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
We leave the Christmas lights on the Korean Fir in our front yard garden through much of January to brighten the long winter nights and in hopes of getting a little snow.
This year we had to wait until January 17 to get our first snowfall of the winter. Tonight, the 18th, I took my camera outside in the bitter cold to photograph the tree and its setting. I used my Canon 1Ds Mk II with a 16-35mm lens and photographed at the widest setting. I wanted to emphasize the space and separate the tree from our house and other buildings in the neighborhood. Continue reading
Thick, leathery, glossy, evergreen foliage makes salal (Gaultheria shallon) desirable both in the garden and in the florist’s palette. This time of year you won’t find either flowers or fruit on salal — those will come in the warm months — but the foliage provides a comforting green layer at the edge of woodlands. Salal is particularly common along the Pacific coast from southeast Alaska all the way down to Santa Barbara county, California. It also grows up into the middle elevations of the Cascade and Coast Ranges. Continue reading
Oregon-grapes are among our wonderful broadleaf evergreen shrubs here in the Pacific Northwest. There are several species but the two most common natives are Berberis aquifolium, tall (or shining) Oregon-grape, and Berberis nervosa, low (or dull) Oregon-grape. There are also numerous horticultural cultivars, some of which will begin blooming in late December.
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Autumn doesn’t come immediately to mind when I think of roses. Since my childhood, roses have been associated with warm summer days, with colorful blossoms emitting rich fragrances that waft across the garden on gentle breezes. We stop in the rose garden and inhale deeply of the heady aroma. Continue reading
I spent the day yesterday at the 2011 Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle. It’s become an annual journey down the freeway to partake of early-season gardening inspiration, as well as a time to reconnect with many good friends in the garden writing and photography community. The show is one of the world’s best garden shows, both from the standpoint of the display gardens and the array of vendors selling plants and garden goodies. It runs through Sunday, February 27 so you’ve still got a couple of days to make it to the Washington State Convention and Trade Center [map] in downtown Seattle.
For the last couple of years I’ve put together a video slideshow of the display gardens and 2011 is no exception. I hope you enjoy it. Then scroll down for some tips on photographing in the garden show environment.
Our family takes a pretty low-key approach to the holiday season. We’re not much for decorating nor major shopping leading to massive gifting. The important thing is sharing time and food together. So in that spirit here are four images from our Thanksgiving feast, in anticipation of the Christmas feast to come in a few days.
We celebrated Thanksgiving at our son Zach’s house in Colorado. The main course was a deep-fried turkey which was delicious. While the turkey was dangling in a huge pot filled with 9 gallons of boiling peanut oil, and the cooks were imbibing on delicious Odell IPA, thoughts turned to “what else can we fry?” The answer was to raid the stash of winter squash and root vegetables.
The photo above is deep-fried lightly battered winter squash. The carrots, parsnips, and celeriac had already disappeared by the time the squash came out of the oil. The guys (and it was mostly the guys standing around watching the turkey cook in a beer keg out on the driveway) made quick work of the tasty squash, too. Continue reading
Resist the temptation. Do not get in a hurry to cut down those spent flower stems when the blooms fade.
Dry flower heads, seedpods really, can be almost as interesting as the flowers were. And many of them are attractive to small birds that come foraging for a mid-day snack.
This container, sitting on a wall in the Denver Botanic Gardens over Thanksgiving weekend, has what I think are Burnet seedheads. At least those elongated pods look a lot like Burnet. But maybe I’m wrong. Doesn’t really matter because they’re interesting sitting there, all dried out, but worshiping rainshadow sunshine.
They’re photographed against the sun and the rich blue sky. The light coming from behind rims each head, turning them into glowing miniature pom-poms. I chose a low camera angle to keep the background uncluttered. In my ideal world the jets would have been grounded. I suppose I could made the contrails disappear with a little retouching. Continue reading
December and January are dark, cool, and wet in Pacific Northwest lowlands while the high country is buried under a thick blanket of snow. It’s sometimes challenging to bring high-elevation plants down to lowland gardens but Mountain Hemlock, Tsuga mertensiana, is an exception. Continue reading
This time of year homes and gardens sparkle with millions of shining lights. Maybe you go all-out decorating your home. Perhaps you make an annual pilgrimage to a favorite public holiday light display. Either way, here are nine tips and tricks for getting great photos of the lights. Continue reading
