Pining Away for Winter Color; A Tale of Two Trees

In September 2012, I posted about Pinus contorta v. latifolia 'Chief Joseph' AKA Chief Joseph Lodgepole Pine here .  I'd seen them at a local nursery and at a few specialty sales. The chief is an expensive tree which I wouldn't have bought for myself but my sister and niece read my post and bought one for me.   I've heard that it's pricey because it's difficult to propagate and grows very slowly.  It was found in Eastern Oregon, needs extremely good drainage, and can be quite finicky about being moved, thus mine is still in a pot.    Oh yeah, Chief Joseph needs full sun to color up nicely but if it gets too much sun, the needles will burn.  Also, it can't stand anything growing on it.  I let a vine crwl through the bottom branches of the one you see on the left of the picture and the needles turned brown and a couple of bottom branches died.  Make no mistake, this pine is a prima donna in every sense of the world and wants you to know that!  To learn more about the chief go here.  Anyway, I've not yet killed my Chief Joseph but I'm wondering about this growth.  Is this a bad thing or just something that happens to pines? 

 

 

 I've been enjoying the gorgeous golden color of Chief Joseph all winter although it seems in the last week or so to be starting its transformation to green a little earlier than last year.   Last Saturday, Alison and I saw Pinus sylvestris 'Gold Coin' at the Tacoma Home and Garden Show. I suspected that they'd introduced another expensive, slow growing, nicely colored prima donna.  Imagine my surprise when I looked at the tag and it was less than a third of the price of a Chief Joseph.   It wanted to come home with me and the nice gentleman from Bark and Garden said I should buy it. Chief Joseph on the left and Gold Coin on the right.

I know that Gold Coin has been exposed to the perfect amount of light to cause it to color so nicely.  Plant sellers want to show plants at their best! We'll see what it will do over the course of a few years.

 

I should have found something deeply green  to use as a background so that you could see that both plants are quite gold.  Gold Coin is a much faster grower than the Chief and according to the person from whom I bought the tree, the needles won't burn in the full sun.  I'm glad to have both of these lovely pines but I'm thinking that  P. sylvestris 'Gold Coin' might just give you more gold for your buck. To learn more about Gold Coin, go here.  Hey northern gardeners, this one is hardy to zone 3a!

Do you have experience growing either or both of these pines and if so, do you have a preference? 

Some Random Fun Stuff!

I recently posted about Chief Joseph Lodgepole Pine here.  This is a small pine whose needles turn a gorgeous golden yellow in the winter making it quite a cheery presence during those bleak months.  I've made special trips to Portland Avenue Nursery during the winter just to drool over this gorgeous tree.  While I've wanted one for years, I just didn't want to spend so much money on one plant.  It seems that some crafty birthday elves (My sister Dirce and her daughter Alison) from Alaska have been reading my blog. Yesterday, I got an email saying that a gift from them was waiting for me at PAN.   What do you suppose it could be?  If you guessed Chief Joseph, you'd be right!

Isn't he handsome!

 When I saw him at the nursery and realized that he was mine, I nearly cried.  What a thoughtful and extravagant gift and what a special family I have!

 It's the time of year again when the spiders seem to be much larger and more numerous.  I revel in the hundreds of little golden baby spiders that emerge from their eggs in the spring and like to think that some of them enjoy my garden enough to stay.  I love spiders and have been known to capture files to give to spiders who've built their webs inside my house.  (Yes, I know I'm weird.)  This beauty has set up shop outside in an opening of our back porch.  (S)he's (It's bad form to ask someone his/her sex n'est-ce pas?) lovely and I enjoy watching the web spinning and insect eating that goes on.

 On the way back in from taking the Chief Joseph pictures, I looked back at these beautiful and very colorful new additions to my garden.  The Danger Gardenette continues to expand.  Three of the four agaves in the picture were a gift from someone who had fallen out of love with and neglected them.(I bought the agave americana 'aurea'.)

 The hydrangea 'Pistachio' that I got in June has nearly doubled in size and continues to produce cool blooms which, I might add, are holding themselves up.

 Mostly, I see the faults and editing that needs to be done in my garden but every now and then, I just feel fortunate to live in a zone where I can grow all these things, and to be surrounded by so many cool plants.  I wish that the fullnes of your own late summer garden, the love of family; biological or chosen, and joys as simple as a spider web surround you and fill you with warmth that will last through the colder days ahead!

Mad Dogs and Englishmen: Visiting Portland Avenue Nursery

So what does one do at mid day during one of the hottest days of the summer?  Why, go out to visit a nursery of course!   On this day, I decided to stop by Portland Avenue Nursery which is about six miles from my house.  PAN, first established in 1941 has been under the same ownership and management for the last 25 years and has grown from being a propagator/retailer of junipers and mugo pines into a full-scale four acre nursery.

Customers love to linger at this wonderful nursery as this truck in the parking lot can attest.

 

It's difficult to keep a nursery full of potted plants looking good during a heat wave but I didn't notice a single wilting leaf during my visit.  The friendly and knowledgeable staff is as attentive to their plants as they are to their lucky customers.


Happy looking Rodgersias in the shade house were tempting as were the clivias on the left!

Worth a visit all by itself, this huge old weeping Atlas cedar covers three sides of this building

 

 and part of the neighboring house!

 Here's the other side of the building with a view of some great Japanese maples, one of the PAN's specialties.

Here are two of the many Atlas cedars available for sale so that you too can cover a building or neighborhood with this lovely plant!

 

 

Dwarf conifers are also a specialty of PAN and they always have a dazzling selection!

 

They have several of these  Pinus contorta ‘Chief Joseph’ or Chief Joseph lodgepole pine.  They don't look particularly special now but from late fall through early summer the needles turn the most beautiful gold color!  They've been on my lust list since I saw them here several winters ago but they're still very expensive.

This winter photograph of Chief Joseph is from WBLA_Corky's flickr stream and is used with his permission.

 

Hydrangea paniculate 'Le Vasterival'  looking particulary lovely.

 PAN always has a tempting array of hardy fuchsias in full bloom at this time of the year.

 Bougenvilla seems quite fond of this heat!  I wish they were hardy here.. sigh.

There's even a Loree and Louis section!  I think I spy some Agave 'Blue Frost' that Louis has been talking about on his blog!

 I also wanted to see if they still had this Agave weberi which was one of two that were there in June when they were both the same size.  This one was still at the nursery.

 Here's the one that came home with me in June.  I'm thinking of how to build a plastic roof over this for the winter to protect it from the rain.

 

Not wanting to stay too long and have my vehicle meet the same fate as this one

 or this one,

 I put my Agave 'Blue Frost' on the wagon and checked out!

PAN always has great stuff in bloom and a very nice shade plant selection!  If you ever find yourself in my hood, do drop by the nursery!

Stopping by Portland Avenue Nursery

Late last month, we stopped by Portland Avenue Nursery in Tacoma to see what was happening there and maybe even get a plant fix. Fritillaria meleagris is a spring favorite despite it's checkered past.

Every spring I vow to order bulbs in the fall but I usually forget.  It's best to admire them up high on a nursery table anyway.

A double pink hellebore. Can't get enough of looking at these.

Euphorbia 'Rudolph' has a nose bright enough to guide Santa's sleigh!

Isn't this exciting? Deciduous plants on the verge of leafing out.  Summer can't be far away!

Evergreens are a specialty at Portland Avenue Nursery.  These tiny babies in four inch pots would be great for miniature gardening.

A visit to this topiary is a must when you're at PAN.

Pinus koraiensis 'Oculis Draconis' looks like messy hair. Cousin Itt?

Chief Joseph Lodegepole pine seems to be very popular right now!   

Yet another winter gold pine is Pinus sylvestris 'Nisbet's Gold'

The streets might not be paved with gold but this walkway is edged with it.  Considering the price these beauties fetch, it might be cheaper to decorate with the precious metal itself which will never be bothered by pine beetles or any of the other diseases and pests that can beset pines.

Who says that evergreens are all green? 

It's sometimes tempting, when seeing so many great colors and textures of conifers, to be done with those silly plants that disappear for a season or leave a mess to be tidied by the gardener.  Wouldn't a garden of evergreens be lovely?

There wasn't a price; I didn't ask. 

I spoke with a nice young couple who were choosing a Chief Joseph.  I asked why this pine rather than one of the other winter gold conifers (there were many beauties at the nursery.) Their response was that they'd seen a Chief Joseph a few years ago and were smitten.  They weren't alone as this one was going to a new home as well. 

Holly is a commonplace plant here.  Birds plant it everywhere and it can be a bit of a pest but I still remember the first time I saw holly actually growing from the ground and not just as something in pictures.  Still makes me happy to see it, especially the variegated ones.  Hedera helix growing everywhere also seemed magic.  I'm over it.

There was a new archway cut in the old atlas cedar covering a couple of buildings.  Upon investigation, they'd added a new bathroom.  I had to peek inside.  Interesting toilet paper holder, no?

More gorgeous evergreen winter color  supplied by euonymus. 

Sure they may be overused but they're hardy, tough as nails, amd very handsome year round.

Speaking of over used but beautiful, viburnum davidii looks especially nice in berry.

There was a forest of Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide,' the sight of which makes one feel as if it were ten degrees warmer outside.  It's the opposite of wind chill.

Aptly named Camellia japonica 'Debutante' seems to glow from within. 

More coniferous texture and color.

I'm not a rose person but I grow some disease resistant varieties for fragrance, others for hips, some for color.  O.K. I like roses but refuse to grow any that need to be sprayed or coddled in any way.  'Westerlund' had been recommended by several gardeners as a great fragrant rose.  I'd looked for a couple of years but usually folks were out of it.  I was delighted to find one at PAN and threw it into my cart.   The picture on 'Ketchup and Mustard' caught my eye but I'm not sure about that color combination and it only has a slight fragrance.

It stayed at the nursery.  I packed up 'Westerland' and we headed home. 

Do you have a favorite rose and if so, what makes it special?

Happy weekend all!