Plant Talk

Shangri-La Hotel Orchids and Backyard Bouquets....

The first Shangri-La Hotel in North America is on Alberni Street in Vancouver B.C..... It being a bit out of our price range, we were staying a few blocks away at the Listel on Robson...but we wandered through the hotel lobby and outdoor public spaces. All is elegant and minimalistic, textural and atmospheric, like this swirly steel sculpture, grove of timber bamboo and outdoor fireplace outside the Ki Modern Japanese restaurant & bar at the hotel.

And the orchids in the lobby were as classy as the chandeliers...oversized, slim glass cyclinders holding purple, chartreuse and white cymbidiums, some on cut stalks, others just blossoms floating in water. A few mossy branches grounded the vases in nature...

When I got home to Langley later that afternoon, my first stop was the garden to see what was in bloom to pick for a friend's party, and to take in to the yoga studio. I was so happy to find the hellebores and euphorbia still going strong, plenty of tiny narcissus in bloom....

I couldn't help but compare my little bouquets with the still fresh memory of the orchids....and while it's a bit like comparing the proverbial apples and oranges....The roses of winter (hellebores) are as appealing as the orchids, if not nearly as showy. The masses of orchids  had the advantage of stop-you-in-your tracks gorgeousness, a whiff of the tropics, and such elegance, while the homegrown bouquets are free (relatively...), quick, easy, organic, fragrant (the narcissus) and weren't sprayed or shipped long distances.

We may well think that our flower choices are all about the visuals, that we choose one flower over another based on color, shape, size...But really, aren't most flowers beautiful and heart warming?  As with so many other things, our bouquet choices are every bit as much about sensibilites and ethos as they are about aesthetics.

Orchids always look like money....the hellebores look like the simple flowers they are, made valuable by the fact they bloom in winter when not much else is flowering...

 

 

Favorite Celebs and Friends Speaking at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show

The crazy extravaganza of gardens, seeds, tools, plants, design, fragrance, fun and exhaustion that is the Northwest Flower and Garden Show runs February 8 - 12 this year at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle. Didn't winter used to be more peaceful before the show? Yes, but probably not as interesting...

A new post on the Northwest Flower and Garden Show blog kindly touts local speakers; most of us clamor to hear visiting judges and speakers from around the world speak, but local gardeners, who know our climate, soils and gardens remain the backbone of the show.

Janet Endsley calls out "Favorite Celebs and Friends Speaking at the Show", and while like everyone else I'll no doubt crowd in to hear the guru of edible gardening Rosalind Creasy, here from California to judge the show, let's all support local speakers, too.

And this isn't just because I'm speaking on Thursday morning at 10 a.m. on "Reaping the Rewards of Simple, Fresh Bouquets Year Round" and showing images from my Langley garden and bouquets from a year of gathering and scavenging  (See entire seminar schedule here).

I'll be signing my just-released book Petal & Twig after, please come by and say hello...

Hellebore, pine and coral bark maple twig bouquet for mid-winter.

Hellebore Time - The Roses of Winter are Evergreen, Easy-Care, & Deer Resistant

You'd never expect that delicate flower to bloom in the depths of winter, would you? Actually, we'd probably never notice how beautiful hellebores are if they flowered in summer when so much else is happening

But these sturdy perennials put on a show in the dead of winter. And their flowers are so varied, long-lasting and nearly indestructible that at times, when they pop up above a snow drift, you're sure they're bionic. .

First to bloom are Helleborus niger, which have large, snowy white blooms with a fluff of yellow anthers. I've always thought of them as snow anemones, but their real nickname is "Christmas rose". If you're new to growing hellebores, wait a bit for the hybrids, for they're more dependable performers than H. niger, and they come in colors from white through darkest purple, and many have adorable freckled faces.

One of my favorite hellebores, and its blooming in nurseries now if not yet in the ground, is Helleborus 'Ivory Prince' (above) with lots of pink and lavender flushed blossoms that persist for weeks. The gray-green, pale-veined leaves are nearly as pretty as the flowers.  They mound up about a foot-and-a-half high, and like full sun or partial shade.

Plant a few 'Ivory Princes' in a pot by the door to greet guests and cheer you up every time you get home, or mix them in with the darker flowered hybrids for contrast, for their silvery leaves really show off nearby purple flowers which can otherwise disappear into the landscape. Hellebores are fabulous cut flowers if you split the stem up a bit so they can guzzle plenty of water. Or just snip off the flowers and float them in a bowl of water - especially eye-catching if you grow a variety of flower colors.

Here's 'Ivory Prince' in bud - aren't those red stems stunning?

And here are a few of the colorful hybrid hellebores you'll find in the nurseries in January....

 

The Garden Is In Bloom Out There Despite Freezes, Rain and Wind

My dog Bridget would rather curl up on the couch than go outdoors on these wet and windy days. After last week's freezing temperatures, and this week's record rainfalls, you wouldn't expect our plants to be showing much more enthusiasm than Bridget.

But when I ducked out yesterday between rainstorms to sweep up and look for something to cut for a bouquet, I was amazed to find my copper-colored witch hazel (Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena') in full bloom - I'd expected it to be slowed down by those mid-20 temps a week ago. And while the hybrid hellebores are still in tight bud, the silver-leafed Corsican hellebore is opening its pretty litte green flowers....

This time of year you have to look closely to find what's in bloom but it's worth it - the garden is in full January flower, with more hellebores, snowdrops, sarcococca and even daphne not far behind. The lure of flowers fresh from the garden, so prized on a winter's day, won't get Bridget off the couch, but hopefully it'll stir you to go outdoors and find out what's going on in your garden.

'Jelena' is a cross with a Chinese witch hazel parent, which means it has a strong sweet/astringent scent, especially when cut and brought into a warm room.

Helleborus argutifolius 'Silver Lace', with soft green blossoms centered in chartreuse stamen, is an early bloomer with jagged, silvery green leaves.

Need a Break from the Holidays? Fresh Air and Plenty of Plants Await You at the Arboretum, the Seattle Japanese Garden, and Kubota Gardens

Too much food, too much family (or is that just me?) ...a garden expedition is the perfect tonic for too many hours spent indoors.

Several Seattle gardens are at their best, or at least well worth a visit, in December and earliest January. My first choice this time of year is always the Witt Winter Garden, a short stroll from the Graham Visitor's Center at the Washington Park Arboretum. If it isn't too cold, witch hazels will be wafting their sweetly astringent scent on the air. A hit of the vanilla-esque perfume of sarcococca alone is worth the trip, and, weather permitting, hellebores will be coming into bloom.

 Aren't you starved for color right now? The golden and russet witch hazel flowers,, the pale ghost brambles and the glowing canes of red and yellow twig dogwood embedded in a sea of spidery black mondo grass will help your mid-winter sensory deprivation.  If you're lucky you'll see our native Anna's hummingbirds feeding on the huge golden flower sprays atop jagged-leafed Mahonia 'Arthur Menzies'.

The Seattle Japanese Garden isn't far away (at 1075 Lake Washington Boulevard East). Now with the leaves off the trees, the stripped down garden is an elegant lesson in structure and shape. Revel in the austerity of mossy branches, the serenity of stone, and the promise of pathways in this zen-like garden.

Kubota Gardens in the south end (9817 55th Avenue South) is a treat of a winter destination, with bridges, ponds, and beautifully pruned pines....

So no need to stay indoors - get outside, breath deeply, and let the quiet, subtle beauty of the winter garden work its magic on your holiday-weary soul.....

 

Winter Blooming Beauty - A New Red Hellebore for Christmas

 
Thank goodness for hellebores, with pretty, durable flowers in the depths of winter, and handsome foliage year-round. These little perennials are tough, tolerate shade, and are surprisingly deer-proof. Best of all their flowers really are the jewels of the winter garden, blooming when not much else is happening out there.

And now there's a gorgeous new ruby- colored hellebore called 'Red Racer', which seems an unfortunate name. But that's the only thing about this little beauty that's unfortunate. The flower is especially large, up to three inches across, and it flowers late winter into spring. I love hellebores as cut flowers - split their stems and stick them in a vase, or float the flowers in a bowl - especially pretty when you grow a variety of colors....

'Red Racer' should be in nurseries this winter....find more information on the Great Garden Plants website. Photos courtesy of Great Garden Plants.

 

The Earliest Hellebores

It's often said of hellebores that if these quiet perennials bloomed in June we'd never notice them. Such belittling totally misses the point. We worship hellebores because they flower when we so desperately need a jolt of color and the promise of spring. You can't help but admire these sweet-faced, delicate-looking flowers blooming their hearts out during winter's darkest days.

Hybrid hellebores, with their yellow, ebony, soft green, spotted, pink or ivory flowers, are most plentiful and easiest to grow, but they won't bloom for at least another month. But you don't have to wait... nurseries are stocked with hellebores that are budding up, and in the case of the Christmas rose (Helleborus niger) unfurling their flowers. These earliest hellebores will tide us over until the wave of hybrids swirl us on into springtime....

All photos, including the mossy reindeer, were taken yesterday at Bayview Farm and Garden on south Whidbey Island:

The snowy white Helleborus niger 'Jacob' (a.k.a. the Christmas rose) is the first hellebore to bloom, and a little harder to grow successfully than the hybrids- give it partial shade, and rich, moist, well-drained soil.

Helleborus x ericsmithii 'HGC Silvermoon' - the silvermoon hellebore, was bred in Germany, has pewter colored leaves, and is theoretically deer resistant. 

Helleborus x Balladiae 'HGC Pink Frost', with rosy buds and showy foliage, is new this year....

Helleborus lividus 'Pink Marble' with variegated leaves, pink stems, and mauve-ish flowers

Frozen Flowers & Fruit

Try to overlook the blackened blossoms on the poor sasanqua camellias; many plants are holding up just fine to the extreme temperatures. Even after overnight lows in the teens this week, plants from hellebores to viburnum are thriving in this frosty, freezing weather:

Helleborus argutifolius 'Silver Lace' is a smaller, paler version of Corsican hellebore, budded up in my garden next to a mosaic egg made by Vashon Island artist Clare Dohna

The bloom of Viburnum tinus 'Spring Bouquet' may be delayed by this freeze, but the flowers will open as soon as it warms up a bit.

The birds have left a few crabapples on a tree in the downtown Langley park at 2nd and Anthes

This yellow siding is an inspired backdrop for beautyberry's metallic lavender fruit (Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii 'Profusion').