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New Delights Revealed Daily This Time of Year

Playing with Color Echoes in My Front Garden

The recent run of consecutive dry days were a delight and I enjoyed each and every one of them. I was able to spend quite a bit of time in my garden and got tons done—spring cleaning, transplanting and planting, and I even got down a layer of mulch. Whew! Luckily this still left plenty of time to sit back and enjoy the show and to greet emerging neighbors as we basked in the afternoon sun in the front seating area. 

That said, I was equally happy to see the rains return this week—way too early for our soils to be drying out.

Tips for Using Color to Create Cohesive Garden Scenes

My garden is in a constant state of change—"garden" is definitely a verb around here. 😜 I grow hundreds of plants in my garden. I'm always adding new ones, editing and tweaking the ones that I have, and, in general, working to make my garden pleasing to look at, enjoyable to be in, and fun to watch grow and develop.

In the videos and blog post that I link to below, I share some thoughts on how I corral my collection of plants to create a unified design.

SPOTLIGHT ON PLANTS

Plants That Are Making Me Happy Today

I've been adding new Clematis to my collection over the last several years—last year especially, when I planted at least a dozen new vines. This year's show is shaping up to be a stunner. Buds are setting, swelling, and recently almost every day another plant opens its first bloom of the season. Above, Clematis 'Pink Champagne', is off to a strong start—these first blooms are HUGE!

I'm not able to plant new Japanese maples in the ground in my garden. I've tried several times and they quickly succumb to verticillium (or something similar). 

So I make do by growing them in large containers. Pictured above is Acer shirasawanum 'Moonrise'. I love the red tinges of its new growth. It is very similar to Acer s. 'Autumn Moon'. I've been growing both of them in containers for many years.

Those that know my garden may wonder about the large Coral Bark Japanese maple in my front garden—that one is an exception and the last one remaining in the ground in my garden. It has some of the telltale signs of disease but it keeps on keeping on. Hopefully for a long time more. 🤞

Picea pungens 'Montgomery' is a slow-growing dwarf conifer that I've been cultivating in my small front yard garden for many years. It's remained reliably compact without a lot of intervention from me. Its new growth is a gorgeous powder blue.

The new spring growth on this selection of our native huckleberry accounts for its descriptive moniker: Vaccinium ovatum 'Cascade Sunburst'. After a slow start, it's finally starting to develop some heft after sitting around for a couple of years in my garden. I'd say it's worth the wait, wouldn't you?

There's no shortage of spring flowers that I could highlight in this message but this Geum Tempo Rose is making me especially happy. Thus far, it seems more floriferous and (perhaps) longer blooming than some of the other dwarf Geums I've been growing in other areas of my garden. This is the only spot where I'm growing this variety at present, but I'm planning on adding a few more in different areas to see if they do as well. 

Above: fresh foliage eruption on Fatsia japonica 'Spiders Web'. It's becoming much clearer to determine which plants that sustained a lot of foliage damage due to winter extremes are going to bounce back, and how fast they're going to do so. As suspected, the Fatsia and xFatshedera that weren't looking so hot a few weeks ago are growing strong now and all signs of winter damage will be gone soon. There were other plants in my garden that didn't fare well, and/or which I lost patience with, prompting me to move on to green pastures. 😉

PLANT COMBOS TO INSPIRE

The backbone of the eGardenGo website is its searchable database of plant combination ideas. There are multiple ways to use the tool. 

• Browse the plant database, find one that meets your criteria, then click through to get plant combination ideas that include it. If you can't find the particular plant you're looking for, search for something similar. For more tips on how to choose the best subs, read this blog post.

• Use the searchable directory of plant combinations to find one that is a match for your growing conditions and aesthetic desires. Then click through to learn about the individual plants included in the combination.

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