Plant Talk

Plant Lover's Mecca Far Reaches Farm Launches Mail Order & Partners with Plant Talk

Well, partnership may be putting it too strongly, but advertiser doesn't adequately describe this new relationship between Plant Talk and a few, special businesses - like Far Reaches Farm whose new ad posts for the first time today. I really appreciate their support to keep the blog going....and I love the fact that Far Reaches is now offering mail order to eager plant connoisseurs all over the country.

Here's an excerpt from a piece I wrote last year in Pacific Northwest mag;  "The story of Far Reaches Farm is about more than hard work and hip plants. At heart it's a romance. Dodson and Milliken met and fell in love on a seed-collecting expedition to China. Both gave up their previous lives and nurseries, and Milliken moved from Vermont to join Dodson on the West Coast. Eight years ago the pair founded Far Reaches Farm and have been hard at work ever since building gardens and a nursery with the largest variety of taxa of any in the state." (read the full story here)

And now, even though I can't think of a more delightful outing, you no longer need to hop the ferry to Port Townsend to salivate over Kelly and Sue's amazing collection of covetable plants. At your fingertips online, then delivered to your door, are not-to-be-found-elsewhere crocosmia, like this C. 'His Majesty' which has the largest blooms of any of the 100 different varieties of crocosmia at Far Reaches. Is it the orange shading, the size of the flower, or the intensity of the sky that's so heart-stopping? Doesn't matter, it's a scene I'd like to replicate in my own garden, as soon as possible please...

And who would ever expect such an exotic looking creature to be hardy? But this weirdly beautiful Chinese May Apple survives to zone 5. An iconic plant for shade gardens, it matures into a 20"-30" herbaceous rounded dome of multiple stems with quite a few of these big flowers. The combination of huge, darkly variegated leaves and fluffy pink flowers is pretty outrageous. Kelly and Sue  collected seed of this in 1997 in Yunnan province; it's botanical name is Sinopodophyllum hexandrum var. chinensis ex MD97150. I love the softly furry bud just cracking open, and how the entire plant looks as if it has just emerged fresh from a newly created earth...

But that kind of rhapsodizing is what happens when you look at Far Reaches plants - and now you can not only look through a catalog of these treasures, but  order them online... please patronize Far Reaches Farm and thank them for advertising here on Plant Talk...

Clematis, Corylopsis and Snow for Leap Year....

It may have been snowing sideways today and about as cold as I can remember it a few weeks before the spring equinox, but take heart. Deep beneath us, the soil must be warming up. While snowflakes, sleet and rain eddied in circles chilling to the bone, the fragrant Clematis armandii on our building on lower Queen Anne bravely opened its snowy, starry  blossoms. This tough evergreen vine with its long, leathery leaves doesn't look like it could ever produce such delicate perfection, but it's smothered in buds and curling new foliage....shown here with a haze of corylopsis picked last weekend in Langley....

Earliest Spring Plant Sales to Art Auctions and Backyard Habitat Classes at the Zoo

It's hard to look up from working in the garden right now - weeding, mulching, pruning, leftover fall clean-up  (that would be me)...but these events will be worth taking time out for...

  Remember how we used to launch the gardening season with a hellebore open house at Heronswood that was both gardening party and benefit for the Miller Library? The Northwest Horticultural Society has updated that spring kick-off with a sale of woodland treasures, hellebores and ferns, plus lectures by Dan Hinkley ..On Friday March 9, from 9:00 - 4:00 at the Center for Urban Horticulture, come buy plants, see your friends who are also emerging from the winter doldrums. Dan will give two lectures ($5 each) on spring ephemerals, and early-blooming trees and shrubs. Because this is an NHS event, you can expect to have fun, learn much, and find specialty vendors offering cool and unusual plants...

On Sunday, March 18, the Northwest Perennial Alliance is hosting their annual Nicolay Lecture, and auctioning off an original watercolor by Kevin Nicolay, one of the organizations founding members, a renowned plantsman and beloved artist.

Nicolay was self-taught, developing his detailed and intricate technique by studying medieval flower paintings. His work hangs in museums and was seen regularly in Horticulture magazine (when that mag used to be the gold standard...). Nicolay died in 1990 at the age of 33, and his work is scarce, so this is a special opportunity to own an original - or at least get in on the excitement of a lively auction.

The watercolor is Primula auricula, Golden Centered Alpine 'Brown Bess', it's signed, framed, and measures 16" x 20". 'Brown Bess' will be on display in the Miller Library  at the Center for Urban Horticulture from March 1-17 if you'd like to take a close look at it.

The afternoon event begins at noon at CUH, and includes a sale of native perennials from MSK Rare Plant Nursery and a lecture by Greg Raybourn on Northwest native perennials. For more information, call Gayle Richardson at  206-632-2735.

Who better to educate gardeners about creating backyard habitats than the folks at the zoo? At this series of five classes, you'll learn from experts from Seattle Audubon, Seattle Tilth, Washington Native Plant Society and Woodland Park Zoo about how to design your wildlife habitat, attract birds and other wildlife to your backyard, select and care for native plants, manage your backyard sustainably, coexist peacefully with the wildlife you attract, and get your yard certified as a Backyard Habitat. New this year - your backyard vegetable garden as habitat....
 
Site Evaluation, Design, and Maintenance
Wednesday, March 14th from 7 to 9 p.m.


Attracting Birds To Your Backyard
Wednesday, March 28th from 7 to 9 p.m.

Spring Plants and Planting
Saturday, April 7th from 10 a.m. to noon

NEW CLASS! Your Vegetable Garden as a Backyard Habitat
Saturday, April 7th from 1 to 3 p.m.

Butterflies and Bees, Wednesday, April 25, from 7-9 p.m.

Cost: $25 per person / $100 for the five-part series if you register before 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14th.
 
For more information or to register, see the zoo’s Backyard Habitat page: www.zoo.org/backyardhabitat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beyond Carrots and Corn - How About an Early-Ripening Fig and a Petite Eggplant?

If the daffodils are pushing up out of the ground and the grocery stores are selling primroses, it must be time to start thinking about new plants....our acquisitive instincts rise with the sap...and no wonder with all the tempting new plants introduced every spring.

In late winter I have the welcome chore of sorting through hundreds of fresh, new kinds of plants for a series of columns in Pacific Northwest magazine. I try to figure out which ones might be worth growing - are they especially fragrant, dwarf, more variegated, bloom earlier or later, stay compact, or more likely to ripen in our cool summers? All these questions come into play. Sure, my choices are subjective, I'm influenced by the visuals and a bit by the marketing hype...but I hope mostly by more years of gardening experience than I prefer to claim.  

The series runs in the magazine starting in early April....in the meantime, here are a couple of flashy new edibles that didn't make it into the column on food plants. Not because they aren't exciting, and perhaps well suited to our climate, but when writing for the old media (on paper) it's always a question of space...how I wish I could have squeezed these two beauties into the mix....

Eggplant ‘Pot Black’ (Solanum melongena) produces glossy black fruit that weigh only 2-3 oz, so they're smaller than Japanese eggplant. The plants fit into a container, so are perfect for the sunniest spot on your deck, preferably where they'll get reflected sunshine. Expect each plant to produce about 30 eggplant, 58-62 days to harvest. Grown by wholesaler Log House Plants in Eugene, Oregon, these covetable little eggplants should be available in most area nurseries later this spring.

This 'Celestial' fig tree (Ficus caricus) is new from Monrovia, even though figs are some of the oldest plants cultivated by humans. 'Celestial' sounds like a smart pick for our climate and smaller gardens, for it stays fairly compact, and requires less heat and time to ripen. The splayed leaves are handsome, the tree grows vigorously to 5-10 feet, and it's reliably hardy to zone 7. The fruit is small and sweet, with purplish-brown skin and white flesh...and they supposedly ripen by mid-June...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Begonias (Inside) and Hellebores (In & Out) to Get Us Through the Tail End of Winter

Twenty-eight days until the spring equinox...if you're counting... at the moment a vase of hellebores in the kitchen and some leafy begonias are giving me hope I can last until the days are longer, the soil warmer, and the sun climbs higher in the sky.

I adore autumn as the light fades and the garden dies down, crave the quiet of deep winter...it's just this rag-tag tail end of the season that gets to me.

In the meantime....the hellebore hybrids are opening their pretty flowers; here's a mix of cream, darkest purple and blush pink mixed with a scrap of striped hebe and some euphorbia...

The deep, darkest hellebores with those filaments of palest yellow anthers are so dramatic, aren't they? And most effective cut and brought into the house where you can admire them close up, for they   tend to disappear in the winter garden...

I bought a couple of begonias at the Portland garden show, to keep on a bright, cool windowsill until the weather warms, then plant outside in pots for summer. I know they're Victorian favorites, but they look modern to me, with their unusual shapes, thick, patterned leaves, and a presence that's more fauna than flora...

The top one is Begonia rhizomatous 'Escargot' - an apt name for the snail-swirled leaves. The chartreuse one below it is a rex begonia named 'Shadow King Green Envy'...both from N & M Herb Nursery....then a close-up of 'Escargot' - see what I mean about the creature-like appeal?? It could be an O'Keeffee in its perfection of stripe, sumptousness of texture, tiny hairs on the leaf margins, and elegant swirliness...

Blog Birthday Brings New Partnerships

My blog celebrated its third birthday last week; nearly 600 posts, and 547,332 lifetime views as of this morning. More than 25,000 readers check out Plant Talk every month (thank you!) - which are good numbers for a gardening blog, if not so much for a cooking blog. As my editor at Pacific Northwest memorably told me when I was vying for space with the food coumn..."Everyone eats, you know Val, but not everyone gardens"....really?? I guess she's probably right.

So as Plant Talk moves forward into its fourth year, with increasingly confusing and rapid changes in the publishing world, I've decided to take on some partners. I guess you could call them advertisers, but since they're hand-picked people who are friends, I think of it more as their stepping up to support my work here on the blog. Sounds better than monetizing, doesn't it? But that's what I need to do, and thank goodness some really fine horticultural businesses are partnering with Plant Talk - I think you'll love seeing their ads, I hope you'll click on them and patronize them (if I didn't totally believe in what these companies are doing they wouldn't be on my blog).

I absolutely promise no pop-ups. Ever.

My debut partner is:.....Renee's Garden Seeds, a California company owned by Renee Shepherd, with a mission of education as much as selling quality seed. How can you not love a company whose tag line is "Set the Table From Your Garden"?

Renee is a fine cook and horticulturist...she exudes enthusiasm and expertise. I've long bought my sweet pea, lettuce and nasturtium...oh, and sunflower....seeds from Renee. When I recently asked her about what she's most excited about this spring she answered "As far as new varieties worth mention, I really love all the new things we introduced for 2012, so asking me to pick favorites is almost impossible. That said, I love the Edible Landscaping lettuce, Rhapsody butterhead lettuce, the Baby Napa Cabbage, the Wasabi Arugula and the Cup of Sun Nasturtium and the Raspberry Sorbet Zinnia."

'Cup of Sun' nasturtium! Who can resist?

Even though Renee lives in sunny Felton, California, her sister and webmaster Sue Sheckett lives here in Seattle, so Renee is very familiar with our climate...which never hurts when you need info on vegetable varieties. Whether you're looking for recipes, advice, heirlooms or just beautiful flowers and delicious vegetables, Renee's is a reliable source...and I hope you'll thank her for supporting Plant Talk by checking out the website....can you imagine a more beautiful ad to launch this partnership thing?

European Botanicals from Portland; Over-the-Top Gorgeous Work by Francoise Weeks

If you saw the richly textured,flower arrangement in my last post, centered with Brussels sprouts, you'll love the website of the flower arranger who created it for the edible garden at the Yard, Garden and Patio Show in Portland last weekend. Francoise Weeks has such flair while using tiny woodland treasures, berries, vegetables and leaves - each work is a composition of varying textures, shapes, and when you look closely, treasures from the garden. 

From Francoise's description of her workshop for beginning flower arrangers:  "Mix in seedpods and blackberries, miniature artichokes and eggplants, varieties of lush foliage and fragrant herbs as well as seasonal flowers. Get ideas to express your creativity and learn to work with gifts from your own garden."

Her website is a delight - here's a sampling of elaborately marvelous botanical shoes, each one a work of art, a succulent medley garnished with fuzzy, fresh blackberries not yet colored up, and one of her small, exquisite woodland arrangements, of which I've never seen the like...lots more examples on her website and blog....

Food and Creativity Grow at the Portland Yard, Garden & Patio Show this Weekend

  After coming off days at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show (any stats yet on attendance? Can't wait to hear if the numbers are up...) I headed down to Portland last Thursday with a distinct lack of enthusiasm for yet more doo dah.

However, the moment I walked into Portland's Convention Center, with its warm lighting and more human scale, my enthusiasm bounced back. In the three years since I last spoke in Portland, this smaller, sweeter show, put on by the Oregon Association of Nurseries, has grown up. This was a banner year, with exciting plants, one of the best display gardens I've seen at any show ever, lots of local vendors,  and, as always, the Hardy Plant Society's display of branches and flowers cut from member's gardens.

This simple display brings real sophistication and a needed educational component for plant-centered gardeners, for the range and variety of the plants is so impressive.

I especially loved walking down the aisles sniffing dozens of different kinds of witch hazel, writing down names of viburnum...it's like a haze of a real winter garden, gathered together to remind us what's possible in our climate, even in mid-February. You can just picture devoted gardeners out cutting a branch here, a fragrant flower there, plucking one of their prize hellebores, forcing a twig of Daphne odora, and bringing their garden's bounty down to the convention center to share with the rest of us...

The show feels more real than ours, perhaps because of the lighting, and its more manageable size (about half the attendance). I love having the lights turned up so you can see plants and people (enough of the theatrics at our show! Give us light!), and that the commercial, display and educational components of the show are well integrated. In one aisle, I bought begonias, fingered some beautiful scarves, mooned over lilies, and picked up literature on hardy succulents, right before I wandered through the fabulous "Garden To Table" display of edibles.

This garden is so believable, so modern in its sensibilities, design and materials. Inspired by the French potager style, it meanders along the back wall of the convention center,  divided into a series of rooms, a style that worked as well for fruits and vegetables as it does for ornamentals. The use of repurposed materials added to the garden multi-dimensionality, as did twiggy arbors and a lenghty old barn ladder hung as an arbor over the rustic dining table (above, left).  A little greenhouse with citrus plants, a chicken chateau, bee hive, and a canning kitchen, let alone espaliered fruit, herbs and vegetables add up to a productive, earthy, fun and sophisticated display by designer Karen Schwarrz. Calendula Garden Design and Carol Senna of Melingo Studio Landscape Design.

You'll want to settle right down at the dining table, admire the coolest centerpiece I've about ever seen (note to Ciscoe - check out the brussels sprouts at the heart of the arrangement), press a few apples in the cider press, stir a pot of jam in the outdoor kitchen....I'm still pondering how the designers made this garden so welcoming, utilitarian, and believeable, yet sophisticated in its sensibilities and use of materials.  This might be the display garden that helps us re-think our use of garden space, materials and emphasis....and alone is worth a trip to Portland...you still have time, the show runs through 5 p.m. tomorrow...

The low, horizontal centerpiece on the outdoor table is an inspired mix of edibles, herbs and flowers

The kitchen components are utilitarian, homey, comfortable and decorative - with unfussy details like the green wall and ceramics that are perfectly suited to the garden in scale and spirit...

The plants are ornamentally arranged in raised beds; as each garden room unfolds into the next, you have the feeling of productivity and every square inch gracefully and cleverly used to grow food. There's nothing self-consciously ornamental about how these edibles are used, but they're planted to show off the inherent beauty of each plant...

I'll post more photos and impressions of the show over the next few days, but wanted to get word out about this fabulous garden in case you still have time to make it to the Portland....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flower Show as Economic Indicator? ...On to the Portland Yard, Garden and Patio Show...

We haven't heard official attendance figures yet from the NWF&G Show, but by all reports, attendance was up. Merchants were happy with sales, speakers were pleased with crowds in the conference rooms, the whole place felt buzzy and upbeat.

Can we cautiously hope that the show attence might be a barometer of an improving economy? Could it mean that the garden industry is recovering and finding a new, younger audience?

I was encouraged by the age of people who attended my talk on Thursday morning - there were several tattooed and pierced 20'somethings in the front row, and plenty of younger gardeners lined up to buy books. The equally young University Book store clerk told me that my book appealled to his generation because it was non-intimidating DIY.....and of course, that attitude is all over the flower show with its kid's playgarden and DIY Stage.....

For all of you still resting up from the show's overabundance of visual stimulation, here's an image of simplicity and organic beauty to help rest your eyes from all that dazzle. When we were hiking on the beach at Useless Bay Sunday afternoon, we came across this log - makes me wonder if I just see flowers everywhere, or does this look like a pansy to you too? Mostly I just love the contrast of wood to soft sand, distinct edges to seemingly endless beach....

I'm leaving soon for Portland to speak at the Yard, Garden and Patio Show Friday morning at 11 - wish me luck, love to see you there - the Portland show is smaller, sweeter, less commercial than ours...I'll be posting from the Portland Convention Center, so you can have a look at the show...

 

Pink Roses for Valentine's Day - Two New Varieties to Order Now for Summer Bloom

David Austin, a.k.a. English roses are an inspired blend of old and new. Traditional ruffliness and fragrance have been preserved and paired with the disease-resistance and repeat-bloom of modern roses. Meaning they perform well, yet have that romantic, old rose look. And what can be more quintessentially high summer than pink roses? David Austin is introducing two new ones this spring:

‘Princess Anne’ is a cerise (that's what the press release says; I'd call it magenta) fully-double shrub rose.  Really, its flowers are packed with frills and ruffles. It was named the "Best New Plant Variety" in the United Kingdom last year, because of its vigor and health. Growing a compact 3 feet tall and two feet wide, 'Princess Anne' is perfect for pots and smaller gardens, or a spot at the front of the border.

I think the paler, semi-double flowers of 'Skylark' will be easier to fit into most garden schemes. The flowers are open, and start out a rich pink, paling to a more lilac-pink. Best of all, it's blossoms smell of apples and cloves, like apple pie. Free-flowering, with an airy, informal growing habit, 'Skylark' looks its best growing amid other shrubs and perennials; it's also a relatively compact rose topping out at about three feet. Both roses are dependably hardy in our climate, and newly available in nurseries, or from David Austin Roses, this spring. Call 800-328-8893 for more information on these roses, or to order a free catalog.

'Princess Anne' - named after the Queen's sister...

 

And 'Skylark'