Plant Talk

My Mother's Garden

My mother always grew a winter flowering cherry (Prunus autumnalis) outside of her kitchen window so she could be cheered by its pale pink flowers while she worked at the sink. With four kids, she spent more time than she would have liked to in the kitchen.

She was a dedicated gardener, ahead of her time in her love of drought-tolerant and native plants. But I most remember her colorful exbury azalea hedge at the top of the rockery, her prolific hydrangeas grown huge on a diet of manure from my Dad's racing pigeons, and the Sweet William she uncharacteristically loved and always grew.

My Mom died before I became much of a gardener myself - she would have been 91 years old today - Happy Birthday Mom...I never told you how your garden forms my earliest memories, how I carry it in my heart and my very bones....

 

The Cherries Are Blooming - What Kinds Grow Best in Our Climate?

The purple-leaf plums may bloom first, but the pale haze of cherry trees this week is  ethereally lovely against the dark April skies....unfortunately cherry trees suffer from disease in our climate. Prunus 'Berry' Cascade Snow, with the single white blossoms pictured at left, is one of the healthiest cherry trees for our climate and tops out at about 18 feet tall and wide in 10 years..

It's easy to forget how large cherry trees can grow - check out this gorgeous specimen in full bloom at Greenlake on Wednesday morning...I believe this is a yoshino cherry (Prunus x yedoensis), the same kind of Japanese flowering cherry blooming in the quad at the University of Washington and at the tidal basin in Washington D.C.

My mother always grew an autumn flowering cherry (Prunus autumnalis) outside her kitchen window so she could see flowers all winter long, but I'm afraid I've given up on these disease-riddled trees. But who with a heart and eyes can give up on cherries altogether?

The Great Plant Picks program has selected three kind of ornamental cherries that do pretty well in the Northwest, including Cascade Snow and the yoshino cherry above. A smaller version of the yoshino called daybreak cherry (Prunus x yedoensis 'Akebono') had brighter pink flowers and grows only about 15 feet tall in a decade.

I was startled into memories when I went to the GPP website this morning and found that the photo they use of daybreak cherry is growing in front of my old house in Sheridan Beach - I miss those trees! This glorious cherry was one of three growing along the sidewalk in full sun where it bloomed happily, usually the last week of March and into early April.....