The weather is still so variable but so many of our garden plants are responding to the growing hours of light and the occasional warmer days.
One night not too long ago I was returning home on a chilly night and a deer was on the driveway. She hesitated in the car lights and expelled her breath of warm air which was visible as I drove forward - it was a magical feeling as the little cloud of her breath was dispersed by the car.
The apple walk buds are still tight but the structure really shows off at it's best when out of leave. It's a good time to see the garden when it is in it's more dormant state as you can really tell what the bones of the garden are. The deep purple iris reticulata are blooming as well as the crocus.
We will be getting in our bare root plants next week - a large mixture of trees and shrubs. If you are interested in planting any of these from bare root come on by the nursery on the weekends in March to check out what we have - or give us a call if you have specific needs.
Japan pepper - Xanthophylum pipertum
This fragrant leaved shrub is rather unusual. It has very attractive foliage and makes non-showy flowers that become what we know of as Szechuan pepper - which is used in Thai cooking.
The plant has a lovely spreading form and looks great in the landscape. Deer tend to stay clear of this plant due to the fragrant foliage. It can be pruned but if you have the space give it room to branch out. It would be a great shrub to use as a scaffold for a medium size growing clematis to get a bit of extra punch out of the garden space.
I'm always talking up this viburnum - it is one of my favorites for a few reasons. It grows about 12-15' tall and is generally multi-branched. It can be pruned down to a single trunk so there is more planting space beneath the shrub. It makes white lace-cap flowers in June which are followed by the very showy red shiny berries. The cultivar Wentworth makes a larger berry set. These berries can be made into jelly or left on the plant to give you winter long interest.
Fall color is a very brilliant red and is especially lovely if back lite by setting western sunlight.
One of the best long blooming weigela's for our gardens -'Carnival' is a triploid hybrid so it does not set seed. With out that function plants bloom longer since the aren't producing seeds.
This plant make multiple flower colors simultaneously from palest pink into a mid pink as well as a darker pink. It is really quite a show to have so many shades of pink on one plant at the same time.
It is very showy as well as low maintenance. It will get to be about 4-5' tall and as wide. It will want some summer water. This is one of the shrubs that is arriving bare root and will provide a terrific show of flowers this year.
As the weather improves I will be ordering alot of new plants, but will approach this season more cautiously since last year we had some very late frost dates and we lost a number of plants that had recently come out of greenhouses.
All the plants in the nursery now are very tough and can go right into the garden or sit in the pots until you are ready to plant.
Our hours will be weekends in March from 10am- 5 pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
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