Plant Talk

Hiatus...

It's autumn as you can see from the bouquet above - time to reassess, move forward, change direction, start anew.  For me, it's time to take a hiatus from this blog. But not without thanking readers and advertisers and commenters, all of whom have encouraged, supported, challenged, and inspired me over the nearly five years of writing my blog.

I've written nearly a thousand posts, received nearly 3,000 comments, and I won't even begin to think about how many photos I've taken to come up with the ones I shared here on the blog. At some times during the year, mostly early spring and mid-fall, Plant Talk received more than 40,000 hits a month...that was the encouraging part....as well as having many of the very best nurseries in the Northwest advertise right here...

But the world of blogs is changing as Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook - and probably several more that I know even less about - take their place. And there are just too many blogs! I think the future of blogs lies with a collective voice, blogs that several or more authors contribute to, with a particular point of view or aesthetic - like my favorite one, Gardenista, for which I've written, and hope to write more for.

But more than that, I plan to concentrate on writing for Pacific Northwest magazine in the Seattle Times (lots of great garden stories coming up in 2015), for Garden Design magazine (I'll be reviewing books for them) and I have a story coming up in Dwell next year. I'll continue to interview authors for my "Book City" column in Crosscut (an interview with Dan Savage coming up later this month...) That and running a yoga studio in Langley and teaching four classes a week is where I need to direct my energies. For now.

Many thanks - you've made blogging a creative, interactive endeavor and for that I'm grateful..It was fun....

Rhododendron Species Foundation & Bonsai Collection are Staying Put....

Ever since Weyerhaeuser announced they are selling their Federal Way campus and moving to Pioneer Square, I've been worried about the impact on the Rhododendron Species Foundation and the Pacific Bonsai Museum. Will they survive in their present location?

Here's the latest - a reassuring press release from the RSF:

"With the surprising news of the impending relocation of the headquarters of the Weyerhaeuser Company from their Federal Way corporate campus to their new site in Seattle in 2016, many people are expressing concern over the fate of two of the Pacific Northwest’s finest public gardens – the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden (RSBG) and the Pacific Bonsai Collection. Both of these independently funded, 501c3, non-profit organizations currently lease land on the Weyerhaeuser campus and both are Puget Sound institutions, each featuring a world-class collection and beautiful display gardens.

The good news is that these two organizations and their display gardens are NOT moving, will not be moving, and have no reason to move. Weyerhaeuser spokesperson, Anthony Chavez says,

“The Bonsai and Rhododendron Gardens will not be affected by the announcement of moving our corporate headquarters to Seattle.” They are both completely independent of the Weyerhaeuser Company and so will still be located in the exact same place where you have enjoyed them for so many years, in Federal Way at the intersection of Highway 18 and I-5. The hours are the same, the gardens are the same, nothing has changed and they are open for business!

The RSF Conservatory in autumn....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Jet-Setter's Garden Paradise in Morocco

"Marella Agnelli: The Last Swan" will be published in October by Rizzoli, but there's a satisfyingly long excerpt in the current issue of Vanity Fair. Marella was a friend of the Kennedy's, and the swan in the title refers to her being one of Truman Capote's special friends. She and her husband Gianni collected art and built homes   around the world to suit their collections.  Marella saw her life as making homes and gardens, after an aging Countess explained to her "All one needs to catch a husband may be a bed, but it takes a whole house to keep one!" Those were different times.....

Yet the allure of gardens remains the same through the years, and the most moving part of the excerpt is Marella's description of her current, and perhaps last, garden in Morocco. As with so many of us, the garden closest to her heart reminds her of her childhood garden.

"Of all the gardens I have created, I would say that Ain Kassimou is the one that comes closest to my idea of happiness," writes Marella. "Somestimes, as I wander here alone or in someone's company, my imagination flies back to the garden of my childhood, in Florence. I used to sneak out of my bed at night and wander down to the end of the garden. Just for the thrill of it. In the darkness I could hear all the invisible presences. That's when I first became aware that gardens breathe and are alive, just as we are. One is never really "done" with a garden, just as one is never "done" with life. Day by day and step by step, one just keeps on finding new and clever ways to make them flourish, both in sunshine and in storm."

September Horticultural Happenings - Mark Your Calendar Now

As surely as our gardens dry out and evenings draw in as autumn approaches, gardening events pop up.  Here are three you won't want to miss - coming up in the first weeks of September.

First up, on Monday, September 8th, is "The Remarkable Revitalization of Olmsted Parks" lecture by Thomas Herrera-Mishler, the Buffalo, N.Y. Olmsted Parks Conservancy President & CEO. He'll talk about how over the last six years he's restored Buffalo's park system, and how Seattle, too, could return its historic parks to prime condition.

Thomas is an impressive and popular speaker, with wide-ranging experience that includes designing the master plan for Costa Rica’s Zoo and Botanical Gardens, serving as executve director for the Massachusets Hortcultural Society, and as the Community Landscape Architect for the Pennsylvania Hortcultural Society.

A natve of Morelia, Mexico, Thomas serves on the board of the Natonal Associaton for Olmsted Parks, founded in Buffalo thirty years ago after freeway constructon destroyed an Olmsted park. He's a determined gardener, chef, and voracious reader.

At 6 p.m., there'll be a reception and short film ("The Best Planned City in the World") before the 7 p.m. lecture. All takes place downstairs at Town Hall in Seattle at 1119 8th Avenue. The Volunteer Park Trust will benefit from the $10 donation/$8 students and Town Hall Members. Buy tickets here.

Learn more about the lecture, and the Volunteer Park trust here.

Dan, Steve and I invite you to join us at the Miller Lecture this year....we're pleased to help celebrate Betty Miller's accomplishments, legacy, and the profound effect she had on those of us who knew her well.

Then follow up the lecture with a plant sale benefitting Betty's baby, the Northwest Horticultural Society. (Betty founded the group, which is going strong, supporting the Miller Library and bringing famed horticultural speakers from around the world to Seattle to speak.)

The NHS's Annual Fall Plant Sale is the day after the lecture; Friday, September 12th and also on Saturday the 13th. You'll find treasures from the best plant vendors in the Northwest; now is the time to refresh your garden  at a great  time of year for new plants to settle in. Check out the impressive list of vendors here,
 including Botanica, Old Goat Farm, and Dan Hinkley's Windcliff. What I always love about the NHS sale is that it's as much party and educational event as it is plant sale...

Northwest Horticultural Society
ANNUAL FALL PLANT SALE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 11:00 – 5:00
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 10:00 – 2:00
North Seattle Community College Arts & Sciences Garage
9600 College Way N, Seattle 98103

 

 

The Yin and Yang of Summer Bouquets...When Less is More

Sometimes the summer garden is so overwhelmingly bounteous with all its flowers and squashes that all I want of it in the house is the most simple of bouquets (and herbs and zucchini for the kitchen, of course....). When there are such riches and diversity to choose from, I just want to quiet it all down, in the vase, anyway.

So here's the perfection of simplicity, a quiet yin bouquet of just one 'Annabelle' hydrangea head in the slimmest, matte white vase....what more could you possibly need?

But then soon enough I was inspired by the contrast of blue hydrangea and golden blooms on the ligularia, or maybe by the golden yellow pitcher, or the feathery fennel, to pull together an arrangement bursting with summer color and texture. Helenium, dahlias, the ligularia flowers on tall stems, the airy fennel to the right, helenium, crocosmia, and hydrangea - the quintessential ingredients in a sliding-toward-autumn garden.

Sometimes asymmetry works for bouquets as well as it does for haircuts, especially when you have so many big, starring-role flowers in the same bunch. Just be sure to use a heavy, grounded vase - this fat, rounded pitcher is perfect - so that the asymmetry doesn't look as if it might tip the bunch over.

The fennel arbitrates between the showboating ligularia and dahlias, softening both. It's wise to plant a clear, mid-range blue mophead hydrangea like this one (I grow it in a big pot) for the clarity of its shade makes every other color look better...

After the Rain....The Garden is Refreshed

The gathering evening clouds last week from the deck of the Whidbey Island ferry, hinting at the unsettled weather to come.

First the drought, then a deluge. Neither are too good for the garden, especially when it rains hard enough to knock over the heavy heads of hydrangea and lilies. But the garden is recovering quickly, refreshed by the first thorough watering in a month. Why is it that a good heavy rain always seems so much more effective than any supplemental irrigation we can supply?

And the light is so soft and beautiful after a good summer rainstorm, as the sun starts to slant back in through the clouds...

I'd tell you which crocosmia this is, if I could remember....it's my new favorite, and no doubt from Far Reaches Farm....

The cooler weather and dose of water encouraged wisteria re-bloom...

This deep purple moonflower with the glowing, wine-colored heart (Ipomoea purpurea 'Grandpa Ott') re-seeded itself in one of the feed troughs, and is happily growing up through squashes and strawberries...this is a completely un-retouched iPhone photo. It's all about the light, isn't it?  And yes, a morning glory relative, but not invasive; it's an annual in our climate.

Grandpa Ott’s’ — deep purple flowers with a wine-red star; - See more at: http://www.hortmag.com/plant-files/morning-glories-moonflowers#sthash.F1mWfXfn.dpuf

Grandpa Ott’s’ — deep purple flowers with a wine-red star; - See more at: http://www.hortmag.com/plant-files/morning-glories-moonflowers#sthash.F1mWfXfn.dpufre-seeded itself and is growing up through strawberries and squashes in a feed trough. This is a completely un-retouched iPhone photo; it's all about the light, isn't it?? And of course that intense blue of the moonflower (Ipomoea

Climbing a little metal trellis in the center of the same feed trough is this sweet-faced black-eyed Susan vine - (Thunbergia alata) also, unfortunately, an annual. And not inclined to re-seed. Both it and the moonflower are common, old-fashioned plants that carry the garden through until autumn, seemngly impervious to heat, drought, and even drenching rains....

 

 

 

Summer Scenes from a Skagit Valley Day Trip....

I came upon this bursting-with-health clump of brilliant pink monarda (bee balm) in the garden of an old Anacortes farmhouse last week on a day-long trip through the Skagit Valley.

I stood on the sidewalk for awhile, enjoying the bees and butterflies enjoying the monarda. Didn't the owners paint their house the most perfect shade of blue as backdrop to the tall, lavender meadow rue and vintage pink hydrangeas?

More vintage in the dusty little town of Edison...how does this tiny, off-the-road town manage to be both sleepy and hip? Maybe because you reach it by driving along Farm-to-Market Road....

Red geraniums never looked so good as in this Victorian home's second-story windowbox....

With a nostalgic porch decorated with ferns, bunnies and birdcages.....

An invitingly open, flowery metal gate, with stepping stones leading around the corner of the house...

In LaConner, after a stop into MONA's (Museum of Northwest Art) gift shop, we paused to take in these serene Buddhas sitting quietly in their leafy splendor. They're in the courtyard of one of the shops, an inspiration on how to blend Buddhas, stone, moss and plants...

I'm unable to drive up or down Whidbey Island without stopping for a hike at Ebey's Landing...this view of checkered farmland, summer sky and sea is taken walking along the path from the cemetary towards the water...

Isn't the Northwest the most beautiful place in summer??

 

This Year's Free Miller Lecture at Meany Hall is on September 11....

I hope you'll all come...It's hard to believe it's the 20th anniversary of this free lecture, a gift to the gardening public from the Miller Foundation.

I'm pretty much retiring from public speaking, but how can you say no when Richie Steffen asks?? And Dan, Steve and I are some of the few people left who really knew Betty. You'll hear some stories, I promise.

 

Early August Bouquet Fodder, From Dahlias to Yarrow and Hydrangeas

Is there a greater pleasure than going outside, early in the morning (very early on these hot days) and picking whatever strikes you for bouquets? You're composing in your mind as you stoop low to cut flowers hanging their heads, or squeeze around back of the bush to cut where it won't show.

I was making an arrangement for Museo Gallery's opening night, and fell for peachy-golden dahlias paired with hydrangeas in violet and clear blue. Then I needed some spiky forms (crocosmia) and flatter-shaped perennials (yarrow) to contrast with the circular, globby forms of the dahlias and hydrangeas.

Museo's August show - which runs all month - features the wooden sculptures of Joel Sayres, and the paintings of Whidbey Island artist Gordy Edberg, an architect and former mayor of Mercer Island. Gordy is a great colorist, as you can see in his landscape (above), so I was thinking color. Which was the only reason I wasn't out picking a huge bunch of creamy white 'Annabelle' hydrangeas which are at their peak.

Here are the ingredients I started with - cut as the sun came up, and tucked into a big vase filled with cool water to rest for a few hours before arranging...

Then comes the enjoyable dilemma of choosing the right vase - since this arrangement was for a gallery's front desk, and because I'm working with the big showboat flowers of mid-summer, it needed to be a generously-scaled vase...

The butter yellow vase (from Room and Board) seemed perfect with the colors of the dahlias, as well as pale enough to show off the deeply saturated tones of the hydrangeas.

And a close-up. If I had a larger garden, I think all I'd plant is more and more hydrangeas...

 

Glorious, Glorious Color - A Color-Sequenced Cutting Border on Whidbey Island

Remember that rainy Wednesday late in July? I was lucky enough to spend part of that very wet afternoon at Cheryl Kamera's garden on Whidbey Island. Cheryl is an artist who specializes in dying fabrics, and she has a highly skilled color sense.  Of which she makes full use in her generously scaled, sumptuous cutting border.

Cheryl's studio is in her garden, surrounded by Japanese maples, vegetables, and flowers in a symphony of colors. The cutting border runs along the side of the vegetable garden; it's both deep and long, a sea of vividly colors dahlias, lilies, crocosmia, thalictrum....well, take a look and imagine all the beautiful bouquets just waiting to be picked...

The far end of the border holds mostly hot colors - helenium, Crocosmia 'Lucifer', dahlias

It shades through hot pink phlox and shades of pink achillea

The color play grows more intense when purple clematis backs lipstick pink lilies...

Because Cheryl is a redhead, and no doubt because we need all the warm colors we can get in our climate, the golds predominate mid-border...Oriental lilies and kniphofia....

Achillea, golden dragon lilies, dahlias shading into orange...

The end of the border is a medley of lavender thalictrum, pale lilies and the dark note of purple-black bugbane (Actaea simplex 'Brunette', or maybe it's 'Hillside Black Beauty' - I never can tell the difference....). And it doesn't matter, the effect is stunning....