What is it with lavender and spittlebugs? Every year as the flowerheads are forming the spittlebugs arrive. They definitely seem to prefer Lavandula angustifolia to Lavandula stoechas (the one with the bunny ears) and certainly can be found on many other plants but around here L. angustifolia seems to be their favorite haunt. Read more »
How’s that for a whopper of a rose? It’s bigger than the house. Now, roses aren’t my strong suit but I think that it is Paul’s Himalayan Musk. (If it’s not, it is a rose that blooms at the same time and looks very similar to Paul’s Himalayan Musk so for the rest of the post I’m going to pretend like it is Paul.) Read more »
Random Wallingford hell strip
The Wallingford Garden Tour is this Sunday, 6/24. The tour is self-guided, you get the map once you buy your ticket. Tickets can be purchased (now) at Tweedy and Pop’s in Wallingford Center ($15, kids 12 and under free) or at the Wallingford Neighborhood Center (behind the Tully’s on 45th) on Sunday.
April, 2012 – Erica sp (heath) below, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (kinnikinnik) dangling and Lavandula angustifolia at very top
Here’s the first plant update for my very first posting. Read more »
One occasionally sees Saponaria ocymoides in rockeries around Seattle. It blooms later than the more common rockery plants, extending the rockery season into June; however, people may be afraid to plant it because of a notorious sibling – Saponaria officinalis, bouncing bet. Bouncing bet gets its name from its tendency to bounce all over the garden (explaining the bouncing but not the bet part). Saponaria ocymoides does not bounce. It forms an evergreen mat that blossoms into a deep pink pillow of bloom in May and June. Read more »
Some of the southern hemisphere shrubs and trees look a little odd around here. The gaudy flowers seem to belong to a land of sun, white stucco and brilliantly colored doors. Yet here and there throughout gray and subdued Seattle you’ll see one blooming in hot shades of red or orange and after stopping to absorb the oddness likely think, “I want one of those.” Read more »
Sisyrinchium striatum – cloudy day near end of bloom period
My neighbor grew these for many years and I routinely admired them from across the street. Now any plant that catches your attention from across the street is worth looking into. Read more »
Angelica sylvestris ‘Vicar’s Mead’
In a recent post on low maintenance groundcovers for shade, I showed a garden with several tough, good-looking evergreen shrubs (Viburnum davidii, Taxus sp, Pachysandra terminalis) that make admirable groundcovers but the planting lacked color and could also use some more textural variety. Here are a few plants that could be added to the plants from that post to liven up the garden and give it more variety throughout the seasons. Read more »
1950s era pots - mint finding its own solution to the rootbound issue- send the roots out into the world
Quick post because I’m just sending you elsewhere. Take a look at Jeff Gilman’s post on nursery pots. One of the problems that happens in nurseries is plants become root bound. The roots start circling around in the pot and unless you fix it when you’re planting, they keep circling and for woody plants they may eventually girdle and kill the plant. It generally takes years so you don’t even know the cause but there it is – a dead plant. Read more »
Clematis ‘Multiblue’ – it’s one whopper of a flower. A zillion words have been written on the care and pruning of clematis so I must have worked hard to get this beauty. Right? Pish. Read more »
