Plant Talk

Petal & Twig in the Sunday Seattle Times - and a Party Invitation

I'm thanking my editors at Pacific Northwest mag for printing an excerpt of my new book in today's Seattle Times. Check it out here for a first look at photos and text from petal & twig and to learn about simple, unintimidating, easy and fun flower arranging from the garden in every season. Yes, even in January; see witch hazel 'Jelena' below, in full, fragrant bloom today in my Langley garden. 

The story includes an invitation to the launch party for the new book this coming Wed night Feb 1, a benefit for the Miller Library - hope to see you there....also, today's issue of Pacific has a sneak preview of the brand new 2012 Great Plant Pick choices....

 

The Art of Gardening at Great Dixter - An Iconic Garden Opens Its Gates to Students

Visiting Great Dixter was one of the thrills of my gardening life. It was a cold June afternoon, I'd missed the meadow in bloom by a month or so, and the famous exotic garden (left) hadn't come on yet. But it didn't matter in the least. The place is so atmospheric, so theatrical in its age and quintessential Englishness. The garden is nothing short of iconic, yet personal, site specific and residential-in-scale; Wave Hill in New York may be the closest thing we have in this country, yet without a centuries old manor house it can't compete.  I strolled around and soaked it all up. And I've always longed to go back.

Part of keeping Great Dixter alive is bringing students to train in the art of gardening. You're invited to attend one or more week-long symposia to learn and practice traditional gardening techniques. It's a chance not only to hang out with head gardener Fergus Garrett, but also to submerge yourself in the East Sussex landscape at the height of summer or into autumn. And, perhaps best of all, the curriculumn includes visits to Sissinghurst and Beth Chatto's garden with Fergus and the Great Dixter team.

A few details:

The dates are July 7 - 14 (12 open spots for students); September 8 - 15 (12 open spots) and November 3 through 10 for a practicum for six students. Subjects are tailored to the seasons, and include design, meadow gardening, growing vegetables, staking and tying....hedges and topiary....soil improvement and exotic gardening.

For more information email events@greatdixter.co.uk or visit http://www.greatdixter.co.uk/events.htm

If you go, will you please guest blog here on Plant Talk and turn us all green with envy by describing your week?

The long border and the ancient manor house at Great Dixter

 

 

 

Help a Student and Enjoy Nature's Music, Fresh from the Arboretum

Do trees really make music?  University of Washington Ph.D. student, composer and sound artist Abby Aresty  feels it's a miss that most of us look at plants and forget to listen to them. She's working on a series of sound installations in the Washington Park Arboretum called Paths II: The Music of Trees.

"Paths II is nature, science, music and technology, hand in hand" Aresty explains of her multi-disciplinary project. She's gathering sounds for her installations from an enormous variety of sources and perspectives.  After collecting the sounds, she'll bring them back to the original sites and play them back softly through small speakers attached to the trees.

But she needs your help. Aresty has a deadline of February 14 to raise $8,000 for her project. It's an ambitious undertaking, including seven sites that need power, electronics and waterproofing. She's well on her way to meeting her goal...will you help? When completed, the installation will be free and open to all...

This is the first time a project like this is has been staged in the Arboretum. Abbey explains her motivation for adding a new sensory dimension to our beloved Arboretum: 

"The Arboretum is a gorgeous space, but there is so much noise pollution... Our natural spaces are being overtaken with noise, and this installation is my small way of bringing the beauty of the softer sounds of nature to the listeners."

Send her a dollar, and get a tree music ringtone for your phone....well, Abby can explain it best...click here to see her video about funding needs and why she hopes you'll contribute.

Composer and sound artist Abby Aresty

 

 

 

Be There, Or....Miss out. Garden Events From Cyclamen to Plant Nerd Night

The year is new, yet it's time to mark a few special gardening events on the calendar so you don't miss out. As April approaches, the gardening season heats up just as gardening chores pile up. So now's the time, not only to dream your way through seed catalogs, but to sort through upcoming events...here are a few early highlights of the year to come...

January 28 & 29 - Bouquet Banque Nursery Open House in Marysville. Who doesn't love cyclamens, with their exquisite flowers and marbled foliage, well as any excuse to buy plants and talk gardens in the dregs of January? An acre of coldframes holding thousands of hardy cyclamen in full bloom are open for your shopping pleasures; you can visit with owners Bill and Judy, tour the winter garden, and visit the workshop to see fiber plant basketry. 8220 State Ave. in Marysville; 360-659-4938

February 1 - Fundraiser for the Miller Horticultural Library/Launch party for my new book, Petal & Twig .There'll be a dessert buffet, plant auction, and I'll give my first talk about the book and show images of bouquets plucked fresh from my garden in Langley. I'll sign books after - it's the first time they'll be for sale.  Please come. See the Northwest Horticultural Society's web page for details.

February 8-12 - The theme of this year's Northwest Flower and Garden Show, at the Washington State Convention Center,  is "A Floral Symphony" but it scarcely matters. It's simply a huge 5 day blow-out of an early springtime celebration. There are gardens to see, things to buy, people to meet and lectures to attend - and you'll see all your gardening friends you've missed over the winter.

March 9 - 11 - The Northwestern Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society's 37th Annual Western Winter Study Weekend will be held at the Holiday Inn in Everett. Speakers, garden tours, plant displays, demonstrations, and the chance to rub elbows with fellow alpine enthusiasts are all reasons to attend. The Study Weekend will focus on an area often overlooked: the flora of Washington and Oregon east of the Cascade Mountains. Here the habitat varies from forest to shrub -steppe, and from desert to riparian ecosys- tems. The Columbia River winds its way through this region, providing a broad canvas of remarkable habitats and plants. See the Chapter's web page for more information, or contact Ilse Burch at Mail4IlseB@gmail.com or 425-681-9341.

March 24 - Woodland Gardening: Building Beauty from Shade-Loving Plants is this year's annual NHS Symposium, held at Bastyr University Auditorium in Kenmore. Registration: Email nwhort@aol.com or phone 206-780-8172. Last year's symposium sold out, so be sure and register early to hear local, national and international speakers like Rick Lewandowski, director of the Mt. Cuba Center for the study of Piedmont flora, Jimi Blake (left) from Dublin, Ireland, Richie Steffen of the Miller Botanical Garden, and Cole Burrell, author, educator and designer.

April 19 -  Plant fanatics listen up - For the first time ever, we're going to have a Seattle version of the Portland plant extravaganza known as Nerd Night. Local growers, like Far Reaches Farm, will bring their most exciting new plants for show and sale. There'll be swag bags, wine, an auction, and music, song and dance from the Chorus of the Goddess Flora who is traveling north to perform. See the Northwest Horticultural Society's web page for more information. 6 - 9 p.m., April 19, at the Mountaineers at Magnuson Park.

Stay tuned for my next post - a gardener's dream come true chance to study at Great Dixter...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plant Dreaming Entries - Read This to Receive Your Seeds from Renee's Garden

Thanks for all your comments  - I love reading about what you're dreaming about planting this spring. I'll do some excerpts from our letters here on the blog in the coming weeks....I've been amazed at how everyone is leaning toward edibles - is that just because we're talking about seeds? Lettuces and sweet peas are way out front in everyone's dream garden for 2012...

I thought I could keep up with answering all of you, but I'm falling behind. What I need is for everyone who sent in a comment about what they hope to grow this year to now send your mailing address to me at valeaston@comcast.net, and I'll pass it along to Renee Garden Seeds so Renee can get your seed packets in the mail -

 

 

Giveaway Greens - from Renee's Garden Seeds To You for Sending in Your 2012 Dream Plants

Plant Talk is teaming up with Renee's Garden Seeds for our first giveaway of 2012 - please comment here on the blog with a short list, plus descriptions, of a few plants you're excited to add to your gardent his spring, and Renee will send you a packet or two of her company's brand new greens seeds.

Take a look at the previous post here on the blog for more information about the giveaway and to read about my own dream list for 2012.....can't wait to read your list and share it with readers.

Renee is concentrating this year on full-flavored, multi-colored greens - aren't we lucky? Brand new for 2012 and unique to Renee's Garden, here are a few of the seeds targeted for giveaways here on Plant Talk:

 

Beet and Chard Braising Mix - a blend of some of the most succulent greens in the garden, with Ruby Queen and Bulls Blood beets with Silverado and Eldorado chard. Snip for salads as the greens grow in..Tasty and tender eaten raw or braised...

Edible Landscape Lettuce 'Stardom Mix' is as gorgeous in the garden as it is delicious in the salad bowl, for it includes crispy-sweet, ruffled oakleaf varieties that are deeply red and blazingly green. Fast growing and heat tolerant, 'Stardom Mix' may well be the new gold standard for edible gardening.

Portugese Kale 'Tronchuda Beira' is tender, sweet and more heat resistant than any other kale. It's blue green leaves are lovely in the garden, and the flabor is mild but rich. Easy to grow.

 

 

 

Seattle Shrouded in Ice - Snow as the Great Landscape Designer

I don't remember ever hearing ice pellets crack against the windows in Seattle before.  It's a delicate yet threatening sound; I've lived here my whole life and it took me awhile to figure out that was ice beating on the windows this morning. It brought back memories of being caught in a Portland ice storm years ago, and that relentless iciness beating at the windows. Now it's as if we're shrouded in ice - it's dangerously slippery to walk, let alone drive.

While waiting for the promised warm front to bring in rain later today and melt all this treacherous beauty, take a few minutes to look at how snow erases so much of the landscape. It brings the open, empty spaces into relief so we can see and appreciate them. Forms and shapes of plants stand out, while their  textures and details disappear.

It's as if the snow has pruned our gardens of what's extraneous, allowing us to see the all-important bones and structure of the landscape. For those of us who are on a mission to simplify our gardens, there's a clear lesson in this if we take the time to look.

Horizontal lines of wall and hedging contrast with and the pruned peaks of little conifers, on Highland Drive, Queen Anne hill yesterday morning...

What To Plant in 2012? Share Your Dreams and Receive Free Seeds from Renee's Garden

"Things I'd like to paint in 2012" is a post on "The Blackbird Sings", one of my favorite blogs. It's written by English artist Natasha Newton, who paints birds, trees, houses, and landscapes, and I was charmed by her list of "want to paint" in the new year. And it got me dreaming, only three weeks into winter, of what I'd like to plant this spring.

I'd love to hear what you hope to plant in 2012. As an inducement for you to post your list here as a comment on the blog, Plant Talk is teaming up with  Renee's Garden Seeds for a free giveaway of brand new seed varieties. Send in a short list of your dream plants for the new year, and Renee will send you a seed packet or two. Please include a brief description of the plants on your list so we can salivate over them too.

Here's my short list:

- A hedge of 'Sunshine Blue' blueberries - I love the idea of an edible, evergreen hedge of these handsome little shrubs (3-4 feet high). The foliage looks good all year, with hot pink flowers in springtime followed by tasty berries from early August through September. Available in local nurseries and from Raintree Nursery near Morton.

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Lots of lettuces, for no other crop produced over a longer season, saved me so much money at the grocery store, and livened up our family meals last year. It was such a shock to go back to store-bought lettuce in October! I love the various special blends of cut-and-come again lettuce seeds from Renee's Garden, like "Farmer's Market Blend". No lettuces are more beautiful than Renee's "Monet's Garden Mesclun", an inspired blend of textures and colors. Purple, chartreuse, ruffled, scalloped, delicious and fresh. And I can't wait to try some of Renee's new varieties - see my post later in the week for a description of new-to-2012 varieties.

Flower Carpet Amber Roses - I'm determined to find space for these hardworking, easy-care, knee-high  roses in my favorite color. They bloom all summer and put on quite a show, even in less-than-perfect conditions that most roses wouldn't tolerate. I'm wondering if I can grow them planted right into gravel at the base of round feed trough planters to form apricot ruffles up against the galvanized metal. Now that would be a real test of carpet rose vigor and adaptability.

I love strawberries, but they're taking over my little garden - I'm afraid I have to face up to ripping most of them out before the entire place is shrouded in strawberry runners. I'll replace some with the smaller-leafed, much-less aggressive alpine strawberries (fraises des bois) with tiny berries that taste of champagne. I'll edge some of my raised beds with the yellow-leafed variety 'Golden Alexandria'.

It's only January...I'd better stop...please let us know what plants you're dreaming about...and see my next post for a list of the brand new, multi-colored and flavored lettuces and greens that Renee will be sending out to Plant Talk readers ....

Winter Comforts - Fragrant Orange Witch Hazel and A Ripple of Violet Sunset

  It was 27 degrees in Langley yesterday morning, but my orange witch hazel (Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena') had burst into full and glorious bloom during the week I'd been away. It was so cold the buds were contracted and the blossoms scentless, but cut, plunged into warm water and brought into the house, they soon enough plumped up and exuded their clean, sweetly astringent fragrance that's so precious on a deep winter day.

Then last night, the sunset glowed amazingly hot pink and purple, with a raft of clouds lit from below in light that changed from peachy-pink through searing magenta to violet and blue-black....what comfort the beauty of flowers and sky can be in mid-January.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Celebs and Friends Speaking at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show

The crazy extravaganza of gardens, seeds, tools, plants, design, fragrance, fun and exhaustion that is the Northwest Flower and Garden Show runs February 8 - 12 this year at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle. Didn't winter used to be more peaceful before the show? Yes, but probably not as interesting...

A new post on the Northwest Flower and Garden Show blog kindly touts local speakers; most of us clamor to hear visiting judges and speakers from around the world speak, but local gardeners, who know our climate, soils and gardens remain the backbone of the show.

Janet Endsley calls out "Favorite Celebs and Friends Speaking at the Show", and while like everyone else I'll no doubt crowd in to hear the guru of edible gardening Rosalind Creasy, here from California to judge the show, let's all support local speakers, too.

And this isn't just because I'm speaking on Thursday morning at 10 a.m. on "Reaping the Rewards of Simple, Fresh Bouquets Year Round" and showing images from my Langley garden and bouquets from a year of gathering and scavenging  (See entire seminar schedule here).

I'll be signing my just-released book Petal & Twig after, please come by and say hello...

Hellebore, pine and coral bark maple twig bouquet for mid-winter.