Plant Talk

Primroses Elevated - A Whidbey Gardener Finds A New Way to Highlight Spring Bloom

Primroses reassure us that spring is here as surely as daffodils do. And they're so easy to tuck into pots or along walkways.  But their cheery brightness is as ubiquitous as forsythia at this time of year. Is there anything new under the sun to do with primroses, really?

Susan Cohen, a friend in Langley, made a sky picture with primroses, or maybe simply outlined arbor and fence with flowers. It works because she used so many, and all in the same color. Their sunny yellow goes so well with the deep blue/green of the fencing, the gray of the house, the fresh green of the grass.

But how did she get them up there?? She and her husband Gary Croft simply laid down a piece of board to support the primroses, turned them on their sides, right in their pots, facing out. Yes, they have to climb up a ladder to water them...but what a gift to the street. Happy first day of spring....the vernal equinox happened at 7:02 this morning, just about the time the sun came up....

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now In Bloom - 'Francesca' Primrose

My most favorite primrose is just opening its buds, and it'll continue blooming well into June. The pale green Primula vulgaris 'Francesca' is a delicate beauty of a primrose with crinkled leaves and yellow centers; it's so  subtle you'd never guess it's kin to those bulky, bright supermarket primroses.

'Francesca' likes partial shade and moist soil, it does well in containers if you keep them well-watered, and its flowers are exquisite picked and brought inside, for their perfection is best admired close up. Yet this is a tough, long-blooming, garden-worthy plant that holds its own in my over-planted garden. Grow it along stepping stones or walkways, in amongst hellebores or tulips, as a frilly skirt around small flowering shrubs; see it here blooming in my Langley garden alongside a Clare Dohna mosaic egg.