Paperwhite narcissus are one of my all time holiday favorites.  For years when I ran the nursery, it was a constant race to keep up with the demand for these fat glossy bulbs that quickly root, shoot and burst in fragrant bloom just in time for holiday gifts and decor.  Every year we sold hundreds and hundreds and yet, I have never grown tired of their heady sweet fragrance nor cease to marvel at how simple it is to get these beauties to bloom; it’s called “forcing”, but really, very little coercion is involved.

Getting them to stand up - now that’s a different story!  You’d think my years and years of experience would have granted even some small level of expertise or explanation as to why these plants persist in flopping just when they are in peak bloom.  HA! 

Such as it is…here are my directions:

3-4 weeks before you want flowers place clean gravel in a vase; I like to use clear glass vases so I can watch the succulent white roots emerge (isn’t it amazing what passes for gardening mid-winter?)  Nestle the root end of the bulb into the gravel and top lightly with another shallow layer of rock to anchor the bulb in place.  Fill the vase just to the bottom of the bulb with water and place in a bright but cool area to root.

Expert tip #1 coming up:  In a temporate region, like our beautiful Pacific Northwest, place pots and vases of planted paperwhites outside for maximum exposure to light and cool temperatures to produce nice straight, stout stems.  (I’ve even tucked a few bulbs in with mixed container plantings on the hope that we’ll have our usual mild weather.  These bulbs bloom and hold for weeks and weeks provided temperatures stay between 40-45 F.)

Onced budded, bring the bulbs into the house but keep away from warm drafts and heat to encourage the stems to remain upright; you can even move the plants back out onto a cool porch when you are not enjoying their fragrance in the house to prolong their show.

Here’s where my expertise starts to fall apart.  Some years I follow the above instructions and have a glorious display with successions of powerfully fragrant, pure white, snowflake-like flowers for weeks on end.  Other years… well, unless I mistakenly purchased the rare weeping form this year, this is my sorry result.  Heavenly scent but hardly graceful splayed all over the table; sad, really.

So I began to hunt around the net for a solution.  I came across the Cornell University Website - they’re smart folks and their horticulture department is one of the best.  From Floriculture to Nursery Crop Production, Soil Science to Plant Pathology - these are the real experts!  Their advice? Gin - that’s right, cocktail hour now includes “potted” plants!  “A dilute alcohol solution will curtail excessive growth and result in shorter, sturdier stems which won’t flop.”  Really?

So, here’s round two in the great paperwhite caper.  I’ve purchased 5 more bulbs and set them into the gravel.  Of course, now it is a brisk 22 F. outside so they can’t go out on the back porch this time; it will be a true test of the spirited Cornell theory.  Download Pickle your Paperwhites and play along at home.

Me, I’ve cut all my formerly flopping flowers and created a lavish bouquet that fills the rliving room with a heady fragrance. I think I’ll have a martini and toast the good folks at Cornell while I await my test results.

Cheers!

Sometimes I let the rules take over, I guess it’s that oldest child thing. 

If the rules for  Bloggers Bloom Day state that you photograph and record what is blooming in your garden on the 15th of the month, than by gum I’m gonna wait until the 15th.  So much for playing by those rules!  I was so excited to contribute this month along with esteemed garden bloggers like Kathy Purdy of Cold Climate Gardening  Idaho Gardener  and many more.  There are so many clever, quirky, irreverant, smart, sassy garden bloggers out there.  It’s a great big sandbox and I want to play!

Inspired by the words of Elizabeth Lawrence, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year,” Carol of May Dreams Gardens started Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, garden bloggers from all over the world publish what is currently blooming in their gardens, and leave a link in the comments of May Dreams Gardens.

We’ve had a very mild autumn thus far and for the past few weeks I’ve been making a list of plants that are (were) flourishing and (did) look lively.  Autumn blooming tuberous nasturtium (see above) only just begins to bloom in mid November; its slender tubes of brilliant orange and yellow look like upside down flames dripping from the lobed, blue green foliage.  The crops of equally orange berries on the Iris foetidissima were a nice echo (note: I count berries on my “blooms” list). 

In another berried echo across the yard the Billardiera berries are (were) fat and fancy with a coat of shimmery iridescence, while nearby umbels of Dichroa febrifuga fruit dazzled in  dusky shades of pewter, pink, lapis and inky midnight blue.  I just love berries - the more otherworldly in color the better.

It’s an off year for beauty berry in my garden. In the big garden overhaul of ‘08 I tore out my Callicarpa dichtotoma ‘Profusion’.  In the past I was willing to forgive it  its awkward gangly form for its brilliant florescent purple berries every fall; that was until I discovered C. d.  ‘Early Amethyst’ a more compact and pleasing form with attractive foliage that emerges dusky purple in the spring and exhibits a glorious golden decline in the fall. ‘Early Amethyst’ berries are in tighter clumps than ‘Profusion’, put on quite a show against the fall foliage and persist well throughout the winter.  Anyway, my little one gallon plant was only installed this fall and I’ll have to wait at least another season for the effects to return.  We gardeners are forever planting but what we’re really cultivating is PATIENCE!

Anyway… it’s only the 14th but in a fit of rebellion I’m going to post my Bloggers Bloom pictures today while the lovely mantle of snow (!) is still fresh.  We hardly ever get snow in Seattle, and of course when we do everyone freaks out, weathermen flap their hands like excited geese, shoppers stock their pantries for the end times and drivers…well, the less said about Seattle snow drivers the better.  Remember, we have a lot of hills and it doesn’t take much to spin around and start playing automobile pinball.

So when I awoke to a winter wonderland this morning I rushed outside to snap some garden shots which I’ll quickly post before I get in my armoured snow vehicle and make the trek to the grocery store to stock up on provisions for the Big Blast of 08 - I’m sure the local TV stations each have their own storm logos by now along with various “parka boys” bringing LIVE reports every 15 minutes.

Winter blooming crocus…I have no idea which one.  I bought these corms probably 15 years ago at a local bulb sale and they’ve shown up every winter since.

Camellia sasanqua ‘Setsugekka’  This beauty blooms all winter and smells lovely when I pick a blossom to float in a shallow bowl by my bedside.

Here are my tuberous nasturtiums (left) and Iris foetidissima

…ah, the best laid garden plans and plotting.

 Billardiera longiflora  brrrrr… we’re not in Tasmania anymore!

Dichroa febrifuga  This plant looks like a recumbent hydrangea all summer with characteristic mophead flowers but the fall berries are the real treat - at least before they dessicate in the freezing cold.

Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’  Usually I go out and pick the last straggling leaves off her, especially if I’m going to take a picture or cut some branches for a winter bouquet - but I think I mentioned - it was COLD out there!

Clematis cirrohsa ‘Freckles’  Cute, huh?  This little rascal blooms all winter…and spring and summer and fall for that matter.  Never a giant show but endearing and most welcome at any time.

Well, that’s my contribution to Bloggers Bloom Day December 08 here in Zone 8, Seattle, WA. 

Ah yes, the annual hunting and gathering for the traditional yuletide conifer to adorn the living room.  If I sound just the least bit…snide, in my defense I’d like to remind everyone that I sold Christmas trees for about 7 or 8 years in the very recent past; ok it was almost 10 years ago but I remain scarred by the experience! 

You twirl, spin, unwrap, sort, and stand several hundred freezing cold, wet, and HEAVY firs and then we’ll talk about my attitude towards this most highly regarded symbol of the season.  It rains here in the Northwest; it rains a lot.  Granted, that’s why they call us the “Evergreen State” but it tends to complicate working outdoors in the winter.  “Don we now our gay apparel…”  for me this meant full waterproof overalls, a parka, duck-yellow boots and oh-so-fashionable hat  and wet gloves.  But boy did I smell good!  And for me that’s the best part about the Christmas tree.  I would be perfectly happy to just have several naked trees, simply trimmed in plain white lights; a magical forest right next to my reading chair.

However, no one else in my household agrees with my simply-shod tree concept.  Now I should say right here that I’m not a true minimalist when it comes to holiday décor.  In fact I love my shiney-brite lime green aluminum table top tree at the center of my annual “ode to A Christmas Story“.  Each year we as a family add another trinket or gizmo that figures in the movie.  Other families can have their Grinch or Griswold - we love Ralphie, Randy and “the old man.”  I have quite a collection of treasures…plastic chopping teeth, a big bottle of Ovaltine, bunny slippers, a tiny figure of Ralphie complete with the Red Rider BB gun, and more.  This year I think I’ll add a big fruit basket like the one Ralphie gifts (i.e. bribes)his teacher  with to commemorate the college graduation of my daughter next weekend. A+++++++, Now she’s a teacher!!!

I digress - I just wanted to prove that I’m not a Christmas Crank, I just don’t love the tree.  So in a spirit of attitude readjustment this year I proposed that we go out to one of the neighboring tree farms and “Cut Our Own.”  I looked around on the net and found countless possibilities complete with Santa, sleigh rides, reindeer, etc - definitely NOT what I was after.

We settled on Fall City Farms, an organic farm with a varied list of crops which they offer U-pick style throughout the year.  Among my many beefs with Christmas trees is not the fact that they are “wasteful.”  Granted, everyone should recycle their trees post-holiday, either through municipal garden waste pick up or by cutting the branches to mulch the garden.  During my years vending holiday vegetation I met some lovely Christmas trees farmers; their hard work and year ’round efforts produced a “crop” of trees rather  than corn, or pumpkins.  I have no problem purchasing their crop - I just don’t want to spin it around and tie it to the top of your SUV in the pouring rain!

The day was cloudy and grey but not rainy; just a pervasive heavy mist that soften the line where the sky meets the horizon and gilds all the trees with millions of sparkly drops of water.  That’s waaaaaay different than rain!  Armed with our saw we set off to inspect 6 acres of beautiful, fragrant, living trees all “rowed up” like soldiers and priced by their red, blue, yellow or white tags.  Anyone who has ever done this (this was our first foray) knows the strange shifting perspective that overtakes you when you find yourself contemplating a magnificent 10′ specimen that stands about as much chance of fitting in our little living room as me fitting into…  Well, let’s just say its easy to get carried away under a big open sky.

I suppose it goes without saying that the lovely, 6-7 foot Grand Fir we finally chose was probably the first or second one we looked at before we appraised another  couple hundred.  But it is just right.  Grand fir (Abies grandis) is known for it’s broad, glossy needles and a heady scent that just screams “Happy Holidays!”  Plus, it’s the key ingredient for my Grand Fir infused oil which is heavenly drizzled on pasta, potatoes or creamy soups.   We took turns sawing the tree down in a ceremonial family effort but my husband dragged it back to the car and no, I did not have to tie it to the roof of our Subaru wagon.

It was a wonderful day, no reindeer in sight, and no  scary santas.  Just soft grey skies, glistening trees and us.  Just as we got in the car to head home the skies unleashed and it poured!!!

Grand Fir Infused Oil

Heat 1 cup mild flavored olive or other seed or nut oil in a shallow pan over medium-low heat.  Add in a good handful of clean, dry, Grand Fir twigs - no need to remove the needles from their tender stems just cut them to fit into the pan.  The oil will sizzle and the kitchen will fill with the sweet perfume of fir, kinda citrusy, kinda herby, very GREEN.  When the sizzling slows remove the fir twig from the oil taking care to not spatter hot oil on yourself.  Sometimes I add another batch and repeat the procedure for an extra strong foresty kick.  Do not let the needles brown or the oil become too hot or you’ll scorch the flavor. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the oil to cool to room temperature before decanting into a pretty glass bottle that will show off it’s emerald hue.  It is best to use this as a delicious condiment rather than as a cooking oil as heat will dissipate the flavor.  ENJOY!

Designer Plant Combinations

105 Stunning Gardens Using Six Plants or Fewer

By Scott Calhoun, 2008, Storey Publishing

Finally, a garden designer with a sense of humor!  Remember people, this whole garden making thing is supposed to be fun - you know, a relaxing, leisure time activity.  Scott Calhoun, author of Designer Plant Combinations, gets that.  The proof is in this vibrant, colorful, and utterly delightful read. 

Sara Begg, Executive Editor, Horticulture magazine says:

“With a voice that is part surfer, part plant geek, Calhoun takes a complex topic - garden design - and breaks it down into simple, elegant pieces.  A great book for beginning and expert gardeners alike.” 

Cool plants, edgy combinations and sophisticated color runs  are served up in beautiful color photographs throughout the book’s 240 pages accompanied by graphic, well organized blocks of text, complete with thumbnail portraits of the limited but choice plant selections and sound horticultural advice.  Calhoun resides in Tucson, AZ and he pays special attention to resilient yet interesting plants that withstand the unforgiving hot, arid environment of southwest gardens.

I like alliterative language (can you tell?) and so I was bound to appreciate the catchy - sometimes kitschy - titles that introduce each plant grouping: “Grinding out a coffee-colored combo” - bronze sedges punctuated with spires of columnar purple barberry and ‘Midnight Wine’ weigela; or “Phi Beta Butterfly Pink” - an all pink  composition of lantana, Gomphrena, purple fountain grass and Joe-pye weed, “bound to attract butterflies like fraternity brothers to a tapped keg.”  At first the ornate, curly-cued subtitles and almost Victorian floral motif symbols that punctuate the pages were a distraction.  But then it struck me, in a sea of books about walls, paths, patios, and “outdoor living,” here was a design book that was completely plant-driven.  The fluid, organic type treatment grew on me as I read page after delicious page of garden profiles that rely on a restricted palette of 6 or fewer plants - stunning indeed!

Calhoun gives credit where credit is due attributing each garden to their designers and creators across the country; boxed “designer  tips” add additional insight and seasonal maintenance advice to each garden profile.  The book concludes with appendices listing “Designer Resources” complete with contact information for those whose work is mentioned as well as a list of “Public Gardens for Design Inspiration.”

As I  mentioned last week, I’ve recently dipped my toe back into garden design - a small but exciting project involving the tiny front yard of a beautiful craftsman home with lovely lines and fabulous proportions.  My task is to create a gracious, slightly more formal entry and a jewel box of a garden that will capture the interest of the homeowner and passersby alike offering color, texture, fragrance and seasonal changes throughout the year.  It feels good to get outside and wrestle with measuring tape, camera, and notes - even in the blowing wind and rain.  Tissue paper, drafting tools, and piles of gardening books help to prime my creaky designer brain.  Designer Plant Combinations offers a refreshing approach and is definitely my new favorite find.

I am forever amazed at the difference a year makes.  Sounds dangerously close to wisdom which we know comes with age, which leads me to wizened, wider and…  I digress.

There was a day, not too long ago, when I owned and operated a small nursery, designed gardens, constantly reworked my own humble plot, wrote articles and an early book, called Hortus Miscellaneous in my free time and in any spare moments left over, tried to catch up on neglected friendships, my family and maybe, just maybe, take a wee vacation to see something beyond my own backyard!  (I could link-love away with that last sentence, but really, if you’re curious read back through my archives, there aren’t that many and I’m easily distracted as it is)

Fast forward to present.  Full-time freelance writer (i.e. dangerously close to unemployed at any given moment)… and loving it!  Sure, I still work the homestead (my bulbs are planted, winter veggies are in, and [most] of the beds cleaned up for the winter), and even dip my toe in the occasional garden design.  But I’m happy to say I no longer break a cold sweat when I think of retail sales and cash flow - internet connections and logic board collapse - that’s another story.  I’m learning to be a more social creature…even if it is mostly with my “internet” and “radio” friends.  I even pick up the phone every now and again to talk to a live human.  It’s a good life and I do marvel everyday at what a difference a year makes!

I recently recieved an email from a design client I worked with years ago.  Given my hectic professional life, even when I did do garden design, I was unable to install the plans I drew up.  Most of my clients were avid plants people more than happy to implement the work themselves but the situation definitely led to some less-than-realized projects.  So I was thrilled to get pictures of their completed project.  It was a humble honor to see my drawings transformed into their finely crafted and beautifully planted landscape.  What a gift!  Their hard work and thoughtful craftsmanship took my drawings from concept to garden.  Here are a few of the before and after photos illustrating their efforts and the tremendous reward, a beautiful garden:

I mention this because today I have a garden consult.  It’s been beautiful for the past week - blue skies, amber light, richly colored leaves.  Today?  Not so much.  Rain, wind, damp chill, soggy grey skies - the November we know so well in this area.  So of course today is when I’ll gather my camera, measuring tools, legal pad and pencils (pen runs in the rain and you can’t read your notes later when they dry out!) and drive across town.  The good news is I get to work with a friend who is one of the hardest working gardeners I know (see me-learning-to-be-social above).

It will be good to make some drawings, try to remember plant names and reacquaint myself with the gardenmaking process.  Besides, I’m getting a little too comfortable (see wider) just sitting at my keyboard all day.  I’m most interested in where the virtual world serves the real world…applied knowledge, trial and error, living breathing gardens and yes, that includes weather - in today’s case lashing rain - pests, and weeds along with plants, blossoms, tasty herbs and delicious food!

I better go look where I stashed my rain gear.

No passion is without its Control Issues, Gardening is no exception.

The following is an excerpt from Hortus Miscellaneous, my first book, a humble little hodgepodge of gardening information and instruction that, like the Ouija board of kid-dom, always seems to have something to say about the human condition:

Pollard: a woodland management technique traditionally employed to produce crops of firewood or lumber in which trees on a single stem were cut back to a height just above that of grazing livestock.

 Pollarded sycamores at Filoli

Pleach: Tree branches are trained in a single horizontal plane above a clear stem, eventually knitting together with the branches of adjacent trees; an elevated hedge as it were. 

Topiary: the traditional craft of training and pruning plants into a variety of forms be they strongly geometric or whimsically representational.

Espalier : a restrictive form of pruning consisting of a central stem supporting several tiers of paired horizontal branches on which short fruiting spurs are maintained. Espaliered fruit trees are often trained against a southern wall where they benefit from retained heat, ripening their crop more quickly. 

Parterres and Knots: meticulously clipped plants form intricate geometric patterns representing the gardener’s ultimate control over the garden; generally designed to be viewed from above for the most impressive display

Miniature knot garden at Filoli

As gardeners, we’d like to think we’re in charge.  Actually it’s pretty human to want to CONTROL our environment, keep our loved ones safe and happy, deck our surroundings and adorn our image.  In our pretty little heads the birdies sing, the tomatoes ripen and no one gets hurt! 

Gardening seems pretty harmless in the grand scheme of things.  Perhaps that’s why I’ve always been drawn to knot gardens and topiary; their clipped formality is a paragon of control.  Having tried to manage a full blown knot garden for several years I’m now willing to let the groundskeepers play that game. 

Hats off to Kathy LaFleur and the amazing (& huge) knot she manages at her garden in Rancho Santa Fe.  I met Kathy last fall when I had the opportunity to stay in her guesthouse.  Waking in the morning to see the clipped rosemary spangled with dew was magical.  Note:  do you know how fast rosemary grows???  This is not standard knot garden material this is ART on a nearly daily basis!!!

These past several years I’ve narrowed my formal aspirations to a series of small table top knot gardens and Lonicera nitida ‘Red Tip’ standards.  Tough day at the keyboard?  Clip, clip, clip… Spouse being all too human or it’s too much to think about actually weeding in the heat?  Snip, snip, snip.  Not fit for polite society?  Trim, finesse and detail the poor things!

Life can be a slippery slope fraught with heartache, loss and fear and anxiety.  A wise person remarked - our lives don’t  necessarily have a goal, in the sense that we never truly  “arrive”.  Instead what we are given are “moments” every day - our present.  A beautiful bloom, a beloved partner or child, the taste of a ripe berry.  If we can identify and cherish those moments, then we are living our lives. 

But in the meantime, when things get dicey it’s nice to be able to exert a little control, even if it is on my little radio flyer table top knot garden!

We have a custom in our house.  Every first day of school, the kids get their picture taken in front of the Blue Door.  Actually, most of the doors in our house are blue; “Blue Door Day” is code for Very Important Event.  School, athletic events, proms, finals, travel adventures - you know the sort.  There is generally much rolling of the eyes and impatient sighs…”mommmmm, I gotta go!”  But the real magic is when you line all the Blue Door shots up together.  Together they tell a story of the growth of a family.

This year we’re finding the Blue Door a little slippery.  My son is due at school (across town) at 7:10 AM!!!  To say that he is not a “morning person” is to call rain wet.  I’ve missed the opportunity to snap my BD shot these past two days as he’s lucky to even be dressed, equipped and mobile…feeding is optional. 

Today is my daughter’s first day student teaching.  Talk about the circle completing itself, from first day of Kindergarten to teaching!  We got the shot this morning.  (She was generous enough to have roommates take her BD pictures, minus the blue door, during the years she was off at college - see, she gets it!)  We’ll keep trying for the moving target that is Max flying out the (blue) door every morning around 6:45am!!!

I’m not what you would call a “helicopter mom”, ever hovering and orchestrating my kids’ daily lives - not even close.  In fact, I’m more apt to declare “stick a fork in her/him - she’s/he’s DONE!”  Well, Max is almost done, we do still have to get him out the door every morning for the next 9 months!!! 

It’s not necessarily an easy transition to watch your kids go out into an oh-so-flawed world.  It can cause a mother to cramp up with control (or lack thereof).  So, what do I do?  I go out into the garden, of course, where I can capture compositions of color and contrast and still a moment, caught in pixels, where everything works. 

In keeping with the Blue Door Day here are my snaps of garden blues:

A shade composition of Dichroa fibrifuga, or Blue Evergreen Hydrangea, and the finely cut, nearly turquoise blue foliage of Dicentra ‘Langtrees’, or Fringed Bleeding Heart.  The real WOW is still a month or so off when the blossoms of the Dichroa give way to 1/2″ metallic blue/purple berries that hold on the plant well into the winter.  A few dangling racemes of heart-shaped white flowers on the bleeding heart are still in bloom as they have been since early spring - now that’s a satisfying plant!  Note: Dicentra ‘Langtrees’ is apt to scuttle through a bed mingling and generally insinuating itself into the crown of everything nearby, as you see here.  Finally, the white leaf margins of Hosta ‘Regal Spendor’ brighten the dark green of the groundcover.

I’m all about the edibles…ornamental edibles are even better!  ‘Sunshine Blue’ Blueberry is a winner on so many accounts.  A dwarf plant, to about 3-4′, clothed in beautiful chalky blue evergreen foliage that takes on rich autumnal hints with cool weather.  Fat berries set in numbers - the plants are self-fertile - and taste like the sweet, tangy wild native blueberries of our Cascade mountains.  No bland, mealy berry on this star!  The plants have only been in the garden since May but already are earning their keep in so many delicious ways.  ‘Sunshine Blue’ was originally developed as a commercial crop but because the berries set underneath the canopy of leaves they were problematic to harvest and were not considered a success.  Factory farm loss is the homeowners win!!!  The berries are hidden from the birds and crop over a long period of time.  I can’t say enough wonderful things about this beautiful landscape plant.

Climbing Blueberry, or Billardiera longiflora, is not in fact a real blueberry but one can clearly see how it got the moniker! An evergreen vine to about 6′ that twines itself neatly up the railing of our back stairs.  Narrow dark green foliages remains clean throughout the year and shaggy, copious, somewhat nondescript limey-green flowers appear in May only to give way to these beauties in late summer.  Oh MY!  This is another one of those plants that, for all it’s relatively small dimensions, totally steals the show when it is in fruit!!!  Brilliant plantsmanship, clever compositions, vintage trailer be damned…  this little guy wins ‘em over every time.

Okay, technically more black than blue, but like I always say - a gal’s gotta eat!  The himalayan blackberries are ripe in the weedlots and greenbelts throughout the city.  Their perfumed, winey-tart flavor is our ONLY reward for fighting their wicked brambles and thorns all the rest of the months of the year!  A pernicious weed if there ever was one, thickets are quick to engulf empty lots, fences, and small buildings.  This is the Northwest’s Kudzu…only we can make a delightful jam from it’s fruit.  Truth be told, I would probably miss these thugs if we ever did erradicated them…which there is absolutly no chance of ever happening. 

The coming week promises to be sunny and warm.  Isn’t that always the way on the week the kids have to go back to school?!?  I think I’ll wander over to the greenbelt, pick some more berries and make some tarts, a nice treat to get us all over this seasonal hump.

This little garden event just proves that some things are beyond explanation.  Mystery is a good thing!

Cheers, L

Eucryphia blooms from our bedroom window

The title is a line from one of my children’s favorite books purchased around the time when my son was born much to the disappointment of my daughter who was really, really, REALLY gunning for a sister.  Julius, Baby of the World, by Kevin Henkes went a long way to helping us over that hump and contains that line which has entered our family’s lexicon to express moments of wonder and marvel.  It works great, feel free to borrow it anytime…  But I digress, I just thought my title might need a little explanation.

I know we’re all supposed to keep garden journals…”the cherry tree bloomed today - 3 days, 4 hours earlier than last year!”  But I don’t. 

I do however have certain events in my garden that I eagerly anticipate on an annual basis:   the heavenly fragrance of the winter daphne, when the way-cool hot pink tips of the Euphorbia griffithii ‘Fireglow” first start to emerge, sweet peas in bloom, fava bean harvest (don’t worry, I won’t beat that drum today) and many, many, more.   But the QUEEN of them all is when the Eucryphia x nymanensis is in full freakin’ flower!!!  She steals the show from the entire garden and I can only sit and (kiss, stroke and) admire her narrow form clothed in deep green foliage, copious pearlescent blooms and listen, mezmerized by the dizzy hum of pollinators. Hummingbirds, bees, and wasps congregate by the hundreds during daylight hours until the entire tree has an animate quiver.

The tree is situated (quite by accident I assure you) perfectly lined up with the peak of our second story and the much-deliberated green of our house and it’s white trim make a beautiful foil.  There’s almost a church-like frame to the whole composition.  Again, I take no credit.  This shrub came home from the nursery with me probably 10 years ago because “I like it…it’s cool”.  Dumb luck and the sheltered location of our backyard get all the credit.  Well, that and the fact that it’s been safely out of striking distance of our many garden renovations!

KISS 

STROKE 

ADMIRE 

This from Digging Dog - one of my favorite West Coast nurseries whose wonderful catalog reads like a compelling garden resource:

“This splendid evergreen hybrid between two Chilean species, Eucryphia cordifolia and Eucryphia glutinosa first arose nearly 100 years ago at Nymans Gardens in Sussex, England. Its name translates ‘well covered’ and reflects the abundant, sweetly fragrant bowls of pearl-white flowers with cheerful yellow stamens.” 

Check them out at Digging Dog.

But about garden journals, I totally understand the inclination to record and archive the events of everyday.  Plus, it would be darn handy to have a plant list for my many treasures (which one is the Billardiera longifolia and which one is the Billbergia nutans variegata….. ) let alone a means of documenting my various, haphazard garden experiments. Often, when conducting a garden trial of the latest greatest organic wonder spray I can’t remember which is the sample and which is the control…hmmmm, I guess that is an outcome.

But for now, writing is “indoor girl” as we say around here and gardening is …well, gardening is outside of that discipline.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t take note of and anticipate the rhythm and reliability of perennial pleasures that return every year to remind me that life is moving forward, on and on.  Even the most painful betrayal, disappointment and crushing heartache will pass as will those days of celebration, sunshine and laughter, thank heaven.  Today I’m bowing at my Church of the Eucryphia. I’m celebrating her beauty, her support for nature and her constant and beautiful presence in my life.

    I am truly humbled by the many beautiful, fresh and lively blogs out there.  I can easily loose an entire morning thumbing through page after page of smart writing, beautiful photos and… well, lets just say the next thing I know I look up and the morning is GONE!!!

Of course the next step in this process is to begin doubting my own work (I know, that’s when things really begin to get unproductive!!!)  Blogging is the new “dear diary”, a repository for ideas, a disciplinary exercise…and it’s FUN!

So, what follows is a metaphorical pencil sharpening, a self-imposed exercise, and basically just touching base…besides, I’m not ready to start work this morning.  I’d really rather be out in the backyard stroking my lovely veggies, picking alpine strawberries and monitoring the daily meteoric climb of the pole beans.  But that’s a really slippery slope; that’s how whole days, not just hours, are “lost”.  At least this way I’m still at my desk and technically “working”. 

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my “work”?  I acutally fall asleep with a smile on my face!  So here follows a cache of snapshots, and a little window into what I’ve been up to when I can steal away from my desk…

I say I’m a big fan of foliage, but after a spring like the one we’ve just suffered through, flowers or I should say F L O W E R S!!! are what I crave.  Billowy, colorful, abundant blooms.  These are some of the blossoms I contributed to the Northwest Horticultural Society’s annual new members party.   With armloads of FLOWERS and the service kitchen filled with volunteer floral arrangers, the floor strewn with leaves and stems and every possible vessel put into service as a vase, it felt like an old fashioned church meeting or festive wedding.  What bounty to “work” with - there’s that word again.

Backyard Bliss!!!  We had our first fire in the firepit the other night.  It was mesmerizing to stare at the flames, and drink in the smell of a real wood fire.  I know that wood fires are generally bad for the environment contributing unfiltered pollutants and carbon to to an atmosphere already under great strain.  In todays world, this is a luxury, a seasonal indulgence - sorta like the marshmallow s’mores we’re becoming expert at crafting.

One of my many hats I wear under the topic of “work” is that of garden guide.  I lead people around town visiting gardens and basically showing off this Eden we call the Pacific Northwest.  I know, sweet gig, huh?  Next week a group is arriving from South Carolina and I’m so excited to witness their reaction to the beautiful abundance and art of some passionate, local gardenmakers.  The best part?  I get to snoop and preview these beautiful landscapes, talk with their owners, kibbitz about plants, colors, pests & neighbors. 

Everyone has a different approach; colorists paint beautiful pictures with plant combos like the Peruvian and Torch Lilies at the above left, while plant collectors get to present their treasures to an appreciative audience.  The photo at the above right is without a doubt, the coolest variegated viburnum I’ve ever seen.  The intricate, fuzzy, nearly pixilated foliage clothes a gently slumped, mounded shrub to about 4 to 5 feet (so far).  I don’t even have to see it’s flowers, it’s supposedly beautiful fall color, or even know it’s correct botanic name (we couldn’t find the tag) to know that I want one!!! 

But most of all, getting out and looking at gardens is a constant source of amazement and a fresh shock at all the many colors, forms and incarnations of an endlessly fascinating world.

Backyard S’mores

Take one rustic firepit, build a small but fragrant, crackling fire and allow it to burn down to glowing orange embers.  (Don’t poke it too much, you’ll put the whole thing out altogether - trust me on this)

Impale 2 fluffy, soft, decadently white-sugar, bad-for-you marshmallows onto the tip of a long stick; I use the same stick I poke at the fire with…  Hold just above the coals, and rotate gently to achieve a lightly toasted crust with a molten interior all the while arguing with your companions as to what constitues the true perfect speciman.  Watch out for the flaming, incendiary sugary torch of a certain daughter’s questionable method.

Of course you will have prepped the requisite graham cracker snapping it cleanly in two - Honey Maid, plain, hopefully fresh and crispy but chewy and stale will work - face it, the crackers are not the point here!  Top one half of the cracker with 1/6th of a Hershey Bar.  Yes, just 1/6th to achieve the perfect chocolate/mallow melding.  Why oh why did Hershey change the packaging of these iconic bars?  Where is the plain paper wrapper and foil sleeve?  The present day plastic pouch may have it’s advantages but I find it hard to open one-handed with a molten marshmallow threatening to jump ship in the other hand.  Plus, it just feels wrong.

Sandwich the molten, sugary goods between the crackers, squeeze and allow at least a couple of minutes for the chocolate to melt.  Lick the drippy edges if you must.  Now bite into summer…and be glad that’s it’s dark and no one can see that you have marshmallow goo and chocolate all OVER your chin!  Yum…