Sango-Kaku

Coral Bark Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum “Sango-Kaku”) – 4/28/2010

This is a well known and popular Japanese Maple.  It’s called Coral Bark for its bright red stems which are said to resemble a tower of red sea coral.  The stems are brightest in Spring when it first starts to grow.  This photo shows the tree a couple of weeks after it was planted.  It kind of stuns me how small it was 10 years ago!  I made a point to get a tree that had a tight vase shape to it.  I wanted it to fit here at the intersection of the path from the driveway that goes up into the house on one side, and the path that goes into the front garden on the other.

10/29/2010

Here it is in October with the beginning of fall color on it.  This year it had a lot of red  in it, but it changes each year and other years it has more gold in it than red, as you’ll see as we go along here.  No matter the color, it’s always beautiful.

2/16/2011

You can clearly see the bright red stems in this photo.  You can also see how much it’s grown in just one year – it grows fast!    It’s a perfect fit for its space and is well away from the paths, as intended.

11/18/2011

It grew even more its first year in the ground.  The color this year is stunning, tho most of the leaves have fallen by now.

8/23/2012

I didn’t have a Spring photo for this year so you’re seeing 2 years of growth here. It’s still narrow but getting very full.

10/25/2012

The fall color here is more orange than red, which is more what we’ve seen over time.  You can still see the red stems.

5/7/2013

It’s getting really full now and starting to look like a “real tree”, which for me means when it gets taller than my head!  I’m only 5’4″ tall so I guess that’s really not a very high bar to meet…

10/31/2013

I guess you can tell this was taken on Hallowe’en.  It’s gotten significantly taller this year with vibrant orange color.

5/8/2014

I love how it droops down in this photo.  The first full flush of Spring growth covers it here and it’s heavy.

11/1/2014

The new growth at the top always turns color more slowly than the older growth.  It’ll get there but it takes awhile.

5/6/2015

It’s still growing in a tight vase shape, with a little help from my lopers.  I don’t prune it much, just enough to keep it that way.

10/30/2015

Another Hallowe’en photo.  We don’t decorate the house for trick or treaters till Hallowe’en day but you can see the corn stalks we line the driveway with behind the tree on the lawn. The kids love how we do it and we have fun too!

3/25/2016

You can really see the red stems on this one.  The leaves are just starting to appear on the branches.  It’s still a tight shape.

10/23/2016

This is the typical color it seems to turn most years, tho sometimes it has more red in it, which I personally prefer.  Not that I don’t love the colors here.  It’s getting much wider at the top but is still narrow where it needs to be out of the way.

2/6/2017

It doesn’t snow every year here in Seattle so I like to take photos when it does.  The snow really makes the red stems shine.

10/23/2017

There’s a tinge of red on the upper leaves this year, extending down somewhat to the lower parts.  This color makes me happy.  The tree is getting both taller and wider here but still stays out of the paths.  Only takes bit of pruning to do this.

4/22/2018

It’s so lovely when the leaves first start to grow.  I said it looked like a “real tree” earlier.  It’s so much more so now!

10/17/2018

Here the fall color is trending more towards a deep yellow rather than much red.  Again you can see the top colors up later.

2/9/2019

I took this after a huge snowfall last February that destroyed the big coniferous shrub behind the maple.  People called it the “Snowpocalypse”.  We almost never get this much snow.  I love to look at it but we had a lot of breakage of limbs.  Very sad.

10/24/2019

I seem to have a lot of photos taken in October here.  You can see how the stems darken to a light brown as they age. If you look closely you can still see some vestiges of red here and there.  In the back is a gorgeous Waterfall dissected maple.

6/6/2020

We’re finally up to this year.   This was just a few ago, in June, and it’s got quite a lot of new growth on it.  But as you’ll see in the next photo it still has a ways to go.  I don’t know if you’ve been watching the pine to the right here.  It’s gotten a whole lot bigger too.  I guess everything has…

9/9/2020

I took this one a couple of hours ago, just before I started this post.  Like I said you can see that it’s grown since the last photo I took in June.  It Really looks like a “real tree” now.  It’s not only taller than I am – it’s way taller than the roof!  I had to prune off one branch that was drooping down over the roof when it rained.  I try to keep things off the roof, but really we only have 2 or 3 trees that I have to worry about that with.  Most of the large trees are far away from the house and garage.

I’ve been so pleased with how fast and strong this tree has grown.  It’s wonderful to be able to walk under it when you go into the house.  And tho you can’t really see it much here I also trained the maple to merge with the Green Pine on the right to form an arch over the path as you drop down onto the lawn and into the garden.  I love tree arches and have created a few more here and there throughout the garden.  I’ve even made them with large shrubs.  They make it feel like you’re entering a different world and help to create a feeling of enclosure as you walk under them.  Maybe I’ll do a post on them sometime.

I hope I’ve given you a good look at how this special tree has grown over time.  I tried to get photos that showed it at different times of the year, including early Spring when the tree is bare and in fall when it’s in full color.  There are also a few that show it in summer when it’s green and growing.  I think it’s awesome all year long.

This tree was introduced in Ireland in 1920 and is now widely planted over much of the world.  Eventually it will grow to 30′ or 40′ tall and 20′-30′ wide.  I’m glad we have it here in our garden and that it’s taken its place in such a short time.

I hope you have some trees in your garden that you love as much as I love this one!!

Steve

Winter Views From the Elegans

This is the Elegans.  It’s formally called Cryptomeria japonica “Elegans”, or Elegans Sugi in Japanese.  This is a photo I took from our neighbor’s yard because you can’t see this full a picture from our yard.  Too many trees in the way.  I planted it about 10 years ago from an 18″ sapling.  I’d say it’s closing in on 30′ now.  Wow.  It’s one of my favorite “pettable” trees because you can literally pet it it’s so soft and luxurious.  Not like other conifers at all – the ones that stick you so readily.

The photos in the following series form a panoramic view of the back garden from the base of the Elegans, on the other side of this photo. From there you can pretty much see the whole back garden.  It’s a comfortable, dry spot to stand at  times when there’s a little bit of drizzle like we have coming down today.  I’ll show you in the next photo.

This is where I’m standing. The trunk is angled in such a perfect way that I can lean back against it and it supports my back like a recliner.  Nice for a bad back – the gardener’s curse.  Underneath the Elegans is what’s left of the formerly large Gold Dust plant (Aucuba japonica) that I almost killed by planting the Eleagns were I did.  Silly me.  I was able to prune the Aucuba so that it now grows luxuriously on the margin of the Elegans.   It gets lots of sun and can grow tall again.

On the right is a Blue Peter rhododendron that Louie planted here some 30 years ago.  In the  spring it’s a mass of light purple flowers with darker purple centers.  A lovely older variety.  Below is the most wonderful azalea in the garden, in my opinion.  It’s a Kurume called “Ward’s Ruby” (Azalea kurume “Ward’s Ruby”).  When it blooms it’s covered with the deepest red blossoms imaginable and can be seen from the house.  It loves it here.  In fact all the Ericaceae (Heather family) thrive in the deep, wet, peaty soil we have here in our little Nature Sanctuary.  You’ll see a variety of acid loving plants here.

This is what I see when I look to my left.  The tall spindly tree on the left is a “bound” Japanese Umbrella Pine form called “Wintergreen” (Sciadopytis verticillata “Wintergreen”).  It’s bound because it was damaged in the “snopocalypse” we had in February (we don’t get much snow here so we tend to be dramatic about it when we do get it….).  I had to tie up all the branches because they were drooping so badly from the weight of the snow.  I’ll keep the ties on for a year or so and then remove them.  The branches will (hopefully) bounce back up to where they’re supposed to be.  Below it is a huge patch of Licorice fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza).  It’s a PNW native you often see on the trunks of trees in the rainforest.

Next to is is a stalwart rhodie called Anna Rose Whitney.  It’s about 6′ x 7′ now and when it blooms in spring it’s a mass of brilliant hot pink with huge trusses of 8 or 10 flowers each.  Very impressive.  The tall tree with the twisty branches to the right is a “Diana” contorted Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi “Diana”).  It’s one of the handful of deciduous conifers in the world.  It has apple green needles all summer that turn a marvelous shade of deep orange before dropping in the fall.

At the bottom right is a rarely seen Alpine Yew Pine (Podocarpus alpinus “Red Tips”).  It’s from New Zealand and is related to the better known Japanese Yew Pine (Podocarpus macrophylla).  It has beautiful reddish purple tips in late spring.  It looks like a haze over the whole plant.  Above it is the trunk of the Radicans Sugi.  That’s the big dark green tree in back, behind the lamp.  It covers an edge of the little deck we built so we could hang out in the garden.  More on the Sugi in a moment.

When I turn to my right I see the Yew Pine in the foreground with the hanging light above it.  The reddish brown trunk to its left belongs to the Radicans Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica “Radicans”).  It’s like the Elegans in size now but is definitely not pettable.  It gets bigger too – up to 55 feet or so they say.  The tall dark shape in the background is a Weeping Giant Sequoia  (Sequoiadendron giganteum “Pendulum”).  It’s grown over 35′ tall it 10 years, and is the tallest tree we’ve planted.

In the middle foreground is a Red Pygmy Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum “Red Pygmy”).  Below are a couple of nice rhodies – Ken Janeck and Ramapo.  The light yellow plant is a large clump of Japanese Forest Grass (Hakanechloa macra “All Gold”).  Behind the maple is the fountain, which we keep empty in the colder times of the year.  It’s raining now so it’s full.

Going clockwise some more you can see the fountain more clearly and a fuller view of the Red Pygmy.  I’ve recently pruned it out and I’m very pleased with my efforts.   It all seems to be growing the way it wants to and should be a fine strong structure over the years to come.  I’ve been reading about Aesthetic Pruning lately.  The descriptions sound like what I’ve been doing for decades, more or less.  When I was first starting out in the landscape biz I worked with a tree pruner who did “Aesthetic and Therapeutic” pruning.  I took it to heart and have tried to emulate his practices ever since.  It’s about the health and beauty of the whole garden environment, taking all factors into consideration.  Seems like common sense to me.

On the right is a Vanessa Persian Ironwood (Parrotia Persica “Vanessa”).  I’ve trained it quite a bit to be very narrow at its base since it tends to spread out as it gets taller and we need to be able to walk around both sides of it.  It’s turned out really well and I think it will grow companionably with the big plum behind it. (You can barely see it on the right). The Ironwood turns a spectacular brilliant golden color in the fall.  You can see it shining from the back door of the house.

In this one you can see the Plum and why I need to prune the Parrotia away from it.  They have to agree to share the air space above them.  I think I did a good job of preparing them to play nice.  The small blue conifer at the bottom is a RH Montgomery blue spruce.  It wants to get bigger than it can here so I have to prune it very judiciously to keep it looking nice and healthy where it is.  We’ll see how long I can do that.  At the right is a mid-size Lily of the Valley shrub called Little Heath (Pieris japonica “Little Heath”).  It has lovely racemes of small  white bell shaped flowers in early spring.  The leaves are nicely variegated with light green and pink on the margins, especially in spring.  It’s another plant in the Heather family.

On the left is the Little Heath and in the middle is a Jade Butterflies dwarf Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba “Jade Butterflies”).  It’s so named because the leaves look like little butterflies.  Ginkgos are supposed to turn a spectacular shade of golden yellow in the fall. They’re known for it.  But for some odd reason ours never does this.  lt’s usually a pallid shade of yellow.  Except last year when Everything was brilliant it did what it’s supposed to do.  ???

Behind the Ginkgo is a snatch of our veggie garden, with a Spaan’s Slow Column Scots pine (Pinus sylvestnis “Spaan’s Slow Column”) at the north end of the veggies where it won’t shade them.  You can see a patch of Lacinato Kale at the back.  They’ll be in fine shape to start to grow at the very beginning of spring.  They overwinter quite well.  The blue barrels hold garden soil, compost and fertile mulch for when we need a bit of help with things.  It’s handy to keep a bit of each on hand.

This is the final shot in the panorama.  You can see the Ginkgo on the left and in the middle is the Miss Grace Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides “Miss Grace”).  It’s another of the few deciduous conifers that exist.   We also have a third – a dwarf Swamp Cypress (Taxodium distichum).  (It didn’t show up in this series of photos).  Both the Metasequoia and Ginkgo are very ancient trees, formerly found only in the fossil record.  It’s nice to have them in cultivation.  You can see the strawberry bed better here.  It’s not that big but we get quarts of berries.  Fresh fruit is so wonderful to pick and eat right out of the garden.  Above you on the right is the Elegans again.  We’re almost back where we started.

Here we are back at the trunk again.  I intentionally pruned up a hollow in this tree so we could stand under it when it rains, which it was doing just now when I took all these photos.  I didn’t plan for this to be such a wonderful viewing spot but I’m so glad I “discovered” it one day when I was perambulating the garden, which I try to do every morning.  I like to keep up on the doings of all the plants and do bits of “micro pruning” to keep everyone growing happily and harmoniously together.  It’s a magical sanctuary but it takes constant, careful work to keep it that way.  Having a spot like this where I can overlook the whole garden at once helps me get a more holistic perspective on things. It’s easier to comprehend it all as one large entity.

I hope you enjoyed these panoramic views of the garden.  It all feels so much bigger when you’re in the thick of it.

Relaxing on a rainy day,

Steve

When it Snows in Seattle

The Back Garden

From the Street

The Fountain with Red Pygmy Japanese Maple behind

Tuscan Blue Rosemary

Waterfall Dissectum Japanese Maple

Weeping Giant Sequoia, Dwarf Swamp Cypress, Rasen Cryptomeria

Cryptomeria Radicans

Hinoki Cypress

Metasequoia Miss Grace, Ginkgo Jade Butterflies

Maupin Glow Incense Cedar

Sango-Kaku Japanese Maple

Ginkgo, Cryptomeria Elegans

Charity Mahonia (so sad…)

It rarely snows this much in Seattle.  But today we have over 10″ here in our garden.  Not bad by Midwestern or East Coast standards, but here in Washington the Governor called a State of Emergency because it’s so bad all over the state.  I bravely (!!??) ventured out to take some photos before the wind blew all the snow off – it won’t melt for days because more snow is predicted for today and for the next week or so.  We’re glad the power and water are still on, and we’re well stocked with food and drink, and have generators and even extra water.  (We’re trying to be prepared for the Big One that’s going to hit the PNW one day, hopefully not in our lifetimes!!)

Most of the plants will recover from the snow when it melts, but the last picture of the Mahonia shows a plant in serious distress.  I tried to pull it back up but it’s frozen in this position.  We may lose it, as well as the huge Winter Daphne in the front yard.  It’ll be hard to lose either one of them, and both at once will make me crazy.  But you can’t control the weather as all gardeners know.  I guess we’ll just have to grin and bear it.  After all it’s not bad here compared to how it could be.  At least it’s only in the 20’s and teens, not below zero!  We know we got it good….

Hope everyone dealing with snow is doing OK, and not freezing their butts off!  Stay safe!

Steve

A Walk Around the Park

This is a bit of a different sort of post for me. I usually show you my garden, but today it’s covered in snow and tho it’s beautiful I thought I’d do something about the neighborhood instead. We went for a walk early this morning in the new snow and seeing the kids at the park made want to do a bit of a photo essay on the joy and excitement I saw there.

So I went back home and got my camera and Louie and I walked back around the whole park and I shot photos of it from various angles as we went along to give a sense of perambulating the park and seeing it from many perspectives. I started at the corner nearest our house, just a coupled 0f blocks away, and went from there in a clockwise arrangement and took pictures.

There’s lots of  kids in this neighborhood and it seemed like they were all out there playing in the snow today. It’s so rare that we get enough to do this that everyone was taking advantage of it. I know that for many of you this seems silly. But for us it’s a big deal and we make the most of it when we get it. It’ll be gone in a day or less according to the weather reports, so we have to enjoy it now.

I’ll let the pictures tell their own story here. There’s not much to say except this park has only been here for 30 some years but some of the trees are quite big and make a nice forest at one end. It’s The neighborhood park for the immediate area and takes up a full block with its beauty. We’re lucky to live so close to it and be able to walk thru it regularly. What a gift, eh? 😉

Enjoying the snow,

Steve

Yes, It Does Snow in Seattle!

Well, not much really. But it does come down sometimes tho it’s a rare occurrence. I shot this early this morning just to give a glimpse of what it looks like when we get our odd snow that drops a few inches and covers up things with a light dusting of white. It’s not a problem for the garden at this level of snow, but it could get bad if it snows more.

But it won’t they say. This all will be gone by this afternoon. It will have all melted off with the rain. It’s sprinkling now in fact just a bit. It’ll take the snow away in no time so I’m glad I got a few shots in before that happened. It’s so pretty with that little bit of snow and the colors all fade into a dull grey which gives a nice tone to the shot.

You can see a lot of different plants on here. In particular you can see the red twig dogwood and the neighbor’s Metasequoia on the right side, and the Inverleith Scotch Pine at the very far right. The large tree on the left is an Italian Plum, one of the few fruit tree we have left. In the center you can see the Sequoiadendron giganteum and in back the Tsuga, or Mountain Hemlock.

Seattle can be treacherous in the snow because  many people don’t know how to drive in it here and we have a Lot of steep roads in town proper, including much of downtown and getting to it. I try not to drive in this kind of weather, even in my 4wd Subaru. It’s just too dangerous. Much better to stay home and enjoy the sights of this Garden Sanctuary in it’s snow covered glory!

Happy snow to those who love it, and so sorry to those who hate it! 😉

Steve