From professional garden planner & ace photographer Dan B:
This dwarf Jonquil [top photo] starts out with a lemon yellow trumpet and turns white in a day. It started blooming the last day of January, about a month early. El Nino and warming are making things very wacky. It’s surrounded by a hybrid of Arum italicum Marmoratum which leafs out in mid Fall and goes dormant in mid Spring. Fleshy spikes with fleshy orange berries the size of cranberries appear in summer.
Every Fall Garyya x Issaquahensis puts on a show of golden catkins. It’s grown to 12 feet in 14 years. This evergreen shrub is native to coastal California and is a hybrid with a variety from farther north which is hardier.
It was made by a couple of gardeners, Nan and Pat Ballard, who lived in an Eastern suburb of Seattle — Issaquah, home of Costco. It’s colder than Seattle so hardiness was important. That’s changed as the climate warms. Now the standard Garrya elliptica is hardy.
This is the front bed just inside the gate. Since it’s seen by us every day, including winter, it has more evergreen plants, although the miniature Daphne is doing a lot of work here. Three Hellebores are filling in slowly.
I planted this double Hellebore ‘Blushing Bridesmaids’ last year. It will catch up with the others soon. I believe these doubles were all hybridized by a gardening couple in Eugene. I visited their garden 25 or 30 years ago. They’d already selected a dozen forms by then.
Up the walk is this bed with thorough evergreen planting, with the exception of the silver leaved Cyclamen which goes dormant in summer. The Hellebore is Amber Gem which is two years old. Fifteen blooms in just its second year put its younger neighbor on notice.
Hellebore that I believe is Ivory Prince came from Home Depot. The foliage is nicely marbled.
Arctostaphylos, another coastal California native, looks great up close. This is a hybrid named Sunset after Sunset Magazine. It’s quite rounded which is not common in Arctostaphylos. It’s completely drought tolerant which is great for this garden since the closest spigot is sixty feet away.
Next to this is Podocarpos, likely Red Tip, but don’t quote me. It us green in summer and rich brown in winter, a contrast against the Garrya and Rose of Sharon branches. Podocarpus originated in Gondwana and are distributed in seemingly random ways around the globe after the super-continent broke up.
By the front stairs is a German selection of Sarcoccoca. These tiny flowers are intensely fragrant to attract gnats in winter. The fragrance is somewhat lemony with a back scent that’s a touch funky to keep it from being too sweet. One client could not smell the sweet citrus fragrance. I had to make a change to the planting scheme.
The back garden is only seen from two high bedroom windows so there are big areas that are completely deciduous. But there are low evergreen shrubs and perennials among them. We had a hard freeze in December that blackened most of the perennials so they look like mulch. Oh well, it was the coldest since the 90’s.
The pond gets water from the roof and from the roof of the toolshed. We use the water for the garden. There are plans for adding an upper layer that will stay full all year while we drain the lower level. We’ve got a big collection of water plants – emergents – that grow partially submerged on pond and wetland margins. The Dragonflies love to perch on them and scan for mosquitoes. We have a waterfall so there are few mosquitoes.
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What’s going on in your garden (planning / prep / winter), this week?
AlaskaReader
My garden is under three feet of snow.
Anne Laurie
@AlaskaReader: *My* garden is a should-be-late-March mess of last year’s leftovers, with patches of grey snow in the north-facing back yard.
I kinda wish we had more snow cover, if only so I wouldn’t be distracted wondering if it would be a mistake to start uncovering the beds where the daffodils & early irises are starting to emerge. Because that would be tempting the Trickster God… climate change, around here, means getting some of our nastiest ‘surprise’ snowstorms in early April…
satby
Dan, gorgeous as always! Getting hellabores this year because yours have inspired me!
@Anne Laurie: It’s 19° right now, but predicted to warm up to mid-50s by Tuesday and then back to freezing highs by next weekend. Serious boomerang weather. Haven’t even started seeds yet so the joke will be on me and we’ll probably have an unusually early warm spring.
AlaskaReader
@Anne Laurie: I can commiserate.
20 and 30 below zero gives us plenty of reason to be thankful for snow cover.
Tradition dictates that my soil likely won’t be warm enough for planting until sometime around Memorial Day. (though, climate change has allowed for an earlier start on some of the most recent past years.)
The Zone maps have been recently updated to acknowledge our ‘growing season’ has lengthened from the recent past normal average of around 90 days to some recent years extending to 120 days. Our zone maps have been changed to reflect that, though, like you note, it’s still a chancy thing with early and late freezes not at all uncommon. Liberal use of row cover material is a vital practice for any early or late endeavors.
Still and all, gardening, other than indoor gardening, is still a fairly distant thought here.
NotMax
@satby
Interior debating about whether to flip on the space heater as found necessary the past two nights.
At the moment just “Brr” as opposed to “Brrr.”
AlaskaReader
@NotMax: How many ‘r’s should one append for 30 below?
NotMax
@AlaskaReader
“All of ’em,. K-K-K-Katie.”
;)
AlaskaReader
@NotMax: I’m always greatly amused visiting Hawaii when the local golfers are donning jackets and rain pants because temps crept 10 degrees lower than the average 80 degree norm.
KKK Katie
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
We got about 2″ of snow/ice/sleet Friday (I was hoping the thunder would give us 4″, not to be) Lows have been in the teens since with a high yesterday of 30. Today 48, Monday 55, then 62, 67, 63…
That’s our climate change.
The daffs are up of course. I see the Spanish bluebells peeking thru the leaf litter. The Glory of the Snow are still in hiding. Everything is up in the greenhouse, I’ll be picking young greens in a week or 2.
Wonderful pics as usual Dan B, giving me ideas I can’t afford.
I’ve got a pair of hellebore similar to that Sunset. I’ve been looking for some others of a different color to contrast with them but no luck so far. I suspect I could drive up to STL and be certain to find something but it feels kind of wasteful unless I am going up there for something else too.
Ken
Also known as the Spaghetti Tree, as seen in this famous BBC documentary.
evodevo
It’s 10 degrees outside right now, and my tulips are halfway up…curses on this boomerang weather. i keep burying them in leaf litter, but they really popped up on Thurs….supposed to get up towards 60 later this week…ARRGGGHHH!
VeniceRiley
New growth sprouting on roses and climbing roses. One lavender so dog pissed, it will not survive. A shame as it was a favourite on the bumbles. So much rain over extended periods, the grass is not absorbent so much, and the dogs have done a number there as well.
Budlua and whatnot doing well.
Holding my breath to see if the full panoply of colours of flowers re-appears around the square sometimes this spring and summer.
Kristine
Serious garden envy, Dan B. Love your photos.
I join everyone else in muttering about the boomerang weather. After weeks in the high 30s/40s, we’re coming out of a two-day frigid dip here in NE Illinois. Hoping all the buds survived.
My “Pink Fizz” hellebore had several blooms forming under the leaf litter. It took a few years for it to settle in, but now it’s spreading a little more every year and putting out more and more flowers. I need to get some more.
sab
@AlaskaReader: When I lived in Las Vegas I used to be horrified when people put coats on their dogs when the temperature dropped low enough that the dogs were actually comfortable outside.
Gvg
Raining the whole weekend so not much gardening. It has been warm enough to go without sweaters last week but this will drop us down to the 60’s in daytime. Oh well.
I bought pots of dwarf mondo grass for my paths and my mothers. I pick pots that are very overcrowded and then tease apart the individual plants and put them a few inches apart. Some of the first paths I did it to are almost filled in. Then I have a no mow no weed path in shady areas where grass won’t grow. Mondo takes being walked on fine and prevents erosion. I have a sloping yard and live in a rainy climate.
I am online shopping for more fern types, mostly natives which can be annoyingly hard to find. I grow a few hellebores. Since I am supposed to be too warm an area for them, I grow them from seed from the North American Rock Garden Society exchange. Cheaper when trying to stretch zones. I have not been in this house long enough for the current ones to flower but have best luck before with H. Corcasia and H. Lividus which are more southern in native distribution.
I really love ferns. In the summer, I do a lot of shade gardening and just let the sunny parts wait. But now is when to order things
Jim Appleton
Arum italicum, aka Lords and Ladies, is a plant from hell. Spreads by rhizome about ten inches deep and goes wherever it likes. Herbiceds don’t make a dent. Digging/pulling/exhausting is useless.
I finally killed it by using one of those long transmission funnels to apply boiling water in a tight grid pattern down to the rhizomes.
This plant should be banned.
Dan B
@Kristine: Bluestone Perennials, a great mail order business in far NE Ohio, has an excellent selection of Hellebores. They’re pricey but having beautiful blooms from February to late April is worth it to me. Bluestone Perennials ships excellent plants.
Dan B
@Jim Appleton: They’re (Arums) not a problem here in cool* Seattle. We have plenty of pests however.
*We’re having heat waves in the 90’s and low hundreds. Thank Dog there’s no Global Warming.
Dan B
@OzarkHillbilly: Bluestone Perennials for your Hellebores. No driving required
MelissaM
I love hellebores! I only have a couple of the same variety, given to me by a friend who was divorcing and didn’t want her plants stuck in her ex’s garden (it was his house.)
Down the street from me was a gardener who had quite a few fancy varieties of hellebore. She was always out there cleaning and such. She died back in about 2018 (fucking cancer). Her garden is still there as her husband still lives there, but when I walk by, I mutter “oh, Katie. I’m sure this isn’t as you would want it.” Still, her hellebores make me smile.
Dan B
@Jim Appleton: Where are you? Arums love cool and mild. I wouldn’t be surprised that warm springs would supercharge them.
Dan B
@Ken: Good one!
sab
@Dan B: I buy from them and have always been pleased.
way2blue
My daffodils (in northern California) are starting to bloom (to early) too. Some I transplanted from my mom’s yard five years ago, others ordered from ColorBlend. Break in the weather today, so time to transplant the iris who are unhappy in their current location. Before they get in gear for Spring…
scav
The arum is still rated a class C noxious weed by the WA Weed Board. Toxic to humans and livestock, but then, so many things are (even daffodils & iris, etc somewhat). Still it’s at least worth a pause and a check for any local controls. More agricultural counties might get fussy. (My garden’s immediately adjacent to cows so I’m always having to check).
Nonrev
Anyone know where I can get one of those Garrya? I’ve looked and looked with no luck
thanks
Another Scott
@Nonrev: I’ve found some listings for nurseries in CA and OR. Dunno if they ship to your location.
Here’s an Etsy shop that seems to have seeds.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
Nonrev
@Another Scott: thanks…
StringOnAStick
@AlaskaReader: Last year I decided to do as much season extension on the spring side as I could, and had the best garden that I’ve had in decades. I used grow tunnels but the most effective thing at warming up the soil were Wall O Water’s. I used a soil thermometer to compare with uncovered areas and the difference let me set out green beans is started two weeks early in paper pots so I wouldn’t disturb the roots. It was wildly successful.