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.
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.
Late winter seems to specialize in little flowers at your feet. Cyclamen, snowdrops, winter aconites have all been in plentiful bloom (okay the cyclamen aren’t usually plentiful but the pleasure they give is bodacious) and flowering merrily along with them are the crocuses. Read more »
Galanthus sp.
Louise Beebe Wilder (who died in 1938) wrote of snowdrops (Galanthus sp.) saying that she’d seen them force their way upward in mid-winter, “through solid ice and blossom, each surrounded by a tiny melted circle in the ice as if the chill little blossoms emanated a slight warmth before which the frigid element must needs give way.” I believe if I lived in a harsher climate, I would better appreciate these tough little beauties. Read more »
I saw some little Cerinthe seedlings starting up the other day, pleasing signs of beauty to come on an otherwise dull, gray January day.
Cerinthe seedlings 1/14/2013
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 »
Red twig dogwoods with heavenly bamboo and ceanothus (far right), October 2012
One of my earliest posts showed leafless red twig dogwoods (Cornus sp.) backed by heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) and Ceanothus. It was a great winter/early spring plant grouping. 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 »
Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’, photo taken 9/27/2012
I’ve been on a pollinator kick lately so the least I can do for those bees dashing about madly putting food by for the winter is recommend a bee-friendly, late-season pollinator plant – goldenrod. Read more »
