Plant Talk

Skunk Cabbage Never Looked So Good - Full On Spring Bloom at the Bellevue Botanical Garden

After you get past the fabulous greeting toad at BBG, and before you head to the exciting Ravine Experience exhibit, make sure you stop by the long double border. Even this early in the season, the color artistry of designers Withey and Price are on full display.

It was cold and windy when I visited this week, but the sun came out in teasing April fashion. It's that moment (which if it stays this chilly will last at least another week, probably longer) when the hellebores and daffodils and are still hanging on, and  the herbaceous plants are coming into their own.

I'm writing a story for Pacific Northwest magazine about the BBG's exciting new Olson Kundig designed Visitor's Center, about to break ground. You can check out renderings and plans in the Short Visitor's Center (don't worry, none of the beloved garden areas will be sacrificed to new buildings...).

But the real action is out in the long, double border, where trees are leafing out in a chartreuse haze, peonies are in fine new bronze foliage, and narcissus cheer up the scene as only they can do, pale petals contrasting with the rich darkness of the newly laid mulch.

Deer are a big problem at the border, solved by cages around the newer trees, softened with swathes of ruby-toned hellebore planted at their base.

If you've been pondering how best to integrate skunk cabbage into your garden - here's your lesson...yellow skunk cabbage is the focal point amidst golden daffodils, blue primroses and anemones...

The bold spikes of Yucca filamentosa 'Garland's Gold' are even more dramatic planted next to black mondo grass

And of course I strolled through the Waterwise Garden, and was rewarded by the surprise of a few Crown Imperial fritillaria poking up through the shrubbery in this best established of the gardens at BBG. Treat yourself to a spring border visit, and watch for my story in the Seattle Times about what's to come...

 

 

 

Bellevue Botanical Garden's Perennial Border, Hanging Baskets and Grasses - Now's the Time To Visit

One morning last week I spent a happy couple of hours at the BBG border with Glenn Withey and Charles Price, designers of both the old and the new Northwest Perennial Alliance border. These guys are confident enough in their design skills - and rightly so - to admit that planning, planting, and maintaining such an extensive border is a "crapshoot". They adjust, learn, take out and fill in, learning what works and what doesn't and in the process teaching all of us how to be better gardeners and more experimental with plant combinations - I'm writing a story for Pacific Northwest magazine about how the border is evolving and flourishing. There I'll tell the tale of rabbits, deer, death and new life....enough to say that despite rabbits devouring sixty (sixty!) Oriental poppies, the new border is stunning.

Here's a mid-border scene that shows Charles and Glenn's color artistry - fluffs of peachy-pink astilbe with near-matching foxglove, shown off by a dramatic splay of ornamental rhubarb (Rheum palmatum var. tanguticum)

Lauren's grape opium poppy, with its large, dark flowers and silvery foliage is a highlight of the border right now, running through the plantings like a deep ruby ribbon.

More border photos to come in the newspaper article...I also loved the mostly-ornamental-grass entry garden as you walk up from the parking lot - rock cairns punctuate a hillside alive with wind blowing through bleached blonde Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima), blue, blue spikes of catmint (Nepeta), and brilliant gold mounds of Japanese forest grass in the background. The close up (below) shows how effectively a swathe of rounded burgundy barberries contrast with the texture and color of the grasses.

And here's one of the waterfalls in the tranquil, shady, groundcover garden...I didn't even make it down the trail to the new Ravine Experience garden....

 

 

Garden Parties for Good Causes

The most anticipated garden parties of the season raise money for two of our finest gardens....but you'd never know it by how stylish and fun they'll be. There's nothing fund-raiser'ish about either the Dunn Garden's 2nd ever ArtWalk, or the Northwest Perennial Alliance's Champagne Garden Gala. On Sunday, August 23rd, from 4 to 7 p.m.,  you're invited to sip champagne, enjoy sweets and savories serenaded by a harpist in Denise Lane's Mediterranean-inspired Medina garden. The cause? Raising money for the NPA's ambitious, Withey-Price designed renovation of the Bellevue Botanical Garden's Perennial Border. See the NPA website for more info and to buy tickets.

Every other year, the Dunn Gardens throws an art-studded party and transforms itself into an open air gallery. Works by Northwest artist in bronze, stone, ceramic, concrete, and glass are displayed amongst the mature trees and shrubs of these lovely Olmsted designed gardens. Spend an evening or an afternoon listening to music, strolling the grounds, contemplating (and hopefully buying) garden art....I plan to do my duty...last ArtWalk I bought a trio of pieces by Bob Fairfax that have been the talk of my garden ever since....

 A gala preview party on Saturday night, July 18 ($100) kicks off the weekend... or enjoy a more casual afternoon with music and refreshments from 3-6 p.m. on Sunday July 19 ($20 donation). For more information and reservations, see www.dunngardens.org or call 206-362-0933. Enjoy a sneak peak at a few of the art pieces that will be on display:

Top to bottom: (Top) Ann Morris's leaf bowl; (Center) Bob Fairfax's Passageway Posts and Pods among the hostas; (Bottom) A cast bronze misting toad fountain by Sara Mall Johani