5/3/2013
I usually think of March as Pieris japonica month but it is one of those plants that blooms for a loooong time. Here’s some photos from May 3. From a distance it still looks in bloom, albeit in a dingy get-it-over-with kind of way. An up close look shows the reason for the dinginess. Go here to see my original post on Pieris japonica.
5/3/2013
May 1, 2013
Aren’t the little pink cones adorable? Of course, they won’t stay pink, they’ll eventually turn brown but this would still be a nice plant to have in the garden. Dwarf conifers add great permanent texture; the needles act as a great foil to larger-leaved plants and contrary to popular belief, some conifers clearly display some great seasonal color. Read more »
Alright, I’m having a mental block. All my attempts to come up with a pithy yet evocative description of these plants falls short so today, I’ll just let the pic explain itself.
Veronica peduncularis ‘Georgia Blue’
Blue flowers still wow me. I’ve been gardening in Seattle for 20+ years and every spring I still marvel at the Lithodora diffusa. I can’t believe I live in a place where a common rockery plant can have such jaw-dropping electric blue flowers – and it’s not alone. Less common but with blue flowers that are just as wowsome isVeronica peduncularis ‘Georgia Blue.’ Read more »
Pieris japonica 3/21/2013
I meant to write about Pieris japonica weeks ago, but never got around to it. Now there are the Daphnes, Viburnums, Osmanthus and Ribes in bloom not to mention the flowering cherries running amuck – the flowers filling the sightlines on every block – so why write about a plant that is just about done? Read more »
Confederate jasmine, 3/26/2013
A plain green vine cloaking a fence in March – ho hum. Confederate jasmine is ho hum most of the year but not a bad ho hum. A vine that hides ugly fences, comes through at least this mild winter well-clothed in pristine leaves (no ugly black spots) and flowers well in at least some shade is not a bad plant, but you don’t grow Trachelospermum jasminoides for its evergreen leaves. You grow it for its divine, carrying, summertime fragrance – anything else it give you is just gravy.
For more on Confederate jasmine, check out thispost – August, If only the internet was scratch and sniff.
Okay, why are yellow flowers charming but yellow leaves feel like something you need to get out there and clean up like daffodils on their way out? If you call leaves golden they suddenly become desirable. (Maybe if I called dying daff leaves golden I could psych myself into thinking they’re pretty?) Call it gold, yellow, or chartreuse this color really shines on dark winter days. Read more »
Just because a plant “can be sheared” doesn’t mean it should be
Loropetalum is a big hit in the Deep South. I saw the one above in a pretty average suburban yard outside Atlanta. I’d always had it in my head that Loropetalum was marginally hardy here and that’s why you didn’t see it much, but I was wrong. Read more »
Here are the bracts of ‘Kent Beauty’ all dried up. Not so beautiful anymore but not hideous either, nevertheless, best to have pruned off those bracts as soon as they started to lose their looks. At this point, I’d wait until late winter and then prune the plant way back. Read more »
Grevillea (probably G. victoriae) in bud, 10/10/2012
In one of my earliest posts I talked about Grevilleas and here is one on October 10 in bud, getting ready to keep the resident hummingbirds in nectar when all the other flowers are shutting up shop. As I did in my first post on Grevilleas, I send you to an article by Ian Barclay, owner of the Desert NW Nursery in Sequim, for the real insider’s view on growing Grevilleas in the maritime NW. Read more »
