This week I wanted to feature one of my favorite winter bloomers, Hamamelis or Witch Hazel. Deciduous shrubs to 8-12′ in the Pacific Northwest. These V-shaped shrubs are an attractive addition to garden borders in zones 4-9. It provides color in the middle of winter when everything else is drab. These spider-like flowers appear in… Read More »
Before Friday slips away I want to tell you all about a not too common winter blooming shrub; Edgeworthia chrysantha or Paper bush. Not particularly glamorous in summer months, it really puts on a show in mid to late February. It grows virtually maintenance free to about 5′ tall and wide. It is not fussy… Read More »
One of my all time favorite large shrubs is Garrya or Silk Tassel. Garrya elliptica is a native of southern Oregon and California coastal ranges is a somewhat untidy evergreen shrub that produces these wonderful long catkins from late December through February. This Zone 4-9 shrub is beautiful when not in bloom as well. With… Read More »
Here is one of my favorite garden plants, Euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’. It is considered a perennial but, it provides interest year round. This variety grows to 18″ to 2′ tall and wide and boasts narrow variegated leaves. The new growth is tinged pink. It produces clusters of bracts in the spring and hangs onto them… Read More »
I am a novice birder for sure but, I truly enjoy watching birds lap up the nectar and pulling seeds from the feeders I set out for them. In the spring and summer food and water is plentiful but, in the fall and winter, food sources become scarce so it is important to keep feeding… Read More »
For this installment of Favorite Plant Friday Ceanothus gloriosus is looking it’s finest in the middle of winter. This evergreen ground cover is very versatile. It tolerates full sun or part shade conditions and is drought tolerant. It blooms a tiny light blue flower cluster in later spring. It is best suited where it can… Read More »
January 2015 slipped right on by me and here we are in the new year. The holidays were lovely and filled with quality time spent with family and friends. One of the things I love most about the Holidays is we use our beautiful Teak table and I get to have fun with the table… Read More »
With Thanksgiving come and gone it is time to finish up tucking in your garden for the winter. Here in the Pacific Northwest our temperatures dipped into an early freeze but, now the rains have returned there are a few tasks your garden will benefit from in the coming growing season. Clean up…rake up those… Read More »
Every fall we rake our leaves into neat little piles and stuff them into our yard debris cans. They are then hauled off to a yard debris center where they are composted into mulch for someone elses garden. We do this so our yards look tidy and neat but, what are we really doing? We… Read More »
I think we have all done it, driving around our neighborhoods in the springtime, we admire the beautiful Tulips and Daffodils booming in other peoples yards and wishing, once again, we had been better prepared and planted bulbs ourselves. Well, the window of opportunity to plant spring blooming bulbs has not yet closed, at least… Read More »