Spring is in the air. Days are getting longer, the soil is warming up, we’re getting a little less rain, and buds are swelling on the trees and shrubs. Some of the catkin-bearing trees are already blooming. But one of the first real signs of spring for me in the Northwest is when the Indian plum (Oemleria cerasiformis) blossoms open. Continue reading
The Northwest Flower and Garden Show, held in Seattle each February, is one of the world’s greatest garden shows. Here in the northwest it’s an event we look forward to each winter as the days begin to lengthen, buds swell, and the earliest flowers in our gardens begin to bloom.
The warm and dry environment of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, all decked out with fabulous display gardens, welcomes gardeners from across the country to this annual extravaganza of garden theater. This year’s theme is “The Silver Screen Takes Root…Gardens Go Hollywood” and the garden designers did a good job interpreting this very broad and fun concept.
The first garden you encounter on the way into the show takes you on a journey to Oz, with Dorothy, the Tin Man, and a daffodil-filled golden brick road.
Even in our mild Pacific Northwest climate there aren’t many shrubs that bloom during the dark winter months. One of the exceptions is Bodnant Viburnum, Viburnum ×bodnantense. The cultivar we have in our garden, and the one you’ll find most often in the nursery trade, is ‘Dawn.’ For us, it begins blooming in late October and continues to open fragrant pink blossoms through February. Continue reading
We’ve had Golden Hops (Humulus lupulus ‘Aureus’) vines on our vegetable garden fence for over a dozen years now. It’s reliable, hardy, and showy from spring through late fall. It never fails to get comments from pedestrians passing by, particularly this time of year. Continue reading
When you think of dogwood, do you think of a tree or a groundcover? If you only think about dogwood trees, you’ve been missing out on one of my favorite woodland wildflowers. The smallest of our dogwoods is commonly called Bunchberry or Dwarf Dogwood. There are two species in the most populated parts of North America, Cornus canadensis and Cornus unalaschkensis. Some taxonomists lump them together and in the nursery trade it’s almost always sold as Cornus canadensis. Continue reading
I got a phone call this morning from a lady down around Olympia who had come across my wildflowers website. She hadn’t found a plant on the site that she’d found in the backyard of her home and asked if she could send me a JPEG to identify it for her before she took a weed eater to it. I get these requests pretty frequently, but usually by e-mail, so I said “yes” and she sent a file while we were still on the phone.
It only took a glance to know that her mystery plant was the very common garden groundcover, Vinca minor. The common name is periwinkle. It’s a plant I learned as a small child because my dad had it in our garden. It’s native to southern Switzerland and south to the Mediterranean. Continue reading
Among the first small trees or large shrubs to bloom in western Washington, Oregon, northern California, and British Columbia are the hazelnuts, Corylus avellana (common filbert or European hazelnut) and Corylus cornuta (beaked hazelnut). To the untrained eye these two can be difficult to distinguish.
Comfortable, attractive outdoor living spaces never go out of style. Ideas from one part of the country can usually be adapted to other regions, so a photo of an inviting space makes a great magazine cover.
I photographed this deck at the home of Ginny Crump, co-owner of Kent’s Garden and Nursery, back in the summer of 2008. Continue reading
As sure as February rolls around so does the Northwest Flower & Garden Show at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. It’s a time to oogle the display gardens, shop for cool new plants, and visit with friends. This year’s show ends ended on Sunday, February 12.
The cavernous fourth floor exhibit hall comes to life with more than twenty exquitely designed and constructed display gardens. The one above was called “Twistin’ the Night Away” and featured a corkscrew willow graphic as a backdrop to an arbor-framed patio. Each of the garden designers worked within the Floral Symphony show theme, coming up with some musical connection. Continue reading
One of the joys of a winter garden in the Pacific Northwest is fragrant shrubs. We planted a Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ in our front garden many years ago. This vase-shaped shrub begins blooming for us around the first of December and carries through until March.
‘Dawn’ was selected as one of the Great Plant Picks
