As we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends, FRCC would also like to thank the many contributors and volunteers who have made 2007 another year of accomplishment as we continue to preserve the Rogerson Clematis Collection and build our gardens. Also, a big thanks to our “Farm Partners” and the City of Lake Oswego Parks and Recreation staff and gardeners. Everyone associated with Luscher Farm is encouraging and friendly. No wonder the clematis are so happy here. Why just today we discovered that the LO staff have finished removing the unwieldy and wicked wisteria which had a strangle hold on the southeast corner of the farmhouse. Now we can replace it with something of a more clematis nature!

Volunteers you should know
Of course all of our volunteers are important, but some of them have taken on regular collection tasks, and we thank them for their dedicated efforts:

Susan Bates was willing to leave her own wonderful garden on Mondays during the growing season to water the collection on Mondays this year. She also donated a mighty fine specimen of Clematis tubulosa.

June Collins, who, along with FRCC President Sally Geist, provides “foster care” to cuttings taken from the collection, and delivers them back to us in gallon pots 18 months later.

Nancy Gronowski is an FRCC board member, and works on our design team. Nancy is our work-party manager and mulch mover extraordinnaire.

Bob Gutmann, although no longer living with the collection in his nursery, Bob continues his involvement by donating clematis for us to resell or add to the collection. He has also donated spare supplies used in our special projects and provides much needed advice.

Jim Haase, who was the project manager for the building of our greenhouse, is still around keeping the mechanical facets of the greenhouse in good working order.

Lucy Hardiman, FRCC Vice President, heads our design team, and is always finding new sources of donated or discounted companion plants for our clematis.

Barbara Houser, our Sharon Kaito Volunteer of the Year, edits our Collection News four times a year. Barbara has a big job, and for years we only knew her via e-mail, as she donates her time from her home in Racine, Wisconson. We are so glad she was on hand in Portland to receive her award at our annual meeting in October.

Agnes Kwan, arranges our monthly volunteer schedule, much like herding cats! This is arguably the hardest job any of us does, and she even helps out at the greenhouse, too.

Judy McNeill and Bob Candello, who have so generously given of their time to transport Brewster to the collection on Tuesdays. They are both long-time Brewster volunteers.

Phyllis Mccana and Gary Smith help with Brewster Tuesday transport duties, and Phyllis was one of our Monday waterers during the past growing season. Phyllis also schedules our appearances at the Lake Oswego Farmers’ Market

Rick Meigs, our greenhouse pest manager and macro-weeder, who wields our flame-thrower and slug bait with equal enthusiasm.

Doris Starrett, our tireless volunteer coordinator, who is also excellent at gleening plants (clematis and non-clematis) for our gardens.

Susan Toler, in addition to being the Board’s Recording Secretary, arranges our programs and makes sure they are well organized and successful. An example of Susan’s work is our recent seed-starting workshop, where each attendee left with pots of freshly sown clematis seeds. Susan is a back-up waterer.

Penny Vogel and Donna Wood appear regularly at the garden to “fluff and buff” our sale clematis, and both have also donated clematis plants or seeds to the collection.

Major plant donators
Several major clematis and companion plant donations were made this past year, and we thank:

7-Dees’ Garden Center, Lake Oswego, OR

Bruce Bailey, Inside-Out Design, Moses Lake, WA

Ruth Estrada, Monrovia Nursery, Dayton, OR

Lucy Hardiman, Perennial Partners Garden Design, Portland, OR

Sally Geist, private garden, Portland OR

Maurice Horn, Joy Creek Nursery, Scappoose, OR

Dave McCoy, McCoy Family Nursery, North Plains, OR

Ron Monnier, Monnier’s Country Gardens, Woodburn, OR

Pam Peterson, Lake Oswego Parks and Recreation dept.

Darlene Wilmes, Champoeg Horticultual Products, St. Paul, OR

Donna Wood, private garden, Woodburn, OR

Yes, the Friends of the Rogerson Clematis Collection has a lot to be grateful for. To all of our plant or financial contributors, volunteers and supporters, thanks for everything!

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As a self-sustaining nonprofit organization, we rely upon you to keep this collection healthy and growing. Your financial support is most welcome and all gifts are tax deductible.

As we approach the end of 2007, think about the Rogerson Clematis Collection when looking for a good cause to support with your year-end giving.

Tax-deductible gifts can be sent to:

Friends of the Rogerson Clematis Collection
1425 SW Upland Drive
Portland, Oregon, 97221

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Linda Beutler, FRCC Curator

On October 14, 2007 five FRCC volunteers planted 35 clematis as well as companion plants on the “front bank” of the Luscher Farm display garden. This south-facing slope gets full sun except on its easternmost side, where there is dappled morning shade provided by the majestic Pin Oaks along the driveway. The bank has a 6 to 9 foot drop in elevation, is 50 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The bank was cut into the original farmhouse garden to accommodate the installation of the walking/biking path that surrounds the outer perimeter of the entire farm.

Joy Creek Nursery and design team leader Lucy Hardiman (on hand to help place plants and weed) generously donated many of the companion plants accompanying the clematis, including Euphorbia rigida, several forms of Agastache, Hebe, and Penstemon. From FRCC President Sally Geist we were given Ceanothus ‘Victoria’, and we added Brewster’s modest collection of Pulsatilla vulgaris hybrids. Lewisia were donated by Bruce Bailey of Moses Lake, WA. Bulbs such as Allium caeruleum were included, as well as several Helianthemum and Cistus forms. We thank everyone who donated companion plants for this garden.

The soil on this bank is heavy clay, any decent topsoil having been striped away by the contractors who installed the paved path. The planting holes were amended with compost and gravel, and the whole will be mulched with several inches of gravel once we have all of the remaining, waiting plants in place.

We have included the list of clematis planted (below), and in many cases there were multiples of each type. The City of Lake Oswego had installed a few large rocks into the bank, and the overall feeling is of a dry land planting, however there is some irrigation already present. Also, the bank drains our upper Historic Garden, insuring that this is not actually an arid site. Once the gravel mulch is on, the effect will be complete.

Those of you who know clematis will see from our list that we have limited this display garden to the Viornae Group, featuring North American species and also a variety of cultivars from the Integrifolia Group (which is within the Viornae). It is hoped that the sunny exposure will suit them well. You may also be surprised that more of the Texensis Group hybrids are not listed here. Those bred or introduced prior to WW I, such as ‘Etoile Rose’ and ‘Duchess of Albany’ are in the Historic Garden, but planted so that they flow down the Front Bank, and in fact are already doing so! These older hybrids are managing to serve two garden themes at once, as well as proving that climbing clematis can serve just as admirably as ground covers.

We have a few more clematis appropriate to this site, but as we are about to harvest their seed, we thought it better to not jostle them in transport to a new location. Also we are saving room for Clematis coactilis, which we are growing from seed donated by Donna Wood.

This phase of the garden seems to have emerged all at once, and is perhaps the most visible clematis display because of the adjacent public path. The clematis are all labeled, and the companion plants will be in short order.

In the back of the farmhouse, we are actively, but more slowly, developing the garden around the presiding Copper Beech, an area we call The Beech Tree’s Garden. Here the emphasis is on planting to attract birds, with a more casual style than is found around the farmhouse. Into this area we are concentrating our collection of Japanese species and selections, as well as hybrids introduced by Japanese breeders. The overall refinement and delicate colors typical of the Japanese breeding style will be well suited to this somewhat woodsy planting scheme, although there is an area of full sun here for the Ozawa integrifolia hybrids such as ‘Hanajima’ and ‘Roguchi’.

The Front Bank seems to have erupted into being fully formed, even though we began amassing the companion plants over a year ago. The Beech Tree’s Garden is much more a work in progress.

Clematis on the Front Bank:
C. albicoma
C. addisonii
‘Floris V’ (Integrifolia group)
C. fremontii
‘Hendryetta’ (Integrifolia Group)
C. hirsutissima
C. hirsutissima forma Bergen Park
C. hirsutissima ‘Garden Club of Denver’
C. hirsutissima var. scottii
C. integrifolia ‘Bushy Blue Bell’
C. integrifolia ‘Hendersonii’ (Integrifolia Group) [this is not the 1835 form)
‘Jan Fopma’ (Integrifolia Group)
‘Lady Bird Johnson’ (Texensis Group)
‘Little Belle’ (presumed crispa x socialis cross)
‘Lord Herschell’ (Integrifolia Group)
C. ochroleuca
‘Pangbourne Pink’ (Integrifolia Group)
C. pitcheri
‘Princess Diana’ (Texensis Group)
C. socialis
‘Sonnette’ (Texensis Group)
‘Tapestry’ (Integrifolia Group)
C. texensis unnamed hybrid grown by Siskiyou Rare Plant Nursery
C. versicolor
C. viorna (two color variants, one pale, one bright)

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