This vine came from a mail order catalog fifteen or so years ago. It didn’t come with a tag, but it seems to match online photos of “Polish Spirit” and that name amuses me, so I’m adopting it.

I planted this vine near the arbor that Jeff Tangen made for me, along with some climbing roses. The blooms come on just as the rose is waning, usually, so it is a good match.

I love taking photos of these flowers:

My 2020 plans for this plant are just to enjoy its season of bloom and keep the vine tied up as best I can inside the rose and trellis. I have propagated this vine easily in the past, but don’t have a need for any cuttings this year. I’ll prune it back close to the ground in the spring and untangle the old vines and dispose of them–that’s really all the care this plant requires.

This plant doesn’t lend itself to my usual flora descriptors–it isn’t pretty, really, or graceful, or colorful. Words that do apply are solid, sculptural, forgiving, interesting, and permanent. I’m a big fan of plants in the Gasteria family because they are different. I believe this plant was purchased about ten years ago from City People’s on Madison. It has bloomed, but not regularly.

In 2020, I plan to put this plant in new soil and feed it a bit more and hope for flowers next year and maybe some offsets.

This tree came from the Arbor Day foundation at least fifteen years ago. We’ve had it in a big pot on our back patio for most of that time. And for the first time, in July 2020, the tree was covered in blooms!

I suspect this is a US native plant, but not the Seattle native C. douglasii. It might be C. viridis. The leaves are smallish and pointed, the flowers very typical hawthorn, and oh–the thorns. There are some respectable thorns along the twigs and branches. I’m hoping for some haws in the fall to complete the hawthorn experience. The plant turns brilliant reds and oranges in the autumn, as well.

My 2020 plans are to keep this tree watered and fed through the summer and watch the autumn color show unfold.

This mint-family weed popped up in the Douglas fir garden years ago. I didn’t know what it was, so gave it the benefit of the doubt. It started spreading slowly at first, but now it has impolitely marauded about ten square feet in and around other plants.

The plant has textured, minty leaves and hundreds of flower spikes that pollinators love but humans don’t really notice that show up around July.

After all the flowers die back, I plan to root out a significant portion of this invader, leaving just a polite amount for the pollinators.

I popped a little plant of this perennial cornflower into the Douglas fir bed maybe ten years ago and it has persisted through seedlings in the same area ever since. The flowers are wonderful electric blue spiders in the spring/summer. It usually disappears right after that.

I may try to grab some seeds from the plant this year and spread them in some bare spots in the memory garden. And I’ll work to get more and better photos.

Native to this area, I was happy to realize that one of the volunteer shrubs growing in the Douglas fir bed that I had pruned back each year, but hadn’t eradicated, was this beautiful species. This plant has beautiful leaves with intricate veins, subtle flower umbels, and white berries in the fall.

My plant first appeared six or so years ago, but I pruned it very heavily until this year. It is showing its potential now, as I embrace it as a native Seattle shrub.

I may have to make more room for this robust grower in 2020. Likely, in the fall, I’ll rearrange my native plants to give them all more room to spread out. I’ve also taken cuttings in late June that appear to be doing well–I expect they’ll root and be ready for potting on in another month.

Another Plant Delights purchase from maybe eight years ago, this plant is growing well in the challenging, dry partial shade of the Douglas fir bed. And it doesn’t seem to mind! Extremely carefree and drought tolerant, it is spreading out a bit and blooms well every year now.

The foliage is remarkable enough, with large, textured, and spiny leaves clumping up to three feet across. Then, in July, the flower spikes add a sculptural element that is very intricate and symmetrical and subtly colored.

My 2020 plans for this plant are to try some root cuttings in the next month or two to see if I can get some clones to spread around the yard and share or sell.

Purchased from Plant Delights nursery about four years ago, this interesting plant surprised me last year when it bloomed for the first time. Prior to that, I hadn’t even noticed it in the Douglas Fir bed, as it hadn’t grown much in a couple of years. It is growing well again this year and putting up flower stalks.

My 2020 plans for this plant are to get more photos of it and feed it well to keep it healthy. It seems to like cooler, wetter spring that we had and is blooming much earlier this year than last.

I started taking an inventory of the seedlings I’ve got on the shelves outside the greenhouse. Below are photos of those I checked on and potted on today.

Note: this one is out of order, as I failed to post it on the right day.

Often when you order seeds online, the seed seller adds a bonus packet or two in the package as a thank you for ordering. Sometimes that “gift” has seemingly little value, like mixed Bachelor’s Buttons or old carrot seeds. When I ordered some seeds from Africa, though, the seller included Agapanthus praecox seeds–just a few of them. I was skeptical that I could grow them, but I gave it a whirl. I’m so glad I did!

Two of the seeds sprouted and grew and I’ve grown them on together. Here is what the plant looks like today: