Plant Talk

Planting Time...

What a delight to spend an entire afternoon planting, while ignoring all the weeds sprouting  in the gravel driveway. Before I plant the rest of my vegetable (carrots, pumpkins, beans) and flower (sunflowers, nasturtiums) seeds, I indulged in a day of planting...of course, it's never that simple. Beds need rearranging, plants moved about, shrubs need clipping back or limbing up....one thing always leads to another in the garden. Forget about efficiency, or finishing up (what a delusion!) and enjoy the May ride....here are a few plants, new to me, that I planted today and can't wait to see how they grow in/grow up/fill in.

Sedum 'Sweet 'n' Sour' - I'm always on the hunt for sedum that are a little different, and this sunny newcomer has yellow leaves that mature to green edged in gold; it's mounding and compact, drought-tolerant and hardy.

Stachys 'Silky Fleece' is a miniature lamb's ear that can take sun or shade, is evergreen, with the same fuzzy silver leaves as its bigger cousins. It forms a thick mat and has tiny plum-colored flowers in summer.  I've planted it with golden creeping speedwell (Veronica repens 'Sunshine') and the very dark, crinkly leafed Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' for a medley of groundcovers with contrasting colors and textures. I'm hoping they'll co-exist happily, but am waiting to see which will elbow out its neighbors.

Papaver spicatum, a.k.a. Turkish spike poppy has scalloped gray/green leaves, downy buds, and in August opens apricot flowers that are 5" across. I'm in love with even the thought of this perennial poppy...

And this last one isn't particularly new, but I'm newly enchanted with it. Deschampsia flexuosa 'Tatra Gold' is a little chartreuse hair-like grass that looks like each is made of springy rubber. It only grows about a foot tall, stays brilliantly yellow/green all summer; I'm trimming out all my potted Japanese maples with it.

Also - a new bistro table and chairs - can't wait until it gets warm enough to drink a cup of tea out there in the mornings.... Happy  Mother's Day...may your children give you time to garden on this sunny weekend...

Cool New Container Plant

Graham Rice  wrote recently about Cordyline 'Pink Passion' on his RHS new plant blog, so we too should take note of this flashy new annual. Perfect for containers, 'Pink Passion' is all about color, with stiff, slender spikes in white, beige, dull purple and rich magenta. The effect is of gray and pink sparked with a touch of white, and I can imagine it planted with a cuff of plum-colored superbells (Calibrachoa 'Million Bells Purple), or as the focal point in a pot of dark and chartreuse sedum, all of which would enjoy the same hot, droughty conditions as the cordyline. Or it'd be fun to play against the sweetness of this cordyline's color scheme by surrounding it with spiky black mondo grass in a galvanized metal tub....okay, I'm off to the nursery....

A Likely Combo

Cultus Bay Nursery on south Whidbey Island is a plant-lover's paradise - have I ever left there without fresh finds in hand? Last weekend was no exception.

I'd never heard of the stunning violet tubeflower (Iochroma cyaneum 'Royal Purple Queen') which seems to have a confused name, as I find the words in various order on different web sites. There's no confusion about how much hummingbirds love this plant with flowers reminiscent of phygelius. It hails from South America, is hardy to zone 7 (we'll see......) and in the Solanaceae family along with tomatoes, peppers and angel trumpets (brugmansia). Clusters of dark purple flowers are set off by glamourously large, velvety leaves, and best of all it tops out at only two to three feet, so you get lots of impact in a small space. Since it's bred for heat and humidity, I'm not expecting rapid or extravagant growth. Not only was I smitten with it's status as a hummingbird magnet, but also that it supposedly blooms all summer long, helped along with a bit of deadheading. Violet tubeflower prefers a warm spot in the garden with full sun, free-draining soil,  frequent fertilizing to keep it flowering, and a nice layer of winter mulch. Supposedly it'll act like a perennial in our climate and die back to the ground; I'm just hoping it's not the annual I suspect it will be.

I plant to plant it with the hardy fuchsia 'Preston Bay' (also from Cultus Bay), that also has a remarkably long bloom season. This beauty grows only a couple of feet tall, with white sepals and purple petals fading to pink. I'm keeping my prizes on the deck to admire for awhile before they go into the ground:

 

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Ultimate Tropical

Does your garden get a little tired by mid-summer? Especially this year when we're all growing vegetables, gaps appear in the garden about this time if your broccoli and cauliflower bolted as mine did...or  unless you've gone a bit overboard on squashes and pumpkins (mine are eating the garden as I write this....). Perhaps it's time to fill in with some show-stopping exotica.

There's a flashy new elephant ear on the market which strikes me as the ultimate tropical - gargantuan leaves with bold variegation in very cool chartreuse and darkest purple. Even its stems are striking with rattesnake-like striping.  Colocasia 'Mojito' is a marketer's delight in looks and name, but that doesn't mean it might not be just the thing for a garden focal point from late summer until frost.

This flashy new exotic is grown by Agristarts and released onto the market by Hort Couture as part of their Tres Chic Tropicals. Photo courtesy of Hort Couture.

 
 
 

Planting Time

I spent much of this past weekend planting - such encouraging weather, and the soil is finally warming up. I put in scarlet runner beans, a second seeding of lettuces and arugula. But also some very cool plants that are new to me.... Most are produced by wholesaler Log House Plants near Eugene, who sells their plants at Bayview Nursery on Whidbey Island, and also many Seattle area nurseries.

I planted scads of bronzey-purple New Zealand rock lily (Arthropodium candidum 'Purpureum') which is perfect for trimming the edge of beds or in pots - it's color and texture (wider blades, short and thick) looks great in pots beneath the filmy haze of fresh Japanese maple leaves. It's evergreen, and has tiny white flowers. I have no idea if it'll be mannerly or invasive - I guess I'll find out....I found this at City People's Garden Store in the Madison Valley.

 Carexes are the most useful of little grasses, and C. siderosticha 'Lemon Zest'stays golden all summer when planted in some shade. It 's an evergreen clumping sedge that grows only a foot tall - I planted a little hedge of them along the edge of one of my raised beds.

 I've always loved Black-eyed Susan vines, and am enchanted this year with the new (to me, anyway) Thunbergia 'African Sunset' and 'Charles Star' in colors more subtle and interesting than the usual bright yellow with black centers. That's 'African Sunset' below - the copper and terra-cotta color is really more vivid than in the photo; 'Charles Star' is a warm, rich yellow-orange. They grow readily, twine around a trellis or arbor supports, and bloom all summer. I planted a bunch to grow up tall hog-wire screens; they'd be great to disguise a chain-link fence, or for near-instant screening.

Cool New Plants

A perfect storm of Mother's Day, sunshine, and annual planting time converge to make this the biggest nursery shopping weekend of the year. My husband fondly remembers buying and planting red geraniums for his Mom every year; in our family Mother's Day was all about fuchsia baskets. Today's equivalents are probably coleus and abutilons, but the celebration of Moms and spring and warmer weather is pretty much the same.

Since you'll no doubt be cruising a nursery or two in the next few days, here's a heads up on a couple of very cool new plants due out this spring:

Sapphire Indigo clematis is an award winner for its profuse dark violet flowers which open from spring through autumn. This is an easy to manage clematis, because it grows slowly and so compact that it's ideal to grow in a pot or along a low fence.

Sunny Knock Out rose looks  like a small-scale version of the classic 'Sally Holmes' which is one of the most beloved roses, ever. It seems an improvement over other roses in the Knock Out series, but maybe that's just because I love yellow roses...the fragrant flowers are larger than other Knock Outs, and they open a bright yellow and fade to cream. 'Sunny' is tough and disease resistant, and grows four to five feet tall and three feet wide.

 Magical fantasy weigela (W. florida 'Kolsunn') was bred by a cut flower guy in the Netherlands, and no wonder - both variegated foliage and long-blooming pink flowers are great vase fodder. This pretty weigela isn't one of those leggy old-fashioned ones, but tops out at a trim three to four feet tall and wide.

All photos courtesy of Monrovia

 

'Tis the Season

A swell of plants sales bulges our calendars over the next few weeks. And they're such fun, with a party atmosphere, vendors to chat with about the plants they're selling, and tempting offerings you might well not find anywhere else. Most of these sales contribute to a good cause and/or worthy organization.

It's possible, as many of us probably know all too well, to spend more than we ever intended, buying more plants than we have time or room to plant. So go armed with a list, don't drink too much coffee beforehand, and limit yourself to a special favorite few sales a year. Here are a few highlights, and a link to the Miller Library  complete list of plants sales, kept updated by the staff.

The season kicks off with the Washington Park Arboretum's Early Bloomers Sale tomorrow, Saturday April 11, from 10 to 2. This is a sweet, reasonably sized sale filled with early blooming perennials like trilliums, pulmonaria and epimediums, as well as trees and shrubs. Early Bloomers gives you an excuse to go to the Arboretum (it's held outside the Visitors Center) and see the cherry trees in bloom.

 The granddaddy of all plant sales is the Arboretum extravaganza known as FlorAbundance, a three-ring circus of a plant sale filled with a nearly overwhelming profusion of plants. This year will feature edibles, phormiums, salvias, and native plants...and just about any other plant you've ever heard of, and many you probably haven't. Get a good sleep the night before, arrive early, and expect to be sorely tempted. FlorAbundance is held at Building 30 at Warren G. Magnuson Park on Saturday April 25 & Sunday April 26. There's a preview party for members the night before (worth joining the Arboretum Foundation to attend). Call 325-4510 for tickets or see the Arboretum web page for details. 

Two fabulous edible plant sales, filled with varieties selected for our climate, heirlooms, organic starts, and more different kinds of tomatoes than you ever knew existed, are held the first weekend in May. The  Master Gardener sale and Tilth's Edible Plant Sale are the sales to stock up for your P-Patch, containers, kitchen garden, or urban farm.

The best selection of native plants anywhere, grown by the people who can tell you all about them, happens at the Bellevue Botanical Garden on May 9, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Find the plant list on the Washington Native Plant Society web page, bring your own trays or boxes, and be prepared to be more thrilled by native plants than you ever thought possible.

Dark Theme Continued

Just as I finished a post about the darkly veined beauty of an abutilon named 'Red Tiger', I learned about two deeply dark new plants. What is the attraction for such dark plants, you might ask, in a spring of mostly dark, gloomy days? Deep purple and chocolate brown add richness and depth, emphasizing the chartreuse haze of fresh new leaves, pastel flowers, and brights like red or orange tulips and showy fritillarias. Think of these dark colors as backdrop and counterpoint to all the vividness of spring.....speaking of, did you notice that just this week (finally!!) the maples are opening their leaves, and lilac buds are plumping up? 

A stunning new magnolia from New Zealand hit nurseries this spring;  Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’. We've been tantalized by reports of this glossy dark beauty for the last several years, and finally it's promised to be generally available. 'Black Tulip' (left) has the darkest flowers of any magnolia. It grows quickly to 25 feet, and the goblet-shaped blossoms appear in early spring before the leaves emerge. 

To keep the deep, dark theme going through the summer, there's a new licorice-colored phormium named 'Black Adder' - I like the plant much more than its disquieting name. This is the blackest flax ever bred, but take note it's only hardy to about 20 degrees, which means that in many areas around Puget Sound it might been killed off last winter. Still, most years if you planted 'Black Adder' in a protected place with good drainage, it'd make it through the winter. The unusual color, described as "deep burgundy black with a high gloss overlay" (sounds like a car!) doesn't fade out in the sun. 'Black Adder' is a strong and healthy grower, reaching three feet tall and wide, ideal for containers or accents. Picture its dark blades growing as backdrop to some of the new golden or orange coneflowers, or amidst a tangle of hot-colored dahlias....or as shown here growing out of a sea of golden Japanese forest grass.

Spring Planting - Sweet Peas and Libertia

How better to welcome the first day of spring than by digging in the dirt? It took a good many hot tea breaks to brave the rain and wind (with a few sun breaks) but at least the temperature nudged up over 50 degrees here in Langley on Friday.

After digging in loads of well-composted manure, I planted an assortment of Spencer sweet peas starts, and seeded in uber-fragrant 'April in Paris' and the deep purple 'Zinfandel' to contrast with all the pastels. The starts should bloom by mid-June, followed by sweet peas grown from seed, which kick in later but bloom into September - if you pick every day or so. Doesn't it sound heavenly to pick sweet peas on a summer morning? Here's a photo of the babies, and a look at 'Zinfandel' in bloom (from Renee's Garden Seeds).

Then there are multi-colored little starts of leaf lettuce, that'll be the first thing ready to pick and eat out of the garden - I'm planting flats of them, ready to get out there and snip soft baby leaves in a few weeks.

I'm very excited about some new, striped  libertia - if you haven't grown these sword-like foliage perennials, you should check them out. Libertia look much like upright, wide-bladed ornamental grasses, they grow only a couple of feet high, and spread about politely into tidy clumps. Libertia's little, bright white flowers are followed by attractive sprays of seed pods which are great for flower arranging. New this year, to me anyway, is Libertia ixioides 'Taupo Blaze' which blazes in the winter garden with spiky foliage that changes from green to yellow/orange striped in burnt red. I'm also trying out Libertia 'Gold Finger' that has a more weeping form and yellow striped golden foliage. My rainy-day planting photo doesn't do justice to how showy libertia is once it forms a fat clump...but you get the idea....

New vegetables '09

2009 will go down in gardening history as the year of the vegetable - not since the last depression did vegetable seed sales surge more than thirty percent in a single season. Whether for flavor, to save money, put food safety worries to rest, or simply for the joy of cooking fresh from the garden, people are embracing the idea of growing your own.

Oregon wholesaler Log House Plants anticipated the trend and is introducing a number of enticing new vegetables this spring. As the weather warms you'll find these, and a great many more, vegetable starts in area nurseries. If your favorite nursery doesn't carry them, request they put it an order to Log House Plants. Here's a small sample of new taste treats that are easy to grow, delicious, and pretty in the garden:

 'Feisty' is a new pea, sweet-tasting with more tendrils than leaves on thirty foot vines. This makes it easy to see the peas when it's time to pick them, and the tendrils are spring delicacies, delicious in salads or lightly steamed.

'Portofino' is a dark green and white striped zucchini with a long slender shape that slices into star-shaped rounds. Its flesh is crisp and nutty-tasting.

Now there's a showy little eggplant that might actually ripen in Seattle!  'Gretel' is one of four vegetables chosen this year as an All American Selection, in part because it's a quick ripener, vital in our less-than-hot summers. 'Gretel' is ready to harvest 55 days after planting, when the glossy  ivory fruits are just 3-4 inches long for a baby vegetable treat. The fruits are nearly seedless, and the plants are compact enough to grow in containers. Give them as much sun as you can find, stake them up, and hope for heat.