More January pictures

Look at those Juniper berries!  Only one of the varieties of junipers that I grow seem to get them with any regularity.  Unfortunately I don't have my garden journal here with me, so I cannot identify the variety.

Then there is the peeling bark on the Acer Griseum, or the Paperbark Maple, growing in front of the house.  We bought this with money given to us by our neighbors when Mom died, and planted it as a memorial to her.  She would have loved it.

The tree has been having a difficult time with the droughts the last two years.  We learned the hard way in 2010 that it needs to be kept moist, or the tips of the branches die.  So, it lost its leader, and seems to be in the process of trying to decide which way to grow next.  When I was in Seattle a few years ago, I saw it planted as a street tree, and figured it must be pretty tough.  But what I forgot to account for was the regular rain and limited number of hot, sunny days that Seattle experiences.  I keep thinking that it will eventually get enough roots down into the soil, and take off.  But for now, it still remains almost the same size as when we bought it. 

A group of evergreens that invite a close view are the Japanese Cedars, or Cryptomeria japonica 'Black Dragon.' This shot shows the buds that are packed on all of the branches.  Sometime in the next few weeks, they will open up, and there will be a yellow cloud of pollen that surrounds the bushes every time they are touched or there is a slight breeze.  If you look closely in the center you can see two of the 'cones,' if that is the right term for them? They are about a half-inch in diameter, and look like a tiny artichoke with a squashed in tip
 
I bought three of these probably ten years ago at the U.S. National Arboretum plant sale, which is sponsored by the Friends of the National Arboretum.  I was attracted by the dense, short needles and their label saying that they were compact, slow growing and 10 feet tall at maturity.

Here is one of the three planted in a cluster near the end of the juniper edge that separates the lawn from the beginning of the slope down into the ravine.  You can see a bit of the juniper at the bottom right, reaching to the base of the cedar.  While there is nothing to provide a sense of scale in the photo, these are quite tall, probably about 8 feet!  So what I expected to be much slower growing is almost to it's "mature" height in just 10 years.  I am not complaining, just surprised.  The problem is that they have grown up into the view of the bay from the labyrinth, but when they were planted, there was no labyrinth!  They stay very dense, as you can tell.  The bits of brown are sections where small branches in the interior die back, I expect because there is just too much jammed together.  I have never had a big branch die back. 

So here is one last picture, looking though the mixed hedge towards the Bay. I swear, I did not dramatically "enhance" the color on this shot.  What you see is what the winter sun created all by itself.  In the center, behind the Crape Myrtle, are the Japanese Cedars in all their glory.