GBBD: May Flowers in Spokane Valley

I've been meaning to join the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day fun over at Carol's blog but haven't had many flowers in recent months. I do have a few blooms right now, though I'm cheating a bit since several were purchased in bloom from the garden center this spring. Here are a few shots taken at sunset today.


My 'Spring Snow' crabapples are perfectly sweet as they bloom for the first time in my garden- and they have a pleasant fragrance, unlike the stinky flowering pears in nearby yards.


My friend Robyne gave me bunches of these dwarf purple iris last year. Their early blooms have been much appreciated this spring.


The flowers on my dark pink (red?) dogwood are almost fully grown, and so lovely. Blooms on my light pink and white dogwoods are starting to appear, but they get less sun so the show is delayed.


And here the cheating begins - this 'Mrs C' clematis was purchased from WalMart last week.


'The President' clematis also came home from WalMart. I now have five types of clematis: one white (Candida), two light periwinkle (Will Goodwin and Mrs. C), and two deep blue-violet (The President and Bonanza). All are babies but should put on quite a show in coming years.


This white thrift (Armeria) is a recent purchase but would be close to blooming even if planted last year, as my pink varieties are nearly there.


I'm unsure what type of muscari this is, but the blue color is very interesting. This is the second year of bloom for them, and they have multiplied into little clumps.


This 'Caradonna' salvia came home from Lowe's last month. I'm excited to use the flowers in arrangements.


It's hard to get the colors just right on the computer screen. This salvia is 'May Night', and the flowers are a very similar color to 'Caradonna', though without the dark stems. This one is a recent purchase from Home Depot. The three others I planted last year are just showing buds.


A number of candytufts - started from seed two years ago - are blooming their heads off in the front yard. I'll probably give them away eventually, though, as I find that I'm craving color in the spring.


All of my snowdrop anemones had to be dug up and moved into pots, as their roots were extremely aggressive in my sandy flowerbed soil. The flowers ripen into puffy seedheads that look like cotton swabs.


Ivy geraniums like this one have to be treated as annuals here. I hadn't ever seen a double-flowered plant until I noticed this one at my local nursery (Gibson's). Don't the flowers remind you of spray roses? They're a favorite cut flower of mine as well.

That ends the bloom day tour of my yard. Carol named her blog after her favorite month in the garden. I'd have to say that June is the very best month for my garden, so I'll definitely try to participate next month as well.

Spring 2009 Mail-Order Experiences: Part I

This spring I have ordered plants from 10 mail-order nurseries. My pickiness about cultivars ensures that I can never find everything I want locally, so I have to branch out to find the perfect plants from various mail-order sources. Hopefully such selectivity will pay off with a beautiful garden in a few years. Ordering plants by mail involves a trade-off between economical shipping costs and the size of the plant. Good customer service is an important factor as well. In this post, I’ll share my experiences with 5 of the nurseries. I’ll review the other 5 later this month. Hopefully my reviews will give you more insight about what you can expect from these nurseries. Click on the nursery name to get to their website.


David Austin Roses
Ordered: Claire Austin, William Shakespeare 2000, LD Braithwaite, Francine Austin, and Queen of Sweden roses
My 5 roses arrived from DA roses at the beginning of April. All of them qualified as grade #1 (at least 3 sturdy canes), and several were much larger than the standard. They were shipped bareroot inside a plastic bag tucked into a large box and arrived in great shape. I immediately opened them to make sure they were moist, then wrapped them up for a day or two until I was ready to give them an overnight soak in a bucket (see above picture) before planting. It actually snowed a couple of inches on the roses after they were planted, but they weren’t fazed at all since they were still mostly dormant. Last year my order included 4 ‘Eglantyne’ roses, and one of them turned out to be an oddball, with blooms the same color but a very different shape than the others. After I emailed a picture of the offending blooms, DA Roses cheerfully agreed to send me a replacement this spring. Gotta love that great service. This is my third order from DA Roses and I continue to be pleased. There are other mail-order nurseries that offer lower prices on English roses, but I love the wide selection and large plants available from DA Roses.

Regan Nursery
Ordered: Yves Piaget and Sister Elizabeth roses
I broke my vow of never growing hybrid tea roses to add Yves Piaget to my garden. I fell in love with Yves in a friend’s yard. Maybe I’ll hate it in my landscape, but I’m willing to take a chance for that fragrance . . . yummy. Regan Nursery was one of the few sources I could find for this rose, and I’d heard good things about the nursery when I lived in California. Regan’s price for the English rose ‘Sister Elizabeth’ was several dollars lower than David Austin’s price, and the shipping also worked out to be a few bucks less when ordered this way. Both roses were grade #1 and shipped in a similar manner to David Austin’s. I originally ordered a William Shakespeare 2000 from Regan, then cancelled that part of the order and received a credit on my card. They mistakenly sent WS 2000 anyway, so I stuck it in the hole with the other WS 2000 from DA roses. Since the roses from Regan were healthy and their prices and service were good, I’d definitely order from them again.


Park Seed
Ordered: Clemantine Blue columbine, Victoria salvia, Rose Double Click Bonbon cosmo, Verbena bonariensis, Melting Fire heuchera, Felix & Blue Carpet nepeta, and Nestor veronica seeds
August Emperor and Eden’s Charm Japanese iris, Double Queen hellebore, and Will Goodwin clematis plants
I haven’t planted all of the seeds from Park yet, but here’s the update on the ones I have tried. Just 2 columbines came up from indoor sowing, so I finally gave up on the rest and scattered the seeded soil around the garden. Maybe more will come up outside. The Victoria salvia have germinated well. I just scattered the verbena and cosmo seeds last week, so none have germinated yet. Maybe I’ll have to come back and add an update on the rest of the seeds later.
The plants from Park arrived last week in good condition. As with a previous order from Park, the plants were on the smallish side but healthy. The iris, hellebore and clematis were all shipped bareroot, and though the tops were small the roots were large. I soaked them for a few hours before planting (see above picture), and hopefully they’ll take off and grow well now that they’re in the ground. Overall I’m satisfied about my experience with Park Seed because I’m willing to be patient while my baby plants grow. If you want instant impact from large plants though, you won’t be happy with Park.

Garden Crossings
Ordered: Bonanza clematis
Here is a case of giving in to plant lust. After reading about this fabulously floriferous new clematis and envisioning how nice the 3-4 inch flowers would look in arrangements with roses, I decided to place an order with the highly-reviewed Garden Crossings for the vine. Paying shipping for one plant is NOT a thrifty way of buying plants. But the plant that arrived was generously sized and very healthy. Their prices aren’t the lowest, but other reviewers at Garden Watchdog agree that plants from Garden Crossings are a good value because of their larger size. This is another mail-order nursery worthy of recommendation.


Heronswood
Ordered: Velvet Lips, Pink Tea Cup and Kingston Cardinal hellebores
After reading on other blogs about how well hellebores reseed, I held my breath and cringed and shelled out $20 a pop for 3 gorgeous hellebores from Heronswood. I have no problems with paying $20 for a rosebush, but somehow it seems steep for a little perennial. Hopefully these mamas will give me many plants from seed in years to come. The plants that came in 4-inch pots were a nice size for mail-order and in great condition. A week and a half before my plants were due to ship, I called Heronswood to ask if I could add another hellebore (Velvet Lips) to my order. Even though my order was already being processed down in the nursery, the friendly customer service rep said she’d try to add the plant. The cost of the plant showed up on my credit card the next week, so I assumed she was successful. Since they didn’t charge me any extra shipping, I was surprised when the 3rd plant arrived in its own box, which must have cost them extra. Wow! Thanks Heronswood for going above and beyond to impress this customer! Their interesting selection of plants and my good experience ensure that I will be ordering from them in the future.

The other mail-order nurseries from which I ordered this spring are Forestfarm, White Flower Farm, White Oak Nursery, High Country Gardens and Bloomin Designs. Watch for my reviews of them in an upcoming post. Happy plant shopping!

Random Acts of Gardening

A Recent Drive-By Mulching Victim.

Earlier this week, I drove by a friend's house on the way home from the store. Last month we transplanted a rosebush from my yard to hers (a mislabeled pink one was sent by David Austin Roses last spring, after I emailed a picture of the offending blooms they politely agreed to send the correct shrub to replace it this spring). Her rose looked a little dry, and she hadn't had time to get mulch spread around it as I had suggested. Since I happened to have a few bags of composted manure in my car, I pulled one out, dumped it around the rose, and watered it with what was left in my water bottle. Hubby laughed when I told him the story about the 'drive-by mulching.' What, he asked, are you practicing random acts of gardening?
Maybe so, I thought! My family loves taking walks around our neighborhood, and I have been known to water plants with my water bottle when we pass by a poor wilting thing in a neighbor's yard. Definitely a random thing to do, though I suspect many fellow gardeners have done the same sort of thing.
I also love to give away small bouquets of flowers from my yard. Pick a handful of flowers, wrap with a ruffle of leaves, tie with raffia and you've got a sweet little posy to hand to someone special. Here's one that my son gave to his school teacher.


This week our family carried out a widow weeding, which also falls into the random acts of gardening category. A friend down the street lost her husband a few years ago. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to keep up with her house and yard without her hubby to help. Last year we weeded, pruned and divided some of her plants to fill in bare spots. It was a great way to help her while teaching our kiddos about service. This spring we noticed the weeds taking over again, so we made a return trip to pull them and spread some composted manure mulch as well.
So what random acts of gardening have you given? Gardeners are a generous bunch. Whether giving away plant divisions or seeds, sharing fresh produce from the veggie garden (though handing out zucchini might qualify more as a random act of desperation than of kindness), inspiring friends with new landscaping ideas or other random acts of gardening, I love hearing about the many different ways gardeners give service. I'm happy to be a part of the gardening community and do my part to make the world a happier, more beautiful place.