Plant Talk

Frost on the Sedum

Hoarfrost coated South Whidbey Island this weekend, turning the world as sparkling white as a snowfall without the treachery. I don't remember ever seeing such exuberant, furry-looking frost. Turns out such thick ice crystals are known as hoarfrost - what an old-fashioned, poetic word for one of nature's most amazingly lovely phenomena. Here's the definition:

"Hoarfrost refers to the white ice crystals, loosely deposited on the ground or exposed objects, that form on cold clear nights when heat losses into the open skies cause objects to become colder than the surrounding air." 

Such simple, scientific words fail to evoke how hoarfrost softens and transforms the world from dull and dark to glistening reflectivity...Here's the hoarfrost settled on a pot of sedum, a glass ball and a wooden table in my back garden in Langley about 10 a.m. this morning:

 

Go Outside

I'm grateful for the shelter of a warm house on these frosty winter days...and yet, I crave fresh air and being outdoors. The forecast is for a break in the weather over the weekend; here are some ideas for post-Christmas outings:

Visit the dignified and friendly camel at  Swanson's Nursery. I'm afraid he's stealing all the attention from the reindeer, who are beautiful, but uninterested. This camel seems to love people, and his long-lashed eyes and velvety nose, proffered for a pat, are enchanting. I've visited him a half-dozen times in the last couple of weeks, picking up pots of fragrant paperwhites and amaryllis while I'm at Swanson's..and, yes, a hellebore or two.

 
Stripped to its winter bones, the Japanese Garden  at the Washington Park Arboretum is beautiful right now. Its evergreens, bare-branched maples, teahouse and ponds come into their own in winter. A quiet stroll along its paths is a reminder of the season's elegant serenity. 

Don't forget the extravagant light show at the Bellevue Botanical Garden on these clear, starry nights. Even a blustery day, with the Olympic Mountain range on the horizon and ferry boats passing by, is a delightful time to visit the Olympic Sculpture Park for a blast of art, snowberry thickets and groves of wintery white aspen bark.

The Witt Winter Garden, also at the Washington Park Arboretum is exuberant with bloom; witch hazels are budding up, mahonia, sasanqua camellias and
heather are in flower. If you visit on a sunny day, the garden is full of birds, sleepy bees and the sweet vanilla scent of sarcococca in bloom.

My most favorite hike in any season is along the cliffs at Ebey's Landing on Whidbey Island - the photo below is of Bridget and me on a February morning at the top of the cliffside trail (taken by Alice Doyle of Loghouse Plants). My nieces are visiting from Edinburgh and Anchorage, my children home for Christmas, so I'll be taking a blog break until the new decade....if I don't see you at the camel cage at Swanson's, maybe we'll meet up strolling the paths of the sculpture museum, or hummingbird watching at the Witt Winter Garden (they crave the yellow flowers atop the mahonia this time of year). Enjoy...get outside...happy holidays..

Amaryllis Awe

Never a big poinsettia fan, I'm in awe at how long-lasting and showy amaryllis are - also easy care. Just don't water them too much, stake them up so they don't break off (as the one in the photo below, which is lasting just fine in a vase after toppling and breaking). 

Most nurseries and even many grocery stores have them for sale around Christmas, so stock up and you won't need to buy bouquets for at least a month...The beauty below in my Langley kitchen is 'Orange Sovereign', a glorious shade I'd call tangerine; the soft pink 'Apple Blossom'  and statuesque 'Snow White' are also stunners....it's like having a summer lily (minus the fragrance, unfortunately) in full bloom in your house in the middle of winter...

Photos courtesy of Debra Waterman:

Happy Winter Solstice

 
Our descent into darkness is complete; we've reached the longest night, the shortest day and now the earth begins its oh-so-subtle tilt toward springtime. Today is a quintessential darkest day, with wind, rain and falling temperatures. The sun didn't rise until nearly 8 a.m. and it'll set at 4:20, with twilight descending shortly after 3... Even if the sky was clear tonight, the waxing crescent moon would shed little light, being only 23% illuminated - look for a full moon on New Year's Eve to usher in the new decade.

A traditional way for gardeners to celebrate the solstice is to plant garlic, which will be ready to harvest in mid-June on the longest day of the year. I've been marking the solstice by bundling up and getting out into the garden for an hour or so most days, cleaning up, enjoying the robins, chickadees and the Steller's jays rustling around in the leaves. All the bird activity reminds me of this favorite childhood poem by Oliver Herford, a gift to us all in the dark of the solstice:

I heard a bird sing

In the night of December

A magical thing

And sweet to remember

'We're nearer to spring than we were in September'

I heard a bird sing

In the dark of December.

 

 

Winter-blooming camellias

  Before last week's deep freeze, the blossoms on my 'Setsugekka' camellia looked like the ones in this photo; white and frilly, centered in fluffs of yellow stamen. I have three of these sasanqua camellias espaliered against a tall hogwire screen, and the combination of their glossy green leaves and white blossoms is  the big show in my little garden in late November into January. But last week's deep freeze did them in;  now they're wrinkly paper-bag brown...those that haven't already dropped off.

But the wonder of sasanqua camellias is that they bud back up when the weather warms, and bloom again throughout the winter. Sasanquas are more delicate looking shrubs than the bigger, March-flowering Camellia japonicas. The leaves are shiny deep green year-round, their growth habit is a little lanky, so they're ideal to grow against a fence or wall, preferably near your entryway, garage so you can enjoy the site of them from a window. Their real glory is their bloom time; Sasanqua camellias start blooming in November (depending on variety) and keep at it until the daffodils take over. 

While C. 'Setsugekka's" large white blossoms look so amazing on a dark December day, C. "Kanjiro' has fragrant, semi-double blossoms in pink edged with red. C. 'Apple Blossom' is an old favorite with white blossoms blushed in baby pink. Monrovia has just introduced new 'Marge Miller' with hot pink flowers that look almost as extravagant as peony blooms....well, see for yourself...all photos courtesy of Monrovia:

Camellia 'Kanjiro' (above)

 

    




    

Simplicity

 
I've been reading The Roots of Buddhist Psychology by Jack Kornfield, and it's made me realize that what I'm really always writing about is the psychology of gardeners. No matter the topic - the newest plant or rejuvenating soil, at the heart of the story lies our passion for gardening, why we spend our time the way we do.

I can't imagine any group of people more diverse, more feisty and independent than gardeners, yet there's such commonality - our abiding love and fascination with nature, our curiousity, resilience, and capacity, even thirst, for hard work. How we find our deepest satisfaction in coaxing plants from the earth, in nurturing their growth. On some level we gardeners are nothing but sensualists, reveling in the smells, textures, tastes, colors of what we grow; on another we're the most enduring of pragmatists.

To balance out the intensity of Kornfield's book, and as antidote to the bleakness of winter, I've been re-reading "French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France" by Richard Goodman. I was struck by his concise and beautiful explanation of why he gardens; "I am always searching for ways to make myself simpler. Gardening does that better than anything I know. It reduces me to who I am. It casts off the superficial and the artificial. It leaves me with the essential, the economical, the no-frills me." Perhaps that clarity is what we most hope for on a good day in the garden.

Making Do....

It's  hard to change habits and traditions, especially holiday ones. But this year, my family is determined to cut down, cut back, consume less. No wrapping paper, except for wrinkly sheets saved from past years. Presents wrapped in newspapers and brown paper bags are tied with reusable fabric or net ribbons. We're decking the halls with not much more than   candles and fodder from the garden.  I admit a little barter is going on with neighbors - yesterday I swapped camellia branches for some red-berried viburnum and rose hips.

It's simpler, more creative, cheaper and feels right to shop only for special gifts, and not fall into repeating all those rote things that are more routine than inspiration. The holidays feel unsustainable at their usual level of consumption - I know we're saving time, money, effort and angst, and that feels good.

I'm giving paperwhite narcissus as gifts, tied with wide, net ribbon that can be used over & over. If you forgot to start paperwhites a few weeks ago, or, like mine, yours aren't flowering at the right moment, (how to orchestrate timing is always the devilment of it!) Swanson's Nursery, luckily, has done it right. They offer 4" pots of beauties for only $9.99, at various stages of development.

It's fun to figure out new uses for favorite objects . I'd never noticed that this glass bird (below), which was made by Whidbey artist Meredith MacLeod and usually resides in my back garden, is kind of Christmas-colored. Yesterday I moved it to the front porch to greet holiday visitors. The bird is garnished in twigs of cryptomeria, purple-leafed Hebe 'Amy', and the swapped viburnum. It's not a wreath, true, but it's original, free, and everchanging with a variety of greens from the garden.This morning, the greens are lightly dusted with frost for an effect lovelier than I could have dreamed up...

Goodbye Lucca

Lucca Statuary is closing its doors next month, and our gardens will be the poorer for it. The charm of Lucca's classical European-inspired pieces, from fountains to gargoyles, has enriched and enlivened countless Seattle gardens over the years Francine Katz and Peter Riches have been in business.

The combination of dwindling retail sales and fewer big orders from designers has been discouraging, the cost of manufacturing their own line high, let alone shipping costs... the result? Lucca will close....but in the meantime, check out their amazing liquidation sale, with prices 50% - 70% off an all merchandise through January 31. Haven't you, or someone on your list, always wanted a gargoyle (urn, fountain, statue, Buddha....) for Christmas???

The good news is that Lucca Great Finds, Peter and Francine's very fun vintage shop on Ballard Avenue is still going strong....and be sure and check out the bargains at the Leary Way location...

Frozen Flowers & Fruit

Try to overlook the blackened blossoms on the poor sasanqua camellias; many plants are holding up just fine to the extreme temperatures. Even after overnight lows in the teens this week, plants from hellebores to viburnum are thriving in this frosty, freezing weather:

Helleborus argutifolius 'Silver Lace' is a smaller, paler version of Corsican hellebore, budded up in my garden next to a mosaic egg made by Vashon Island artist Clare Dohna

The bloom of Viburnum tinus 'Spring Bouquet' may be delayed by this freeze, but the flowers will open as soon as it warms up a bit.

The birds have left a few crabapples on a tree in the downtown Langley park at 2nd and Anthes

This yellow siding is an inspired backdrop for beautyberry's metallic lavender fruit (Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii 'Profusion').

Q&A: Crunchy Cold Soil

Dear Ms. Easton,
Maybe I'm just echoing what a lot of gardeners have on their minds right now in this cold snap...I went and bought several potted plants at Swanson's last week using my Swan Dollars and lo and behold, now the soil is crunchy and cold and it's fr-r-r-r-reezing outside. Is it better to leave those plants in their pots, or stick them in the cold soil and mulch them? I feel like I want to put mufflers around them and serve them tea...
Thanks for any insights,
Best,
Christina Wilsdon
in the slanting rays of winter sunlight on frozen Phinney Hill

 Hi Christina, This photo is the windshield of my car coated in ice crystals yesterday morning. Last night was predicted to be equally cold - down to 18 degrees in the city. I'm sure many other gardeners are worrying about their plants tonight too, especially potted ones. While plants do suffer more from the cold when they're in pots (less insulating soil, more cold air circulating around closer to their roots), your question is moot - the ground is frozen too solidly to plant anything right now. And it would harm the brittle, cold roots on your new plants to disturb them.

So the best you can do for now is to top the pots off with mulch, bring your plants into a garage or basement at night, or put them right up against the house in as sheltered a spot as you can find, and maybe even wrap the pots with a blanket or towel. And hope for a thaw so you can get your new plants into the (relatively) warmer ground...hopefully we aren't talking about any semi-tender plants or I'm afraid they're history, for borderline plants in the ground are suffering, and perhaps dying, this week when it dips below 20 degrees night after night....