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 […]
native plants
Sneak Peek! Display gardens of the Northwest Flower and Garden Show 2009
I took the media tour of the display gardens at Seattle’s Northwest Flower and Garden Show today, and wow – what a trip! I’ve never seen a garden show in its assembly phase (although I’ve participated in disassembly). It’s great to see the gardens before the Show actually opens; you don’t have to fight through […]
Gone Wild
I met Hartley and Anne-Marie (above) at the farmer’s market last year, because, well, they were selling plants – need I say more? Early in the spring, there are always more vendors selling plants than fresh produce. Mostly it’s pretty basic: pots of herbs, annuals and a few cottagey perennials. But there’s also Otto with […]
Mini West Coast woodland garden: how I integrated native plants into my patio garden
Last time I posted about our “backyard” (I have to put that in quotations because at 13′ x 15′, it’s hardly a yard) it was to brag about our new fence, step one in our garden renovation. I completely skipped step two, in which we laid 1′ x 2′ basalt pavers, which you can catch […]
Thanks, Snowberry!
When I was a kid, snowberries, (Symphoricarpos albus) grew wild all over our heavily-wooded property, along with other BC natives like ferns, Mahonia nervosa (Oregon grape) and Rubus spectabilis (salmonberries). I called snowberries “pop berries” because they made a delicious popping noise when you crushed them underfoot. I think my fascination with them terrified my […]