I saw these plants on a recent walk in the neighborhood and was able to catch a "before" and "after" of these Yucca gloriosa 'Variegata' (not sure I've got the plant ID exactly right, but that's close) as they were being groomed to remove old, unsightly, winter-damaged foliage. Sometimes the difference between having a Yucca plant that looks great, one you're happy to be growing, and one that looks unkempt and unattractive is just a few minutes of elbow grease.
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A recent post by Jim McCausland on the Sunset blog, Fresh Dirt, inspired me to dig up this photo of Chusquea gigantea. What I like about this clumping bamboo is that it has the most bamboo-like qualities of the clumpers. (Unlike the running bamboo species, clumpers grow more slowly and in an easily contained growth habit. You can learn more about the clumpers on the Bamboo Garden website.)
The culms have a certain architectural oomph which is often what draws people to bamboo in the first place. This effect can be enhanced by removing the lowest foliage and thinning the canes on an annual basis.
To me, some of the other clumping bamboos read as big arching grasses in the garden, which can be lovely, but if you're looking for a plant with all the goodness of bamboo without the containment hassles check out Chusquea gigantea.
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Dwarf conifers can vary greatly in their eventual size and consequently can be tricky to site properly in gardens.
As I'm getting acquainted with a conifer that is new to me, one of the ways I try to assess how large it might get in the garden is to examine how much new growth it pushes each season.
This is easiest to see early in the season, like now, just after it has put on it's spring growth but before it has hardened off and the color has faded.
Pictured here is Picea sitchensis 'Papoose'. As the name implies and the photo supports, this is going to be pretty small. This plant can be used in the smallest of gardens without fear of it outgrowing is welcome.
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Welcome to Bloomtown's inaugural podcast!
Listen to my telephone interview with Paul Bonine, co-owner with Greg Shephard of Xera Plants, about how our gardens fared in the recent bout of record-shattering winter weather.
Listen to the podcast for full details, but I can say that after talking with Paul, I'm feeling a lot better about the prognosis of a full recovery of this beloved, and centrally located, Phormium in my garden.
Paul was encouraging. He predicts that even this Phormium 'Yellow Wave' (pictured below), that is currently an unsightly pile of mush in my front garden, will bounce back this summer.
Please leave a comment, I'd love to hear about how your garden fared.
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I have a tendency to experiment quite a bit in my garden, pushing the boundaries of hardiness and/or growing a plant just so I can get a better sense of how it will behave in my garden. Because I often push the hardiness boundary, I often make some special efforts in terms of protecting some of my favorites.
I garden a lot in containers so that allows me to move those
plants to cover relatively easily. For instance earlier this week I took quite a few plants to my greenhouse at the nursery.
Even though it is
unheated, I hope that it will offer some protection and limit the
foliar damage that some of my evergreen plants would sustain if left to their
own defenses outside. I’ve got a small utility room (no garage) attached to my
studio and I’ve got that jammed full of plants as well. As I was prepping for the cold, I
kept finding plants that I thought would benefit from some extra protection and
at the last minute I even stuffed plants into the back of my pickup truck under
the canopy. Yet in spite of these efforts, I will likely suffer some losses
this year.
For instance, one plant that I’m particularly curious (OK, I guess I mean anxious) about at this moment is my Euphorbia stygiana. This striking evergreen euphorbia has lent an exotic, almost tropical flair to my garden for about 3 years. In this short time it has grown to mammoth proportions; an anchor in my garden and easily one of my most asked about plants. It‘s way too large and awkward to cover with a frost cloth or sheet. To be honest, this fall I even had my eye on it as a candidate for some pretty major pruning this spring because it was getting a bit big for the space. I hope I’ll still have reason to do that this spring. Or perhaps Mother Nature will have done my pruning for me. I can imagine it being killed to the ground or at least taking a fair amount of damage, but I'm betting it would come back from the root. Only one thing for sure … it’ll take some time before the fate of my Euphorbia stygiana is clear. As Kym Pokorny advised earlier today …we’ll need to be patient for now.
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In addition to my previous post, the Oregonian’s Kym
Pokorny has written a helpful post on preparing your garden for this cold snap as well. She makes an
excellent point; focus on your favorites and do what you can, but keep it
manageable. I’d add, be strategic in choosing what to defend … expensive and/or
difficult to replace? Protect that first.
And remember some of the plants that I mentioned in my previous post (phormium,
in particular) will likely come through the cold snap just fine; they’ll just
suffer less cosmetic damage if they’re given a little extra protection.
Good luck. Oh, and if it happens to snow in addition to all this coldness, don't forget to enjoy it!
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Forecast is calling for low temps in the Portland area over the next several days. The latest forecast that I saw indicates temps as low as 15 for Sunday night, which might be followed by a very cold Monday. On Monday the high is currently forecasted at 24 with an overnight low of 20! Even though this is pretty cold for us, the good news is that it looks like it will be brief. After a day or two of this, we should get back to normal winter temps by early to mid next week.
Evergreen, broadleaf plants are typically the most susceptible to cold weather damage. Oftentimes it’s just that, damage. Not death per se. Although I’ve had some plants suffer enough winter damage that I, hmm ... how shall I say … I hastened their death come spring because they were so unsightly. Consequently, there are some plants I choose to take extra steps to protect; astelia, coprosma, phormium and anything that I’ve been experimenting with that I think might be border-line hardy.
So what’s a gardener to do? Here’s a few tips on how to prepare your garden for a cold weather snap.
If you can, pull vulnerable plants that are in containers into a garage or into the greenhouse if you happen to have one. I've taken a couple of loads of my more fragile plants to the nursery greenhouse. If you have neither garage nor greenhouse, at least pull them under the eaves or under a table or bench and cover with frost cloth (or a sheet if you can't get your hands on frost cloth in time).
For in-ground plantings or potted plants that are too difficult to move, I recommend covering them with frost cloth. Investing in some frost cloth for cold snaps like these are dollars well spent. (See previous post for more on this, including photos).
Make sure that your evergreen plants are well watered before it gets cold, particularly those in your containers. Do this before it get too cold; dry plants are more susceptible to damage and you won’t be able to water them once the soil is frozen.
Relax and hope for the best; the weather’s gonna come and there’s nothing we can do about it. Besides, a garden dusted with snow is a beautiful site, yes?
You might want to also check out these past weather-related posts:
My Ghost Town (Photos and more on covering your plants with frost cloth).
Or browse the whole category of Weather.
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I've firmed up dates for two upcoming classes.
CARING FOR YOUR GARDEN IN WINTER
Saturday, Feb. 23rd, 10 am to Noon
Location: Bloomtown Studio in NE Portland
HPSO GET GROWING! - Spring Series
5 Part Series
Wednesday Evenings: Mar 26, Apr 2, 9, 16 from 6 pm - 9 pm & followed by a Saturday field trip on Apr 19 from 9 am to 2 pm
Location: Bloomtown Studio in NE Portland
Follow the links for more information on each of the classes.
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Good news! Once again, I'll be teaching this popular series offered in conjunction with the HPSO Garden School. The series is suitable for the beginning gardener, although even long-time gardeners have found benefit in the class as well. We'll cover basic garden design principles - providing an introduction to the garden planning process, as well as lots of food for thought and some tools for improving your plant combinations. And I'll share my techniques for creating plantings with strong visual interest and seasonal flow. Classes are held at my home garden & studio in NE Portland, although we may go on a few short jaunts during the series in addition to the field trip on the final Saturday of the series. Here's what Elizabeth, who took the class spring 2007, wrote to me afterwards: "The topics and readings and your wonderful insights all helped some things 'gel' for me in a way they hadn't before. I feel like I now have a firmer grip on design principles and starting points for thinking about the garden--many wonderful insights on a garden design 'vocabulary,' seeing plants in combinations, the attributes of a garden-worthy plant, the wonders of foliage vs. flowers, and many other things. Thanks so much, it was awesome."
Topics include:
The Fall Get Growing! series is scheduled for Saturdays, September 29, October 6, 13, and 20 from 9 am to 11:30 am and Saturday, October 13 from 9 am to 2 pm. Get Growing! costs $150 for HPSO members for the series ($165 for non-HPSO members), payable in full prior to the class. Act quickly! Class size is limited to 13. To register, visit the Hardy Plant Society web page or phone the Hardy Plant Society at 503-224-5718.
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When you're about to plant, make sure the plant's root ball and surrounding soil are well-watered. If your plant has a dry root ball, you can water it all you want, but water will never pass from the surrounding soil into the root ball.
Here's how to avoid this problem:
Bonus Tip #1: For larger plants that won't fit in a five-gallon bucket, just make sure that you've thoroughly watered the plant in its nursery pot. (Soak the hole as you would for a smaller plant.)
Bonus Tip #2: Don't make a "mud pie" when you soak the planting hole. That ruins your soil structure. It's like Goldilocks: the soil should be not too wet, not too dry, but juuuuust right!
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