New Beginnings

Japanese Tassel Fern (Polystichum polyblepharum)

Spring has sprung and there are many plants that are in their exciting phase of new growth.  It’s one of my favorite times of year with all the new buds, flowers and shoots springing forth with such vigor.  Things grow fast now and it’s so engrossing to wander thru the garden and check out what’s happening.  I take a walk among the plants every morning to see what new wonders have exploded over night.  It’s the most dynamic time of year.

I’m going to show you a number of plants as they’re starting out their new cycles of becoming.  This first plant is a favorite of mine (aren’t they all?? ;-).  This Japanese Tassel Fern can grow 2-3 feet wide.  This plant has been here for a few years so it’s that big.  I cut the ferns back in early spring every year so the new growth predominates and we get to see the glory of the new growth without the faded old fronds.

Floating Cloud Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum “Ukigumo”)

Look at the top of the tree here.  You can see the white new growth of this pale maple.  The foliage is white with creamy pink and green borders.  It’s a small maple which is good since doesn’t have a lot of room to grow.  It’s been here for 10 years now and is still small.  Most of the growth has formed down low so it’s very full and luscious when it’s all leafed out.  From a distance it sure does look a lot like floating clouds.

Eddie’s White Wonder Dogwood (Cornus florida x nuttallii)

This is a cross between the east and west coast dogwoods and is very vigorous and floriferous.  The “flowers”  aren’t actually flowers at all.  They’re called bracts and are simply masquerading as blooms.  This plant will be covered with these “flowers” soon and they’ll get much larger than in the photo.  It also shines in fall when the whole tree turns a beautiful scarlet.

Mackino’s Holly Fern (Polystichum mackinoi)

Another lovely fern that is a bit ahead of the  others. It has crinkly fronds that are spiny to the touch.  It gets 2-3 feet wide and stays evergreen until I cut it back, as do most of the others I’ll show you. 

Robust Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas “Robusta”)

This one will grow to be about 3 feet across.  The fiddleheads are prominent here – almost primeval.  If I had more of them I might just pick a few to eat.  I used to do that backpacking in the High Sierra years ago.  They taste a little like asparagus.  But I don’t want to cut them back because they look too cool, and I can buy asparagus at the store.

Hime Shojo Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum “Hime Shojo”)

This is our newest Japanese maple, one of about a dozen we have now.  I had a larger growing maple here but I decided to move it before it got too big.  This one stays pretty small – under 10 feet, if that.  It has bright reddish purple leaves that turn an even deeper burgundy in fall.  It contrasts nicely with the white Sir Charles Lemon rhododendron behind it and the red Hino Crimson azalea in front.

Bloodgood Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum “Bloodgood”)

If you look at the tops of this tree you can see the new growth.  It’s at least 6-8″ long so far and will hopefully grow a another foot or more.  One year it didn’t grow at all and it freaked me out.  The nursery said it happens sometimes but I’d never seen it before.  Luckily it came back great again the next year.  It turns a deep burgundy in fall.

Tomatoes

What collection of new beginnings would be complete without some baby tomatoes?  I’ve got 3 heirlooms here: Beam’s Yellow Pear (a small prolific yellow pear that kids eat like candy), Burbank Slicing (an all around yummy from the man that brought us the famous Burbank Potato) and Heirloom Marriage Marzinera (said to be the finest paste tomato you can grow).  I started them later than I should have but they’ll still be big enough to plant by Mother’s Day – my usual start date for them.  We’ll get tons of tomatoes from them.   I have great luck starting these from seed.

Weeping White Spruce (Picea glauca “Pendula”)

You can see lots of new buds bursting forth on this one.  I’ve worked hard to get this tree to put on a strong top.  The first two years they were only 6″ tall and bent over.  I had to train it up straight.  Last year it grew 12″ and I’m hoping for a foot and a half this year.  So far so good.  Supposedly it’ll grow 30 – 40 feet tall.

Ramapo Rhododendron (Rhododendron “Ramapo”)/ Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa macra “All Gold”)

This is one of the earlier Rhododendrons to bloom here. The pale lavender flowers are small but there are lots of them. Under the tree is the Japanese Forest Grass. It dies down in winter so these are the lush new stems.

Soft Shield Fern (Polystichum setiferum)

This is the largest fern we have. It grows well over 4 feet across and is awesome when the fronds are covering it. This clump is about a foot and a half across. In another month it’ll be full and lush. It’s right next to our back deck where it adds a forest like atmosphere.

Korean Rock Fern (Polysichum thus-simemsis)

This may be my favorite fern, tho it’s so hard to say. It’s the only evergreen fern I never touch. It looks beautiful all year round. The new fronds are visible among the old ones and they all look great. This is near the house so we get to see it close-up all the time. It’s growing under a copper beech so it’s always shaded, which it seems to love.

Red Fox Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonica “Rot Fuchs”)

The new leaves of this tree shine in the morning sun. It grows much taller than it does wide in a sort of column. It’s a form of the Katsura tree which grows much wider than tall. That’d get too big here but this one will fit just fine. It turns a nice apricot in fall and they say the leaves smell like cotton candy, tho I’ve never smelled it. Maybe someday.

Miss Grace Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides “Miss Grace”)

This is a dwarf form of an ancient tree. It’s only 9 feet tall compared to well over a 150 feet for the species. It’s a redwood that loses its leaves in fall. They come back this lovely green apple green in spring, but the buds are on the tree all winter. It looks like it’s going to burst forth all the time so it’s exciting when it finally does.

Silver Sabre Fern (Polystichum xiphophyllum)

Some call this the “X-fern”, for the species name. Kinda cool I guess. It looks great all year and I always wait till the last moment to cut it back because it looks so good here at the entrance to the front garden. But it’s worth doing it because the new growth is such a beautiful shiny green. New ferns look like there should be dinosaurs around.

Mugo pine (Pinus mugo)

See the new candles on this small pine tree? Once they get a bit longer I’ll break them all in half so the plant stays tight and full. I’ve done it for years and it always comes out great, as you can see. I love how it spills over the wall here. It’s by the front entrance and greets everyone who comes to visit us. The size of these pines varies greatly so I’m not sure how big it’ll eventually get. We’ll see.

Shirazz Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum “Shirazz”)/ Flagpole Flowering Cherry (Prunus serrulata “Amanagowa”)

Two for the price of one here. We originally planted this maple out front but it froze its first year. I’d never heard of a Japanese maple freezing so I was very upset. I dug it up and canned it and it slowly came back. With some creative training it’s now a nice small tree that should grow into a nice specimen. The cherry is just starting to bloom here. The flowers are very fragrant but too high to smell most of them. It turns reds and oranges in fall.

Himalaya Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum venustum)

A hardy evergreen maidenhair fern. I didn’t even know one existed until I saw this in a nursery. A month ago they looked terrible but now the new growth is a light green which will darken into a dark green in another month. It’s growing and spreading under the Miss Grace Metasequoia I showed you earlier. It’s been thriving in its shade.

Leatherleaf Viburnum (Viburnum rhitydophyllum)

These new buds will open soon to become creamy white flowers. It’s a large plant that I’m trying to keep narrow despite it wanting to grow much wider. So far it’s working fine. I love the tropical look to its large leathery leaves.

That’s it. We have so many more choices to share but these were the ones that best showed the things I wanted you to see. I love looking at the ways plants begin to grow. The ferns in particular catch my attention but they all have their attractions. Spring is such a vibrant time of year. I hope you all are enjoying all the new beginnings in your own neighborhood. There’s always so much more to see and appreciate.

Happy New Beginnings!

Steve

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Oregon Green Pine/Pinus nigra “Oregon Green” – now

I just came in from my usual morning stroll thru the garden.  It was a bit damp with a slight drizzle.  I particularly like to walk in the garden when it’s all wet.  The plants feel incredibly alive!  The rainfall is so nourishing.  It seems like all the plants are rejoicing.  Walking in the garden got me all excited about it so I thought it was a good time to do my next post of miscellaneous photos.  Most are very recent but a few are from Fall or Winter.  I’ll tell you.

I already showed you a photo of this pine from the front so you could see the candles on the outside.  This is the inside.  I pruned it out in February.  My main goal was to open up the center for both sight and air circulation.  I also just felt it was a little crowded inside.  It felt like the energy wasn’t moving thru it properly.   I tried to bring out the inner “flow” to it.   It all radiates out from the main trunk now.  The tree has done most of this itself.   I pruned out the inner part but the tree itself created the sinuous form.  You can’t see it in the photo but it continues to twist and turn as it reaches the top.

3 Fabulous Ferns – now

This is the west end of the fern bed that runs along the north side of the garage.  The 3 ferns here are, from left to right, a Hard Shied Fern (Polystichum aculeatum), and Mackino’s Holly Fern (Polystichum mackinoi” and a Remote Wood Fern (Dryopteris remota).  Underneath them all is a wonderful patch of Baby Tears (Soleirolia soleirolii).  I’ve loved this little plant since we had it growing at my parent’s home in the first landscape I ever did for them.  It brings back good memories.

 

Tomato Seedlings In the Greenhouse – April

I started 9 seeds each of 3 different heirloom varieties.  2 I bought form the Seed Saver’s Exchange, a seed bank/seller I recommend highly.  The other one I planted with seeds I grew last year.  Beam’s Yellow Pears.  Small sweet pear shape yellow fruits kids eat like candy, and so do adults… These were so well developed we could plant them in early May.  They’re good sized now.  I had way too many of course – I only planted 2 of each variety for us.  So I put the others out on the front parking strip and people took them almost immediately.  I love sharing the plants I grow.

Silver Knight Scotch Heather/Calluna vulgaris “Silver Knight” – now

This lovely little heather is at the foot of our front steps.  In late summer it’s covered with light lavender blooms, but I planted it more for the foliage and form than the flower, since that’s what we see most of the year.  We planted it about 5 years ago.

Tenzan Sugi/Cryptomeria japonica “Tenzan” – now

This is the one plant in the garden that I can say with surety is a truly rare plant.  The nursery where I bought it labeled it as such and my reading confirms this to be true.  It’s the smallest form of Cryptomeria there is and valued as such.  Brand new here.  It only grows about 1/4″ a year.  It’s supposed to get about a foot big.  It’s only 8″ now.  It’ll take it years to do that.

Charity Mahonia/Mahonia media “Charity” – now

This one has been here about 9 years.  In that time it’s grown to 12′ x 10′, give or take.  It’s a prickly thing so I had to prune it back quite a bit from the path at its foot.  I pruned up the branches but this year it’s putting back all the foliage I cut off!   Only it’s further back from the front so I won’t have to mess with it, and it won’t mess with us.  I did a post awhile back called Hummer Heaven that shows this in full bloom, covered with brilliant yellow flowers that the bees and hummers love.  On the left below it is a Soft Shield Fern (Polystichum setiferum), also known as Alaska Fern, tho it’s native to Europe.  Go figure.

Graciosa Hinoki False Cypress/Chamaecyparis obtusa “Graciosa” – now

I took this photo from the porch above this plant so you could see the delicate tracery on its branches.  We planted this tree just last year after the snow destroyed the big Arborvitae we had here.  It grows slowly at less than a foot a year.  It’ll get 10′ tall and 8′ wide.  It fits nicely among the rhododendrons, azaleas and kinnickinnick, under the Japanese maple at the right.

Waterfall Dissected Japanese Maple/Acer palmatum dissectum “Waterfall” – now

It does look a bit like a waterfall doesn’t it. The way the leaves overlap one another resembles water flowing down over it.  This tree has been growing here since 2013.  It’s grown from 2′ across to over 8′.  It’s supposed to get even bigger, so I have to prune it back from the lawn every spring.  It puts on 2′ of growth a year so it’s a bit of a job.  It gets harder every year.

Firefly Scotch Heather/Calluna vulgaris “Firefly” – Fall

This is one of the most colorful heathers there is.  In summer it’s orangish green, but the real show is in fall and winter when it turns this deep brick red.  We planted a line of them along the North side of our veggie garden.  It was too weird to watch the South side of the plants turn this great red color, but from the North side, where we stand to look at them, you can’t even tell the South side is red.  Shows you how important it is for plants to get sun, and at the right time, to turn color in fall.

Lady Fern/Athyrium filix-femina – now

This lovely fern is a native of the Pacific Northwest.  We never plant them but they come up all over the garden, often in perfect places like this one.  It’s a deciduous fern so it dies back to the ground in fall.  This one is over 5′ tall and got that way because it was growing behind a large Arborvitae that supported it.  Now it tends to flop on the rhodies in front of it.

Bloodgood Japanese Maple/Acer palmatum atropurpureum “Bloodgood” – now

This maple is in the middle of the garden.  When you look at it all from the back deck it really stands out.  It’s been here for 8 years, and is now 14 1/2′ x 11′.  It will eventually get large enough to fill the space it inhabits now. I’ll have to do some pruning as the years go by to encourage the trees to all fit together, as I do so often.  In fall this tree gets much darker red, almost black and burgundy and is truly stunning.  It’s big enough now to feel like it’s a real tree when you’re underneath it.

Primo Eastern Arborvitae/Thuja occidentalis “Isl/Prm Primo” – now

We just got this cute little thing this last winter.  When we bought it it was a darkish brown color.  Now it’s this lovely dark green.  I love how the branches grow upward like some stone formations I’ve seen in the terrain of the inner mountain west. But this is actually from the east coast and has the same parent as the ubiquitous Pyrimidal Arborviate, the columnar tree grown so frequently as a tall fast growing hedge.  By contrast “Primo” only grows an inch a year, if that.

OK, that’s another batch.  I may only have one more set, but I have to count them to see.  I may add a few more too, if I see some more I like.  I keep taking photos so you never know.  I’m really enjoying this casual flowing show of photos.  It’s so much easier to just post them and write a bit about them.  I don’t have to have an overarching theme to follow.  But I imagine I’ll get back to that format now that I’m feeling somewhat caught up.

This blog is partly a chronicle of the timeline of the plants in this garden, so I have to keep posting their pictures as they grow up.  I’ve taken over 9,000 photos of this garden so I never lack for subjects to post.  It’s so interesting to me to show them as they’ve grown.  It’s very educational, and lots of fun.  I’ve learned a lot growing this garden.  Skills I use in my daily life – Patience being the biggest one I suppose.  You absolutely have to be patient to be a gardener (and I have to work at it).  Plants grow on their own schedules, not ours.  The same is true of life.

Acceptance that it is what it is, is the key.

Steve

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Jade Butterflies Ginkgo/Ginkgo biloba “Jade Butterflies” – now

Back again with another dozen photos.  As I mentioned in my previous 2 posts these are all miscellaneous photos I’ve taken, mostly in the last few days, with a few from Winter or Fall.  I’m labelling them and telling you a bit about each one, but not in great detail.  I have no theme or rationale for what I’m putting out here.  I just think they’re all cool plants and I want to show them off.  They’ve grown so much since I last put them out here.  It felt like time I posted again.

This is a dwarf form of the incredible Ginkgo, sometimes called the Maidenhair tree, because the leaves look a bit like Maidenhair ferns.  The common name suggests the leaves look like butterflies on the branches.  Ginkgos are unique trees, the only member of both their genus and family.  They’re millions of years old.  We have a National Monument here in Washington state called the Ginkgo Petrified Forest.  We’ve been there and seen tons of fossils of very old Ginkgos.  This little tree is now about 11′ tall, with an expectation it will grow to be 20′ or so.  It grows pretty fast so it’ll get there soon.

Robust Male Fern/Dryopteris fillix-mas “Robusta” – now

We planted this about 5 years ago and man has it grown.  I thought it would be a 3′ – 4′ ball, which is pretty big already.  But this one is over 5′ across.   We have to dodge it to walk on the path here.  But it’s no problem.  It’s such a lovely vibrant fern.

Ghost Fern/Athyrium X Ghost – now

This one is deciduous.  It loses all its fronds in fall.  In spring it bursts forth with these wonderful light green fronds.  I can see why they called it Ghost.  It’s still putting on new growth as I write this, which is pretty late for a fern.  It gets up to 3′ across.

Tuscan Blue Rosemary/Rosmarinus officinalis “Tuscan Blue” – early spring

I’m so amazed at this rosemary.  True, it’s been here for 10 years, but it’s Huge.  Here it’s covered with light blue flowers, a super bee magnet.  They love to swarm it and it literally buzzes when you walk by it.  It must be 8′ across and 4′ deep and 6′ tall.  We get lots of good seasoning from this plant.  I love to cook with it.   It works well in so many dishes.

Snow Sawara False Cypress/Chamaecyparis pisifera “Snow” – now

When I planted this 9 years ago I was guided by the American Conifer Society’s website that said it would become a 16″ x 16″ box.  Hmmm.  Not such a good estimate.  It’s 4′ tall and 5′ wide now.  I have to carefully prune it back every year to keep it in this space.  It’s called Snow because it has these lovely white tips in spring, as you can hopefully see here.

Floating Coud Japanese Maple/Acer palmatum “Ukigumo”

This was supposed  to be a 20′ tree but in 10 years it’s still a bushy little thing, tho it’s started to put on longer shoots the last couple of years.  You can see why it’s called Floating Cloud.   The light green foliage is suffused with lots of white and pink so it looks like a cloud, especially when seen against the darker foliage at the back of the garden.  It does seem to float.

Pacific Trillium/Trillium ovatum – now

In early spring the first flowers are pure white.  As they age they turn this lovely light pink.  I took this photo when I did just to show off this difference.  I collected this plant with my pocket knife in the woods in the Cascades one day on our way back from Eastern WA.  That was 9  years ago.  It’s done well here since then, putting on more flowers each year.

Himalayan Maidenhair fern/Adiantum venustum – now

This dainty looking little fern is actually very hardy.  It keeps this delicate foliage all thru the winter.  In spring it puts on light pink fiddleheads of new growth.  This is only its second year of growth here and it’s spreading well.  It’ll fill the area in time.

Inverleith Scots Pine & Nootka Rose/Pinus sylvestris “Inverleith” & Rosa nutkana – now

The Pine has grown here for 10 years.  Last year it had the creamy tips it’s supposed to have, but we’d never seen them before.  Very nice – we’ll see if it does it again this year.  It was found in the Royal Botanical Garden in Edinburgh, Scotland.  It was only supposed to get to be a 10′ a 3′ tree.  Labels are so deceiving.  I collected the rose on my land in eastern WA.

Korean Butterfly Maple/Acer tschonoskii ssp Koreanum – February

A relatively uncommon maple.  This is from North Korea.  It’s  the first maple to leaf out in spring, and the first to lose its leaves in fall.  It was a 10′ tree when we planted it in 3/14.  It must be well over 25′ tall by now but I dunno how to measure it with a transit, yet.  As the trees get bigger I’ll need to do it that way.  This turns wonderful shades of reddish orange in fall.

Red Dragon Dissected Japanese Maple/Acer palmatum dissectum “Red Dragon” – now

This delicate tree was getting far too large to keep on the deck, so I had a brainstorm and decided to put in on a stand so it could grow out over the steps and path.  It’s high enough that no one will run into it.  It’s really cool to look up thru it at the sky.  You can see the fine tracery of the dissected leaves really well.  It’s a deep red now and turns even darker red in fall.

Treasure Island Lawson False Cypress/Chamaecyparis lawsoniana “Treasure Island” – now

This is a new addition to the garden.  We had a small globe blue spruce here that wanted to get way bigger than there was room for.  So I took it out and replaced it with this golden cypress.  It really stands out in the garden where it is.  I used to dislike yellow plants but I think it was because I lived in central CA and they looked washed out in the hot sun.  Here in grey sky Seattle they’re stunning, and I have a few of them.  They make a superb contrast with all the shades of green we have.

Gee, that went fast, and my back is still in OK shape.  Maybe it’s because I just spent 2 1/2 hours touring the garden and even did my PT stretches out there in the sun.  I must have examined all the plants 10 times in that time.  It felt so good to be out there I wanted to stay outside longer.  But I decided to come in and do this post.  This makes 3 dozen photos I’ve shown you so far.  I have many more.  I don’t want to pin myself down to a specific number but there’s a lot.  I hope to do them all soon.  I love all these plants so much it’s a real treat to be able to share them with others who might also enjoy them.

I hope you’ve had fun looking at them!

Steve

Then and Now

Photo taken 11/08

I thought it might be fun to do a retrospective of the whole garden from its beginning 10 or 11 years ago to today.  This is what the front of the property along the street looked like when I first met Louie in February 2008.

Photo taken 1/20

Same scene today.

Photo taken 11/09

I didn’t have an earlier photo so this one was taken when the plants were first planted.

Photo taken 1/20

Fewer plants of some types, more of others.

Photo taken 11/08

This is the entrance to the house.  Look how small the plants are.

Photo taken 1/20

The Himalayan Sweet Box in the center scents the whole area now.  It’s grown a lot.

Photo taken 11/08

Future site of many cool herbs.  It’s so empty!

Photo taken 1/20

Now this is an herb bed!  Look at the Tuscan Blue Rosemary at the very back!

Photo taken 11/08

We had to take out this poor apple.  It was in bad health and the apples were awful.

Photo taken 1/20

Much more open now.  It’s nice to see thru it all.

Photo taken 11/08

This had grass up to the garage when we started digging.  Such rich soil!

Photo taken 1/20

Many many ferns later…  and a greenhouse at the end!

Photo taken 11/09

I didn’t have one from when this was empty, but there was grass to the fence before we dug it out.

Photo taken 1/20

This is a bit wider shot so you can see we put in a bamboo fence and many plants.

Photo taken 11/08

This is the west end of the garage before we built the greenhouse onto it.

Photo taken 1/20

Looking over the veggie garden to the greenhouse.

Photo taken 12/07

This was taken about 2 months before Louie and I met.

Photo taken 1/20

It’s a real Garden now!!  Here’s to our little Wildlife and Nature Sanctuary!

I hope you enjoyed looking at these photos as much as I enjoyed putting them all together.  I had to do a lot of searching through my photo files.  I have some 8,000 photos of the garden since 2007 so there were a lot to choose from.  I tried to take the “now” photos from about the same place the originals were taken but I didn’t always accomplish that.  I think they still get the point across.

It’s amazing to me to look at these and see just how much things have changed.  It’s possible to transform an entire yard into a beautiful garden so thoroughly.  It’s why I loved creating gardens for people in my past.  You can make such a difference with a few (OK maybe a Lot!) of plants and some time.  It’s very rewarding.  I love gardening!

Time travel has its rewards!

Steve

Inside the Forest

This is the sort of photo I usually present of our garden.  It shows you the south side of the main ornamental garden, with a few marigolds and tomatoes from the veggie gardens in the foreground.  It was taken from along the fence in the back of the veggie garden.  It’s a nice colorful photo full of plants that lets you see what this whole side of the garden looks like, tho I guess this one’s a bit impressionistic, isn’t it.  Lots of colors, textures and forms all blended together.  Getting nice wide shots like this generally means shooting them from outside the garden itself.

This time I’m going to show you photos that were taken looking out from inside of the small forest we’re creating here in the rich peaty soils of our intensely planted little Nature Sanctuary.  It’s what we see when we venture off the lawn and onto the soft bark paths that wind thru the trees.  It almost feels like you’re walking in an actual forest, and it smells like it too.  Inside you’re enveloped within the lush scents of the trees and all the other amazing plants growing in here.  Many of them are taller than we are so it all feels much bigger inside it than it ever looks like from the outside.  It’s a bit different, as you’ll see.

This one was taken from a crossroads at the back of the path that leads into the south side I showed you in the last shot.  The big Elegans Sugi is on your right, and it really feels big when you stand right next to it.  The Red Pygmy maple is on the left, and standing in between them you feel enclosed in the trees’ energies.  It feels deep, calm and peaceful.

This is taken from the same spot as the last one, only now we’re looking directly under the Elegans sugi.  You can see how soft it looks.  It is.  It’s one of my main “pettable” trees because the needles won’t stick you like most other conifers will.  Being next to it you can really pet it!  It’s only been here 10 years and has grown from 18″ to over 25 feet tall in that time!

As you move back into the depths of the forest on  the same path you can see the green, white and pink variegated leaves of the Ukigumo Japanese maple on the right, with the soft droopy Elegans Sugi in the back and the deciduous Japanese Larch “Diana” on your left.  The Larch is all contorted and twists and turns around on itself.   Very cool!  The big “Blue Peter” Rhododendron in the middle has been here for well over 30 years!  The ground is covered with Kinnickinnick.

This is what you see when you turn around and look back behind you, past the Larch and towards the edge of the garden.  You can just see the Japanese Umbrella Pine on the left, with a big rhodie next to it that encloses the space nicely.  The little Licorice Fern on the lower left gives the lush feel of the PNW rain forests.  It dies back every year but returns even better.

If you stand in the same spot again and look towards the deck you’ll see our garden lamp and its wrought iron post.  The Larch is on your left and the Red Pygmy Japanese maple is on your right, with the Alpine Yew Pine in the foreground.

As you move up onto our little deck under the Larch branch you can see the bench and the light, with the fountain in the middle at the back side of the bench.  The Red Pygmy maple is right in front of you and the Bloodgood Japanese maple is the red tree on your left.  And no, we didn’t kill the deer whose horns grace our bench.  Consider it a “found” item….

This is taken from the same spot on the deck as the last shot, only looking to your left a bit.  The huge fern at the bottom left is an Alaska fern that has gotten huge in its 10 years here.  I cut it back to a foot high every spring and it grows back to this!  You can see the Bloodgood maple more clearly here.  On the left edge of the photo you can see the stairs to the house.

And finally, turning all the way to the left you can see the edge of the deck and the path leading back out of the forest to the outside again where the lawn is.  On the edge of the lawn the large conifer on the left is a 30′ tall Weeping Giant Sequoia.  It leans a bit to the neighbors – eek!  The big tree on the left is a Radicans Sugi which is now at least 25 feet tall.  You feel small next to it and can hardly see the top of it when you stand on the deck now.  All this from a 5 foot tree planted in 2013!

So did you feel the difference being inside the forest?  I hope so.  It’s so hard to convey just how cool it is to wander around under these trees and in between the shrubs.  Seeing them up close like this you get to admire all their unique foliages, forms, textures and growth habits.  You get to touch and smell them.  They become real creatures to you, not just colors and shapes you see from a distance.  It changes you to be in there.  It’s all pretty well kept and even semi formal, but it’s full of wildness too.  The plants make it so.  In just 10 years this has become a truly lovely little Nature Sanctuary and Forest.  It’s all part of our efforts to save and enhance a vibrant little part of the Natural World!  Combat Climate Change – Plant a Forest!!

Make your own little Nature Sanctuary!

Steve

A Riot of Ferns

Alaska Fern (Polystichum setiferum)

Licorice Fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza)

Japanese Tassel Fern (Polystichum polyblepharum)

Remote Wood Fern (Dryopteris remota)

Makino’s Holly Fern (Polystichum mackinoi)

Hard Shield Fern (Polystichum aculeatum)

Deer Fern (Blechnum spicant)

 

I called these ferns “riotous” because they’re all growing so outrageously,  and it’s the middle of August!!  It’s hot out!  They not supposed to do this, are they?  I suspect it’s all the water I give them, but whatever it is I’m thrilled!  They’re each putting on several new fronds and are filled with amazing green energy.  They’re as beautiful as you could want a fern to be – and these are all evergreen so they’re lovey all year round.

I see plants everywhere in the garden thriving with such lush new growth right now, but these ferns are special, each one a unique world in itself.  Ferns are often used to illustrate the concept of self-similarity in fractals. The more you dive down into a fractal the more it looks the same.  Start with a wide view and slowly move your gaze all the way down into the center of a large fern sometime and you’ll see what I mean.  It will transfix you.  Amazing!!

I hope you’re as impressed as I am with the vigor of these ferns, and in such an unlikely season.  Riotous they are indeed!!

Steve

Fresh Ferns

Alaska Fern (Polystichum setiferum)

Sometimes called a Soft Shield fern this one actually comes from Western Europe.  Who knows why they name things like they do? This one is by our garage and has grown more slowly than one I’ll show you soon.  It’s gotten quite large this year.

Alpine Water Fern (Blechnum penna-marina)

This lovely ground cover fern started out as a 4″ pot several years ago.  I wasn’t sure it would make it since it’s native to New Zealand and the South Pacific.  I love the way it’s turned this area into a little grotto.  It’s growing all thru the area now.

Himalayan Maidenhair fern (Adiantum venustum)

I never knew there was hardy evergreen maidenhair fern until I saw this one. It’s so delicate but still able to withstand even 2 feet of snow.  I cut it back to the ground in early spring so this is all new growth.  It’s under a dwarf Dawn Redwood.

Alaska fern (Polystichum setiferum)

This is the same as the first one I showed you, but it’s in the garden proper and has grown Much bigger and faster than its companion. It’s growing over the path now so I have to gently prune it back so we can still walk thru.  It’s 4-5′ across!

Licorice fern (Polypodium glycorrhiza)

This one is native to the west coast of North America. It’s especially prominent in the PNW here where it grows all over the trunks of trees, evenly high up in them.  It’s one of the plants that makes the rain forest so lush and beautiful.

Japanese Tassel fern (Polystichum polyblepharum)

This one grows in SE Asia and Japan.  I’ve been growing it for several years and this one is the best them.  I cut it back in spring, as I do many of these ferns, so all the growth is new and fresh each year.  It’s part of the grotto effect in this area.

The Unknown’s One (Who knows?)

Do you recognize this fern?  If you do please let me know.  It’s an old one here but I somehow lost its tag years ago and have never been able to figure it out.  It dies back to the ground each year and has gotten bigger with each season.

Korean Rock fern (Polystichum tsus-sinensis)

An evergreen fern from Asia that stays lovely all year. I don’t even cut it back because the fronds stay so fresh all year. It went thru some deep cold this winter and did fine.  It’s under a weeping beech and is deeply shaded, but seems to like it.

Ghost fern (Athyrium x Ghost)

Another deciduous fern that dies back to the ground each year.  I don’t have many that do that as I like the evergreen ones better, but some of these are very lovely.  It’s a cross between Lady fern and Japanese Painted fern.  It shines in the shade.

Dwarf Crisped Golden-Scale Male fern (Dryopteris affinis “Crispa-Gracilis”)

A big name for such a small fern!  It’s native to Great Britain.  It loves shady rockeries so it fits in perfectly here.  It’s located right at the edge of the drip from the fountain so it gets plenty of extra water when the fountain is on.  Another grotto fern.

Western Sword fern (Polystichum munitum)

This is our largest fern here in the PNW.  It will get up to 6′ or more in the woods here.  It grows all over and is one of the principal ferns that covers the hills and valleys.  It gives the rain forest a lush look and makes it all so beautiful.

Mackino’s Holly fern (Polystichum mackinoi)

This may look soft and delicate but run your hands over the fronds and it’ll scratch you  You can feel why it’s called a holly fern when you touch it. This is all fresh new growth since I cut it back each year.  It’s only 2 years old here but is quite large.

Robust Male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas “Robusta”)

I can hardly believe how fast this fern has grown in the last 2 years it’s been here.  I planted it under a large cryptomeria but it faces away from the deck so to see it you have to be on the path along the fence.  I walk there just to look at it.

Lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina)

From the male fern to the lady fern… This is a deciduous fern that gets very big – as big as the sword fern it seems. This one came up as a volunteer many years ago, and since the big shrub in front of it died it finally has a chance to show off.

Hart’s Tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium)

A most unusual fern this one is.  It looks like no other in the garden with its shiny stiff fronds that stay green for years.  I cut it back after new growth started this year since the old ones were so ratty looking.  It’s come back well.  It’s from Eurasia.

Soft Shield fern (Polystichum setiferum “Diversilobum”)

This is the same species as the Alaska fern but it’s a cultivar that is much smaller and softer.  It has some curled fronds which is the diversilobum part I guess.  It has grown well over many years and comes back nicely after each winter.

Deer fern (Blechnum spicant)

Another PNW native, this covers the floor of the rain forest, along with the sword and the licorice ferns.  It has both sterile and fertile fronds – the taller ones are sterile and the shorter ones fertile (I think..).  It’s evergreen but gets ratty over winter.

Long Eared Holly fern (Polysticum neoloblatum)

Another one you don’t want to touch too strongly.  The fronds are prickly, almost like holly but not as bad.  It’s had a hard life here but is finally in a good spot to grow well.  It will fill in the area here fully in time.  It’s native to SE Asia.

Hard Shield fern (Polystichum aculeatum)

This is closely related to the Alaska and Soft Shield ferns.  I guess its fronds are stiffer then the others and that’s why it’s called hard.  I hope it doesn’t get as big as the Alaskan in the garden.  It’s not supposed to, but you never know!

Remote Wood fern (Dryopteris remota)

I’m not sure why they call this a remote fern.  It’s native to both Europe and Asia so it covers a wide range.  It needs cutting back each spring before it leafs out and that why it looks so perfect and lush.  That’s Baby Tears under it.  Soft and pretty.

I guess that’s it. I didn’t realize just how many fern we have here in our little Nature Sanctuary.  I’m a big fan of them so it’s no surprise but it’s nice to see them all here in one place.  I do these posts both to share my joy of gardening but also to create a chronicle of our garden.  I can look back over the years and see how things have prospered, or failed.  It’s very useful.

You’ve no doubt noticed that most of the ferns I covered were either Polystichum or Dryopteris.  Dryopteris is a genus of about 250 species that range over most of the northern hemisphere, from Europe to Asia and even to the Americas.  They’re commonly called wood ferns and have their highest concentrations in SE Asia.

Polysticuhm is also a large genus with around 260 species covering a similarly large area, also mostly in Asia, with 120 in China alone.  They also grow over large areas of Brazil, with only a few species in North America, Europe and Africa.  The two genera between them contain most of the ferns of the world.

Thanks for visiting us and checking out our ferns.  I hope you have some space to grow some of these wonders yourself!

Loving the lushness,

Steve

World Naked Gardening Day!

Here I am with a flat of tomato seedlings I started from seed in the greenhouse a few weeks ago.  They’ll be ready to plant out next weekend on Mother’s Day.  They should be safe from late frosts by then.  It’s a wonderful time of year to be in out in our little Wildlife Nature Sanctuary and Garden.  And to add to the attraction – today is World Naked Gardening Day!  It was started in 2005 by some “naturists” right here in Seattle as a project of Body Freedom Collaborative.  Since then it has become a world-wide phenomenon in gardens and parks everywhere.  It’s always held on the first Saturday in May, tho the folks “down under” do it in late October.

According to the WNGD.org website:

Why garden naked? First of all, it’s fun! Second only to swimming, gardening is at the top of the list of family-friendly activities people are most ready to consider doing nude. Moreover, our culture needs to move toward a healthy sense of both body acceptance and our relation to the natural environment. Gardening naked is not only a simple joy, it reminds us–even if only for those few sunkissed minutes–that we can be honest with who we are as humans and as part of this planet.

“Sweet, sane, still Nakedness in Nature! –ah if poor, sick, prurient humanity in cities might really know you once more! Is not nakedness then indecent? No, not inherently. It is your thought, your sophistication, your fear, your respectability that is indecent. There come moods when these clothes of ours are not only too irksome to wear, but are themselves indecent. Perhaps indeed he or she to whom the free exhilarating ecstasy of nakedness in Nature has never been eligible (and how many thousands there are!) has not really known what purity is–nor what faith or art or health really is.” Walt Whitman, Specimen Day.

Taking a break from edging the lawn.  I always do it by hand so it comes out nice and clean, and I can remove the grass that keeps trying to take over the planting beds.  Yes, I wear sunscreen, at the behest of my dermatologist, who warned me that I’d better be more careful, or I’d end up back at his office with more a serious complaint than a check up!  I generally wear a hat that helps keep my head shaded and cooler.  The sun gets hot when you’re down on your knees like this.  It feels so good to be naked in my own garden.  My neighbors are pretty cool, and we have a lot of privacy, but it’s not a big deal really, as it’s legal to be nude in public here in Seattle, as long as you’re not indecent or obscene, or around kids, of course.  The police don’t really bother with it unless you break the law.  Since I’m in my own yard on my own property I can do it with impunity and not fear any consequences, even if I get “caught”. 😉

“When you’re out there with a gentle breeze on you, every last hair on your body feels it. You feel completely connected with the natural world in a way you just can’t in clothes.”   Barbara Pollard, of Abbey House Gardens

I’m tending some Russian Red Kale we planted late last summer.  Over wintering it gives it such a sweet flavor, thanks to the frosts and cold of winter.  We’ve been eating off this patch for awhile now and can do so for some time yet.  I keep the flower buds trimmed off so it won’t bloom and we can keep getting more leaves to eat.  Yum!  We’ve also got onions and peas growing so far this year, with corn and tomatoes ready to go soon.  We get a lot of good food from our little veggie gardens.  We’re still eating the carrots and onions we grew last year!  We stored the carrots in sand last fall, and they kept perfectly!  This was a new method for us and we’ll do it again this year, as well as keep some in the ground to harvest as we need them.

“The body seems to feel beauty when exposed to it as it feels the campfire or sunshine, entering not by the eyes alone, but equally through all one’s flesh like radiant heat, making a passionate ecstatic pleasure glow not explainable.”  John Muir, founder of The Sierra Club

Like I said – it gets pretty hot when you’re down close to the ground like this.  I can feel the heat of the sun just baking into my back as I weed the flower bed here.  I’ve planted all sorts of flower seeds here, and most of them are coming up.  I’ll have to do some thinning so they won’t be too crowded.   This bed is always so beautiful as summer progresses and it fills with blooms of all sorts.  I see lots of Bee’s Friend coming up, as well as China Asters, Sunflowers and Opium Poppies (yes, they’re legal to grow, as long as you don’t harvest the sap!).

From the WNGD.org website again:

All that’s involved is getting naked and making the world’s gardens–whatever their size, public or private–healthier and more attractive. WNGD has no political agenda, nor is it owned or organized by any one particular group. Naked individuals and groups are encouraged to adopt the day for themselves.

Events like WNGD can help develop a sense of community among people of every stripe. Taking part in something that is bigger than any one household, naturist group, or gardening club can move gardeners with an au naturel joie de vivre toward becoming a community. And in the case of WNGD, it’s fun, costs no money, runs no unwanted risk, reminds us of our tie to the natural world, and does something good for the environment.

Finally, in some shade in the center of the garden at last!  This area has become so special to me.  It’s like being in a secluded glade in the forest with all the ferns and conifers as well as numerous flowers.  You can see the large leaves of the Wild Ginger at the bottom of the photo, with the Bleeding Heart blooming above it, and the Kelley’s Prostrate Redwood at the left side.  You can also just see the edge of the fountain here too.  When it’s on it fills the whole garden with its gentle gurgling sound, reminiscent of a small brook or stream.  It makes the air feel cooler too, and the birds love to play in the water as they fill the air with their lovely sounds.  It’s a nice place to be naked – you feel so connected to all the plants and the water, and all of Nature.  Without the barriers of clothing you feel like you really belong here.  It’s truly a healthy pastime, good for both your physical and your mental health.  I’ve been a nudist my whole life and lately it’s become a passion for me to garden naked, and I’ve been going outside and doing it as often as I can.  The warming days of Spring provide enough heat to make it not only comfortable, but enticing as well.  It’s so easy to immerse yourself in it and just let your energies flow unimpeded…

Walt says it best:

I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, : I am mad for it to be in contact with me.   Walt Whitman: From Song of Myself (1855)

If you haven’t tried gardening naked I heartily suggest you give it a try.  You may be surprised at how good it can make you feel about yourself to be at one with your garden like this.  It feels like all the plants are in harmony with you and the whole of Nature fills you with an ecstatic joy!  I am mad to merge with it!

Feel the Sun on your beautiful body!

Steve

The Heart of the Garden

This fountain is in the approximate geographical center of our little Garden Sanctuary.  But it’s more than that.  As a water element it’s truly the heart of the garden – what else could that be but water?  It’s the life force that the plants need most to survive and thrive, as do we.  This is a bit of a shrine to those water energies.  It also serves as a focal point to draw all the disparate elements of the garden together.  Its gentle babbling sounds are just like a small stream in the forest, which this area is slowly becoming, tho a small forest I’ll admit.

We like to sit on the deck behind it and read or just sit and visit.  It’s lovely to have the fountain as a backdrop to our conversations.  It’s a very peaceful and calming place to be.  It’s one of my favorite spots in the garden, for all these reasons, and more.  Water has always been special to me and I love to hear its gentle sounds.  It’s so healing to just hang out here and allow yourself to fall under its spell for awhile.  There’s a small stone path that leads to the fountain.  I stand there and just appreciate all the beauty.

In effect we’ve created a little grotto here and it’s filled with all sorts of cool plants to enhance that feeling of being enclosed in a small private space.  The plants around it, in spiral fashion radiating out from the left hand corner are: a purple leaved Helmond’s Pillar Japanese Barberry next to the straight stems of a relatively fastigiate form of the Persian Ironwood tree named Vanessa.  There is a Japanese Tassel Fern at its base and small Alpine Water Ferns covering the floor all around it.  Behind these and above the ferns is a Red Tip Alpine Yew Pine, with a Ken Janeck Rhododendron at its foot.

Right behind the fountain is a Red Pygmy Japanese maple, with a lush stand of Japanese Forest Grass right below it.  In back and to the right of it are a few branches of a Diana Japanese Larch that is just starting to turn golden.  The whorled plant next to it in back is a Japanese Umbrella Pine cultivar called Wintergreen.  To its right is an Anna Rose Whitney Rhododendron with a bit of the Radicans Sugi showing to the right of it.  The red tree is a  Bloodgood Japanese Maple and the evergreen at its base is an Amersfoort English (some say Japanese) Yew.  The ground cover in the middle is our native Wild Ginger, while the whitish plant in the foreground is Euonymous Emerald Gaiety.

There are still a few more plants you can’t see, like a Bow Bells Rhododendron, and a small Lawrence Crocker Daphne.  Near it is another beautiful small fern – the Dwarf Crisped Golden Scale Male Fern – a huge name for a 12″ plant!  You can’t see the Western Bleeding Heart that comes up every spring because it’s dormant now, tho it fills the area in front quite well then.  There are also some areas of white flowered Sweet Woodruff here and there.  There’s a tiny patch of Victor Reite Thrift and on the left is an imposing Kelley’s Prostrate Coast Redwood that creates a large part of the feeling of enclosure.  And finally there’s a wispy Toffee Twist Sedge at the base of the Barberry.

I haven’t listed any botanical names this time in the interests of brevity, which I seem to have failed at anyway.  Oh well, I know I do ramble on about plants, but I get so excited about them all I can’t seem to help myself.  I’m a little manic about them I guess.  I love to know their names.  It makes me feel closer to them as friends.  I like to just hang out in this grotto and meditate on the gentler aspects of a garden.  It’s a good place to do that because the energies of the plants and the water are so strong here.  You definitely feel it all surround you and know they are the ones who own this little Sanctuary, not you.  It can be a humbling experience if you let it be…

peace,

Steve

Fronds

Maidenhair Fern – Adiantum aleuticum

Ghost Fern – Athyrium x Ghost

Korean Rock Fern – Polystichum tsus – sinensis

Licorice Fern – Polypodium glycyrrhiza

Western Sword Fern – Polystichum minutum

Auriculate Lady Fern – Athyrium otophorum

Lady Fern – Athyrium filix-femina

Soft Shield Fern – Polystichum setiferum “Diversilobum”

Japanese Painted Fern -Athyrium nipponicum “Pictum”

Alaska Fern #1 – Polystichum setiferum

Japanese Tassel Fern – Polystichum polyblepharum – Left side by tree

Alpine Water Fern – Blechnum penna-marina – All thru the middle

Silver Saber Fern – Polystichum xiphophyllum

Unknown Fern #1

Unknown Fern #2

Robust Male Fern – Dryopteris filix-mas “Robusta”

Alaska Fern #2 – Polystichum setiferum

Dwarf Crisped Golden Scale Male Fern – Dryopteris affinis “Crispa Gracilis”

Remote Wood Fern – Dryopteris remota

Mackino’s Holly Fern – Polystichum mackinoi

Hard Shield Fern – Polystichum aculeatum

Deer Fern – Blechnum spicant

Hart’s Tongue Fern – Asplenium scolopendrium

 

You might think I have too many ferns, but how can you have too many of these delicate and diverse wonders in your garden?   They seem to thrive here in our Nature Sanctuary in the wet soils of this peat bog we garden in.  I’ve included some of my favorites that are no longer with me, unfortunately.  Sometimes they just die on you – for no apparent reason.  Very frustrating.  But enough of them live and thrive to make me happy.

Several of these are along the garage wall in the “Fern bed”, while others are scattered throughout the garden.  I count 23 different ferns here, of which 19 still live.  Not a bad record, tho I’ve replaced a few over the years.  I had to include them all because they’re just so cool!  BTW – if you recognize either of my Unknown ferns (I lost the labels!) please feel free to enlighten me as to their names – Thanks!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this display and may have found some ferns you’d like to put in your own garden.

Ferns Rock!

Steve

 

Fiddleheads

Lady Fern -Athyrium filix-femina

Soft Shied Fern – Polystichum setiferum “Diversilobum”

Alpine Water Fern – Blechnum penne marina

Silver Sabre Fern – Polystichum xiphophyllum

Japanese Tassel Fern – Polystichum polyblepharum

Mackino’s Holly Fern – Polystichum mackinoi

Dwarf Crisped Golden-Scale Male Fern – Dryopteris affinis “Crispa gracilis”

Alaska Fern – Polystichum setiferum

Robust Male Fern – Dryopteris filix-mas “Robusta”

Remote Wood Fern – Dryopteris remota

Hard Shield Fern – Polystichum aculeatum

Hart’s Tongue Fern – Asplenium scolopendrium

Deer Fern – Blechnum spicant

Western Sword Fern – Polystichum munitum

The Unknown Fern – I lost the label!

 

I love  Spring, when all the ferns put on their new fiddleheads.  They soon turn to beautiful fronds, but I don’t think many people think to look at them closely when they’re in this stage.  I find them fascinating.  They look so primeval and ancient – which I guess they are.  Ferns have been around for a long time.  I have several more in the garden but these are the best ones to show the fiddleheads.  If you have ferns, I encourage you to take a look at them now and see how cool they look.  I’m sure you’ll be impressed!  (Click on the first fern and follow the arrows to see bigger pictures in a slide show.)

From fiddleheads to fronds,

Steve

NW Flower and Garden Festival

As I mentioned in my last post Louie and I spent several hours the other day at the NW Flower and Garden Festival.  It’s celebrating its 30th year as America’s largest family-owned garden themed show.  It’s truly amazing!   There are a number of of demonstration gardens, which are what I’ll be showing you here.  But there’s also a huge marketplace with hundreds of vendors selling all manner of garden products, as well as miscellaneous show type stuff.   There’s also a large plant market with a number of specialty nurseries who offer miniature conifers, bulbs and tubers, even Japanese maples.  I could only handle it for a few hours before sensory overload hit and we had to leave.  But I got a lot of good pictures and I want to share them with you here.

All of these gardens were created by dedicated teams of volunteers in just the 72 hours preceding the show!  Incredible!  Of course none of them would make it outdoors as planted – they’re not meant as literal gardens themselves and their job is to showcase various themes and styles rather than an actual garden design.  They move in literally tons of rock, soil, mulch and of course hundreds of plants, ranging from a few inches to 20 feet or more tall.  I always get a lot of ideas for my own garden, but of course it’s already so over-planted I don’t really have room for more.  But next year I’ll plan ahead better and get some bulbs at least.  But then the reason we go is just to enjoy the sights.  I hope you do too!

OK, thats about it.  It’d be nice if I’d been able to remember each display, but I didn’t have writing materials and it would have been too hard to remember each one anyway.  But I hope that just the designs themselves will be satisfying for you, as it was for me.  If you have a garden show in your area please do find time to go to it.  You’ll be supporting a good cause and be able to see some amazing garden displays and get your own ideas for your garden at home.  It’s worth the trip.

Happy Viewing,

Steve

Ferns

Japanese Tassel Fern

Korean Rock Fern

Autumn Fern

Deer Fern

Hart’s Tongue Fern

Long Eared Holly Fern

Indian Holly Fern

Japanese Painted Fern

Alaska Fern

Ghost Fern

Soft Shield Fern

Licorice Fern

Western Sword Fern

Mystery Fern #1

Mystery Fern #2

 

July is a wonderful time for ferns. You’d think the hot weather would dry them up, and it’s true that you have to keep them well watered. But if you do you’re rewarded with some amazing growth and beautiful lacy foliage that offers a different kind of garden. It’s so soft and easy on the eyes and touch. I love to just wander around and look at them and feel their gentle foliage now. They’re so big and full, especially the deciduous ones, of which I only have a few at this point. I’ve decided to go for mostly evergreen ones because I get to enjoy their foliage all year round.

First up here in this tour is a Japanese Tassel Fern, or Polystichum polyblepharum. It’s one I just planted last year and it’s tripled or more in size since then. It seems to like its new home a lot and so do I. It’s in a bed with the second one here, the Korean Rock Fern, or Polystichum tsus-sinensis. I put in 3 of these because they grow so small and I thought they’d form a nice clump, which they’re doing now. This bed looks wonderful with all the green in it.

Next is an Autumn Fern, or Dryopteris erythrosora, a common fern in many of our gardens. The new fronds come out bronze which is how it got its name, tho it does so in spring, not autumn. A lovely and delicate fern that gets about 2-3 feet big. Following that is a Deer Fern, or Blechnum spicant, a native of the Pacific Northwest. It has two forms of fronds -a fertile one and an infertile one that you can see high up. The fertile ones are smaller, or do I have that backwards? I never can remember…

This one is a very different kind of fern in that it looks like something that couldn’t possibly be a fern. But it is. It’s a Harts Tongue Fern, or Asplenium scolopendrium. It’s doubled in size just this year so it’s happy where it is and I am too. The next one is odd looking because I didn’t bother to cut off the dead fronds because I love the colors they turn so much. It’s a Long Eared Holly Fern, or a Polystichum neoloblatum. It gets to about 2 feet tall and has prickly leaves, not the usual soft ones we expect from ferns. But it’s a lovely plant and is still putting on new leaves even as I write this.

Next to it is an Indian Holly Fern, or Arachnioides simplicior “Variegata”. I’ve noticed that for the last few years it only puts on 3 fronds a year but this year it seems to be sending up 4 or even 5 perhaps. They have this lovely yellow stripe down the center of the leaves and look cool with their long stems and tufts of foliage at the ends of them. This next one looks burned, and it is. It’s in too sunny a place for now but in a few years it’ll be in shade because of the tree I planted above it. For now tho this Japanese Painted Fern, or Athyrium nipponicum “Pictum”, will just have to deal with the heat and sun and it’s still doing well so I guess it’s happy enough. I hope so as I love it in the spring when it’s more light colored and mostly got a blue tint to it.

This Alaska Fern, or Polystichum setiferum, is the biggest fern I have. It’s grown so huge I’m totally amazed. It was supposed to get to to 2 feet and it’s way bigger than that now. I love it and it seems to love its place in the garden as well. A beautiful specimen. It’s native to much of Southern Europe. The next one is another PNW native called a Licorice Fern for the taste of the roots which have a licorice flavor. It’s a Polypodium glycyrrhiza and spreads well beneath this Mountain Hemlock you can see above it. A nice native combination of plants here.

The next is a Soft Shield Fern, or Polystichum setiferum “Diversilobum” that is closely related to the Alaska fern. It’s a cultivar of it in fact and grows with a twist to the leaves I find intriguing. It hasn’t gotten too big yet but I have hopes for it in time. The next one is a real favorite of mine. It’s a Ghost Fern, or Athyrium x Ghost, a deciduous fern along with the Japanese Painted Fern to which it’s closely related. In fact the Japanese Painted Fern is one parent of this one along with the Mother fern. It has wonderful pale grey foliage and has gotten quite tall which surprised me with its height. I’m so happy it’s doing well here.

The last row starts with another well known native – the Western Sword Fern, or Polystichum munitum. It can get up to 6 feet tall in its native habitat. I need to move it to a better location where it can get bigger and not be in the way of our ladders when we work on the house. I have a whole row of these under the edge of the north side hedge to create a ferny tunnel there. It’s pretty cool looking as it grows and they get big.

The last two ferns are an embarrassment to me, who is so careful about knowing just what I’m growing and have labeled almost everything in the garden. Well not these two. I can’t find the original labels! What a shock this was to me when it was time to make my botanical plaques I have on all the other plants. I haven’t a clue what these are, so if you recognize them please let me know. I think one may be a Male Fern, or Filix mas, but I’m not sure. I know it’s not the Lady Fern because I have some wild in the garden but none were in good shape to photograph. I like them both and both of them are deciduous for the most part. They create a nice corner of green in the front yard where they are.

So that’s the tour. Not too long I hope and full of beauty and plants. I’m happy to be able to grow ferns but I’ve lost several of them over time and didn’t include others that just didn’t look good enough now. I tried several maidenhair ferns before I gave up on them and I have a nice Alpine Water fern that is too burned to show now. But it’s nice next to the fountain and will be good as time allows it space to grow. As I said most of these are evergreen tho they look pretty ratty by the end of the season. Usually I tend to keep the fronds on all year tho because they look cool and I love the foliage to be present. I’ve taken to pruning some of them in early spring tho and others I leave to fill in on their own. How do ferns do in your garden? I hope you are able to grow them and have at least a few to marvel at. I’m so pleased to be able to show you these. They are so cool and shady and nice, even the ones in the sun….

Finding Ferny delights,

Steve

Scenes From a Rainy Day

From the Front Porch

Entering the Front Garden

Through the Front Garden

Looking Back to Where We Came

Into the Back Yard

Much Color at Edge of Garden

Looking Along the North Fence

Main Path Into Back Garden

Looking Back at Conifers

Red Maples Fountain and Fern

Acros the Deck to Bench

Close up View

Naturalized Columbines

NW Back Corner of Garden

Across the South Side

Into the Garden From the South

Looking West by North

Across the Whole Back Garden

 

It’s not a great day out to be gardening, but it’s a wonderful one to be out, with a good hat and coat on, just to wander around and see what’s happening while it’s all wet and feels so fecund and fertile. I love being in the garden when it’s raining. It just feels so intensely alive and filled with water, that blood of life that gives our plants their existence, and ours as well of course. Maybe it’s because I’m a Scorpio, a Water Sign, that I feel this so much, but water has always been amazing to me and I treasure it when I hear it on the greenhouse roof or on the leaves around me as I walk thru the plants. So here’s a few pictures from a walk around on a rainy day.

I started out on the front porch and this is what it looks like when we come outside here. It’s immediate and right in your face. I love it that way. You can see over so much of it from here. Next I wandered down into the garden and through it til I came to the end and looked back for a second. Lots of color in these shots. The Ural False Spirea (Sorbaria sorbifolia “Sem”) is lovely with its light pinkish green new growth. And the Waterfall Japanese Maple is just intense with its bright green new leaves. You can just get a touch of the blue spruce in the back corner but it’s just starting to bud out now and will grow a foot and more if we’re lucky .

Next I walked back along the north side of the house and came into the back yard. You can see the north side fence line here as it goes on back to join the garden. I stopped to take a shot of the colors near the entrance. The Globe Blue Spruce and the bright green Bird’s Nest Spruces are lovely next to the dwarf Barberry in between them. The dark green of the Pendula Sequoia is a nice contrast for them all. Looking along the next shot you can see to the back corner of the garden and the Cryptomeria Radicans that is on the left which is just starting to grow, as are the other slower conifers.

The next path takes us into the garden proper and towards the deck. I stopped and shot a few pictures on the way. First I just looked back at those lovely conifers from the opposite direction from before. Then I took a shot of the 3 red Japanese Maples we have in the garden. On the left is a Bloodgood, in the center is a small Red Dragon and on the right is a larger Red Pygmy, all doing well I’m glad to say. The Bloodgood put on over a foot a half this year which amazed me no end. The fern is a Polystichum setiferum, sometimes called an Alaska fern or a Soft Shield fern.

I next looked across the deck towards the back walla and got a nice far shot of the Wards Ruby kurume azalea and the Ukigumo Japanese maple with the Podocarpus macrophyllus in the middle of them. The next shot is a closer view of them. In it you can see how light the Ukigumo maple is now. It’s not grown much for me but it keeps going on so I have faith it’ll take off someday like the Bloodgood just did after a couple 0f years of sitting there. Plants are funny that way aren’t they? Sometimes they just sit there for a long time and other times they take right off. It’s so interesting to me….

I planted some columbine here a few years ago and since then it seems they decided they liked it here a lot. This year I have yellow, blue, pink and red ones and I only planted the blue ones, I think… Maybe I did some of the yellow too, I can’t recall. I love the heck out of them and they look pretty there so I’m leaving them until I see a reason to cut them back. They’re so airy and light I just find them beautiful. I turned to the left for then next shot and got to see back into the corner of the garden to where the Anna Rose Whitney Rhodie is about to begin to bloom. Behind it the Fatsia is putting new leaves on now and you can just see their lighter color if you look hard. This is a wildish area with the redwood sorrel covering the ground in front of the plants and the the Mountain Hemlock to the left a bit. It feels very cool back here I think…

Next I wandered over to the south side of things and took a couple of shots from there to finish off things. The first is actually from the lawn to the east looking west across the yard. Then I looked back to the north and got a nice shot of the fountain with the Bloodgood and the Leucothoe at its base with the native Bleeding Heart in front of them all. I like this view a lot. Next I looked west and could see to the wall again and across the Howard McMinn manzanita, which froze badly this year so I had to cut it back a lot and leave a spare form but I love the red-brown bark so I get to see it more so now. Finally I stand at the front of the Heather garden and look all the way across the garden to the north side. You can see the Ginkgo Jade Butterflies just leafing out in the midst of the heathers and the new growth on the heathers as well.

I suppose I could have taken a few more shots of this but I was starting to get really wet so in spite of my hat and coat I decided it was time to call it a day and start to write this post. So many things are coming out to show us their beauty now it’s hard to pick a lane, so to speak, as far as which plants to feature an show you. They all excite me but then I’m a geek at this so that’s to be expected. I can’t expect everyone to share my extreme love of this artform of gardens that nurtures both our bodies and our spirits as we wander thru them in the rain. I hope you get the chance to be wandering in your special place soon too. It’s time to really get into working at it again, as soon as it quits raining… 🙂

Wet but Happy,

Steve

Quinalt Rain Forest and Lodge

Entering the Reservation

Quinalt Lodge front

Rain Gauge

Back of Lodge

Fireplace

Entrance to Dining Room

History of Building

View from the Terrace

Licorice Fern

Edge of the Woods

In the Forest

Willaby Creek

Deer and Sword ferns

Deep Woods

Lichen

Nurse Log

Skunk Cabbage

Nurse Log

Nurse Stumps

Looking Down

Quinalt Lake

As I mentioned in my last post we just spent a week at the ocean near the Quinalt Indian Reservation. One day we took ourselves into that forest and to the Lodge there for lunch and to tour the area. The first shot is entering the Reservation tho most of the time we were slightly out of it on Park land. The first few shots are of the lodge. It was built in 1937 starting in early June and finished by late August the same year. Teddy was coming and they had to have suitable accommodations.

In 1937 Teddy Roosevelt visited the Olympic Rain Forest and was met by hordes of school children holding signs saying “Please Mr President, we children need your help. Give us our Olympic National Park”. Roosevelt said it was the “most appealingest appeal” he’d ever heard, and in June 1938 he created a 648,000 acre National Park and made it part of the National Park system. It’s now over a million acres. It celebrated its 75th anniversary last year. The lodge is at the southern most tip of the Park at the southern end of Lake Quinalt.

Looking at this structure it’s amazing to imagine them building it in under 3 months back in 1937 without the power tools we rely on today. It’s s a huge place as you can see from the picture that shows it from the back outside on the lawn. The rain gauge on the terrace shows that the highest rainfall they ever had was around 14 feet. Last year is it was 12 1/2 or so. It gets very wet here…

There are a couple of shots of the interior of the Lodge, showing the fireplace that takes 4 foot logs and the entrance to the Roosevelt Restaurant. The picture of all the photos shows the construction of the Lodge from start to finish. It’s hard to read of course but you can see the building going up fast and beautifully. The view from the Terrace shows the Lake as you see it from the dining room windows where we ate lunch. It was amazing and we saw a bald eagle perched in the top of the big Fir at the lawns edge.

Next we start to go on some walks and first encountered this tree covered with Licorice fern which I have growing in my garden. It does this thing where it grows on trunks of trees all over, even here in Seattle, but this was a fine stand of it. Next is a shot of the edge of the woods looking into the depths of the forest. Then we went on a hike on a Nature Trail and took a lot of shots along the way.

Willaby Creek runs under the road here and we can see it as it falls near the bridge and runs under it. It’s a fast flowing stream that gets pretty big in the winter season as it is rushing now. The trail follows its canyon for quite awhile till it turns back to the start of it. There are many fine ferns to see all over. Here are the Deer fern and the Sword fern, two common NW natives that I have in my yard at home. Here they cover the whole area. Quite a sight to see.

Once again we look into the deep woods and see as far as we can into them. It’s not easy as these woods are so dense. I’d never want to bushwhack in them, tho I have. It’s too dangerous and very wet. Lots of water everywhere here. It makes for a lush forest and lots of good growth. Here’s a shot of some kind of weird lichen someone put on a stump so it could be seen well. I dunno what it is but it’s beautiful up close like this.

Next I show a few nurse logs and stumps. These are decaying trees or stumps that serve as homes for new life. In some cases even big trees start out on these logs and create a new forest that way. It’s fascinating. In the middle of them is a picture of a skunk cabbage patch just starting to grow into its fluorescent yellow. Pretty cool, eh?

Next is another picture looking down into the depths of the forest. It’s just so full of life here it’s amazing how it can all fit. But each plant and animal has its role to play and together they all create this incredible ecosystem that ends with a shot of Lake Quinalt from a nice picnic area near the entrance to the Reservation.

It’s a large lake and only is used by the Native fisher folk now because of all the troubles with non-native invasive water creatures being brought in by outside anglers and boaters. Now only the Tribe can use the lake for fishing and I think that’s a good thing. It’ll preserve it from the encroachment of more of the usual development that has already happened here.

Lots of controversy is brewing out here to keep the Olympics wild, tho some locals want it kept for themselves to log and cut down the forest. You can probably tell where my sympathies lie. I sympathize with the local folks but this is a National, even a World Class, Treasure, and it needs to be protected. I think the Tribe will do a much better job of that and maintaining more of the land will only make more trees safe from the chainsaw.

I hope it happens well for all concerned and that some sort of compromise can be worked out to save this forest and keep people’s jobs as well. It’s not am easy task. There are signs all over the area saying to “Stop the Wild Olympics” and let them log it. I personally feel that Old Growth trees should Never be logged, ever again. We won’t have more of them in our lifetimes and even our great grandchildren won’t have them if we don’t save this incredible Sanctuary now. It’s the right thing to do for the generations to come and for the earth itself.

From the Rainforest,

Steve

Sunny Day

Front Yard from Entrance

Front Yard from Rear

Front Yard in Middle

Fern Bed

Back Gate Area

Vista of Garden in Back

North side Fenceline

Welcome Sign

Entrance to Back Garden

Side of Main Path

Side from the back out

North Side Fence

Back Corner

Back Path from South

Back Path from South Entrance

Heather Bed

Center of Garden

Middle of Garden

From the Deck

Center from the Back

South Side Path

South Side Entrance

Fountain from East

Main Entrance

It’s just so lovely out today on this rare day of sunshine here in Seattle that my camera was simply begging me to go out and shoot some pictures of the garden while it’s so beautiful. For me the best way to enjoy this garden is to be In it so I tried to give a sense of what it feels like to walk thru it.

I started out in front and worked my way back to the back yard with stops on the way for some ferns and a shot of the area near the garage we just created recently. I have one that’s a bit of a vista of the whole back yard but on some shots I got down on my hands and knees to get close to the ground so it would feel more like you’re in it.

I’ve labeled each picture as to its approximate place in the garden so if you click on the first one you can run thru them as a slide show and see them all at once in a larger size with captions. As I’ve said, I’m not much a of a photographer, but I have great subject material so they came out OK in the end. 😉

I hope you enjoy this walk thru the garden in winter, when the trees are so bare and the evergreens hold it all together. It’s a quiet time in the garden now but there’s still so much to see. I see changes already although it’s only the 3rd of January. It’ll be Spring before we know it, tho there’s some harsh weather ahead. All the more reason to enjoy this day eh?

Wishing you a sunny day or two, or at least a break from the cold for a bit,

Steve

Early Days

11/15/08

12/26/09

12/24/09

5/2/10

1/15/08

4/14/09

11/15/08

11/13/09

11/15/08

11/15/08

11/26/09

11/26/09

4/22/10

4/22/10

12/24/09

12/24/09

12/26/09

12/29/2009

1/17/10

5/2/10

5/2/10

Here are some photos that Louie took starting a full year before I started my own journal of photos. So he has some of the very early shots from before we even started the garden and I’m showing some of them now with some others that show what it’s grown up some to be in the first year or two. I’m amazed at how fast things grow but those first years were slow and I re-arranged things quite a bit to get the right balance.

The first shot shows the back of the lot before I started to change it to a garden. It had some nice big Osmanthus, Gold dust plant, a big Blue Peter Rhodie, and some Alberta Spruce that Louie salvaged from the neighbors. As you can see it’s just grown up and formed a nice shrubbery. All that changes in the next picture a year later as you can see with the new path and plants.

The next one is still that old but from the other end of the path so you can see how it goes from there. And the next one is of the very back of the yard a year later when it’s in growth.  You can see the small Metasequoia in this one tho it’s bare in the previous shots. It’s huge now after 5 years of growth and is now almost 10 feet tall!

This one is of the very front of the house by the street. You can see that I’ve just planted these Nandinas and Oregon Grapes in 2008. In the next shot it’s 2009 and they’ve started to grow, but just barely. They take off in years to come. Next is the fern bed before it was anything more than a bare bed. In the next shot you can see some ferns I’ve planted. A lot of them made it but some didn’t and I had to replant them.

These next ones are all shot from the inner front yard. Starting with the first you can see that there’s not much there except the lawn and a rockery Louie put in years ago. The Arborvitae makes a nice backdrop to all these plants. You can see from under the apple tree in one of them and the whole line up of plants starting from 2008 going to 09, and one of the other end so you see out of the garden in 2009.

The next ones are more of the inner front and are taken in 2010. They show how much things have grown here. I have lots more shots of all this but I was trying to give you an idea of the overall changes and these seem to do it the best. I hope they give an idea of how sparse things were at the beginning in comparison to what I’ve been showing you lately.

Here we’re in the back yard in 09 and the very back as well. The next is sort of in the middle of the back yard and the next is one of the fountain in it’s place with a few plants around it. You can see the stone pathway we put in to walk to it here. It makes it nice to be able to walk on it to get to work on the fountain when we want to clean it.

The final shots are of the whole back yard garden with some of the wheelchair accessible path we put in to the deck in case it’s needed. The other one’s a larger wide shot of the whole back yard as it was in 2010. It’s changed a lot since then and I’ll show more pictures of what that looks like in the coming days as I get to them.

I hope these pictures have shown you how little there was to begin with when we started this garden back in 2008 and 2009. It seems like it has been a short time but in other ways it’s been an eternity to wait for the little things to grow. I’m patient, but c’mon! 😉

That’s the problem and the joy of dwarfs. You can watch them stay in place for years and years without having to do much to keep them OK. They may take awhile to get there but they do in time and now many of ours are bigger than I am, a good test of growth for me. With a small garden like this you have to plant mostly dwarfs tho I have few larger tress I’ve planted as well.

I think that’s the true test of an optimistic gardener. As Wendell Berry put it, more or less, “I see my crops as the Redwoods, which I did not plant, and which I will not live to harvest.” Planting big trees when you’re in your 60’s is an act of faith that tho you may not get to see them some day as large trees, we’re really planting them for future generations, and that’s a cool thing to do.

Gardens for all!

Steve

In Remembrance of Plants Passed

Cherry Tree

Wissel’s Saguaro Lawson Cypress

Heuchera “Citronelle”

Lavendar Silver Anouk

Ceanothus Julia Phelps

Leopard Lily

Rhododendron Ginny Gee

Apple Tree

Native Armeria/Thrift

Oxalis Plum Crazy

Subalpine Fir

Aussie Turf

Mountain Laurel

Cyrtonium falcatum

Native fern

Anemone

Auriculate lady Fern

Unknown volunteer

Hinoki Nana Lutea

Pieris Valley Valentine

Erica carnea Ruby Glow

Royal Fern, Osmunda

Rhododendron Aberconway

Maidenhair Fern

Mahonia Charity

Russell’s Hybrid Lupine

Garden Pansy

I sometimes wonder if it seems like I have a perfect garden. Like I never lose plants and everything grows well for me. That’s mostly true, but it’s also true that I’ve lost quite a few plants over the last 5 years, as any gardener would expect, and I’ve got pictures so I can always remember them. Here are some of my favorites that bit the dust and are now compost for another garden… And the Wheel turns…

The first one is a real loss. It’s the big Cherry we had in the back yard. It was dying and falling apart so we had to take it out this spring. It was a tragedy but what could we do? It was clearly dying and there was less  foliage each year. We had an arborist take it out so we didn’t hurt ourselves or hurt the plants underneath. It’s a huge loss and I miss it badly but I planted a new Cryptomeria in its place which will fill in nicely and even get bigger in time.

I’ve replaced these Wissel’s Saguaro Cypress since they died but it’s a strange story. I took the dying one into the nursery where I got it and they said it hadn’t gotten enough water! I was shocked as I water so carefully. But I guess these dried out and they went into conifer shock from which they can never recover. You know, when they turn that funny color of dead? That’s what they did. So sad…

This one lit up underneath the apple for some time. It’s a form of Coral Bells called Citronelle and was a highlight under the tree. But it got crowded out by the wild strawberry I planted in there. I’ve since removed all of it and don’t even have a picture to show it. I’m glad it went tho. It was way too invasive and when plants kill other  plants they have to go…

This lavender was just a bit too tender for our winter one year and it died then. I replaced it with a hardier variety of lavender. It’s doing well now. The next is one of my saddest ones. It’s a huge Ceanothus Julia Phelps that got killed by the excess water in the area where it was planted. Partly the neighbors broken water line but also just too wet an area which I didn’t realize. It would have been beautiful!

This Leopard Lily is a native of the PNW and grew well for a couple of years and then just disappeared. I don’t know why but I miss it. Next is a Rhododendron Ginny Gee that did so well at first but gradually just bit it. I think it didn’t get enough water too as it was on a bright corner of the garden in front. I had to put in something that will stay hardy so I got a Kleims’ Hardy Gardenia to replace it.

This is another huge loss. It’s the apple tree that was in the front of the yard. It was slowly dying as was the cherry and the apples were lousy so we decided to replace it with a Japanese Katsura tree. It’s gonna be much nicer in a few years but it sure looks bare out there now. It’s a sad loss for us both…

This is a native thrift, or Armeria. It got crowded out by the invasive Redwood Sorrel. It’s nice but it sure does take over. This Thrift had some nice flowers on it for a couple of years before it died. Next it a simple annual called Plum Crazy Oxalis. It did well for a year and then that was it but it was so pretty at the time I had to show it. Love the purple with the yellow flowers!

This is another sad loss to me. It’s a Subalpine Fir that is native to the Cascade mountains here in Washington. It did well for a couple of years and then just went south for some unknown reason. I dunno why as it was well established. Plants just die sometimes tho and this was one of them. I replanted it with a Podocarpus macropylla that will get pretty good size as well. It’ll be alright but I miss this tree.

This is a funny little plant called Aussie astroturf. It got ripped out by the crows. Who knows why they do what they do but I guess they liked it for nesting or something. They decimated it which is why I have the sticks in it to hold it down. Didn’t work… Oh well. It ‘s cute and I may still try it again some day…

This one really made me cry. It was a Mountain Laurel called Raspberry Glow and it was blooming like crazy and then it got a rot and just died in about a month. No reason for the blight but it sure did a number on this plant. I feel so sad about this one cause it was so special and it’s hard to grow and I’d done so well for so long. Sigh. Sometimes it hurts more than others…

This is one of many ferns I lost. It’s a Holly fern and did well for a year or two and then just died like so many others. I replaced it with a different fern and it’s doing well. The next one is a weird one. It’s a volunteer that I left tho I usually don’t do that. But it was so pretty and got so huge it even had lovely white flowers in the summer. It’s an annual but I’m not sure which one. Very beautiful tho but I had to take it out eventually to restore the look of the landscape.

Here’s a Hinoki that didn’t make it called Nana lutea. It gets about 2-3 feet all around and would have been lovely in its spot. It also grew well for 3 years and then just turned that dead look confers get and died on me. I tried to save it in the greenhouse like I’ve done with other things  but to no avail. But some make it in there, like the Japanese painted fern. It’s doing great after a spell in the greenhouse.

The Valley Valentine Pieris was buried alive by squirrels. They dug up a whole bunch of soil over its roots before I noticed and then it was gone. Really too bad as it gets quite large and would have been wonderful where it was. It did bloom well for a few years but then it was it’s time and it went away. Too bad..

This is a little heath called Ruby Glow that only lasted for a couple years before it just died. Again I don’t know why but it did it. It would have gotten to a foot or two big but now I’ll never know. That’s one of the things that bothers me about losing plants. I never get to see what they would become. It’s a sad loss to a gardener like me who loves his plants.

This is a Royal fern which gets to 5 or 6 feet and I was so looking forward to seeing it in the back of the garden someday. But it only lasted a year and then it bit it. Who knows why? I say that a lot I guess but it’s true it’s a mystery most of the time, at least to me…

Next is a Rhododendron called Abereconway from England. It lasted a couple of years  then went the way of all things and died away. It had lovely white flowers on it and turned this great red color in the fall. I replace to with a small growing Rhodie called Bow Bells that is doing well now.

You’d think I could grow Maidenhair fern but I guess I can’t. I’ve tried about 4 or 5 plants of it and they all died on me. I dunno, maybe I need to try a new variety. We’ll see, but I’m leaning more toward evergreen ferns these days to keep the green all year so I don’t know if I’ll try one or not.

This was one of the first things we lost. A Mahonia Charity, it was beautiful but got too much water oh the north side of the garden. It’s right on the neighbors broken pipe and it flooded out bad. I have another one now that it in a better place and doing well, but it doesn’t change color as well. Trade offs I guess. You get one or another.. it all balances out I think.

These last two are sorta cheats since they’re biennials and would die anyway in a couple of years. But I included them because I liked them a lot. The first is a Russell hybrid Lupine that got 4 feet tall when it was in full bloom. And the last is simple garden Pansy that kept coming back for 3 years till it gave up the ghost. It’s gone now but I remember it thru these pictures.

So that’s it. I’ve lost a lot more plants than this but I don’t seem to have pictures of them all or else I just have a bit too much information….;) I hope you enjoyed the Dead Plants Tour of the past. I sure did. It’s so good to see all of the plants I’ve put in and grown over the years. The photos of them as they grow are a treasured resource and commentary of what all we’ve done.

I keep a journal of all my plants and when I planted then and what they’ve done over the years. It and the photos keep me in touch with the past as well as seeing the possble futures. It’s sad to lose plants but it’s all part of the game when you garden. You have to accept it and get over it and move on. One way that I look at it is that every time I lose a plant I have space for something new!

That makes it alright with me. More or less. I still mourn them but I have so many wonderful plants in this garden that I have what I need and it’s all good. Loss is part of gardening and you have to take it when it comes. It’s sad but it’s all part of the Circle of Life that is moving thru all things, including our gardens…

Gone but not forgotten,

Steve

Ferns

I think ferns are one of the loveliest parts of a garden. I have a whole bed of them as well as some stuck in here and there to give that airy, lacy effect they’re so famous for. I love the ones that stay green all winter so I can enjoy them but I also appreciate the ones who go dormant and lose all their leaves and just wait for spring to come forth again as they all do with their new growth. I’ve tried to capture the spirit of each plant here both for my own records but also to share with others. I hope you enjoy this fern tour.

The first fern on this tour is an Alaska Fern, or Polystichum setiferum. It grows about 2-3 feet around and stays green all winter. I have a couple of these because I like them so much. Next to it is an Autumn Fern, Dryopteris erythrosora, which comes on with new growth that is bronze in color tho it’s not in autumn that it does this so I’m uncertain about why it was named this. It’ll all stay evergreen and gets about 2-3 feet big. Next is a Japanese Tassel fern, another Polystichum, polyblepharum. Smaller than the others but still evergreen.

Here’s a ratty looking specimen of our native Sword fern, Polystichum munitum. It’s in winter since I couldn’t find another picture of it in spring or summer. It will get 5-6 feet tall and is a staple of NW gardens and hillsides. Beside it is a Long Eared Holly fern or Polystichum neoloblatum. Not too big a grower but evergreen. Then another Holly fern, this time a Cyrtomium falcatum. It looks a little more like Holly but both have scratchy scales on them so both are aptly named.

I think this is a native Lady Fern, Athyrium filix-femina, but I’m not sure. We transplanted it from a part of the garden where it had naturalized. It didn’t do  so well here so I took it out but still wanted to show it off as it’s really something. We still have some of them coming up here and there all over the garden. They look so sweet when they’re young and small but they do get huge and I don’t have many places I can accommodate them so I pull most of them and let a few survive for awhile. They’re deciduous so disappear completely in the fall.

Here’s a Licorice fern, Polypodium glycyrrhiza, another NW native whose roots have a licorice like flavor and were used for that by the Native People. It’s another evergreen. Next is one of the 2 plants in the garden I lost the sticker from. It’s an unknown fern but may be a male fern, Athyrium filix mas, or may not be. I dunno really but it’s pretty and stays evergreen all year so it’s nice to have where it is. Then there’s a Dragon Tail fern, Asplenium ebenoides, that is supposed to look like a dragons tail. I have a hard time telling it from the Deer fern but they’re not related apparently so I don’t know why. Ferns are like that tho. They often look similar.

Here’s another Alaska fern, or soft shield fern, Polystichum setiferum, here, as I said, because I like it so much. And next to it is a variety of it called “diversilobum” for the way it grows into something of a stalk as it gets bigger. It hasn’t done that yet for me. This next one will get to be about 5-6 feet tall which is why it’s tucked back in the corner of the yard. It also loses its leaves so I have to put in a stake so I don’t forget it. It’s a Purple Stemmed Royal Fern, Osmunda regalis var. regalis Purpurascens”,  and has purple stems on it’s lovely stalks and interesting leaves. I can’t wait for this one to get big!

This an Auriculate Lady Fern, Athyrium otophorum,  and is another deciduous one. It’s one of the parents to the Ghost fern you see later on in this pictorial. Beside it is a clump of what will become a large fern 5-6 feet tall.  The Giant Chain Fern, Woodwardia fimbriata, native to the Sierras of California and parts of Oregon. I got these in tubes just a year or so ago and they’ve really grown a lot in that short time but still have a long way to go. They’ll get there in time.

The last row starts with a Japanese Painted Fern, Athyrium nipponicum “Pictum”, another unusual deciduous fern from Japan that has won numerous awards of merit for its unique coloring. It’s the other parent of the Ghost fern next in line. The Ghost fern, Athyrium x Ghost,  is a cross between the Auriculate Lady Fern and the Japanese Painted Fern and has characteristics of both. It seems to get bigger sooner than either of its parents and has wonderful under-lighting qualities to it. Last is the Deer fern, Blechnum spicant, another NW native. It puts up sterile fronds in the top of the plant in spring and keeps the basal leaves all year round.

So that’s the tour. I didn’t realize I have quite so many of these things. I know there are still a couple more I missed but you got the majority of them. As you can see they do give a certain quality of grace to the garden and harmonize well with their surroundings and the plants with them. They go well with all sort of things especially my faves, the Ercicaceae. They make the garden more interesting and give it a certain quality of light and delicacy that nothing else quite does. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour and come back for more when you can.

in ferny delight,

Steve