Wintry Mix

This mild winter has brought along the common weather report of a "wintery mix" of rain, sleet, snow and whatever other forms and shapes water can make in between.  So, what have I found the labyrinth showing its courage?

Near the entrance of the labyrinth, underneath the front edge of the viburnum is this bold Hellebore.  I confess I don't have my journal with the variety written down, so I cannot name it.  I promise to take another photo of the flowers and name it then.  I just bought it last year, about this same time in January, and kept it on the dining table for several weeks to enjoy it close up. 

The next beauty is actually in the North Garden, on the other side of the house.  This plant is budding much earlier than any of the others in that area, which gets no sun in the winter and the only warmth is from being close to the foundation of the house. 

It arrived as an unnamed seedling I bought at half price when the Sunshine Farm and Gardens was getting rid of large quantities they had not been able to re-pot.  I lost half of them in the first 8 months, because they were not ready for the rough and tumble life of an ordinary patch of soil.  So much for any savings, and they still took a couple of years before reaching blooming size.  Always wanting to be forgiving, I almost forget my frustration about what happened when they are blooming.  Almost.  I have not bought anything else from that nursery because of the rude response when I complained.  There are gentler ways to say discounted plants are not guaranteed.

In the back loop of the labyrinth are the tops of the new stems for the Peony 'Kopper Kettle.'  This will be the second spring for it to be in the ground, and I hope it has finally gotten large and settled in enough to bloom.  I have been waiting patiently, but no longer!  I can already count more than twice the number of stems that grew up last year.  Even more interesting, though it is hard to see in the photo, is that there are also buds on last year's stems.  Two, though out of focus here, are on the upper diagonal stem in this shot.  This particular peony is a cross between a tree and a herbaceous peony, with the strength of heavier stems so they don't collapse under the weight of the flowers.  They are supposed to die back to the ground, but this one didn't want to do that. I wonder how many others are doing this, and what conditions permit it?


So, I will end with another Bay view.  While the weather is not all that enticing, it is still uplifting to look through the garden at that expanse of water, almost blending into the sky.

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.

January 2012

It has been a mild winter up until the first week of this month, with the temperatures plunging into the low 20's for a few nights.  This killed off the foliage of the few remaining herbaceous perennials.  But some other specimens are holding their own, such as the Viburnum Alleghany bush, seen on the left.  This bush was severely damaged last year in a similar sudden drop in temperature, with large sections killed in spite of its hardy nature.  So, the few surviving old sections are blooming, even though the new suckers have not gotten mature enough to do the same.

Some plants, like the Sedum 'Angelina' that grows beneath the Inkberry hedge along the road, resist the cold.  This particular spot is protected enough that the intensity of the chartreuse color has not shifted.  I have no idea where that beech leaf could have come from, since there are none in the immediate area.  At the top right you can see how the zoysia grass has faded into its tawny color for the winter.  While many people dislike this characteristic of zoysia grass to shift from green to brown in the winter, I rather like the way it changes everything.  For four or so months green is not the dominant color, and anything that is green, such as the Sedum, becomes more noticed.  Last weekend with the full moon, the lighter straw color of the grass seemed to shimmer in the moonlight.  That would not have been true if it were still green.

The thyme that grows in some of the narrower sections between the paths of the labyrinth is also looking very strong and healthy in the softer winter sun.  I love the way the reddish lavender highlights appear in the cold weather.  I haven't figured out what causes some of the stems to have it, while others don't, but the variegation provides a subtle bit of warmth to the patch.  This year I hope to find and plant some more varieties of thyme into these different sections in addition to this one and the lemon thyme next to it.  They enjoy the long hours of hot sunshine, can survive being run over by the mower wheels or even chopped off by the blade if they get too tall.  As one of the few plants avoided by deer, who seem to avoid many of the herbs, thyme would also help protect the bulbs planted underneath.  Sad to say the deer have been nibbling at the tops of the daffodils and other bulb leaves that are supposed to be deer proof!  So, a disguising layer of thyme may be in order another year.

On the other side, at the edge of the parking pad, the Magnolia 'Little Gem' has recovered very well from last winter's destruction by heavy snows.  There has been vigorous new growth throughout, from near the ground and all the way to the top.  It has been spoiled this summer because we could not get the faucet to completely close, so there was a constant drip of water over its roots.  Once we spent the three hundred dollars to get a plumber out to fix the faucet, it will have to keep going on its own.  It was even spared losing branches for holiday decorations, but that means all the more for next year. 

There are more pictures to come, but they will have to wait for another day.