Calm Before the Storm

We had a big windstorm last week that blew pretty much all the beautiful fall foliage to the ground.  Luckily I took some pictures of the garden in its fall color prime before the storm.

Brilliant blueberries.  If I remember correctly (which isn't as likely as I would like it to be), these are 'Jersey' blueberries.

This is about as ripe as the bananas are going to get!

Musa basjoo

Had I watered this Himalayan raspberry over the summer, it would be looking a bit more presentable.  Yes, the berries are edible.  They are pretty good - they taste like apples.

Rubus lineatus

Maybe I should make some figgy pudding?

Ficus carica

Hydrophobia at work on the leaves of Melianthus major.

Melianthus major

Melianthus major

A Red-foliaged Castor bean plant (Ricinus communis) extends the season up until the first hard frost.  This one is 10' tall and still looking fantastic heading into mid-November.  I order the seeds online and plant them directly in the ground in a sunny spot with good soil in mid-April.

Ricinus communis 'Carmencita'

The greenhouse is filled to the brim.  The white flower on the left is a brugmansia (Angel's trumpet).  The pink-flowered (actually pink-bracted) plant on the right is Bougainvillea glabra.

Here's hoping my next post is not of me wrapping Christmas lights and blankets around all the borderline-subtropical plants before an impending arctic freeze!!!

I'm Not Dead Yet!

Komo News weatherman Scott Sistek made an interesting point about our recent weather.  In the past 75 days, it has rained on 68 of those days.  The 75 days prior to that (Oct. 12 to July 30) was the exact opposite: Mostly sunny on 68 of the 75 days.  In other words, if you're going to visit Seattle, visit in summer when it's not raining every day.  You can read his article here.

The good news about all this rain is there haven't been any "arctic express" events so far.  There haven't even been any light freezes to speak of - just a couple nights getting down to about 30F/-1C.  And as long as the jet stream keeps flowing our way, it will ward off any bad arctic air so I'm completely fine with it raining for the next two months.  Here is a sign of just how mild it has been around here:

Hydrangea macrophylla on December 27th, 2012

Some not-really-hardy subtropical plants get left outside all winter just to see if they will make it.  There also wasn't any room in the greenhouse so bringing them in wasn't really an option.  I did get a lot of cuttings just in case.  But so far, this Brugmansia is doing just fine:

Bare Brugmansia

This Castor Bean plant is probably a bit closer to death, but still hanging on!

Ricinus communis 'Carmencita red'

This potted Bearss Lime (Citrus × latifolia) blends in so well with its surroundings I neglected to take it in, yet it doesn't seem phased in the least by the cold.  I will probably try to get this acclimated to the greenhouse just to keep it happy.

Citrus × latifolia

The two species of hardy cyclamen in the garden are both in bloom right now.  Here is Cyclamen hederifolium:

Cyclamen hederifolium

And Cyclamen coum:

Cyclamen coum

Plants with great evergreen foliage also really shine this time of year seeing as there is less foliage to go around in the garden.

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Barry's silver'

Rubus lineatus

Clockwise from left: Melianthus major, Arbutus unedo, Schefflera brevipedunculata

And finally, a plant geek's plant if there ever was one: Brassica oleracea var. longata or Walking Stick Kale.  It was planted almost two years ago from seed and looks primed to put on a ton of growth in the spring.  It's already six feet tall and will hopefully get to 10 feet before going to seed.

Brassica oleracea var. longata

Here Comes the Su....There Went the Sun

The picture below is deceptive.  It looks like it's a nice day, but the truth is it was a short glimpse of a sun break in an otherwise wet, cold, dark, and windy day.  By the time my eyes adjusted, the sun went behind a cloud indefinitely.

On the other hand, if it wasn't for this steady supply of weather systems (i.e. rain) we've had over the past month and a half, there would have been at least a few good frosts by now, which would make sightings on December 2nd like this impossible:

Canna 'Tropical yellow'

Or this:

The flower stalk of Acanthus mollis 'Tasmanian angel' rising through a Schefflera taiwaniana

Even the leaves of this Gunnera manicata have yet to show signs of capitulating.

Gunnera manicata

If this benign weather continues through the winter, I will jump for joy from the rooftop (just kidding!).

Center left: Washingtonia robusta, Center right: Melianthus major

The Little Season That Could

Today's post is brought to you by the number five.  That's how many degrees below and inches of rain above normal it was for the month of March.  April is looking to be slightly less ornery, but let's not get our hopes up. 

Melianthus major (Honey Bush)

At the NW Flower & Garden Show in February, one of the speakers (an executive from Monrovia I believe) said he had yet to see a Melianthus major go to flower in the Northwest.  Well, have I got news for him.  Not only did mine bloom last summer, but it's about to bloom again!

One thing that has been growing incredibly fast lately is the kale in the garden.  This couldn't have been a better winter for cole crops - cool, rainy, and mild.

Hepatica nobilis

Hepaticas...how can something so pristine emerge out of soil that's so wet and murky?

Some radishes, on the left, are off to a great start and should be ready to eat in a couple weeks.  The peas, on the other hand, are not.  Only two peas emerged from the soil.  I dug through to see what the problem was, and they were all gone!  Something's eating them...no clue what though.

Berberis darwinii (Darwin Barberry)

Thanks to a mild winter, this evergreen barberry has been in bloom since November and doesn't show any sign of stopping.

Dicentra (Bleeding Heart)

In the Bleak Midwinter

Freezing rain is the evil step sister of snow. We had 6" of snow on Wednesday (1/18) followed by an inch of ice on Thursday (1/19). The supercooled raindrops instantly froze to whatever they touched - like this witch hazel (Hamamelis intermedia). Unfortunately, the ice also cut off the power.

Below, the redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens) had a few branch casualties. Considering people cut holes through these trees and drive through them, I'm confident it will recover just fine.



Some plants will have a tougher recovery though. I noticed a major branch had broken off of my Trochodendron aralioides (pictured below, off to the left behind the bamboo).


Ice can be very beautiful when it's not ruining things.



An "ice fossil" of a palm tree.


Somewhere under those icicles are flower buds on this Camellia sasanqua.


Normally this bamboo (Phyllostachys rubromarginata) hides our neighbor's motor home shed. Not today.


One unlikely plant that managed to stay standing: this Melianthus major.


Hopefully the fish are doing alright under all that slush in the pond. No power means no water circulation but they are pretty much in hibernation mode anyway.


Finally, a look inside the greenhouse. Under normal circumstances the temperature in there never falls below 50 degrees, but with the power being out, there's not much I can do about that!

Summer's in full swing...don't blink!

Looking at the picture above, I see nasturtiums taking over the world, bamboo flopping over trying to shade out the pumpkins, diseased apples on a puny apple tree, and lima beans that are never going to ripen. Yet in a few months, when solar days are shorter than work days and the high temperature outside is roughly the same as the temperature in my refrigerator, I will probably look back on this picture and think "those were the good old days". So it is...never satisfied.

Most non-horticultural people will probably look at this plant and think "what kind of weed is that?" Well, it's the kind of weed where Tequila comes from - a blue agave or Agave tequilana. It stays outside for the summer, and I keep it bone-dry inside for the winter (Nov-April).

Speaking of blue plants, my Melianthus major (honey bush) is in bloom right now. It definitely helps contribute to the subtropical aura of this area of the garden. You can see the blue agave on the right.

Any beginning gardener interested in growing spiky plants in the Pacific Northwest can't go wrong by planting Yucca filamentosa (Adam's needle). It doesn't die - regardless of how cold, wet, dark, windy or miserable it gets. As you can see in the picture, its inflorescence is very attractive. Note: This is not the same yucca that they make yuca chips out of (yuca with one c = yum; yucca with two c's = yuck!).

Finally...my giant pumpkin in the making. I've clipped off all the other pumpkins and feed it lots 'o Miracle-Gro whenever I get the chance. We'll see how it does.....