the New Year in the garden

On January 1, I can step out onto the front porch and smell the Sarcococca confusa blooming.  It’s not only a sign of the new year, it reminds me that the garden show season is about to start up.  We’re fortunate in the Northwest to have some fabulous shows that are scheduled just when we are getting sick and tired of the gray skies and short days (which are getting longer, infinitesimally).  On Feb. 15-17, the Oregon Assoc. of Nurseries puts on the Yard, Garden & Patio Show (www.ygpshow.com) in Portland, followed the next weekend (Feb. 20-24) by the Northwest Flower & Garden Show (gardenshow.com) in Seattle.  I’m speaking at both, and it gives me a great view of the gardening public and what everyone is looking forward to (which right now, is mostly getting through this winter).  It’s also a chance to see lots and lots of plants, get ideas for the garden, schmooze with gardeners and wonder which garden tool will be the hot item this year.  Fabulous.

The evergreen deciduous tree

Here it is almost the beginning of January, and the leaves of the “deciduous” tree Liquidambar styraciflua are holding on.  I see them all over town – they’ve sort of changed colors, but often the flaming tones they should have are missing here in Seattle, and instead the leaves are just a murky purple/black.  I love the look of dried oak or hornbeam leaves that hold on through the winter; they rustle in the wind, and add to the wintry atmosphere, but these sweetgum leaves are annoying.  Just drop, OK?  Get it over with.  Then we can get on with the new year.

Never stop visiting

Today was Garden Day – the day once a month (or so) set aside to spend with my garden group: Jane, Dorothy and Jutta. We’ve been doing this for about 15 years, ever since we met during Master Gardener training; we start with breakfast at someone’s house (Jutta is famous for her apple pie) then go to gardens, parks, nurseries and end up at a restaurant for lunch. The only requirement for the restaurant is that they have a liquor license. In all those years, we have never been at a loss for conversation, whether it’s about plants or politics – as Dorothy pointed out today, our times together just keep getting better. Gardeners really do make fabulous friends, but as this post was really supposed to be about where we went today, I’d better get to it. It was a dim, gray day (it never rains on Garden Day, although we conceded to the weather after lunch) made much brighter by our stroll through the conifer garden at the South Seattle Community College arboretum. The hort program at SSCC is outstanding (run by Van Bobbitt), and the conifer garden is a wonderful place to visit at any time of year (more about it here: www.southseattle.edu/arboretum/1homepage.html). Read my P-I article about the garden and go visit: seattlepi.nwsource.com/nwgardens/295016_smallconifers09.html

Gardeners are of two minds

At least two – our minds are always working behind and ahead, even while we are in the moment. This afternoon, while (finally) planting the last of the bulbs, I thought about a section of the shady walk. I had planted several shrubs in, of course, too small a space. They were small at the time, and I knew that I had time to consider my next move. Now, the Thujopsis dolabrata ‘Variegata’, florist hydrangea (which blooms every year and looks lovely), Hydrangea ‘Lady in Red’, Leucothoe ‘Rainbow’ and the variegated mock orange (Philadelphus coronarius ‘Variegatus’) looked socked in. My plan came to me, as so many plans do, in its own good time. I will move the ‘Lady in Red’ – a standout in the glut of recently introduced hydrangeas – 6 feet away to a spot now occupied by the clumping ground cover, Lamium ‘Hermann’s Pride’, which will go…somewhere else.

Bulb season

I don’t mind confessing – here on November 19 – that I still have bulbs to plant. If I get them in the ground in the next couple of weeks, I know that they will bloom just fine. A red Ixia, Crocus tommasinianus ‘Barr’s Purple’ (this species of crocus is less likely to be eaten by marauding squirrels) and a blue onion (Allium caeruleum). This last one is not a robust bulb; I had it in the garden for a few years before it petered out. But, as gardeners say we must kill something three times before giving up, so I’ll try again. Looking ahead to spring, I think of those easy care bulbs with fondness – such as Brodiaea ‘Queen Fabiola’. Really, it’s worth it just for the name, so the beautiful light avender-blue flowers are a bonus. Bulbs on the brain.

The Garden in Autumn

The days are short and often gray, and my fall garden projects await. But even when I don’t have time to get the work done, I can still enjoy the garden. When I replanted the back garden after our remodel four years ago, unconsciously I planted it with loads of late summer-fall interest. Even now, although the tall, long-blooming perennial sunflower Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ has finished, the smoke bush (Continus ‘Grace’ – it has to be the very best one) is still turning colors, and the small conifers I tuck here and there are beginning to show again (Thujopsis dolabrata ‘Nana’ – fabulous). There’s no lack of interest in winter, because of the bird life our city garden attracts, and spring, well, spring has its own charms. Each season is on display whether I’m in or out, because we designed the new kitchen with big windows, making us feel like we’re out in the garden even when we aren’t. That goes for Cornbread and Varina, too – our indoor cats that can cackle at the birds all they want.