This plant used to be called the Labrador Violet but apparently has been renamed. I am unsure from where it emigrated into our little yard–l feel like maybe it was in a pot of plants from sister Cate. It has seeded itself all over the yard, but very politely and always welcomed wherever it lands. It colonizes pots, too, which is really interesting.
For 2020, I want to watch these plants to see if I can nab some seeds when they ripen and maybe help direct their spread.
Most people grow this plant for its amazing foliage. I bought it about five years ago, planning to be one of those people. However, I planted it in the Douglas fir bed in a mostly shady corner and the leaves, while attractive, have never lived up to the “Great” moniker. For me, though, the greatness is in the flowers. I happen to love forget-me-nots, and Alexander’s flowers are similar but even bluer.
And below is how the plant looks today (March 29, 2020).
For 2020, I plan to feed this plant and work carefully around it as we transition the Douglas fir bed and surrounding area to a native plant garden.
In 2020, this plant finally started looking like the catalog photos!
Some very beautiful seeds jumped into my suitcase in Hawai’i and followed me home. There were beans of a bright coral color that I picked up off the ground in the botanical garden. I planted them soon after I got home–December of 2019, and all three of them sprouted.
I believe these are Erythrina seedlings, but several of the species are called Coral Bean. Here’s how they look at the end of March 2020.
My 2020 plans for these plants is to pot them on soon into a much larger pot, move them outside for the warm months, and move them back into the house for the winter.
Grape hyacinths were living on this property when we moved in. They lived in random corners and edges wherever the ratty lawn allowed.
I’ve enjoyed these flowers since I was a kid. They seem to be everywhere, in every yard, leftover from bygone days. That’s reason enough to appreciate them, but they also have beautiful flowers.
These plants have a floppy demeanor, leaf-wise, so the probably would be better off planted in sunnier spots and surrounded by fast-growing perennials that cover up the flop.
In 2020, I hope to pop a few of these bulbs out of the woodland garden and pop them into the memory garden.
The term “wallflower,” in the way that it applies to humans, can apply to other plants, as well. I would say that this Epimedium is the wallflower of our woodland garden. It has attractive, but not seriously noticeable foliage most of the year. Come March, however, it comes off the wall and into the limelight when its brilliant, graceful blooms surface seemingly overnight.
We added this plant about 25 years ago and it has been a quiet, carefree stalwart this entire time.
I have gotten one or two divisions off the original plant. In 2020 I will look to get another division or two to add to the memory garden.
I’m enjoying the Plant-A-Day entries, but realizing that after I’ve entered some of the plants, they grow and bloom and grab my attention again–so I’m taking more photos and updating the entries. But I also want to enter some here as an update.
The peachy-yellow Clivia clone is in full bloom now.
I was thinking of Peachy Keen as a name for this clone, but it is more like Peachy Butter!
Other Clivias are starting to open, too.
The Masdevallia orchids are putting on a real show now, too.
The darker Pleione clone is blooming, as well.
Outside, the Corydalis solida plants are big and bushy and full of flowers. I thought they would be done by now, but they are continuing to bloom.
And a few other things from a quick walk around the garden today.
I believe this is my last surviving plant from the defunct Wight’s nursery up in Lynnwood. Brother Tim, sister Cate and I used to enjoy going there to look around–they had some fun stuff. They also had a large clearance area where they color-coded the sale plants. This Gryphon begonia came from that rack–it cost $1.00 and was a sad little thing. No more!
This plant gets bigger and better every year. We kept it in the kitchen over one winter and it stayed glorious the entire time.
My 2020 plans are to top-dress the plant with fertile new soil and keep it on the shady side of the patio where it seems to thrive and I enjoy it during all the warm months as I walk by it on my way to the compost bin, the garbage bin, recycle bin, and the greenhouse.
Another plant gifted me from brother Tim, this amazing begonia can really put on a show. I probably have had this clone for fifteen years or so. When I’ve taken good care of it, it has topped out over four feet tall. Last year, even though it didn’t grow tall, it bloomed mightily. There isn’t an unattractive part of this plant. The leaves are spectacular in their color, with reddish tones and white spots. Their angel wing shape and graceful placement add to the effect. The stems are bamboo-like and can feature bright greens and reddish hues. The flowers are reddish-pink and are an interesting shape and held in huge clusters.
My 2020 plans for this plant are to pot it up into a larger container with rich soil and fertilizer and watch it grow!
When we first created the Douglas fir bed, I tried desperately to fill in the new garden space with “native” plants. Like many naive gardeners, I didn’t do the research to see what plants were native locally–I just assumed that any US wildflowers would be perfect in a new shady wildflower garden.
I was really wrong, and I know that now. Most of the imports came and went in one season. The best exception is that one Trillium grandiflorum still lives in that bed and several others have taken hold where I planted them in the woodland garden. These are similar to the Trilliums of my childhood–Trillium ovatum that grow wild here in wooded areas all around Washington.
For 2020, I hope to work carefully around these plants as I install native flora in the surrounding areas. I ordered Trillium ovatum seeds from Amazon, but some dastardly Chinese seller sent me rice hulls with a Trillium ovatum label! So, I will keep looking for seeds to start my own native Trilliums. They are such a wonderful plant.
I noticed these plants blooming in the woodland garden this afternoon. These came from my friend Diane’s garden. She paid a landscape designer years ago to design the garden around her Seattle home. The designer was obviously not in tune with the plants she chose. One huge mistake was that she introduced an invasive, weedy cinquefoil as a groundcover. The other big mistake was that she planted Pachysandra terminalis in full sun on sandy soil as a ground cover. I helped root out the misplaced Japanese spurge and brought some home to our shady woodland garden.
The plants have done much better and have spread and bloom nicely every year now that they are in spot that matches their tastes.
These plants don’t need much in 2020, but I might dust the area with some organic fertilizer to give them a bit of a boost. They share their bed with a Japanese maple and a Nandina, so there is a tussle for nutrients.