike Stewart told us that although he loves the flowers of rhododendrons, he thinks gardeners should really buy  rhododendrons for their year-round interest.  He will point out what to look for when purchasing a rhododendron and make recommendations for Northwest gardeners.

Mike Stewart is a rhododendron expert.  Along with his wife Maria,  he owns Dover Nursery which is known for its outstanding selection of rhododendrons, both species and hybrids.  He has been honored with the Gold Medal from the American Rhododendron Society (ARS) -their highest award.  He is also a popular speaker who shares his professional knowledge with the gardening public.  Mike is very active with the ARS, having been a recent International ARS president. There are those who say that he never knows when to say “no” in the service of rhododendrons and so he is now the Vice President of the Rhododendron Species Foundation.   Dover Nursery, in Sandy, Oregon, has one of the most exceptional collections of rhododendrons in the country with acres of perfectly planted and cared for shrubs.  The nursery collections include the newest hybrids from hybridizers on both the East and West Coast along with one of the largest collections of commercially grown species anywhere. There is also a delightful display garden with many mature plants under a canopy of native fir trees with an outstanding view of Mount Hood in the background.  This is a most extraordinary location for fabulous rhododendrons.

There are so many climbing perennials and woody plants to choose from that it is often hard to make a selection.  Understanding the ways that these various plants make their vertical ascents, their cultural needs, their ultimate heights, and their appearances throughout the seasons should be the basis of that selection.  

Maurice Horn is co-owner of Joy Creek Nursery.  He is a long-time member of the International Clematis Society and serves on the Perennial Selection Committee and Clematis Advisory Committee of the Great Plant Picks program of the Elizabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden.  Over the years, he and the staff of the nursery have amassed a significant collection of clematis and many other climbers.

The lowest levels of your mixed borders provide many opportunities for underplanting beneath trees, shrubs and even under some shrubby perennials.  There are many ways to do this in either shade or sun.  Some prefer a single groundcover while others prefer a more painterly look, intermixing foliage and plant shapes to create effects.  Either way can add excitement to your garden.

Jolly Butler became familiar to gardeners throughout the Portland area through her “Gardening 101” column in Garden Showcase magazine; and many gardeners learned their gardening basics in her classes at Portland Community College.  She also hosted 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, is active in the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, and loves to teach new gardeners that everyone has at least one green thumb.

Unlike traditional hypertufa troughs made with cement, which are really HEAVY and require several weeks to cure, polystyrene troughs are light, fast and last for several years.  Join Christine Ebrahimi, plant enthusiast and rock garden lover, in learning how to create these aesthetically pleasing and MOVABLE troughs – perfect for the rock gardener or anyone interested in creating miniature environments for special plants.

Christine Ebrahimi is a botanist and rock gardener.  She has lived and gardened in Oregon for most of her life and is particularly interested in trying to grow difficult alpine plants in the impossibly wet Oregon weather.  She is also the former president of the Columbia-Willamette and Siskiyou Chapters of the North American Rock Garden Society (NARGS).  After receiving a BS in taxonomy at OSU and an MS in Forest Ecology at University of Idaho, she spent 10 years with the USFS and BLM on rare and endangered plant surveys.

Being organic is all the rage these days.  But is it always the best way to go?  Understanding the actual science behind gardening organically will help you make wise choices.  Come and join Leslie Gover, propagator for Joy Creek Nursery, and Patrick Peterson from Marion Ag. to explore this fascinating area of study.

Patrick Peterson is a horticultural enthusiast.  He attained formal schooling at Ohio State University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture.  Nursery production was his career goal, so that brought him to the beautiful Willamette Valley.  A true propagator at heart, he found many opportunities with deciduous bare root shade tree growers looking to employ a bilingual energetic young man.  It was his desire to experiment with crop production inputs that put him in contact with his current employer, Marion Ag. Service.  Patrick now works as a horticultural consultant for a small independent agricultural supply dealer, with a primary focus on nursery crops and organic farms.  This current position allows for continued education and the opportunity to work with many of the best growers in the area.   

Leslie Gover - With a plant production background from Oregon State University, Leslie’s horticulture degree serves her well as Joy Creek’s propagator, vegetable nursery supplier and staff “bug-getter”.  Over the years she has spent lots of time in the Plant Health Care field.  With two small children, pets, and her own Daisytoes Nursery, she is a woman on the go.

Big bang plants are extroverted plants that grab your attention and demand to be looked at – just like that skimpy cocktail dress at a garden party.  As such, they offer a focal point in an area that needs a lift to take it from “Ho-hum” to “Wow!”  Come and take a look at some big bang plants and learn how to use them effectively to add drama to your garden either as container plants or planted directly in the garden.  Cocktail glasses are not included!  

Burle Mostul, Ph.D. founded Rare Plant Research in 1987 while he was still a practicing clinical psychologist.  The nursery started out as a hobby that eventually grew into a research nursery.  At that time, the nursery focused on the discovery, propagation and publication of journal articles of rare and endangered plants from tropical and temperate areas of the world.  In the last ten years, the focus has changed and Burl now seeks out new plants from around the world and develops new hybrids for gardeners.  His latest project, with the help of his wife Cindy, has been to construct Villa Catalana on their property near Oregon City, Oregon.  This stone house was inspired by a Romanesque church built in 1132 in Spain’s Catalonia region.  The gardens contain many different types of plantings including desert, tropical, border, herb, rock, grass and Mediterranean .  His latest plant passions are rare South African bulbs.  The gardens and nursery are open once a year to the public, usually on a weekend in May.  Photos of the garden can be viewed at www.rareplantresearch.com. 

Hydrangeas go mysteriously in and out of fashion on a regular basis.  Yet they remain almost unparalleled in the world of shrubs for the length of their season of bloom.  If you garden on a small or large plot, in the sun, part shade or in a woodland setting, there is a hydrangea that is perfect for your site.  Explore the different species of hydrangea, learn easy care techniques and examine some ideal companion plants.  You will never be without a hydrangea again no matter what the fashion.

Maurice Horn is co-owner of Joy Creek Nursery.   He serves on the Perennial Selection Committee and Clematis Advisory Committee of the Great Plant Picks program of the Elizabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden.  His abiding interest in hydrangeas started during his graduate years in Japan but really blossomed when he had the opportunity to grow a large collection of them at the nursery. 

When designing and buying plants for your garden, it’s important to think of plants that bloom at different times of the year.  We will discuss a broad palette of plants for year round blooming as well as pruning tips to prolong a plant’s bloom cycle.  

Having the glint of sunlight off water in your garden, as well as its liquid purl, is not difficult.   Nadine Black will present ideas for adding this dimension to your garden that can be easily implemented.  

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.  Indeed, she likes to say, “I’ve been in horticulture for 20 years and 10 of them have been with Joy Creek.”

Shade is a tricky subject because it involves not only degrees of darkness, but, depending on the source of the shade, it can involve degrees of dryness as well.   By understanding the type of shady environment you have, it is possible to make an educated guess as to what plants will work in an area.  The fantastic team of Judith Jones, owner of Fancy Fronds Temperate Fern Nursery, and Diana Reeck, owner of Collectors Nursery, show you the possibilities of making lovely gardens no matter how dark and dry!  

Judith Jones is the owner of Fancy Fronds Temperate Fern Nursery in Gold Bar, WA, which was established in 1977.  During the course of her lengthy fern career, she has been privileged to work with some of the world’s foremost pteridologists and fern enthusiasts.  Her main areas of fern production are the named Victorian cultivars, new introductions, garden ready xeric ferns and marginally hardy tree ferns.  Visitors to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show have seen the playful, yet educational side of her talents in the delightful display gardens she has created with friends and colleagues.  

Diana Reeck is the owner of Collectors Nursery where she has created many fine hybrids and made many exceptional plant selections.   She is a keen observer of our native flora and has shared her passion with national audiences. 

Gardeners in the Pacific Northwest can grow so many different shrubs, even in smaller gardens.  But one thing they often forget when they go to the nurseries in the spring and early summer is to think about fall interest.  Imagine a shrub that blooms in the spring but also has glorious foliage color, brilliant fruit, attractive bark and maybe even colorful stems later in the season!  Roger Gossler leads you to the best shrubs for multi-season interest.  

Roger Gossler was born, raised and attended school in Springfield, Oregon.  His interest in plants has been lifelong, and his learning comes from hands-on working with plants, his extensive library, and visiting with other growers.  He received an Associate Degree at Lane Community College in Landscape Design Maintenance.  He is a partner in Gossler Farms Nursery along with his mother Marj and his brother Eric.  The nursery specializes in magnolias, winter blooming trees and shrubs, and many other beautiful plants, including some unusual perennials.  Roger is a life member of the Magnolia Society, and a member of the American Rhododendron Society, The Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, the Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group and the Royal Horticultural Society.  He has lectured extensively throughout the United States.  In 2009, The Gossler Guide to Hardy Shrubs by Marj, Eric & Roger Gossler was published by Timber Press.

Rose devotee and clematis worshipper Linda Beutler has asked to share her knowledge about two plants she truly loves.  First, she will talk about roses - with their hips, bark and foliage - as ornamental shrubs. From years of experience, she knows that if you make the right selections (and there are tens of thousands to choose from), you can have roses that provide interest for more than just the flowering season, like any other good ornamental shrub. Linda will share her criteria for picking the roses that work best in organically grown mixed shrub and herbaceous perennial gardens.  And Linda says, believe it or not, there are also clematis which can be grown as ornamental shrubs.  Since they tend to bloom during the dog days of late July and August (when most other clematis are napping in anticipation of their autumn rebloom), this is the perfect time to get acquainted with them.  

Linda Beutler is a fearless gardener who grows a great number of plants on a simple, flat 50’ x 100’ city lot in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland, Oregon.  She was a professional florist for 20+ years, and her first love in her own garden was growing flowers and foliage for cutting.  Linda has been an instructor of horticulture at Clackamas Community College (CCC) for 12 years. Her classes include Herbaceous Perennials (summer term) and The Flower Arranger’s Garden I & II (autumn and spring terms).  In  spring 2007 Timber Press presented her second book, Garden to Vase, on growing and using your own cut flowers, featuring photography by Allan Mandell. This book was written with gardeners, not florists, in mind, and serves as the textbook for her spring and fall classes at CCC. She hopes it does not read like a textbook!

In addition, Linda is one of two Vice Presidents of the International Clematis Society (I.Cl.S.). She is a founding member of the Friends of the Rogerson Clematis Collection (in 2003), and served on their Board of Directors until she was named the collection’s first curator, beginning July 2007.   She lectures nationally on numerous gardening topics, and is a garden writer for both local and national publications, including Fine Gardening, Pacific Horticulture, and Birdwatcher's Digest.   

Saturday

6 pm-9 pm

August 14

Sunday

Come and join us at our annual evening open-house.  As the sun goes down, our gardens undergo an extraordinary transformation.  Enjoy the magic that takes place in the light of the setting sun.  Music and light refreshments.  

Dog Day in the Summer:  An Event Just For Dogs

We have always welcomed dogs at the nursery, but this is the first time we've had a day just for them.  We'll have a round-table to discuss ideas for planting and design with dogs in mind.  Bring your problems and ideas to share.  In addition, we're planning some games and contests for dogs and their owners.  Bring a donation of pet food for the Columbia County Humane Society and come ready for fun.  

Conducted by Andy Stockton and Nadine Black from the Retail Staff of Joy Creek Nursery.

Meet some of the newer and less familiar Crocosmia cultivars from Sue Milliken and Kelly Dodson’s extensive collection as well as other perennials of summer interest.  Their focus will be on plants that are uncommon.  Some will be downright rare but all (well, mostly anyway) are very growable in Northwest gardens.  The workshop is rated PG for Plant Geek.  

Kelly Dodson and Sue Milliken, owners of Far Reaches Farm, have spent their lives learning about and working with plants in nurseries and botanic gardens as well as designing and creating fine private gardens.  They have combined their talents creating a nursery in Port Townsend which is regarded as having the largest collection of uncommon ornamentals in the State of Washington .  

Join Richie Steffen, curator of the Elizabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden, as he demonstrates the principles and techniques for creating unique displays of shade loving plants on table tops and in unusual containers.  Richie’s naturalistic style uses plants, moss and weathered wood to form a miniature woodland garden perfect for the patio.  

Manzanitas are often called “the ultimate shrub of the West.”  These evergreen beauties range in size from ground covers to large garden shrubs.  With their lovely flush of ericaceous flowers in spring, their often attractive fruit, their sinuous branching, and attractive bark, Paul Bonine wonders why they are still uncommon in local gardens.  

Does your home site challenge you with changes in elevation?  Have you ever wondered how professionals build paths that last for years and years?  If so, then this is the class to take to get the path you want or need.  You will see what construction methods and materials we use in building paths for our landscape clients, from the most formal to something casual for a woodland.  This is a near repeat of last year’s class but the construction demonstration in the class will concentrate on building informal stone steps.   

Mike Smith is co-owner of Joy Creek Nursery. One of the hats he wears at Joy Creek Nursery is that of head of our Landscape Department.  Mike is a passionate gardener who retired from a management job in corporate America, got bored and then started the nursery.  

Learn the qualities and characters of dwarf conifers and come to appreciate how they can function as shrubs in a home garden.  Susan LaTourette will share her experiences growing some of her favorite dwarf conifers and show examples of plant combinations that can provide year round interest.  

Basic container maintenance and a strong design element are essential to having breathtaking containers throughout the winter.  Create a winter container combination that will delight you through the cold weather months and the year ahead.  

20300 NW Watson Road  Scappoose, OR 97056
(503) 543-7474    (503) 543-6933 (FAX)
catalogue@joycreek.com