Wednesday Vignette - Signs of spring

Wednesday Vignette is hosted by Anna at Flutter and Hum.  Click here to join the fun. 

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,

And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs singing in the pools at night,

And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire

Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one

Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree

If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,

Would scarcely know that we were gone.

- Sara Teasdale

Tell the Truth Tuesday

On Tuesdays, Alison at Bonney Lassie encourages us to tell the truth about our gardens by showing areas of them that are not looking great at the moment.  Since my entire  garden all looks great  between 1:00 and 1:15 a.m. on August 12 when it's dark outside, it's always easy for me to find material for TtTT posts.  It gives the phrase point and shoot an additional meaning.

The oldest camellia, previously entirely upright, now has splayed trunks.  The one on the far right must have partially broken off to be hanging that low and it'll need to be cut off but why not wait until the blooms are gone?

The Camellia flames in the fire pit aren't looking particularly nice at the moment.

The topiary was severely cut back to reduce it's size and now is throwing a fuss by wearing brown splotches.  Schefflera delavayi in the foreground is also pouting for some unknown reason.

My love of Narcissus 'Tete-a tete'  caused me to buy a few bulbs in the fall.  They're easy to fit in just about anywhere but must be there were some extras that got planted in  a pot, thrown in a corner and forgotten until this flash of gold caught my eye.  One must admire the stunning way the black plastic pot doesn't really fit in the ceramic one but is stuffed there anyway.  It's so hard to get good help, isn't it...

What's offending your senses in your garden this week?

In a Vase on Monday - Spring on our Minds

In a Vase on Monday is hosted by the creative and dedicated Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  Click here to see her arrangement this week and to find links to those of other participating bloggers.

The main trunks of the 20 foot inherited camellia bent low in February's heavy snow and some even snapped.  The bush does this every few years when we get really heavy snow and always grows back.  The  Choisya ternata 'Sundance' was also splayed out all over the place requiring it to be cut back.

We all have to prune back perfectly healthy plants sometimes but this spring it seems that as soon as I cut back one thing damaged by the snow, I find several more. It's enough to make one feel a bit blue, like the face on this mug made by Cindy Jenkins.

Fortunately, my dog friends don't seem to mind and are just excited to be able to play outside in the sun occasionally.  This particular puppy is wearing a stray euphorbia bloom that was blocking the walkway.

Can you believe it's the last week of March already?   

 Happy new week all!

Time for a Sunny Saturday Nursery Field Trip: Bremerton City Nursery

To avoid actually working in my garden on Saturday, I jumped in the car and drove west to visit a couple of nurseries on the Kitsap Peninsula.  Today, let's stroll around Bremerton City Nursery.

The colorful Euphrobia 'Ascot Rainbow' is at it's best this time of year. 

Tiny Narcissus 'Tet a tete Boucle' is kind of sweet.

Anemones always look so good in nurseries but someone usually forgets to include them in his fall bulb orders. 

Some people have tidy lists of plants they'd like to try, even nice pages on their blogs. Someone you may know has random-sized and colored post-it notes stuck to the side of his computer desk.  These are mixed with notes containing the botanical names of a few plants that I already have but can never recall.  Anyway, a few years ago I read some author's work about fragrant plants.  Cistus 'Blanche' was a favorite for the ressionous fragrance of the leaves.  I made a note and added it to the collage.  What a nice surprise to find the very Cistus I'd searched for so many years ago.   The leaves did have a pleasant fragrance but  where would I put another shrub?    I may regret not bringing one home but there were quite a few still at the nursery so who knows.

Primula vulgaris  delivers a good dose of riotous warm color that's just the thing for some spring zing.

The perennial area will have filled out quite a bit with our recent few days with  temperatures near 80 degrees.

Pink new growth of Thymus vulgaris 'Silver Posie' 

No nursery is complete without a friendly greeter!

Ah, citrus in bloom. 

Time to stock up on tender succulents if you didn't winter them over inside. 

"There's always an Agave."

Did I remember to take a picture of the tag so I'd be able to tell you which Alocasia this is?  Nope but it's visually stunning even without a name.

Here's what hitched a ride with me. The oxalis and some of the primroses are to give to the paraeducators in my program  but the succulents are for me. 

Wednesday Vignette - Low Maintenance

Wednesday Vignette is hosted by Anna at Flutter and Hum.  Be sure to click over to her blog to join the party.

Seems that many folks these days desire gardens that have low maintenance requirements.  The joy for some is not the act of gardening but the possession of a garden.  It should be, some may recon, installed in a timely manner and take care of itself for years to come, much like decorating a room in one's home.  Even a home requires a bit of cleaning on a fairly regular basis  I've been told.  (We live in rooms coated with a mixture of dust bunnies, dog hair, and cobwebs as I've totally embraced the low-maintenance zeitgeist indoors.)  However, for me, the joy of my garden comes from the process of gardening - hauling heavy pots around and dropping them on one's toe, snapping plants off while dragging the hose,  swearing at passersby throwing their beverage cans, bottles, and all manner of refuse into the plants, becoming infuriated by the brilliant aural tapestry of urban living.  Oh yes, it's the process, not the product that makes my heart skip a beat.  (Should have that arrhythmia checked out.)  However, there are times when I think it would be nice to simplify things a bit.

The cacti/succulent fad shows no sign of waning as people discover the joys of these plants that require very little attention to thrive.   On a recent visit to Valley Nursery in Poulsbo, these extremely low-maintenance plants caught my eye.

Concrete, it's the new plastic...

So there you have it, the lowest maintenance garden ever. 

I'm imagining that they're dishwasher safe to boot. 

Tell the Truth Tuesday - Garden Geek Card Revoked

On Tuesdays, Alison at Bonney Lassie encourages us to post images of areas of our gardens that are looking not so great.  For those of you with weak constitutions, please avert your eyes now.  If you read/look further, it's at your own risk.  You've been warned.

Out in one of the parking strips, I planted an Indian Horse Chestnut (Aesculus indica) years ago.  I didn't realize until I removed the grass and underplanted the tree with other things that the leaves take years to deteriorate and like to get caught.  Blowing them usually lodges them deeper into the branches of the euonymus beneath and raking pulls at those same hidden branches.  They'll eventually bet pulled out by hand but it'd sure be swell if they'd simply rot in place.

Oh no, not lazy, just encouraging fallen leaves to insulate the beds for winter.  Yeah, that's the story, organic mulch...

Here's the part that will certainly test your ability to hold down lunch.  (To be fair, this was taken a while ago.)  Each spring swaths of crocus bloom near the front of this bed.  While there are some grasses that fill in a bit, there are still holes here and there where potted specimens get plonked for the summer.  They're hidden by other foliage but if they're not removed, the ugly truth becomes evident.  Thank goodness for the warm weather as these have been moved back to the pot ghetto to allow the crocus to shine and the tan grasses have been trimmed to the ground.   BTW, the brown bits on the lawn are fallen buds of Tetrapanax, cut down bu February's cold temperatures.

As if being messy weren't enough, here's a confession that will cause the revocation of my plant geek card (Thank goodness, spewing botanical Latin was becoming exhausting.)   I paid  money for a pot of this noxious weed, Vinca minor 'Illumination'  Forgive me, I'm weak and, well, gold foliage... True to it's name, it brightens up this corner.  In a few weeks, it'll be replaced by the staghorn fern currently in the greenhouse. 

So, there it is the ugly truth from my garden.  Is there anything looking particularly heinous at your place this Tuesday?  Come on, tell the truth.

In a Vase on Monday - Sidetracked and Spring Cheer

Spring-like weather has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest in a big way.  Just last week we had lows well  below freezing and this week, highs in the 70's are predicted.  Most of the time in the last few months, gathering something for Monday's vase has been a quick dash out into the rainy or frozen garden but this week it was a joy to be outside in the warmth.  Got a little sidetracked and cut some Stachyurus praecox that was hanging over the greenhouse roof.  Too pretty to throw away, the branches got put in a vase.  I've learned that they dry nicely and still have some from last winter sitting around.

Maybe these will be part of an arrangement later but for now they're just hanging out alone.

One of the benefits of having such cold weather is that the Galanthus have lasted much longer than usual.  They're joined by some crocus and a couple of blooms of Narcissus 'Tete-a-Tete' and some fronds of Adiantum venustum.

A few pussywillows make everything better.  

A tiny bit of spring cheer to welcome the new season starting on Thursday.    In a Vase on Monday is the brainchild of the amazing and dedicated Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  To see Cathy's vase and those of other participating bloggers, click here.