Plant Talk

Discount Tickets Through May 31 for the Vashon Island Tour, A Highlight of the Gardening Year

Vashon Island, with its flowering fields, ripe strawberries and glorious gardens, is a paradise in June, and this year's garden tour is perfectly timed for all that gorgeousness. The weekend of June 23-24 is this year's 22nd annual Vashon Garden Tour, a benefit for Vashon Allied Arts, and always such a treat to drive down all those wooded lanes and find creative, personal gardens open for viewing. And tickets are only $20 through May 31 (purchase at brown paper tickets).

Driving around the island, taking in the views of water, mountains, sheep and horses while tracking down the five open gardens is the heart of the experience. From a healing garden sanctuary, to an art-studded stroll garden, the properties are eclectic and quintessentially Vashon. There's even a chicken museum on tour this year!

Your tour tickets include seminars on topics from selecting and installing stonework to distilling essential oils. There'll be live music, a Garden Art Market, and you can't go to Vashon without spending time (and no doubt some money) at inspiring DIG Nursery.

And here's the big draw this year; my friend garden architect  David Pfeiffer has opened his garden for the tour for the first time ever. He has a Miller Hull designed house that opens to a mouth-watering kitchen garden (profiled in "The New Low Maintenance Garden"), terraces, a grape arbor be-decked outdoor dining room, one of most beautiful Buddhas ever, sweeps of ornamentals leading your eye to the meadow and labyrinth, and then out to the water view....well, you have to see it. To top it off, David will be lecturing on a topic dear to his heart - Gardening With Weeds (11 a.m. & 3 p.m. both days). A landscape architect advocating naturalism? Yup.

Tour tickets are $20 per person through May 31, $25 after June 1. All Garden Tour proceeds benefit Vashon Allied Arts. For more information, please call VAA at 206 -463-5131.

Here's a preview of David Pfeiffer's garden, which has been described as both sophisticated and sturdily agrarian....

See what I mean? You have to go....David's garden alone is worth the price...and be sure and stop by DIG and say hello to proprietors Sylvia and Ross...

 

 

 

 

Botanical Art Exhibit at Bloedel Reserve This Month and Next....

Can you imagine a better venue for a botanical art exhibit than Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island? This calm and gorgeous garden, with its moss, Japanese, naturalistic and hedged garden (among others) offers a quintessential nature and garden experience....and from May 12 through June 30, you'll be able to enjoy plants indoors, too. Representations of them, anyway, when Bloedel hosts watercolors, colored pencil and graphite drawings by members of the Pacific Northwest Botanical Artists group. Eleven different artists have contributed 37 botanical works...all will be on sale, along with notecards and prints.

And you no longer need reservations to visit Bloedel Reserve.  But don't get distracted over a long lunch in Winslow as friends did recently, showing up at 4 p.m. to tour Bloedel and find the gates closing. Hours are 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; starting in June, the Reserve will be open until 7:00 p.m. Thursday through Sunday evenings.

Wear comfortable shoes, bring a sweater, plan to stay for several hours...Bloedel is an experience to savor. My favorite spots are looking down on the Japanese garden from the deck of the teahouse, wandering through the primeval-feeling moss garden, and the quiet, sophisticated hush of the hedged pond garden...oh, and the nature sanctuary, and the library in the Visitor Center....you can see why you'll need to allow at least half a day to do the place justice...

Check out Bloedel's web page for details and directions. If you'd like more information about the art exhibit, call or email Programs and Communication Director Kate Gormley at 206-842-7631; kgormley@bloedelreserve.org.

This exquisite painting of a geranium is by water colorist and art teacher Kathleen McKeehen of Indianola, one of the eleven artists with work on display in the elegant Residence Visitor Center.

 

 

 

 

Flower Arranging as Al Fresco Theatre on Whidbey Island...With Cream Puffs

Last Saturday afternoon, which was gently sunny and just warm enough, Cultus Bay Nursery hosted a flower arranging party and book signing for "Petal & Twig", as a benefit for Whidbey Island Nourishes. The whole event was such fun, well attended with eager gardeners diving in for pots of succulents, clematis, hydrangeas - all the fabulous plants Cultus Bay is known for. The whole place smelled sweetly of lilacs, the nursery cat patrolled around, and the chatter peaked into crescendo after crescendo as shoppers found treasures and loaded up wagons.

A French chef handed out little sandwiches and fruit pastries (cream puffs with fresh raspberries, rhubarb sauce and whip cream...) in the lathe house, and I was signing books....but the highlight of this quintessentially cheery Whidbey Island afternoon was a flower arranging demonstration by Mary Fisher and her delightful daughter Brita, who has worked at Fleurish and now works at Marigold and Mint - hands down my two favorite florists in Seattle.

Mary and Brita stood behind a table set up in the heart of the place, and laden with flowers and foliage they'd cut from the gardens and nursery, and their hands flew as they clipped, cut and fashioned bouquet after bouquet.  It was a casual and heart-stoppingly beautiful display, with smoke bush and ruffled columbine, viburnum, boxwood, lady's mantle, bright geum, scalloped heuchera and hellebores - all the garden is offering up in the fullness of May. Vases of all sizes and shapes, pitchers of water and clippers at hand, mother and daughter set in to fashion one bouquet after another - tone on tone, contrasting colors, they offered encouragement, tips and tricks as they worked.

I think the people gathered, drinking tea and snacking on cream puff sandwiches, loved it all as much as I did...take a look at the table after Brita and Mary worked their magic in arrangements that were naturalistic yet sophisticated, simple enough to bring out the best in the flowers and leaves, yet complex enough to draw you in to look closer...

Pure Potential of Poppies, Allium and Chives....Buds Plumping Up, Splitting Open

This is my most favorite time in the garden, just past mid-May (depending on weather and temperatures) when it's all starting to happen. You know flowering is well on its way, but you still have it to look forward to.

 Buds are showing color, plumping up, beginning to split open.... Flowers bloom such a short time, that their peak is almost painful because as it's happening you're acutely aware that it's nearly over. But before a downy poppy bud opens, when even a chive is curled up tight, let alone three foot tall alliums (which open tantalizing, satisfyingly slowly, over several weeks) are still in bud, you have the full flowering of springtime ahead of you...

My garden is so small that it only has two real flushes of bloom - allium in late May/early June, followed by fragrant Oriental and Orienpet lilies in late July into August. Let the drama begin, but let it take its own sweet time unfolding, please...

Fuzzy poppy buds look more fauna than flora, like blind little creatures reaching for the light.

A chive hedge along one edge of a raised bed, about to open its pungent little flowers...

Allium's strappy leaves have been a presence since early April, but just in the last couple of weeks the tall stems have made their appearance. These are 'Purple Sensation' and 'Globemaster'; I planted two kinds to extend the bloom time, although their flowering does overlap for two showy weeks...The gold and orange shrub is Spirea 'Magic Carpet', its fresh foliage as brilliantly colored as it ever gets...

 

You're Invited - Cultus Bay Nursery Hosts "Petal & Twig" Signing on Saturday May 19 - With a Special Floral Demonstration by Mary and her Daughter

Mary Fisher, owner of Cultus Bay Nursery on South Whidbey Island, and her daughter Brita (who has worked at my two favorite florists in Seattle, Fleurish and Marigold and Mint) are accomplished and inspired flower arrangers.

They make some of the most beautiful country-casual, color-sophisticated wedding bouquets I've ever seen. So when I agreed to do a signing at Cultus Bay to benefit Whidbey Island Nourishes (a charity that feed hungry young people), I volunteered to point out plants with bouquet potential if Mary and Brita would demonstrate how they work their flower magic.

Throw in refreshments, a rural island setting, charming outbuildings, and one of the best small nurseries around, and you have the plan for my book signing on Saturday, May 19, from 1 - 3:30 p.m. at Cultus Bay Nursery. The Nursery is down one of those fabulous, winding, island lanes at the South end of the island not far from the ferry - 7568 Cultus Bay Road, Clinton. The phone number is 360-579-2329.

Here's how Mary describes the afternoon she has planned for us: "The day will be fun filled as well as educational!  Brita Fisher, who grew up at the nursery, will come lend her artistic talents to the day. A party of this sort would not be complete without some tasty nibbles and beverages! We will be treated to the incredible talents of Kris Phillips - one of W.I.N.'s famous chefs. The general schedule is: arranging from 2:00 - 3:00 with book signing before and after that time. Of course this is the idea but we are a fluid bunch so it will unfold as it does!"

All the profits from book sales will go to Whidbey Island Nourishes, and 10% of the plant sales on Saturday will also go to W.I.N. Hope to see you on Saturday....

Chihuly Garden and Glass Exhibit - WOW! It's the Boom - and Opens May 21st

I was lucky enough to attend a pre-opening function for CG&G last night; it opens to the public on Monday, May 21. I went on a hard hat tour over a month ago (my story about the exhibit runs June 3 in Pacific Northwest magazine in the Seattle Times)  before much glass was in place, and even then I was so excited about the architecture, and the confluence of art and gardens at the base of the Space Needle.

And yet I still wasn't prepared for how beautifully it's all come together. From the restaurant and its display of Chihuly's ecelectic collections, to the coolly contemporary glass house, from the gardens to the blow-your-mind glass, everything is done exquisitely....how often do we get to see, right here in Seattle, something unlike anything we've ever seen before?

The exhibit is going to be a huge hit for locals and tourists, the first place we take everyone who visits us from out of town. We'll hang out in the cafe and gift shop, sip cappucchinos  on the terrace, and admire how the plants change seasonally and grow up around the glass. From garden designer Richard Hartlage of AHBL (thanks, Richard, for the invite tonight!) to architect Owen Richards, Jeff Wright of the Space Needle team that made it all happen, and of course Chihuly and his design team...everyone did a job to be proud of - congratulations.

Here, take a quick look, then be sure and go next week when it opens and see for yourself - for details, times, dates and ticket sales click here.

My favorite exhibit is the Northwest room, with its chamois colored glass pieces, wall of blankets and historic photos...

One entire dark gallery is devoted to looking up into a ceiling of glass

Yup, those are accordians hanging from the ceiling of the very stylish cafe - one of many of Chihuly's collections on display...each table has its own little collection set into glass in the center of the table, from fishing gear to transistor radios...

and these masks, or maybe they're doll heads?

The glass house, by architect Owen Richards, is one of the most beautiful spaces in the city, and comes as a bright, airy relief after the dark galleries with their reflective surfaces and glass in myriad shapes and colors....it is sure to be rented for weddings and benefits and big parties.....

The gardens wind around the buildings, with iris blooming on rooftops, and glass seemingly growing up out of plantings...you have to see the gardens for yourself to get the full effect of the dramatic contrasts and happy harmonies of glass and gardens...

 

Peony Love - Henry Mitchell Suggested It's Time To Pull Up a Chair and Contemplate Peony Splendor

This ethereal beauty is 'Bartzella', one of the new Itoh peonies. I just picked it out of the garden this morning, where its dark, dissected foliage shows off the papery, ruffled blossoms to perfection. 'Kopper Kettle' is in bud, but not open yet.....can't wait for it to bloom....

There's a wonderful riff by Henry Mitchell - I think it's in his book"The Essential Earthman" - about how he's sick and tired of hearing people complain that peonies don't bloom long enough. Mitchell explains that all you need to do is make the most of the time they do bloom; forget about work, bring a chair out into the garden, sit around and contemplate peonies in all their glory. They bloom plenty long enough (let alone their fabulous, durable foliage) if you do your part in celebrating their flowering...I'm afraid I've done the modern day equivalent, and made this photo the desktop image on my computer....

Fresh Ingredients Make the Bouquet - Peony Leaves, Euphorbia, Lilacs and Tulips

On a recent rainy morning, motivated by having more work due than I cared to contemplate, I gathered the raw ingredients for several bouquets. The plan was to compose one big bouquet for the opening night of Museo Gallery's fabulous Metal Invitational show, and several small, fragrant arrangements for the house and yoga studio.

Luckily, I had armloads of lilacs, thanks to a neighbor who let me cut from her blossom-heavy shrub along the sidewalk. I bought the parrot tulips, and picked the euphorbia and the last narcissus out of the garden. The dark, dissected peony foliage is from a branch that fortuitously broke off in the rain.

As with any creative endeavor, there's waste involved in bouquet-making - it's always hard to know what you'll really need until you get into any project. As with cooking, you start by assembling an abundance of fresh ingredients to choose from; with flowers this includes an assortment of vases and a pair of sharp clippers...

With this many possibilities to mess around with, I was able to procrastinate on my writing for a pleasant hour or two....It was a challenge to create a bouquet for an art show featuring metal pieces (it's a fabulous show that includes tansu, neon and cool garden cages; use it as an excuse to visit Langley this month).

I figured anything too frilly, light, ephemeral, or fluffy would get lost amidst all the heavy metal...so I chose a big, heavy vase and loaded it up...with the dark peony foliage (from 'Kopper Kettle') around the bottom to play up the tulips and tie all the various colors to the vase.

There were enough raw ingredients left over, a few lilacs and tulips, and all the narcissus (which looked too pale and ephemeral to suit the the beefier bouquet) for a trio of bouquets to scent the house and the yoga studio.

 

Insight Into Color Complexities, and a Celebration of Landscape and Light

"Orange is like a man convinced of his own powers," wrote the Russian painter Vasily Kandinsky...one of the many illuminating quotes in the book "The Anthropology of Turquoise; Meditations on Landscape, Art and Spirit," by Ellen Meloy (Random House, 2002). I'm loving this book, even though, or perhaps because, Meloy's personal geography is so very different than mine. She lives, hikes, paints and meditates on color in the desert and hills of Southern Utah, where the colors of sky, stone and life are blue, terra-cotta, and green. With a predominance of terra-cotta.

All gardeners deal with color; we struggle with it, celebrate it, work with harmonies, contrasts, light and shadow. How can you garden and not be obsessed with color? Somedays it seems like that's all I think about, and am comforted to know that master colorist Picasso studied color his whole long life and considered it to be the greatest mystery.

I never like books that explain color in terms of rods and cones, or instructive ones that suggest planting purple and chartreuse together, or not mixing yellow and white variegation. Who makes such rules, or thinks so narrowly? Color is one big, glorious experiment..for Meloy it's both study and observation, as well as learning from those who have meditated upon color before her.

Here are a few of the quotes I've written in my journal as I read...and I'm only halfway through the book! "The Anthropology of Turquoise" is a book to savor, to read slowly...

- The complex human eye harvests light

-Yes, you can feel colors - the sense of sight likely evolved from the sense of touch.

-"The power of profound meaning is blue....blue is concentric motion." Kandinsky

-"Colors are the deeds and suffering of light" Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

- "Red rings inwardly with a determined intensity. It glows in itself, maturely and does not distribute its vigor aimlessly." Kandsinsky again

And this is my favorite bit so far, filled with knowledge and imagery to ponder:

-Colors don't reside in things; they are the intimate revelations of an energy field. They are light waves with mathematically precise lengths, and they are deep, resonant mysteries with boundless subjectivity.

This embothrium blossom, just opening this morning on Queen Anne hill, is pure color energy in all its "resonant mysteries".

If you look for "The Anthropology of Turquoise", the newer, paperback edition has a different subtitle, "Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone and Sky," and a new cover. I like the new cover better, and prefer the old subtitle, but either way, it's the same thoughtful, inspiring book.

 

 

 

 

Renee and I Have Coffee and I Learn What's Happening in the World of Seeds

Renee Shepherd of Renee's Garden Seeds (yes, she's a real person) was in Seattle last weekend to give talks at Wells-Medina and Bellevue Nursery, and to visit her sister and webmaster, Sue Sheckett, who lives near the Arboretum. Renee and I met for coffee  on Monday morning and had one of those wonderful state-of-horticulture conversations; I'm so lucky to have her company as a partner on Plant Talk....Here are a few highlights from our meandering, fruitful conversation:

-All those new coneflowers (Echinacea) that have been coming out the last few years in such tempting sunset colors have been improved, and are now truly perennial. If like me you succumbed, and planted some only to have them disappear, Renee advised that it might well be worth giving them another chance.

- Renee is putting together new mixes of variously colored nasturtiums, like the new-for-2012  "Cup of Sun" mix which includes nasturtiums in shades from white through cream, chamois, yellow, gold and pumpkin. I need to order these right away! Chamois-colored nasturtiums literally make my mouth water...

- Watch for some extravagant poppies in the future from Renee's Garden Seeds - she's trialing a bunch of peony-flowering (intensely ruffled and doubled) poppies, and will be selling them as soon as she's figured out which kinds do best.

-Renee says she's "determined to popularize" the modest little chocolate flower (Berlandiera lyrata) which has the strongest, most delicious chocolate scent of any flower. She says it's "not wimpy" like chocolate cosmos, which fade away even in
California. I thought they just couldn't take our wet winters. Chocolate flower is small and bright yellow, daisy-like with brown centers....it's an easy-to-grow wildlfower that draws pollinators, but really it's that rich, deep smell of chocolate that'll make Renee successful popularizing it...check out the 15% discount she offers to readers of Plant Talk (right).

- Renee is working on so many valuable projects and ideas - she's trialing various potting soils and developing more vegetables and flowers that thrive in containers. Sign up for her newsletter to keep up with what she's doing....and in the meantime, check out these useful, practical posts  on organic gardening from Renee's blog.

-Renee suggests planting two rows of cilantro, and let one go to seed to attract beneficial insects. Speaking of beneficials, she advised me that old-fashioned, sweet alyssum is not only easy to grow from seed, blooms forever, re-seeds itself, and is fragrant, but attracts more beneficial insects than any other flower.

I'm convinced, and headed out to scatter seeds of 'Summer Peaches' alyssum to edge all my raised beds. This Dutch variety smells like honey and is quick to flower. Its warm shades of soft orange and peach will make both me and the bees and butterflies very happy....

Happy Mother's Day - wishing all you Moms plenty of sweet flowers in your garden and in your life....