by plantswomandesign | Oct 2, 2013 | gardening, plants
Tropicalissimo in the Pacific Northwest. It is hard to imagine my garden without my huge wonderful tropical plants. I did not grow these lovlies when I first started gardening. I would not have even attempted. Then I went to Hawaii. On the garden island of Kauai I fell totally in love with the lush big bold textures of leaves, bright colors and glorious earthy scents of a tropical garden. I went from an dabbler into a dunker and just had to have anything big and glorious. I have killed many things that were ‘marginally’ hardy in my garden. I once tried an imperial dahlia known to grow large in my area but never flower (it was as advertised). The princess flower overwintered successfully one year and not so successfully the next year or the year after with a new plant. While these were great to experiment with the foliage wasn’t enough for me, I had to go bigger. Next I put in a Tetrapanax p. ‘rex’, it has lovely huge leaves that were spiky and toothy. I still have it but have to chop the baby shoots off every year so it doesn’t devour the rest of the garden. The hardy banana beside it comes back each year stronger with more stems coming up from the ground (Musa Basjoo).
hardy banana Musa Basjoo
Near by there is a whip of a magnolia tree that at first struggled to produce even 3 leaves. After 5 years I saw it’s first bloom and the leaves are now enormous. The flower only lasted for about a week but I would go out every day to see it and smell it.
magnolia
magnolia flower worth waiting for
I have several hardy Gingers. Here is one as seen from the entrance to my pond area with it’s hornbeam hedge. Sometimes it’s fun to come out of a formal area into wild, lush foliage. This Ginger (Hedychium coccineum ‘Tara’) is reliably hardy in my garden. It spreads each year and does bloom in the late summer. Last year our weather was so bad that I only got a few blooms in September. This year the heat has really brought the blooms. I also dedicated a sprinkler head to it so it gets plenty of water in the summer.
Hedychium coccineum ‘Tara’
It is unusual (I think? maybe not) to build a greenhouse to house one plant. I purchased this red Banana several years ago now. Most people said don’t worry you can just buy another and throw it away but I was determined to try and keep it. With much persuasion I convinced my family to create a little greenhouse under the decking by my bedroom. That year I brought in my red banana, ensete ‘maurelli’ several echevarias, burgmansia, and Queens’ tears . I already had many orchids so now they also have a place to grown with higher light and humidity. The first year it survived, the second year it pushed to the top of the greenhouse
ensete ‘maurelli’
Each year I struggle with algae in my pond. The combination of warm water and fish waste creates the perfect situation for algae bloom. I’ve put floating plants, lilies and other plants in the pond to combat the algae but the fish really like them (and by “like them” I mean in the ‘I’m a vegetarian’ way). They eat the roots off of most everything I put in there and nibble the leaves off emerging plants. This year I decided to try to throw some common water hyacinth in the pot fountain. I thought maybe it would keep the major source of algae down. It succeeded beyond anything I imagined makes the whole pond area look magically lush and tropical. The wires you see are my Koi pond animal deterrent system. This keeps heron, river otters, raccoons and the occasional dog from getting in the koi pond.
common water hyacinth
This canna from Plant Delights nursery in North Carolina has been in the ground next to the pathway for 4 years. The first year I thought it was dead after winter but it struggled back. It has increased in height each year but not that much in width likely due to the pathway in front of it or lack of water in that area beneath the edge of the deck but it doesn’t seem to mind. The pods on this canna are so cool too. I love to bring them in in the fall and dry them out.
canna
The tropical look extends into the vines too. I have the hardy Kiwi, actinidia, down in the main garden where it can vine everywhere and it has fruit each year!! Up in the tropical area of my garden I have a passion vine that likes to throw itself around. It vines between the fence, a palm tree, and a manzanita. While the manzanita is outside the hedge it still wants its tropical neighbor to climb on it each year. I mulch the roots in the fall, it looks dead in the winter through early spring, then suddenly it is sprawling around. By the time August and September come it is blooming with its other worldly flowers. Fabulous!
Let me know what you think about tropical plants in a non-tropical place. What do you grow in your area that is not quite the norm?
by plantswomandesign | Sep 4, 2013 | gardening, plants
Oh no!. Here comes fall. My containers although still lovely are causing more and more maintenance. Deadheading, fertilizing, cutting back, etc. I’m ready for a change. I LOVE fall color, BUT not the traditional. When at the nursery I walk by the mum’s and asters, leave the pansies alone too. I don’t try to get something that will ‘survive’ into the winter but plan on changing out the containers for winter too. I get something that is all about the fall in terms of color but still has form and interest in foliage color and texture. I sometimes get plants that are not hardy in my area (zone 7, sometimes zone 8). These are often on sale at 50% off because they will not survive without a greenhouse. They will however survive until a really hard frost which we sometimes don’t get until November. The prices are about the same as annuals so why not.? I do have a greenhouse so I will try to overwinter them if I love them but space is often limited (by the size of my red banana). Just like shopping at the end of season sale at the local hardware store you can find great plant bargains.
These containers sit on the deck and they are very rustic. I love the neutral color that lends itself to any color palette in the plantings. They are in full sun and sometimes wind, with a forgetful water person that results in a dry soil.
This one has kalanchoe beharensis (Velvet elephant ear), Dicilptera suberecta, Kalanchoe orgyalis,(copper spoons), salvia discolor and a small callistemon pityoides ‘Corvallis’. (San Marcos Growers in California and Xera Plants in Portland).
This is the grouping with the medium sized container growing: Adenanthos Xcumminhamii, Hakea microcarpa, Kalanchoe beharensis ‘Fang’, Leonitis methifolia ‘Savannah Sunset’, and salvia discolor
The small cement basin has a single dasylirion wheeleri, and Sempervivum arachnoides var. pittonii both from Xera Plants and hardy in zone 7.
Seems like succulents are becoming more and more popular. I really like the colors and textures in these lovely little plants. They are fun by themselves and mixed with other plants. They are happy with little care (perfect for busy summers), and bloom too.
Fall wedding are a fun even to plan for. This total redo of a landscape for a fall wedding included containers for accent pieces.
The modern shape on one group of containers (light weight) was a great neutral foil for the foliage and flowers we did there. New sun loving coleus in red and green bring out the dark red of Canna black knight and Burgundy Rudbeckia. Accent of bright green heuchera lime rickey, and metallic sheen on the begonia ‘Silver Splendor’ pulls the pot color in.
The base on this container has a good blend of red/brick and gold. Orange Coleus, burnt orange coreopsis ‘Sienna Sunset’, Begonia ‘Bonfire Orange’, Crocosmia ‘fairy twilight’, and a burgundy rudbeckia all pull together to say yummy warm fall. the begonia and coleus are not hardy but the others are.
More of the metallic gray containers this time planted simply with Astelia 'Silver Shadow' The metallic looking leaves have both silver and bronze in the coloration. This brings out the bronze in the light fixture which also adds in the silver from the container. It is an arrangement that will help keep dogs out of this area. Rock mulch and a silver/blue ceramic bird bath top (from owners) blends the area together.
I suggest you go out and explore the nurseries now. There are some great things to add to containers now. Let me know what combinations you find. Just because it is fall doesn’t mean the garden has to stop.
by plantswomandesign | Aug 16, 2013 | gardening, plants, pond
August is such a beautiful month in my garden. I have a hard time with cutting back. Everything is so lush and over the top. The colors mix with abandon, everything striving to take center stage. Misty mornings give way to hot sunny days. I live near a bay on the Puget Sound and when I wake in the early morning it is usually clear. The mists come down from the north and swallow everything in dense fog, leaving water droplets on all the plants and giving them the only water they will see for that day. I thought you all might like some pictures from one of these early morning trips around the garden.
Heathers and miscanthus along the driveway edge.
Love the brilliant pop of purple in the heather along with the hot orange of Crocosmia walbreyes
Agapanthus blue magic with crocosmia Emily Mckenzie and penisetum orientalis.
Hydrangea paniculata, Cersis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’, and Cotinus ‘Grace’. There is a little orange glass bird bath tucked in the center.
Summer pond with geranium rozanne, knatia macedonia, and clematis integrifolia.
Persicaria ‘golden arrow’, hedychium densiflorum (from Far Reaches Farms), Red Banana (Ensete ventricosum’Maurelii’), with my rusty girl in tropical garden.
Even just variegated foliage (Canna, small bamboo, and annuals) make a lush summer statement.
I’m going out to cut a path around my gunnera and through the peony tree to get to the lower portion of the garden. I will remember and take a mental picture today. This winter I will bring it back to my mind and see again the massive leaves, beautiful flowers and sweet scents of summer.
by plantswomandesign | Jun 7, 2013 | plants, Traveling Plantswoman
My last day in Boston it was raining. Well, being from the northwest why would that stop me. I borrowed an umbrella from the front desk because like most Pacific Northwest people I didn’t bring an umbrella. It only rains in the Northwest right? I went out to investigate window boxes. I remember from my only other trip to Boston the old quarter of town and the wonderful creative window boxes. I found some great ones.
Many of them had what we would consider house plants in them. Golden pothos ivy, boston fern of course, and kachenoe. Combined with some evergreens, huge lush hydrangeas, and tropicals like mandevilla they definitely were outside the box. (hee hee).
Combinations ranged from white,purple, blue, and orange white, bright green purple, and lots of green variegations. Mostly would be in shade because of the tall row house structures. Lots of shutters but they looked to be ornamental now not functional.
Some homes had matching or complementary containers by the front door.
I stopped to talk to the owner of this little flower shop. Rouvalis Flowers. They do a lot of the window boxes in the area. Most are on a four season rotation where they change the boxes out with each season. They also water and maintain them. Her family has owned the shop for a long time. I asked what they do with the left over plants after a change out. She said her friends got lots of cast offs because they don’t have a greenhouse to keep them in or the ability to resell them. Oh to be in that crowd.
I’m not sure I could live in these historical houses although they are lovely. The window boxes are quite literally all the garden they have. Check out my next post for some lovely courtyard gardens that are scattered here and there amongst the houses. There are also beautiful squares that the houses are built around. These serve as a shared garden space for the houses. I wonder if they get used and people get to enjoy the space and the company of their neighbors.
by plantswomandesign | May 17, 2013 | plants
I like hot things…. All kinds of hot things. I’m heading to Arizona right now, leaving my garden behind. BUT before I left I was thinking of hot things, hot days and nights ahead. I took a stroll around my garden and found some hot plant combinations. It is easy to come up with hot plant combinations in the summer when lots of oranges, reds, yellows, and bright colors are out. It is a little harder in May. In May everything seems to be soft and pinky, cloud like in its harmony with nature. The earth wakes up with a sleepy little roll over and dazed look at the sky, then sometimes goes back to sleep. If you are adventuresome and ready to push for a little pizazz you can make it happen.
This combination is under the deck and in front of my hot tub. The Fatshedera lizi ‘Annemieke’ is there all year with variegated leaves. The climbing hydrangea(Miranda climbing hydrangea) is there also but just the great vining peeling stems. Showy fragrant white lacecap blooms will bloom in late spring to early summer. The clematis alpina ‘slolwijk’ is fairly dormant until early spring when it blooms brilliant blue on the tendrils with just a few leaves showing. In May the leaves are all out , the blooms on the hydrangea are starting and the clematis leaves are growing strongly. At the bottom there is a fuchsia magellanica aurea with sharp bright yellow green leaves that will have pendulous red and purple blossoms.
Why you may ask? Why all that variegation together…. Well some like it hot.
Aggressive vines sometimes call for freedom do be what they are. The hop vine (humulus aurea) loves to intertwine with anything it comes close to. It is indiscrimitive in its partner. Sometimes sneaking up on it and wrapping itself around it before it has a chance to know what happened. This Tri-color birch (fagus sylvatica "Roseo-Marginata' is gentle and unassuming. Planted to screen an unpleasant view It happily does its job without complaint. Then. suddenly. The hop vine is there. twining and wrapping itself around the soft stems and creating a totally different structure than the birch had planned. I will admit sometimes I pull it out of the top and make it behave so it doesn't overwhelm it to the point of losing its identity and looking like a heap of hop vine and nothing else. Sometime the hop vine reaches all the way to the Kiwi vine and then the battle royal starts. It would be a hard match to decide a winner on. I do love the hot bright green against the purple with a little pink and white edge on the birch. Why all that crazy color and aggressiveness? Well some like it hot.
Plants can stand on their own sometimes. They can create an atomosphere of hotness just in their being. Hosta Red October is one of them. It has amazing bright yellow green leaves on red stems. It is hot when it come out and just keeps on getting hotter. I don’t know who decided that this was the bomb but I think that person likes it hot too.
by plantswomandesign | Apr 22, 2013 | gardening, plants
Ok … So I’m not done. As I was finishing up the last blog I discovered more little treasures in my garden. I have to admit they call to me… Little tulips, little iris, small anemones. In just a few weeks they will be covered by the Gunnera (it covers a lot of plants), out of bloom and forgotten until next spring.
Iris henryii is a tiny iris only 8 inches high. The leaves look like fine grass and the sweet yellow and white flowers shine through a cloudy spring day. Next to it is Anemonella ‘green dragon’. Small bright green leaves and bright green flowers softly glowing. This little gem has soft green leaves that look like aquilegia leaves.
It is underneath a ‘Lion’s Head’ Japanese Maple that is coming into leaf at the same time.
I have several little anenomes growing in the garden. I’m not a big fan of the fall blooming japanese anemones because they spread everywhere. I do like the small ones growing under small trees. This little gem is a double fringed blossom with a blue eye.
It is anemone nemerosa ‘Blue Eyes’. It has a slightly bigger flower than many of the other anemone nemerosa.
Two tiny tulips are also blooming now. One of them the little red,white, and lilac one is just new this year. The bulbs (2) I planted last year are doing well and starting to multiply. Tulip clusiana ‘cynthia’ will soon multiply like the Tulip batalinii in the next picture. This was only 3 small bulbs 4 years ago. It is planted in a rocky soil next to the rock steps on the japanese garden pathway. Happy to bloom where it is planted.
I’m hoping to get mulch down in the garden this week. We have had a lot of rain (not surprising in Seattle area) . I’m constantly looking for the right mulch. I may be leaning towards washed cow manure this year.
I’m excited to take a journey down the primrose path next week. I think of how many pathways we have in our lives and choices we make to go or stay, to follow or to turn back. Sometimes our greatest challenge is really our greatest triumph waiting around the bend. Choosing the path is important but choosing to move is key. Standing, afraid or unable to decide, will make you miss the journey. Until next time
by plantswomandesign | Apr 12, 2013 | gardening, plants
Thanks for the responses on my last posts. Congratulations to Whitney who received the gift card, here are the answers (in no particular order)!
I love these little treasures in the garden. I used to avoid anything I had to get down close to the ground to see, BUT I have grown to appreciate the small things too. When you get close you can smell the earth warming in early spring. Sometimes you see the stirring of insects and see other plants starting to push through that will come to the foreground later in the year.
This little treasure , Hacquetica epipactis, is so sweet growing under a small Japanese Maple. It’s green flowers, leaves, and stems are the essence of spring.
This is a small tree, Camellia transarisanensis. A lovely evergreen Camellia with light branching and small white flowers with slight pink buds. It grows to 6-8 ft in time and is happy in sun to half shade.
This is Ranunculus ficara. The Ranunculus we love instead of the invasive buttercup (Ranunculus repens). It’s bright yellow flowers are amazing with the purple foliage underneath. Flowers close at night but open again when the sun comes out.
This one is a Polypodium ‘spotty dotty’. I once coveted this plant so bad that a gardener friend let me dig out a portion and bring it home. I have since found it at Dragonfly Farms Nursery but still have my bit happily growing in my garden.
And here is an extra for you… I love being out and about and meeting with new customers. This is a picture from a parking strip near a very old house in Seattle. These little white flowers have probably been growing in the crook of this old mossy tree for many years. Even though I don’t know exactly what it is I love that it is happy to just be and provide someone who looks closely a little bit of spring. I think about the gardener who planted it and wonder if they know it still brings joy.
Well friends, that about wraps it up today. What are you finding when you look closer to the ground this spring?
by plantswomandesign | Apr 5, 2013 | plants
As a beginning gardener I fell in love with Corydalis (pronounced “core-rid-a-lis”). I have a great friend who is a wonderful gardener who gave me my first Corydalis. It was a white one that to this day defies definition. She had been growing it in her garden since her children were little. They are now grown with kids of their own and the white Corydalis lives in my garden. The plant was so intriguing to me that I started looking for more of the same.
I found a yellow one that is quite a weed, Corydalis lutea.
Corydalis lutea
The new and the old, fads and not.
Here is a unusual one from Far Reaches Farms. Kelly, the owner, is a great gardener and always has the coolest plants. It is a completely different take from my other Corydalis and is ‘red’ (ish). It seems to be a strong grower and is happy under the considerable shade of Gunnera leaf.
Corydalis ‘John Baker’
Corydalis rosthornii
Here is a picture of a vibrant blue one from Sundquist Nurseries. It is called Corydalis rosthornii or Corydalis ‘blue heron’. It is the only one I’ve found so far to be fragrant.
It is happy in the shade of a Camellia ‘Black Opal’ and a crazy Rosa Sericea pterancantha (winged thorn rose). I like it for the edging of a path here, Mixed with black Mondo grass, black stemmed Pittosporum, purple leaved Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Tom Thumb’. it pulls vibrancy into the black section of my garden. Knautia macedonica and black iris are on the other side of the path. These are obviously later bloomers so the color in early spring from the Corydalis is quite welcome.
Another one with a much larger structure is the Corydalis ellipticarpa It is near a Daphne that blooms early. This Corydalis blooms a little later in my garden so it looking fab when the Daphne is over. It is related to Corydalis temuifolia ‘ Chocolate Stars’ but has yellow flowers.
Corydalis ellipticarpa
Speaking of ‘Chocolate Stars’ Here it is in another part of my garden.
Corydalis temuifolia ‘ Chocolate Stars’
These shade lovers are amazing in their differences as well as their ability to bring a fresh leaf and soft ferny foliage to the garden. They grow at different rates and bloom at different times. I will post more pictures later in the season when the ellipticarpa, chocolate stars, and white one are blooming. (I think the white one might be Corydalis solida ‘white knight’) Check out Far Reaches Farms for some great varieties and a fabulous website odysseybulbs.com for more.
How many Corydalis do you grow? What is your favorite source? What combinations have you come up with? How do you handle the summer dormancy?
Till next time. Keep getting dirty!
