Winter Daphne, or Daphne odora, is:
evergreen
deliciously fragrant
a slow grower with a tidy shape
a good choice for small gardens
shade tolerant
winter hardy
attractive to hummingbirds
doesn’t require pruning
Shrubs & Trees
Japanese maples in autumn
I’ve always thought of our back patio garden as a spring garden, with its ferns and ephemeral natives. It took a positive comment from my husband for me to look objectively at the space and think, “wow, it does look pretty great right now.” I know, duh, right? With three Japanese maples—one normally red, one […]
My fantasy trees
Red maple. Photo credit: inoc on Flickr. I’ve been having all kinds of fantasies lately. No, not THAT kind. The kind that comes from being a gardener raising a toddler in a tiny urban apartment. That’s right, I’m dreaming about land. My fantasies are very specific, very romantic, and very far-fetched. In my fantasy, I […]
Confession: I buy plants from Big Box stores
Acer palmatum ‘Ao Shidare’, purchased from—gasp!—Home Depot. I realize that it’s deeply unfashionable to shop at such stores, and that my confession may come as a shock to some of you. After all, I’m a Hardcore Gardener, right? And Hardcore Gardeners are very clear in their disdain for Home Depot and their ilk (please see […]
Ferns and ephemerals
Hello. I’d like you to meet Shooting Star, aka Dodecatheon hendersonii. This sweet little thing is one of the native wildflowers blooming in my backyard “woodland bed” right now. Like many of the spring ephemerals (so called because of their fleeting nature), it’s not exactly a show-stopper (but just look at how it wows en […]
Berries in the winter garden
Photinia davidiana (David’s Christmas berry) is a tough evergreen plant that also has white flowers in early summer. I last wrote about how hardscaping can make your garden in winter – and year round, for that matter. I still maintain that the hard landscape makes the biggest overall impact on the garden in winter, but […]
Fall colour fallen flat? Blame it on the rain.
Gratuitous baby photo: Lila in the leaves, 6 months old. The autumn colours are pretty spectacular in the Pacific Northwest this year (at least by PNW standards). Sure, normally we get a few weeks of pretty leaves, but it’s nothing compared to the show back east. Which made me wonder: what makes fall colours more […]
Earth Day garden and baby update
“Oh the days are long/ ‘Til the baby comes…” – Sinead O’Connor That’s right – I’m still waiting for this baby. One week past my due date and just learned today that the baby, which for the last nine months has been perfectly positioned, has rotated and is now posterior. This just confirms my suspicions […]