Happy Plants = Happy Me

The elusive thermal trough is back in Seattle.  Sunshine, clear blue skies, and heat (low 80's) are what most plants have been waiting for.  The relatively few plants that like it cool and rainy will manage to survive the party I'm sure. 

A glowing whorl of new growth on Metapanax delavayi

This heat wave (by Seattle standards) is our first after a cooler than normal spring which was beginning to feel like a repeat of last year's 2nd coldest spring on record.

Asphodeline lutea (King's spear)

The nice weather just might give some plants that don't really belong in this climate, like the Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariensis), a chance to bulk up a bit.  The bright yellow groudcover is Sedum makinoi 'Ogon', which has so far done a decent job of staying evergreen and seems to spread at just the right rate.

Left to Right: Lewisia cotyledon, Phoenix canariensis, Sedum makinoi 'Ogon', Artichoke foliage, and Opuntia engelmannii

Finally, I planted a couple tomatillos outside last week with a bit of protection.  They are looking good and starting to grow!  Let's keep thinking SUN!!!!

Two Tomatillos

Before & After the Ice

Take a look at the two photos below. They were taken from exactly the same location, just 17 days apart. So which one was taken first?


How about this?


Answer: the pictures with snow were taken on January 20th, and the ones without snow were taken today, February 6th. The bamboo you see (Phyllostachys rubromarginata) quickly sprang back up to its original form after the ice had melted.

You can see the same bamboo planting in the before & after shots below along with the Escallonia hedge, which I am pleased to say is acting much more resilient than last year.


My Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis) also sprang back to life as if nothing had ever happened. You might notice the artichoke leaves (Cynara cardunculus) next to the prickly pear (Opuntia) cactus were badly damaged, but it's to be expected in any winter. It's a perennial and will quickly shoot up to 6' in the spring.

A couple more shots:

In the Bleak Midwinter, Part II

Here are a few more photos from last week's ice storm. Amazingly, all the plants in these photos suffered virtually no damage.

A prickly pear cactus (genus Opuntia, species unknown) in front of the drooping fronds of the not-really-cold-hardy Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island Date Palm).

The escallonia hedge (Escallonia x exoniensis 'Fradesii').

Above: Washingtonia robusta (Mexican fan palm)
Below: Magnolia grandiflora 'D.D. Blanchard' with Schefflera taiwaniana in the foreground.


Finally, in the past few years, I have come up with a simple way to measure the "badness" of an arctic outbreak. It takes into account both temperature and the length of time it has been below freezing. After all, many subtropical plants can take 20 degrees for a few nights, but not 10 degrees for even a few hours. So what is it? It's this fountain:

The photo above was taken on Friday, Jan 20th, 2012. Temperatures had finally risen above freezing after two full days in the 20's. But compare that with the picture below:


Same fountain, but a lot more ice. This was taken in November of 2010 - during the pre-Thanksgiving arctic mess that gave us lows of 15 degrees and kept the high temperatures in the 20's for a couple days. I had over 30 plants die during this outbreak, and many other plants died to the ground (like my escallonia hedge). Once I get a collection of several photos like this, I can assign them a rating and determine how bad a particular arctic outbreak was. Now this is not completely scientific, but it does quantify the severity of an arctic outbreak in a simple way. Perhaps in the future, instead of labeling the minimum temperature of plant labels, we will label the "cold severity number" to give us a better understanding of what conditions (coldness + time) a particular plant might be able to withstand.

Sitting here in limbo...

The flowering plums are done, the cherry blossoms are at their peak, and the cool-season veggies in the garden are going strong, but it still feels like winter out there. Here are a few photos from this season's very slow start:

The culms of Musa basjoo (Japanese fiber banana) are now growing about a half an inch a day. Before long they will be strutting their 8' long leaves which always bring a taste of the tropics to the backyard.


In the lower left, Aspidistra elatior (Cast iron plant), cannot get any more tropical looking and happens to be evergreen and hardy here in the Seattle area. I've experimented with growing some of it's variegated cultivars (such as 'milky way') outside without success. But I'll certainly settle for the solid green variety. The plant right next to it is the enigmatic Schefflera taiwaniana (so enigmatic I don't think it has a common name). I purchased two of these last year, they both sailed through the winter with no problems, and are now starting to send out its first shoots of the spring. The plant growing on the porch is Strelitzia nicolai (Giant bird of paradise) which grows happily as a contained plant and doesn't mind the cold as long as it stays above freezing. I kept it in the greenhouse for most of the winter and brought it out a couple weeks ago.


While the subfreezing spells this past November & February didn't kill this opuntia outright, it is now a bit more flopped-over than it used to be. And I should note that trying to take cuttings from this cactus and rooting them outside in November is simply a waste of time. The pinnate-leaved palm is none other than Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island Date Palm), one of the most spectacular palms in the world when it is large. I would like to say it's been growing there all winter, but the one in the photo is actually a recent replacement of one that died (which was itself a replacement).

Unfortunately, the slugs noticed my Cardiocrinum giganteum (Giant Himalayan Lily) before I did.
I've been growing Gunnera manicata (Dinosaur plant) for several years now, and pretty much have nailed down what its needs are in order to achieve mammoth proportions: First, bury the central bud in several inches of mulch for the winter. Make sure this mulch does not get blown off. If the central bud freezes, the plant will send up several smaller shoots. The mulch can be removed once the threat of a hard freeze is gone (late February). Second, it likes to grow in boggy conditions, so keep it well-watered. It doesn't seem to care about being in sun or part shade as long as it's able to soak up as much water as it wants. Third, fertilize the heck out of it (the more nitrogen, the better). It should also go without saying that if it's going to reach 8-10 feet tall, it needs to be growing in great soil, without a lot of competition from trees.