I don’t remember where my first Queen’s Tears plant came from originally. I would guess I’ve had it for about seven or eight years. I’ve divided it into three pots and pretty much neglect them all and these sturdy plants don’t care. They keep growing and blooming every spring.

These plants aren’t particularly attractive and the flowers are more interesting than they are showy or beautiful, but their simplicity earns them a place in the greenhouse. The only other bromeliads I have are the air plants (mostly tillandsias) that grow on a branch in the greenhouse.

You can see my 2020 plans for these plants are a bit ruthless. I cut two of the pots almost completely down to the ground, as they looked pretty rough. My hope is that they’ll pop back up all fresh and green and I’ll do a better job of moving them out in the spring for their flower “show.”

I grew several of these semi-tropical shrubs from seed about ten years ago. I kept them in large pots, but they never bloomed. As a last resort, I planted the last survivor out in the open border along the driveway. The plant surprised me with its hardiness. It has died back to the roots every year, then resprouted and grown to five or six feet by late summer. But still, no flowers!

We had some significantly cold weather this past winter, but not enough to cut the Iochroma down. It stayed alive and fortunately I didn’t cut it back like I usually do! It leafed out all the way to the top and sprouted buds and now flowers!

The flowers are a bit bigger than I imagined and a lovely shade blue-lavender.

My 2020 plans for this plant will be to get a few cuttings in July to see if I can get a few for sales and maybe one for the memory garden. I’ll also make sure to get an organic fertilizer spike under it to help feed its additional growth this year.

This plant is known as the Cheddar pink, presumably because Cheddar, UK is part of its native haunts. I grew my lone plant from seed over ten years ago and it never fails to perform in June with good-sized, spicy-scented flowers. The plant was growing in a brick wall that surrounded the Douglas fir bed, but we removed the wall this year to do work on the native plant garden. The Cheddar pink appears nonplussed.

I don’t do anything to support this plant. In 2020, I will try to get some cuttings in July so I can plant one of these in the memory garden and give some away for sales or neighbors.

I have a bunch of these low-growing plants in the front row of the memory garden, all started from seed in 2018. They put on a remarkable flower show in June, but then the hundreds of flower stems with seeds turn brown and look pretty miserable unless I find time to clip them all off.

I’ll work to get some better photos of these intricate blooms and the plants, as well, in 2020. I fed them in early spring with an organic mix and I’m hoping I’ll find the time to snip all the dead stems off come July.

Seeds for these fun pinks were purchased and planted in 2018. I ended up with a few plants that I put in pots around the driveway that spring I was impressed with the uniformity of the plants and the large flowers. I was frustrated that the bloom season was relatively short, however. That could have been due to the hot, dry weather, or it could just be a trait of the plant.

About three of these plants remain three years later and are just starting to bloom now (June 10th).

In 2020, I’ll work to keep the remaining plants fed and watered and see if they will have a longer bloom season or rebloom when cut back.

Another Campanula that I’ve had in the garden from the beginning. Easily grown from seed, I’ve tried the standard blue, the Telham Beauty strain, and the beautify pure white variety. The plain blue Peach-Leaved Bellflower volunteers around the garden still.

This plant is graceful and generous with its blooms. It doesn’t ask for much, either, but is short-lived for me.

My 2020 plans for this plant are to grab some seed pods when they are ripe and shake them where I hope to get some new plants.

I’m spending a lot of time on the weekends working in the greenhouse and garden, so I don’t have as much time to write about the plants or work. There are photos, though, so I’ll drop some here and hopefully come back with captions one day soon.

Leon brought this plant home from California about five years ago. It was a cutting from his cousin Brenda. Like many succulents, it struggles in my shady greenhouse. But it survives there and has grown and gotten offsets. The challenge without enough bright sun is that the plant doesn’t look its best. In bright sun, it would be darker green with bright white stripes, but mine is a lighter green with faded stripes.

My 2020 plans for this plant are to care for it better and move it to the sunniest corner of the greenhouse to see if it can green-up a bit and maybe bloom, as well.

I can’t remember when I first discovered the rose campion…I know I was very young. It has naturalized around certain neighborhoods and one popped up in our yard here in North Seattle early on. It had the typical bright magenta flowers. I let it grow and go to seed and we’ve had those plants ever since. My absolute favorites, though, are the lighter flowered clones, including the white version and “Angel’s Blush.” I grew Angel’s Blush for the memory garden in 2017 and planted them out in 2018 and experienced an amazing show of subtle white/pink flowers and grey foliage last June. Many of the plants bloomed themselves to death, but there are a few remaining plants this year that are blooming now and likely there will be seedlings at some point that should come true.

My 2020 plans for this plant are to collect some of the seeds so I can keep them going. The display they put on in 2019 was so magnificent–definitely worth repeating.

Campanula is a great plant family! This carefree carpeting plant has been in my garden for 20+ years. I don’t remember where I got it originally. I started with it in the brick bed next to our front porch, and then took divisions and planted it in the Douglas fir bed, where it has spread nicely and blooms beautifully every June.

The main area where this plant is growing is being taken over by native plants, so I’ll just work in 2020 to keep this plant in line and grab some divisions as I go for plant sales.