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.

Much touted by Christopher Lloyd as a keystone perennial in his Dixter borders, I started some of these plants from seed in 2018 for the memory garden. Many of them germinated and grew, but I lost a lot of them over the winter. The two that were left have been superstars, though, and they are starting to seed around a bit, so I should have voluntary V. bonariensis for years to come.

There are many things to like about this plant. It is tall–gets to about five feet for me, with strong stems and deep green color. The tiny flowers still manage to be showy in their massed umbels and they last for months, opening a few florets at a time over the summer and fall. This plant is also a pollinator favorite and one of the few plants I can count on to attract the Skipper butterflies that I love.

I will try to get more photos of the plants in 2020–I’m not sure how I managed to not get any pictures last year. I guess that speaks to this plant being more of a background enhancement and less of an attention-seeking diva.

This Beefsteak Begonia was sent to me as a cutting from Leon’s cousin Imelda in California two years ago. I stuck it in a gallon pot with another cutting and pretty much forgot about it until this spring when I was cleaning things up and decided to give it the respect it deserves. The leaves are fantastic on this plant–fleshy, red-backed and deep green. The flowers are nice, too.

The plant is just leafing out now (early June) on the patio. This is the only photo I have so far–I’ll add more as it fulfills its beefy potential.

This amazing plant has been in my collection for at least ten years. It was a discount plant I purchased at Wight’s nursery, if I remember right. I put it in a patio pot and it has put on a bigger an better show every year. The leaves are deep green with red tones and backing, and the stems are maroon. They shoot up tall in spring and the flower show of myriad red flowers starts soon after.

The last two photos are how the plant looks in 2020. My plans are to try a few leaf cuttings of this plant this spring/summer to have more of them. It grows so perfectly on the patio that a few more would add to the patio show in summer. I’ll keep the plant fed and watered and we’ll see how it blooms come July.