The botanical names given to plants have meaning. Take Pseudotsuga menziesii whose common name is Douglas fir. This PNW native tree is similar to a hemlock (Tsuga) hence a pseudo tsuga. It was first described by naturalist Archibald Menzies. The common name comes from NW explorer David Douglas. If something has macrophylla as its species name expect big leaves. If it has alba in it, think white. Read more »
Miscanthus sinensis with Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm??”
I have mixed feelings about the big ornamental grasses. They can be stunning, showstoppers, drive into the curb beauties. They can also be a total pain to look after and downright ugly if not cared for properly. Read more »
Powdery mildew on Nandina domestica (Heavenly bamboo)
Powdery mildew is a fungus but a strange and counter-intuitive one; it hates water.
A variety of fungi can cause powdery mildew, some species will attack an array of different plants; others are host-specific. Powdery mildew likes shade and mild temperatures and it dislikes water. Leaf temps above 90°F may kill some powdery mildew. Direct sunlight can slow it down and the spores die in water. Read more »
Hosta ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ (6-8″H x 12″W)
The plant breeders clearly spend a lot of time working on hostas which is rather refreshing since a hosta is all about leaves and not flowers. The up side of the leaves being the focal point of the plant is that you get your pleasure throughout the growing season – unless the slugs enjoy themselves too well when the hostas wake in the spring, eating holes right through the curled leaves so that every leaf has a hole. For the rest of the summer you gnash your teeth every time you look at that holey hosta. If only you’d put out bait, bought sieboldiana hybrids (more slug-resistant) or found a really nice fake hosta. That would teach the slugs. Read more »
Hawthorn suffering from Entomosporium leafspot disease
In April I wrote about hawthorns (Crataegus sp.), the good and the bad. The photo above is an example of the bad. Really, do you want this in your yard? If you have one of these unfortunate trees, is there any reasonable thing that you can do to keep it from defoliating? Not really. Read more »
Kinnikinnick has played a role in several posts, Low Maintenance Plants Disguise a Wall in Greenlake, Keystone Ave N Groundcover Walk and Oh Dear, Galls on the Kinnikinnick. Here’s a healthy, gall-free plant with its cheery red berries.
Germander, Teucrium chamaedrys
Back when I did garden design I would occasionally want to drive my head into a wall at some of the design decisions that I found in the garden. Parsimonious sidewalks 3′ wide (or even less) with measly 2′ beds on either side. Inevitably those 2′ beds would be planted with hydrangeas or rhodies, or camellias, or heaven-help-us prickly junipers, shrubs way wider than 2′. Of course they got hacked. Read more »
Whoever named this Deep South native the bottlebrush buckeye must have had one mighty big bottle. The inflorescences range from 8-12″ on the species to 18-30″! the cultivar ‘Rogers.” Read more »
In one of my early posts (Do black plants belong in the garden?) I ranted a bit about black plants in the landscape with black mondo grass, Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens,’ bearing the brunt of the rant. Then the other day I ran across some black mondo grass in flower, which I don’t believe I’d ever seen before, and I found it charming. The lavender and white flowers are the perfect foil to the black leaves, pulling a purple sheen out of the black leaves. Read more »
From beckstei’s photostream
I have a fondness for aphids. Not exactly a fondness but certainly a respect. I don’t much like them sucking the sap of my plants but ever since I found out that they are capable of giving birth without the benefit of a male (parthenogenesis) I’ve wondered if they aren’t much further along than we, evolutionarily speaking. Babies with sex at times or without, convenient. Eric Grissell, an entomologist and gardener wrote an enchanting book on insects called Insects and Gardens. It’s educational and very readable, with lots of cool photos and fun facts that you might or might not want to know. Read more »
