We have a rainy, blustery day today–perfect for working in the greenhouse and finishing up the plant clean-up.

I don’t get lonely out there, since there are lots of fun creatures around keeping tabs on me:

I believe this is a Giant House Spider, which is a European import.  I welcome all spiders in the greenhouse, though this one, approaching four inches long, startled me a bit at first.

Here are some pics of the cleaned up greenhouse:

I tried an experiment with some holiday cactus two years ago–I decided that they might do best in hanging baskets planted in orchid mix.  I potted three of them up this way, and hung two of them up and put the other one on a shelf:

I don’t know that I’ve fertilized these appropriately, but they seem healthy enough.  And for the first time, they have fat buds appearing on the tips:

One of my favorite orchids is the persnickety Coelogyne cristata.  I have had this plant for probably six years, purchased at the annual Flower and Garden show here in Seattle.  I believe the plant has bloomed two years, with its beautiful pure white, fragrant flowers.  However, there were few flowers and the display was unimpressive, as they turned brown pretty quickly.  This year, I took the drastic step of repotting the plant into a big wooden hanging basket.  That was several months ago, and the plant seems to really be happy with its new home–the new pseudobulbs are fat and clean and the plant is now HUGE:

My dream is to have a basket full of flowers from this plant one year–who knows?  Maybe next spring!  I’ve done a bit of reading online about these plants and discovered that watering can be tricky to honor their bloom timing and their rest period.  I doubt if I’m doing it right, but it can be tough to customize the treatment for all the plants in the greenhouse!  I’m lucky to water them at all, so tailoring a water schedule to a certain plant isn’t really in the cards right now.

Below is a close-up of the Plectranthus flowers mentioned earlier.  I am impressed by the delicate design on the insides of these graceful flowers.

One final panoramic view of the cleaned up greenhouse.  Next weekend, the outside plants come in!

A quick count of all the remaining plants in the greenhouse came out to 344 plants!  No wonder I’m tired!!  And that doesn’t count those that will get moved in next weekend, or the plants outside on shelves!

Brother Tim and I took a quick trip to the Washington Park Arboretum and we hiked around on Sunday afternoon.  Here is brother Tim near a pair of especially graceful, mossy and licorice-fern covered maples:

Probably the prettiest thing we saw was this Chinese Golden Rain Tree, Koerelteria elegans:

Always a favorite of ours, and a plant whose offspring are in pots in our yard, the blue sausage tree, Decaisnea fargesii:

Another of my favorites, the delectable Daphniphyllum macropodum:

The Camellia Sasanqua hybrids are blooming and are stunning!

Darmera peltata, I think, is below.  The flowers are surprisingly lovely, especially coming so late in the year:

This Fuchsia hybrid was graceful and gorgeous in this hanging container:

The Franklinia was blooming, as well, as the autumn set in around it.

From the greenhouse this weekend, I noticed this Streptocarpus flower that I hadn’t seen before–very remarkable.

Some days I have to ask myself if I don’t just have entirely too much going on when it comes to the garden, greenhouse and all the potted plants.  Mind you, I love all the plants–each and every one!  But if there is such a thing as a plant hoarder, I likely crossed into that category many years ago!

I took some time off work to concentrate on some studying for a class I’m taking and to catch up on some greenhouse chores.  I got through one shelf this weekend and another one today, so I am about halfway finished.  This is just the repotting/grooming step in the project.  Next, I need to get everything completely organized, then clean up anything not needed and debris.  All this just so I can import all the plants that need to spend winter in there from around the yard!

The biggest job today was to pot on Clivia seedlings that had been neglected for about one year too long!  The good news is that these were all named seedlings and the flowers promise to be colors that I don’t have, since most of my current clones are close to the orange/yellow of the miniata species.

Here are some possibilities of what the Milk White x Milk White might look like.

Another hybrid has Charm blood lines crossed with a pastel Peach.  I’m hoping for something like this.

The third batch of seeds includes Nakamura breeding (famous, amazing Clivia breeder).  See some of those amazing plants here.

A few things are blooming now, but not much.  The Plectranthus are blooming with their charming spikes of white:

This Oxalis regnellii was given to me as a free gift with an eBay purchase.  I already have had this species for years and always keep a gallon plant of it around just for color.  I find this baby very charming and the flowers are lovely:

      

There are a few begonia flowers in there, too, and this one Dahlia that I cheated and brought in from outside:

Some other plants of interest include the Sinningia leucotricha, which has a bigger and bigger caudex and HUGE leaves:

The leaves are velvety and beautiful.  I think the size might be related to overwatering, but the plant keeps growing and appears happy, so I haven’t looked at ways to keep it drier.  It is in a clay pot, and that probably has saved it!

Here is the Veltheimia starting into growth and very strong.  I will divide it after it blooms to get a separate plant to share.

Below are some of the baby Babiana hybrids that are now two years old and I just potted on this weekend.  They should grow faster now and hopefully will bloom next year.

Agapanthus praecox seedlings below.  I never dreamed I’d be able to grow Agapanthus from seed, but some were included as a free gift in a seed order and I tried them.  I got two strong plants, now inseparable, as I didn’t pot them separ!

Here is a nice vignette  from the back patio.  It is about to be put disassembled for the winter, so I thought I would capture this now.  I love this gargoyle sculpture by the talented Tom Francis, and the Pelargonium behind is a lovely shrub with pristine leaves (which won’t last, as the cool weather sets in).

More clean up tomorrow, and likely another post.

 

We had a nice morning/afternoon before it started to sprinkle, so I was able to get outside and start cleaning up around the greenhouse and potting area.

First on the agenda, I had to plant out most of the remaining seedlings that were sitting around.  There were four campanulas that needed to go out to the orchard garden.  I planted them around the apple and cherry trees. They are currently mystery plants, since they came from a pack of mixed seeds.  I am hopeful that  at least one of them is Campanula lactiflora, which I’ve always wanted to grow.  See a description here.

I still need some plants to add around the apple and cherry trees, so will do some online shopping soon to get things in the ground soon, as the best planting time is right now.

Here is a picture of the Iochroma that is planted out in the driveway bed on the orchard side.  It grew better than every this year, but alas, no flowers.

I believe this is a purple cultivar, something like this.

There were three large Abutilon “Suntense” seedlings left, as well, so I planted one in a large pot for the patio and put two of them in the bed next to the lilac closest to the dog pen.  These shrubs can get pretty big, so I had to make sure there was room for them.  I think they’ll do well there, with the southern exposure, but shade from the big Douglas fir tree during the hottest part of the day.  Also in that bed are seed-grown tree peonies, Eucomis hybrids (also from seed), and some ironweeds that I started several years ago.  It isn’t a well-thought-out garden, but has interest for sure, and is providing a nice nursery for my seedlings.

Once I got everything planted out, I switched to the greenhouse.  My first assignment is to do an autumn clean-up before I more everything back inside for the winter.  I started at the back wall–the cactus and bulb seedlings are all along there.

Some happy surprises:  My Hippeastrum mandonii seedlings, which are over two years old, both are growing well and have some decent bulbs forming on them.  See the flowers here (scroll down to mandonii).

The two Agapanthus praecox seedlings, also over two years old, are growing very strongly.  I potted them on together, as their roots were so entangled that pulling them apart seemed ill-advised.  These are handsome plants.  I won’t expect flowers for another couple of years, but they are growing very well.  Here is what I can look forward to.

Dierama seedlings of the deep purple strain are now around 18 inches tall.  I intend to plant them outside next spring in their final places, once I figure that out.   They should be beautiful if they get to blooming size.

Ferraria crispa is an oddity.  I have three bulbs of Ferraria, two of which are crispa and the other is another species.  Mine have not bloomed yet, but possibly this year, as they are winter growers and have really strong starts coming.  The flowers might look like this.

I potted on seedlings of Freesia and Babiana, along with some tiny Moraea and Gelasine seedlings.  We’ll see if any of these live to bloom.  Again, they are winter growers, so the lack of light in our northern location is tough on them.  The other seedling plants on the shelf along that wall include Habranthus robustus,

some Watsonia hybrids, maybe 7 or 8 small Cyrtanthus montanus, a couple of fuchsia cuttings and one Restrepia guttulata.

I’ll have more updates and pictures tomorrow as the clean-up continues.

 

 

The garden and greenhouse have taken a backseat to other priorities through the summer.  I didn’t have much time for any garden work, and what time I did have was spent trying to keep everything watered and alive in the extraordinarily dry and hot season we had.

Today, however, I made it out in the garden and got some important things crossed of my lengthy to-do list.  Below are pics from the garden and greenhouse.

I haven’t done a good job of keeping the streptocarpus tidied up, but they keep blooming despite the mess!  The flowers are especially cheerful as the days turn darker and colder.

These are the cottage garden mix Verbascums that I started from seed this spring.  They suffered through too much sun and poor drainage all summer and still they grew.  I planted them out at the edges of the orchard garden. 

These are the mail-ordered asters that got planted at the worst time of the year.  And somehow, they survived and bloomed.  I think they are a great choice for the Doug fir bed.  With luck they will spread their autumn charm all through that bed.

Fuchsia “Cardinal” still blooming with fall foliage.  This is one plant that is thrilled with the cooler, wetter weather the last few weeks!  It will still be in bloom when I move it into the greenhouse next month.

Malva “Mystic Merlin” volunteer that came up in the gravel bed next to the house.  Amazing flowers on a rather coarse plant.  These came from sister Cate years and years ago and they pop up in surprising places every year–never weedy, though, but tough to relocate, what with their taproots.

Wonderberries (Solanum burbankii) getting ripe–and they do taste good!  My biggest worry is that most of them won’t mature, since only the very earliest berries are ripe so far.  They are juicy, full of seeds, but they are easy to eat.  I likely will try these again next year, but start them earlier.

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides  blooming near the orchard garden.  I have had this plant for close to 20 years and it just keeps trying.  It isn’t placed in the best spot and it doesn’t get any care because it pops up so late I ignored it until October.

Another lovely strep showing some fall color.

Acanthus spinosus–looked so sick when I planted it out after struggling for a year pot bound in the greenhouse– but look at it now!  Amazing foliage and I expect it may bloom next year.  Spinosus is supposed to be more bloomiferous than the more usual Acanthus mollis.  And I like the leaves better, too.

I planted other things in the Doug fir bed, including four of the Clematis columbiana that I grew from seed two years ago.  They had to go somewhere, and this bed seemed like the best choice.

You have to love the fall colors against a blue sky!  These maples never disappoint.  The best one is the coral bark.  No one talks about the beautiful foliage–but the leaves far outshine the bark.

Asters from Tim’s friend, the late Bette Higgins.  Brother Tim brought me a start or two 15 years ago.  The poor things are surrounded by raspberries and other thugs, so they chase the sun all around the bed!

Abutilon “Bella Series”  I haven’t figured out how to prune these shrubs in the greenhouse, soI have ugly plants with beautiful flowers.

Wonderberries growing well in the dry raised bed under the Doug fir.  I don’t know how these aren’t more popular–they are very vigorous and taste good.

Voodoo Lily “berries”.  There were a lot of them this year and I’ve thrown them all over the Doug fir bed in the hopes of seedlings next year.  They are more invasive than some, but because of their season and growth habit, they don’t do any harm.  Keeping them in this challenging raised bed will control too much spreading.

The garden is seriously lacking in flowers, but some of the foliage helps make up for it–an Aucuba japonica here.  This shrub plays shy through the summer with showier plants taking the spotlight.  But in the autumn light, no flowers can outshine these amazing leaves.  And unbelievably easy and tolerant–it is in dry shade next to a 100-foot Douglas fir!

One beautiful and fragrant rose bloom.  This is a French hybrid, but I forget its name!  But the fragrance is unsurpassed.

My chores were focused on planting out all the seedlings I grew through the spring and summer.  It didn’t look like there were many plants to go out, but when all was said and done, there were nearly 100!  I planted out strawberries, hardy geraniums, Oenothera palida, all the Lathyrus mix, Dianthus, Polemoniums, Abutilon “Suntense” and more.  I put them mostly in the orchard bed around the shrubs and brambles.  We’ll see how they do next spring–should add some interest and color to that space to go with the excellent fruits and berries.

My favorite surprise last week was seeing flowers on the Habranthus robusta in the greenhouse.  Grown from seed sevreral years ago, these bloomed sooner than expected are a delicate pink picoted cream.  Very lovely!  One more of them has a spike.  I’ll work to get better flowers for next post.

Not plant related–I am a huge crow fan and ran into a murder near Green Lake on Friday.  I never did see what they were mobbing, but I have heard there are Great Horned Owls in the woods nearby.  Here is a video of the crow-cophony.

Leon spent the last two weeks working really hard to get the yard and house in shape for the Arts North Studio Tour that took place this weekend.  11 Studios were featured on this inaugural tour.

I had planned to have a plant sale at the same time, thinking we would have people around who might like plants as well as art.  We also had good friends Diane Boone and Staci Adman showing/selling their wonderful art/jewelry.

Here is how the driveway looked:

Leon is at the end of all those sculptures.  He had a bad back the last two weeks, so it must be the pain pills allowing him to smile!

Some other pics of the goods:

Here is Diane waiting for customers.

We got rain on Sunday morning, but the canopy held up just fine and we stayed open despite the wet and cold.  The weather cleared around noon and it was a lovely afternoon.

The plant sale was a bust–I only sold one Clivia and ended up giving plants to the kids down the street!

But there were enough art sales to make it all worthwhile, so we will do this again next year and I’ll get more organized about the plant portion.

 

 

 

March may come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, but August 2015 came in like a firecracker and left like a nuclear bomb!  We had a surprisingly big storm on Saturday, with many snapped trees and branches, lost power and closed bridges.

The happy news, though, was that along with the high winds, there was a fair amount of rain.  Cool temperatures have arrived on the heels of the storm, so we went from summer to fall in a blustery blur.

There has been little time to work in the greenhouse or garden.  Just keeping everything watered has taken up all my time the last few months.

We stopped on Bainbridge Island on Sunday to visit the art museum gift shop there and I saw some interesting plants.  There were quite a few interesting plantings around the museum.  Check it out if you are ever in the area:  http://www.biartmuseum.org/.

Large pots featured full grown crepe myrtle trees in a garish pinkish red shade.  In Seattle, I like crepe myrtles more for their form than for their flowers.  The trunks and bark are wonderful.  I don’t mind the very light pink and white flowers, but most of them are awkward shades that somehow don’t fit into late summer.

Other interesting plants growing in planting beds around the museum:

Tulbaghia violacea, the society garlic, loving the sun and warmth this summer provided.

Here is a crinum hybrid growing near the museum.  There were others in another spot, but I failed to get a picture of them.  Again, I believe the dry, hot summer enabled magnificent bloom from these bulbous plants.  They are rare here in the area and I am trying to get some established in my garden.

To give a sense of how hot and dry this summer has been, check out the current wildfire map of Washington:

Close to a million acres have burned, and our little cabin is just a mile or so from the Okanogan Complex fire.  We check every day to see if the fire has spread to Bench Creek and engulfed our cabin.  So far, the amazing fire crews have kept the fire at bay, and it is about 40% contained at this point.  We are hopeful we’ll get through this season, but feel awful for the people and animals affected by these massive fires.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like washing the car, sometimes watering the garden will bring rain!

We had a series of thunderstorms last week right after I watered the entire yard and some real rain finally fell in our neighborhood for the first time all summer.  It was enough to keep me from having to water the pots for a few days!  You could smell the relief from all the thirsty plants and animals.

The bad news was that the lightning in the storms started fires near Chelan and other places in the state.

While that certainly isn’t humorous, we had a funny moment here in our garden with some fire.  Leon had been deeply offended by a grass sprout in the front garden that had the nerve to grow big and go to seed where he couldn’t help but notice it from the front window.  He determined the easiest way to rid the world of this vile invader was to light it with a torch.  He didn’t realize just how very dry the yard was.  The grass burned, alright, but so did much of the bearded iris bed that surrounded it and some branches of the rose bush and other nearby plants!  Luckily, with the hose handy, he controlled the flames before any serious harm occurred and he wasn’t arrested for violating the burn ban!

The humorous part to me is that this turned out to be a great way to clear grass out of an iris bed, always a tedious task!  My brother and I laid down a thick layer of bark, not knowing if the iris would survive.  Because these iris never bloom, anyway, it would have been no great loss.  But the beauty of rhizomes is that they are survivors and the iris are up through the bark now and growing great guns!  So, while I don’t recommend a fire during a drought, I will explore this as an option in wetter years with some controlled burning.  My hope is that the fire also cured the rhizomes enough to help them bloom next year–wouldn’t that be crazy?

My favorite impatiens is blooming in the greenhouse right now.  This is Impatiens flanaganae, a rare tuberous variety from Strange Wonderful Things in California.

 

The flowers of this plant feature a brilliant combination of color and form–exotic, graceful and plenty big enough to get noticed.

I haven’t had a lot of time for the garden, but here are a few pics of seedlings:

Here is another picture of the delicate Geranium bohemicum–I like the lighting here.  These small flowers may never put on a huge show, but combined with the lovely foliage, they promise to bring charm to the garden.

Few people would likely grow Kenilworth Ivy from seed, but I love this plant and so I am starting some to plant around in the greenhouse and patio pots.  You can see the effective foliage here and the sweet, expressive little flowers peaking out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brother Tim, Leon and I headed out to the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden today (http://www.kruckeberg.org/).  I’ve lived near Shoreline for 20 years and never really paid attention to this garden before.  My loss, as it turned out to be a real treasure.  We were reminded of the garden because Leon installed a sculpture there this week as part of Shorelines Artscape sculpture exhibit.  His “Night Watchman” is beautifully displayed near the parking area of the garden.

We had a wonderful picnic there first, followed by some quick exploration of the grounds before picking through a bunch of amazing sales plants propagated right there on the property.

Here are some of the plants we ended up buying:

Boykinia major — the nursery had strong starts of these plants, new to me.  Native to the western US, but not Washington.  I bought one for the newly planted Douglas fir bed.

Clematis stans — another new plant to me, this clematis is considered a viney sub-shrub, and best of all its late summer flowers are fragrant.  I purchased a healthy one-gallon start.  It was expensive, but I’m excited for its potential and worth it to have something special to remember the day.

Oxalis oregana — Western wood sorrel is a great ground cover for shade and Leon wanted to try some in the woodland garden to cover some of the bare patches near the western fence.

Begonia sutherlandii — Tim had spotted a large plant of this cheerful begonia and while I was checking through the sale plants, I spotted the last 4″ pot of this beauty, blooming brightly and begging to be taken home.  So, Tim bought it.

We plan to head back to this wonderful garden sometime soon and spend a whole day exploring.  Their inventory of rare and interesting plants is impressive, and the staff are friendly and knowledgeable.

 

 

 

Granted, it was hardly a rain of biblical proportions, but we did get some precipitation over the last few days.  The plants are visibly relieved!  I was really annoyed when I read my last Christopher Lloyd book because every page had some detail about the weather.  I understand it better now.  At some point the weather is ALL that matters.  My whole garden focus has changed because of the hot and dry spell we’ve had the last few months.

Starting plants from seed can be extremely rewarding or sadly disappointing.  The forget-me-nots I started have teeny tiny flowers and aren’t likely going to find their way into the garden.  However, the Geranium bohemicum seedlings, while not what I expected, are charming.

The flowers are not big and showy, but the color is good and the foliage is very attractive.

Speaking of attractive foliage, here are some potted plants whose foliage is super pleasing:

Very impressive giant leaves on this Paulownia tomentosa seedling–just in its second year from seed

Always impressive, this cane begonia from brother Tim will reach 6′ in a good year

This pelargonium is called Petals, which is ironic, given its puny floral display against its amazing variegated leaves.

This is a seedling pelargonium, so the flowers are less showy than the cutting-grown hybrids.  The leaves are gorgeous, though, and a perfect contrast with Petals and Grossersorten.

Not a lot of flowers here, yet the display is lovely.  The heat and dry have not impacted the pelargoniums at all!

My brother calls the clearance area of nurseries the “Dent and Diddle”, and we always head there first when we visit a plant store.  The above begonia is an example of what a discounted plant can turn into!  This is the third year I’ve grown this plant and I enjoy it more every year.

And while we’re on begonias, take a look a this beauty, also a late-season Dent and Diddle find.  This is Begonia boliviana:

Below are the lovely leaves of Dioscorea battatas, a tropical vine that I worry might be not so tropical and invasive in the ground.  I keep it in pots and it is lovely, especially this year in all the warm weather.

Below are a bunch of flower pics that I’ll just post quickly.

Echinops ritro.

Althea syriacus shrub blooming for the first time–love this color.

Weedy as they are, I can’t help but love borage.  The blue is true, and the form is graceful from every angle.

I’m not the only one who thinks so–just ask the bees!

Below are the berries on the Voodoo lily (Dracunculus vulgaris).  All of them set hundreds of seeds this year, no doubt due to the heat.

Below is one glorious flower from a flowering maple (Abutilon megapotamicum) from brother Tim 

 Another of the Eucomis hybrids I grew from seed.  This is my favorite, with the purple centers and graceful spikes.

Streptocarpus still blooming strong in the greenhouse–a riot of color!

Dietes irioides, the Fortnight Lily, is blooming in the greenhouse.  There are ten flowers on this iris relative that are about to bloom.

The flowers on this seedling abutilon are less showy than the Bella series, but it is putting on a good show right now.

Pelargonium Grossersorten blooming in the greenhouse.  I take cutting every year and intend to place them all in patio pots, but inevitably they end up staying inside and blooming happily the whole summer.

The Griffinia continues to bloom–eight flowers on this spike.  I’m hoping for a second spike, as the plant has spread nicely, but no sign of more flowers yet.

 

 

Oxalis triangularis blooming.  The flowers are elegant and the leaves are impressively colored.

 Fuchsia “Cardinal”

 Fuchsia “Janice Ann”

 

 

Another pic of Roguchi–so beautiful!