Now In Bloom Redux

 Designer Richard Hartlage once recommended weekly nursery visits as the best way to make sure you have something happening in your garden year-round. Need an excuse to hang at nurseries?  There you have it...but the efficacy of this strategy depends not only on an abundance of time, but also on how good the nurseries are where you live (we're lucky in Seattle & environs). And nursery plants may well be forced into early bloom, so no telling just when they'll flower in future years...

Now I hope this isn't yet another sign of blogdom substituting for print on paper, but do you remember that my column in Pacific Northwest magazine always used to include a "Now In Bloom" feature? It  featured a plant at its peak moment- tree, perennial, annual, bulb, a very selective look at what was at its best. I loved writing it, but I'm sorry to say that "Now In Bloom" went the way of the artist who drew it....but I still get email from readers who want it resurrected.

So here, officially, "Now In Bloom" hops from newsprint to cyberspace. I plan to start every week with a special  plant - even if you are lucky enough to cruise nurseries often, maybe this highly selective feature (just one plant a week!!!) will help you sort through all the beguiling possibilities. I hope it'll tune you in to the seasonality of your garden, introduce you, perhaps, to some new plants, and help with those tough edits that make for the best gardens. So here we go:

NOW IN BLOOM;
Cornelian cherry is really a dogwood, though you'd never know it. From its haze of yellow flowers to its winter bloom time, Cornus mas is unique to the dogwood family.

Tolerant of a wide variety of soils, this small, sturdy tree fits easily into most urban or suburban gardens. You can see it growing as a specimen on the north side of Greenlake, or in a gridded grove in front of the Center for Urban Horticulture. In early autumn, Cornelian cherries sport edible red fruit used in jams and jellies; a little later in the season, its foliage turns a deep reddish-purple.

You can grow Cornus mas in sun or part shade, it's drought tolerant once established, and grows ten feet high and wide. This is a practical little tree, well worth growing it for its surprising burst of yellow long before most trees even bud up.

An aged Cornus mas growing at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Comments

[Christine B.]

How I wish I could grow Cornus mas here! I tried C. mas 'Golden Glory' and it was a flop, dying back each year and not flowering for three years. Finally ripped it out. I shall enjoy it vicariously through gardeners such as yourself that grow it well.

Christine in Alaska

[Natasha Newton]

Hi Val, sorry to leave this as a comment here (please feel free to delete after reading!) but I just tried to send it as an email to you and received a message saying it couldn't get through to the email address given. (?) The message I tried to send is below...

Hi Val,

Thanks for the comment you left on my blog the other day. I'm really pleased that you're delighted with the Moo business cards! Thanks so much for buying some. I believe you wrote to me about a month ago regarding my 'Keeping The Home Fires Burning' painting, which had already sold? I should have asked you at the time whether you'd like to be added to my art mailing list - I only send out occasional newsletters (I update the blog far more often!) but there are sometimes offers on my work especially for mailing list members only, so it may be worth doing if you're interested! No pressure - just thought I'd mention it.

By the way, you have a lovely blog. I see you recently celebrated your first anniversary/blogiversary - congratulations! I liked the part where you mentioned that you were grateful for "nearly every one" of the comments you'd received over the past year - I know that feeling! ;)

Very best wishes,
Natasha