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 »
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.
Oh, those crazy Ranunculaceae – clematis, buttercups, delphinium, nigella, hellebores, aconitum, meadow rue, columbine – all in the same family. You could build the whole herbaceous part of a garden out of members of the family Ranunculaceae and have a flower in bloom most every month of the year. Read more »
I’m not usually a fan of weeping cedars – turning a tall, stately tree into something that droops disconsolately across the landscape just seems rude. Take the deodar cedar, it is one of the most majestic plants to be found but thanks to a mutation a form has developed that looks remarkably like an afghan hound, all narrow with lank, dripping branches. 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 »
Photo taken at the Center for Urban Horticulture 9/12/2012
Seattle is full of heaths and heathers – you see them dripping down rockeries all over the city. What you rarely see is a mixed planting of just heaths and heathers which is a pity because they can make a glorious, ever-changing tapestry. The Center for Urban Horticulture has put together just such a planting – it is evergreen, colorful year round and low maintenance. Consider turning your front yard into a tiny Scottish moor – assuming you don’t want to play soccer there. Read more »
Photo taken 9/13/2012
A lot of the rockery hens and chicks are looking crappy. Yes, they are drought tolerant, but drought tolerant doesn’t mean that they stay beautiful after 60 days or so with only a trace of rain. Of course if you wanted to water these you would find it – difficult. You could always hire a 5 year old with a spray bottle to stand and spritz for half an hour, maybe enough would get in to do some good. Read more »
Prostanthera cuneata flowers
Several years ago I was entranced by a shrubby beauty I saw at Swanson’s, Prostanthera rotundifolia. It was smothered in lavender flowers and although marginally hardy here, I bought it. It died. Read more »
Oregano self sows all over a yard I care for and let me tell you oregano seedlings do not like to let go of the soil. I tend to pull up the smaller ones, hoping not to throw out my back as I do so, and hack back the larger ones. Every now and then, though, an oregano seedling chooses such a perfect spot to seed itself that I almost forgive all its brethren the unfortunate places they have picked. Read more »
Prunus laurocerasus limbed up
Cherry laurels are reviled and I admit that the full-sized version (Prunus laurocerasus) can be supremely annoying. They are often planted as hedges in Seattle. A plant that wants to reach 15-30′ wide being used as a hedge on anything smaller that an estate is criminal. I had one. It engulfed stairs, other plants and small children whenever you looked the other way. Prune, prune, slave, slave and not even great flowers to cut for the house. Cherry laurel hedges always win. Read more »
