-
February Garden Maintenance for the Pacific Northwest
February feels like the eye of the storm for us gardeners – there’s just enough time between the winter pruning rush and the flurry of spring to take a deep breath, and begin thinking back on what worked especially well last year and what projects we might like to tackle this year. Most of my…
-
Braving The Thorns: How to Select a Bare Root Rose
If you want to buy a rose anytime this year, January’s the time to do it. They have just arrived in the nurseries and are cheap, transplant well right now, and the selection is fantastic. (Next month they’ll be even cheaper, of course, but do you want to risk your favorite being gone?) Here’s how…
-
I Love Alstroemeria! And: A Cool Trick For Pruning Them (Video Tutorial)
Florists love Alstroemeria for their gorgeous, long-lasting cut flowers, and I do too – the orange ‘Third Harmonic’ above, the traditional salmon-pink ‘Regina’ found in your florist’s shop, the always-lovely ‘Casa Blanca’ with its white flowers striped with pink and green – there are colors and tones to suit any garden.
-
Cheerful Conifers: Some Year-Round Stars (With Photos)
To finish up my Fall Planting for Winter Interest series, I’m excited to share some of my favorite conifers that look awesome in winter. Conifers are one of the strongest evergreen elements in a garden. They’re usually fairly tough once established, and there’s an enormous variety in textures and colors – from stately and stiff…
-
Showy Trees for Winter Interest in the Pacific Northwest
It’s getting pret-ty darn chilly outside, and I don’t know about you, but most of my gardening activity in the last couple weeks has been planning, dreaming, and viewing my garden from indoors, thank you very much. Even my chickens are resting in their toasty coop a good portion of the day, and they have…
-
How to Prune Your Hardy Geranium or Cranesbill (Or: Ode to ‘Rozanne’) (Video Tutorial)
I am a huge fan of Geranium ‘Rozanne’. Here’s a plant that’s gotten tons of press in the last few years (tons of press for a plant at least!), winning all kinds of plant-y awards and generally being the plant world’s Paris Hilton. Except ‘Rozanne’? She actually deserves the attention. She blooms gorgeously from her…
-
Rhododendrons – Little-Known Favorites for Winter
If you’ve been following my Fall Planting Series, you’ll know why fall is such a great time of year to plant! This is also the perfect time to see where your garden is lacking in winter interest, and to add some year-round stars to perk things up. Rhododendrons are one of my favorite plants now,…
-
Cheerful Grasses Add Color and Movement to Your Winter Garden
If you’ve read a gardening magazine in the last ten years, you know how hot ornamental grasses are. We rely on them for a bold foliage accent, but so many go dormant in winter, just when we most want their striking foliage display. The solution? Check out these five favorite grasses that DON’T go dormant…
-
Small Plants to Enhance Your Winter Garden
While the twigs and branches of dormant shrubs have their own interest, if your garden doesn’t have much variety in winter, things can be dull. A quick fix for those bare areas is to tuck a few winter-interest fillers in the foreground, to bring a prettily arching form, bright foliage color, or some cheerful blooms…
-
Five Often-Overlooked Shrubs for Gorgeous Winter Color
So we’ve talked about why you want to plant in fall – you don’t have to water as much, plants get their roots well established through the winter, and there’s less transplant shock – meaning those plants you paid top dollar for will be glowing with health in the spring! But it can be rather…
-
Winter-Blooming Annuals to Help Your Garden Shine
Winter can be dull if we haven’t prepared for it, with the gray skies and so many plants dormant. Much as I am a fan of shrubs and low-maintenance perennials, annuals can be a fantastic way of filling in the time between fall dormancy and spring with sparks of cheery color. You can set out…