Incredible Art in the Garden

Incredible Art in the Garden – In this video we visited the beautiful Bennett Botanic Garden in Eastern Oregon to see some of the amazing plants and art in the garden.

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We’re at the beautiful Bennett Botanic Garden in Oregon. Uh this was actually a Harvest Host stop. Harvest Host is a an app that allows us to stay at various places across the country. And this is the one of the most pleasant surprises we’ve ever run into. This is a wedding venue. Uh and uh will you introduce yourself to the for our audience and and the puppy as well? Puppy needs an introduction. My name is Doug Bennett and this is my rat terrier’s wife’s dog, Tulip. Yes. So, I’m keeping her from My wife’s gone right now, so she she she looks for her. She looks for She looks for She looks for it the whole time. So, when did you start this uh incredible garden project? So, we started my daughter got married and the reception was here. So, 19 years ago we started and we’ve been here since. So, you had one wedding here and then and people said you should have weddings here, right? So this gu this garden is absolutely magical and we’re catching it the perfect light here. So this is kind of folks will park out here in a turf area. Uh you have a big turf area that they they they come into about an acre and a half about an acre and a half. You can see our van over there and one other RV camped here uh for the for for for the evening. And then this is kind of their initial initial entrance way to functions and events. And you’ve got it lined with the boxwoods. Boxwoods. Yeah. entryway, right? Um you’ve got uh orange rocket barberries. Uhhuh. Um up here. Um what’s your favorite kind of what’s your favorite things here in this uh entryway? The conifers. The conifers. The conifers. Tell us about this one. This one’s pretty magical. Yeah. Pay amara bruns pendula. Yeah. What a what a plant that is. Did you do this? No. Naturally, this is what it did. It just it just it just came up and and it’s and it’s what it did. You’ve got some I see baptisia in here. You’ve got a few of our um great natives uh from the southeast. Baptisia in the back back there. Some oakleaf hydrangeas. And you said these are uh ruby slippers. Ruby slippers. Okay. Gotcha. And they’re super super compact. Probably three seasonal plants I would consider. That’s what the oak leaves are like. Gotcha. You’re getting your You’re buying plugs, annuals, and plugging the annuals in every season. You So, you’re putting some growth on them yourself. Yes. Yeah. In order to have, you know, be able to both hanging baskets. I think we grow 400 hanging baskets a year for commercial use. Wow. Wow. You’re What’s the upright U here? Sta. Sta. Okay, I got you. What a plant that is. I see several of them. Um, bounce it out. Yeah. How how long has that one been in the ground? Three years. Oh, wow. Okay. There was probably three and a half when I put it in. So So you’re using some overhead irrigation and some drip irrigation. Yes. Okay. Mostly overhead. Gotcha. Um we’re what 3 miles from the Columbia River? Yes. Yeah. Right here. Right here is kind of the beginning of it. We have a local reservoir that we irrigate out of for Okay. Um seasonal irrigation. Gotcha. Let’s uh walk past uh walk past stuff here. We got cat mint. What What variety is that? This is uh pajam uh the cat’s pajamas, guess. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. They look they always look terrific. Yeah. So then people would migrate kind of in this general direction. Yes. To kind of with the hang baskets visual. Uh Right. And then just color and texture to try to give seasonal color as we’re just starting to come in. Fall is now starting to show some color and change. Right. And we try to do what’s your kind of wedding season about uh May through our last one is Saturday. So this is Saturday. Okay. So October. Okay. Gotcha. You want to throw out some What are some of your favorite conifers in this spot? We’ve got a few. I I love the uh the gold Arizona sunress. Yeah. Sapphire or gold sapphire I think. Or and then that spruce is uh Piscia Mariana uh golden uh I think it’s probably had a little more gold when it was juvenile. I mean I can see it in here. Right. Yeah, some of these gold ones will lose some color in their um when they’re no longer have that juvenile growth anymore. The weeping beach. Weeping beach. Yes. It’s I have You saw the one back there that’s huge. And so yeah, have we already passed thericcolor beach, didn’t we? Yeah, it’s right there. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. We’ll we’ll circle back. We’ll circle back around to that. Tell us about this carving. So, a local gentleman, he’s a graphic arts designer for the school district, approached us and says, “What do you think about me doing a carving?” This was his only second one he’s done. He’s done different mediums. Uh he did uh pumpkin carving. He’s done sand sculpturing and now he’s doing chainsaw art. So, so this was a yellow wood. Uh no, cottonwood. Sorry, I meant cottonwood. Cottonwood. And and when we see cottonwoods in the west, they’re always in the bottom of creeks. They’re always, you know, we can see in the fall when we travel a lot, we know that yellow foliage along every creek is cottonwoods. So this was wetter at some point, you said, or is it? Yeah, it’s of course they’ve this was probably the first one in this whole batch of them. I think we removed 10 of them in this little area that we’re standing in. This thing was gigantic. Yeah, man. What a treat. What a treat that was. And he’s not done. No, he’s trying to finish the last pieces. He says, “Yeah, I maybe I he’s enjoy it’s enjoying it.” You can see the the butterfly and where to burn it and then the the uh ladybug ladybug and the leaves and the flowers. So, he’s he’s very creative gentleman. How tall was this tree? 120. 120. Yeah. And they just they just really require the water in order to You see those there? Yeah. Just like those ones in the horizon. I see them. Yeah. In the background back there. You probably can see them over over the over the top. Um, man, what a And of course the crab apples, the different ones. The uh right try to do some seasonal color with the roses. But you you know your roses are clean, your crab apples are clean, your amalenia over there is clean, all your rose family members, our humidity just kind of by October, oh boy, they’re ready to lose their leaves and they’re just kind they’re just kind of they’re kind of tired uh overall. But what a what a space that you’ve created. Uh so you have your you built this area over here for the groomsmen. Groomsman’s and then storage on the other side. Yeah. story. Okay. So, the groomsman, they’re over here and the bride room is over there. So, he’s back there. Okay. Beautiful. Tell us about some of this uh art in the corner. The artwork. Well, my son had as a farmer and so his combine when he wore out the augers. Uhhuh. I said, “Can I have them?” And he said, “Yes.” So, just utilized them for some kind of creative artwork. And that’s garden art. Yeah. This is garden. This is real garden art. I was going to try to make I was going to try to make a water fountain out of them coming down, but we didn’t. Yeah. Wow. That would be cra Oh, wow. That would be a Yeah, if you could just get it to fall down the center. Yeah. And then go go go up the center and then come down and splash down. Yeah. So, that was one idea. This is a float ball. I think they had them in the Columbia River. Yeah. And it was in the junkyard. And I thought, so basically what I did was open the tailgate of the trailer, let it roll, and where it landed was 900 lb. That’s where it stayed. That’s where it stayed. 900 lb. Yeah. Yeah. But you could make this into all kinds of all kinds of artwork. Yeah. But it doesn’t even need It’s just perfect. It’s It’s perfect like it is, right? I see your brunera back here. Still looks fantastic. Oh, what variety is that? Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great. It still looks so good. It’s another one that gets kind of tired. And what’s nice about them is you can transplant those things everywhere. Yeah, it’s such a great plant. Really an underused perennial moon uh Japanese maple behind it. Uh always one of my uh takes a little shade. That’s why Yeah, some of the maples I’m trying to What’ you tell me that upright boxwood is? Graham Blandandy. Graham Blandandy. Okay. I Yeah, I know some other ones upright ones I I never I’ve never grown that one. And you’ve got a bigger one. That big one over there around. Got a Yeah. And this is a up it’s catsaura. Yeah. Which we typically, you know, see more weeping cats suras and we see Yeah. Uh upright. I have another one over by the house. They’re Yeah. Yeah. And then pepicodium. This one just keeps showing up on the channel. We get we go through these patterns where something will keep keep popping up. I consider this an underused plant. Uh what what do you what are your opinion on they call what the crate myrtle of the north? Crate myrtle of the north. Yeah that’s be a good name. What is nice is pollinators wise August September their bees are just covering it. So when you have Yeah. to utilize for bees and and as a pollinator plant. It’s it’s I can now it’s just turning it’s getting its gets the red color. Yeah. You had the white flowers and then the red kaix and then um the the bark the peeling bark underneath is is amazing and my wife has used them for floral designs too. And then this is a yuan is called blondie that I used to grow at my nursery but we just have all kinds of issues with them in the east and they just look so good here. What what should you what kind of nighttime temperatures do you get peak summer? Is it falling into the 60s or 60s? Yeah. Right. So things are getting rest. We get if it’s 100, we can drop 40°. Really? Okay. Gotcha. That I think that’s super helpful to some of these plants to get a rest overnight where we stay up in the 70s. And so continuing on, this is the the main attraction back here. I guess the your main uh your main area. Yeah. Tell us about this tractor. It’s a 1961 farmall that was uh in use till we bought it and just thought we would make a creative backdrop for for the venue. And then of course a lot of people Yeah. As you said, it’s being ate up by annuals, but so they must grow pretty good. Yeah. Right. Yes. Yeah. They’re doing they’re doing they’re doing great. So, but you and you you’ll reset this every year. Yes. So you’ve got salvia and verbina in here and then the uh Yeah. Well, it’s it’s beautiful. Change a different color. And then obviously I like the blues and the whites. This combo, we like this combo. We’ll use this quite a bit where we you know it’s it’s it’s it’s hard to miss. Yeah. When you use blue foliage and white flowers. Yeah. The white flowers cuz they show up and just like here where Yeah. So tell us about this construction. So, we basically created found some uh irrigation flumes and rebar and concrete and made the bed for it and and then with the um the old crossarss from a different town that somebody had. Yeah. Then the faux barn that we created to give a a look of a background. And people, a lot of people, this is where they set up for the wedding. And this has got waterfall coming down. Gotcha. During the year. And so you’ve got, we talked about it earlier. You’ve got this where it’s perfectly even up there. So this water falls out. Otherwise, you’d get it all falling on one end and put a pipe inside of a pipe. So there’s an engineer. There’s some engineering in there that it can’t be seen, but needs to be appreciated. Yeah. Right. And then the hay conveyor for the other one we got at Wow. yard sale. Yeah. And just to create a different look. You got polius and the sun patience. Yes. And then the uh Yeah. Then do a background with different plants. The uh spruce there behind is Skylands. Oh yeah. One of our favorites. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it’s one of our favorites. It’s in a little dark. And then that’s this little plant there is uh the PIA abs. It’s a witch’s broom. Okay. Over there to your right stuff push. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. And it just crawls across the ground. And there’s Acraona right there. Okay. Oh, yeah. With the cones on the top of it and the more upright version it way across. I think originally came from Sweden. Acraona. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I could you see the one over there? It’s got the cones in the top of it stuff. That’s the upright one. And that’s the that’s the broom off of it. So a broom is just a piece of a plant that somebody recognized was different um um in some way. What are you pointing at? Went that way. Oh. Oh. Okay. Got you. She’s fine. Come on, Tulip. Hey, get over here. Piculatas obviously do well everywhere. Yeah. I don’t think there’s anywhere in the country pretty much where we don’t see hydrangeanger paniculadas. They use a lot of sun patients. Yes. And they they’re great. We’re going to put even more in cuz they they don’t take any food. They just grow. So, is this from the uh probably some cherosis? Yes. Yeah. And that’s probably something we should probably talk about here. Your pH is 7678. 7678. So, your boxwoods are loving it. And uh and and lilacs like it. Yeah. And hydrangeas for the most part are pretty tolerant of it. I mean, they’re, you know, you’ll get a little bit of a a little bit of it. Yeah. Um, so you you’re growing hops across here? Yeah. Just for a steak. You’re not making beer. No. I think this is Cascade. It is a variety that you could grow it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. Tell us about this. It shouldn’t This is seven. Yeah. abs called pinsa fur. Yeah. Ara. And it’s It doesn’t have the gold anymore, but who cares? Yeah. It’s It’s a kind of a unique. How long has this been here? 12 13 years. So, it’s taken 12 or 13 years of your winters. Yes. Without any without any problems, right? Yep. What a plant. And what’s your cedar up here? That’s a weeping Alaskan cedar glaca. So it’s Wow. Camipus. Well, it’s not Cancerus anymore, is it? Yeah. No, they changed it to Cupressus, right? Yeah. All that whole group. But that How tall is that, do you think? 30 30 some. Yeah. Yeah. So, we lost some of them, the tops, when we got a heat wave in June about four years ago. See those other two and it just killed the tops. Yeah. Wow. And we, like I told you, we’ll get that on Diodor. um you know where we’ll lose the tops in them and then they just kind of do weird stuff after that. Weird interesting things but weird weird things uh nonetheless. Tell us about this one. This is a tison tiffen weeping juniper. Kind of a it’s a Yeah. It’s incredible. Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I mean what how could that be bad? You got plenty of space for it. Yeah. You’ve got everything here. You’ve got space. How how many how big is this space? This is 2 acres on this side and then 3 acres on the other side where the parking lot is. Okay. Gotcha. So, you’ve got you’ve had space to really allow things to to grow and you try to fit them. Although these maples have gone crazy. Well, this flower bed. Yeah. So, if you’re no puns included, right? Right. It’s an actual flower bed. Uh that you’ve got the mullen mullenia and honeysuckle. Yeah. Combo on it. Yeah. Um Yeah. That’s pretty fun. That’s uh Where did this you get this bed frame from? From my mother-in-law. So, it was a nice gift that we created into it piece. But you guys just see art and you you see art in things. Some people some people don’t and I don’t probably have the skill that some you know that you have quite the skill of just looking at something and saying how can that actually fit into be something else and it’s been here 12 13 years so it was one of the first pieces we did yeah what are these uh these were just some stump logs and we kind of created I what’s that what’s the thing in in Stonehenge okay got you got a it used to be a a plum purple plum a small purple plum in the middle of that and then we so it was around it. Then we took it out and cuz it was dying. So just just tried to create that look and then some obviously the this is a Pisc Frank. Yeah. Right. With that I have some bigger ones over there that are kind of neat. Yeah. And then of course what a cool plant. Chicago hardy behind it with the uh Yeah. So So your fig I mean what we haven’t even six but you’re treating it 5Bish. Yeah. Because this year was the first year we really got early fruit. And the other thing here is it’s getting dark at 4:30 where it’s getting dark at 5:30 in Raleigh and it’s getting light at what 7:30 in the morning or something. It’s light at 6:30 in the morning for us. So you’re it’s two hours a day even if we have the same temperature. Yeah. You’re two hours more of that cold. So but you’re able to grow fig here. Mhm. Are you I mean you’re not probably getting figs cuz we got some this year. You did get some this year. So if it died back to the ground, you might not have time. No, they kind of get they don’t mature. They get really hard, right? And a poneras, which these are zone five hardy. I don’t think people think these these hardy oranges. This is a hardy orange that I’ve pointed out a few times over the years. flying dragon. Yeah. Which he’s got fruit on it. Yeah. First year we’ve had fruit in all these years. I think I’ve had it in there 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I used to get in these these seeds are so these things are so sticky. Have you ever if you taste tried to taste one Oh, it’ll turn your face inside out. It is the most bitter thing. Is that kind of like the the dog woods? What’s that? Yes. Yeah. It’s just bit super super bitter. But and it’s sticky. Really sticky. But the seed is viable. Yeah. What’s this? You want them is more blondy. Blondie. more but a little more sunlight maybe on this one probably. So getting a little more variegation on it. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s done good. And of course I planted some sun shade loving plants which are some new ones and trying them and Yeah. You got a lot of trial things. I mean out here you’re experimenting. Experimenting all the time things. Yeah. That’s well that’s fun. You’ve got some space to do it. So uh why not? Tell us about this sweet gum. This is a sweet gum called gumball. Yeah. And it’s never been pruned. Stays that round shape, but it’s also got the the nice our favorite fruit, right? Yeah. That everyone loves to step on and barefooted. Yeah. If I say anything about a sweet gum, that’s what you’re comments down below are like, I’m never again. I hate my sweet. But they’ve got theirs over their deck or something like that. And so they’re stepping on and they’ll get This one gets more yellow. It doesn’t get the the red color. Yeah. You got to seed them under there of some kind. Yeah. Just grows. Yeah. Yeah. And then some of the unusual pines here. This is a new one that I put in. It’s a pinus strobus squiggles. Squiggles. Yeah, it’s appropriate name for it. Yeah, cuz it’s kind of a Yeah. One is Pia procumbent prostrada, I believe. But you notice it’s producing a leader. And I left it grow up that leader just because it kind of gives it a unique look to it, doesn’t it? It just it does. Um, and then of course the the tree behind it, Acer griissium, which is pretty much done really good. I love that. I love that tree. I love that tree. One of my favorite bark and just it just went you you gotten it to the height now that it has that character to it. But this is what we were talking about where one of these conifers is initially a broom. So this was just a broom off one that was recognized and then it was weeping. But then all of a sudden it’ll decide one day to go back to its original form. Uh and you can leave them or not leave them. Um but it ends up with this super It’s a little wild but it’s unique. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I do want to talk about that cherry. Uh so yeah. Yeah. We don’t think we can leave here without uh showing some of the issues of is it the graft and the the crazy roots, right? This is pretty wild. That graft was uh interesting to say the least. Um and then I’ve talked about this in the past that these things can just root everywhere. I think Yeah, I think you think about cuz flower and cherries don’t get that big that maybe they’re kind of docel, you know, but they will root. I had them all in my irrigation boxes at the at my old house. just ran everywhere like that uh crazy uh um um the locust or the honey locus. Oh yeah, I see it back there. Those things will root everywhere. Yeah. Through all your irrigation, everything. They did. Well, so you’re hedging here. You got a few foot spots with this. We just I tried to create a hedge wall with the um horn beams. Yeah. And they’re fast growing. They do. Only the crazy thing is this one cuz I tried to create a wall and that one over there the same age. Look at the difference. I think it’s because of shade. Oh, gotcha. Oh, yeah. Big difference in the shade over there. Yeah. Yeah. And wild. Just to kind of give a different look. And then of course the cornus moss which is Cornelian cherry. Yes. And we we filmed one of these. Weirdly, this is how things kind of show up on the channel is we filmed one espaliade at the Cleveland Botanic Garden. It’s gonna be in a video next week. Oh, but be in a video before this one, I think. Um, and they espaliade it to the wall. Uh, and what what a what a plant. These things start to get really nice bark in the future. And of course, the fruit is Yeah, they’re sweeter than I thought. Other than the seed is mostly it’s mostly seed. Yeah. But they’re spring color. Is that March? Uhhuh. April. My wife used them for floral designs cuz that little yellow fruit or yellow flower yellow flower. Yeah. And it’s comes out early. Wow. Neat looking. So, we’re going to wrap this up. We could go literally go on for a long time here, but let’s go through maybe six, eight more plants that are really unbelievable. Tell us about this. weeping one uh behind us here. This is pinus bunana uncle fogy. Uhhuh. A lot of them grow prostrate cuz I have another one over there. You take this initially? No, it just has this as it’s grown and it keeps growing and debating whether I should thin it out and give it stake it here so it just stays up and doesn’t fall over. You know what what should I do with it? It’s kind of a my wife complains when she’s mowing. Yeah. Right. And this what about this birch? Madison birch that uh that’s grown at 10 years old and it’s grown like a a weed. It’s just unbelievable how how and that bark is so beautiful and it thins itself out. You know, I haven’t had to prune it. It just the branches start thinning out and just keeps and you know, of course, it’s got the gold leaf right now. Right. Let’s head. Uh I definitely want to get to the uh thericolor beach over there. What about Piscopa Pendle? There’s a smaller one. There’s a bigger one. Yeah. And you’ve got a larger one over there. Of course, the pionies the uh and then Calicacia over there with the purple and the other side of the Oh, I see it back here. So, see the stuff. Will those I mean will that overwinter? I mean, there’s no way, right? Okay, got you. I’m debating Ruby Falls. Uh here’s a Ruby Falls. Uh greens up though. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. She’ll spin around to that and then but this you’ve got it in a lot of shade too. Yeah. There’s another cat right there behind you. But that’s Ruby Fall. Ruby Falls. Ruby Falls. Yeah. Red Bud, which Denny Werner’s uh Yeah. breeding. And again, it’s in a lot of shade. So it’s it’s per very purple in the spring and the summer and then it starts to uh shade out into the color. Yeah. And you go back around to that Catsura. There’s another one. The lavender twist over there. See that one? These are Franks right here. These two. So, it’s Catsur’s up here. Yep. Uh-huh. And these are franks from we saw over there with the little one that was only these have stayed. Yeah. Same size when I planted them, but they’ve stayed kind of pretty much. And you haven’t had to do anything to this. This is This is This This is This is how they grow. Yeah. All right. Tell us about this beauty. Piscia puns. The blues. The blues. You could turn this into definitely an animal shape. We We’re It’s close. It’s like volunteering to be something. Let us know down below. What animal shape do you think fits this plan? And he can start working on it. Yeah. I love these beaches. They’re one of my uh It’s absolute favorites. Popular tree all over, isn’t it? Yeah. It’s just one of my absolute favorites every, you know, when I see it. Yours hold, you know, you hold the color so well. Um, lot more shade in it right now. Right. Yeah. With the, uh, but I can see the where the sun’s kind of setting in the back of it a little bit up toward the top. It’s just you can get that a little bit, Steph, where that it’s lightening it up at the top just a bit. It does show up right now. All right. So, the last thing I definitely want to show off is you got the bar back here, entertainment area. Yeah. Seating area. And then tell us about this unbelievable fountain. This was I found in uh contractor was digging a ditch and they threw this piece of metal which was a propane tank in and they were going to throw it away and I says, “Can I have it?” And they gave it to me. And then the bottom is a flume from an irrigation system. And so I took it as made it and beveled it, made a storage area underneath with the pump, right? And then it just recirculates and runs all the time. So one man’s junk is another treasure. Yeah. But look at this thing. It’s art. It’s absolute art. Yeah. So Yeah. Well, thank you so much. Oh, I mean, we knew, you know, we knew we were going to something called a botanic garden, but we just had no idea, you know, having not visited it before. Uh, how unbelievable this actually is. Uh, it’s it’s beautiful. I think I’m going to shoot a separate video just walking around. Uh, and so you can kind of see the rest of it. Um, you know, that we kind of skipped through. Yeah. Um, in a separate area, you can go over That’s another area. That’s a new area I’m working on. Okay. Gotcha. That’s the rental area that I’m working on. that uh that’s the uh my collection of red buds. I have a collection of red buds and a collection of ginkles I’m trying to build up. Okay. Yeah. Um we have a collector’s garden where we can’t resist certain things. But we got your whole my whole garden would fit in, you know, this little section right here that we’re that we’re in. And then you can see where we do the hanging baskets and grow those and all from this big of plugs. Yeah. Just tiny plugs you’re getting in so that you can and you got a greenhouse back here. So you can overwinter the olives and all the other tropical kind of things that you have out here that are a kind of a feature of a wedding space in the summer peak summertime. Um yeah. Uh how fun is this? So thank you very much. Thank you very much for letting us stay in your front yard and then letting us film your beautiful garden. Thanks for watching, guys.