PLANTWISE

Win Eco-Friendly Gardening Books

check out this fabulous Timber Press drawing

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Apr 23, 2012 at 01:33PM 5 Comments

This week, visit the Timber Press website. Timber is holding a drawing to win six superb eco-friendly gardening books. Just click on over and enter a comment on their Timber Press post – here – by 5 pm Pacific Time on April 27, 2012.

One of the books on offer is The Naturescaping Work-Book. I received a copy of this book a few months ago from Timber Press but only just cracked it open to take a look inside. It’s impressive! Written by a Corvallis garden designer who knows her stuff, the book is brimming with practical features that warm my heart as a fellow designer and gardening coach. I appreciate her list of tool must-haves: she recommends particular tools including the beloved hula hoe and the hori hori (if you have never used it, I suggest you run to a local nursery and get one), many of which are tucked in my own tool bucket. She also covers essential gardening basics from planting a tree and caring for an organic lawn to maintaining a birdbath and feeder. She also addresses ecological design, from the philosophical foundations to choosing sustainable materials.

True to its name (“workbook”), there are plenty of worksheets to fill out so that, after going through the book, you have some concrete ideas to work with. Basically, this book can teach someone who has never gardened before how to do many of the techniques that a professional organic gardener has learned over 20 years of dedicated work. I highly recommend this book, for beginners and even for anyone who has dabbled in gardening but hasn’t known how to organize or plan a garden that is environmentally savvy.

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Leach Botanical Garden Sale

Saturday April 21

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Apr 20, 2012 at 04:55PM 0 Comments

Well, as further evidence that the Willamette Valley and surrounds may be the Mecca of Horticulture in the USA, here’s yet another super-great and wonderful plant sale happening this weekend:

WHAT: Leach Botanical Garden Plant Sale
WHERE: Floyd Light Middle School 10800 SE Washington St, Portland, OR 97216 SE Washington St, Portland, OR 97216
WHEN: Saturday April 21, 2012 from 9 am to 3 pm
COST: Free admission and free parking, too

The Leach Botanical Garden annual plant sale is smaller than some of the big sales so you don’t have to fight the crowds. Offerings include a choice selection of trees, shrubs and Pacific Northwest native plants from specialty nurseries and the Leach Garden’s own propagation tables.

Any questions? Call 503-823-9503 or 503-823-1671

Vendors include some wonderful wholesale nurseries, unusual plant/specialty nurseries, a conifer nursery that rarely vends at sales (Porterhowse), and more:
Leach Botanical Garden
Carter’s Greenhouse and Nursery
Cedarglen Floral
Fancy Fronds
Collector’s Nursery
Humble Roots Farm and Nursery LLC
Nothing But Northwest Natives
Out in the Garden Nursery
Porterhowse Nursery
Reynolds Learning Academy
River Rock Nursery, Sebright Gardens
Three Brother’s Nursery
Tide Creek Nursery
Wild Ginger Farm

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Friends of Trees Fruit Tree Give-Away (Practically)

- Celebrate Earth Day (April 22) by planting a tree. (But first, you have to buy the tree!)

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Apr 19, 2012 at 02:55PM 0 Comments

Hosui Asian pear is one type of fruit tree that will be on offer… if you get there in time!

Friends of Trees is holding their annual Fruit Tree Giveaway and Large Tree Sale!

The event will be held on Saturday, April 21, at 3117 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd from 10 am to 2 pm. Come by and pick up some young bare-root fruit trees for your yard while supporting one of Portland’s great civic organizations.

Fruit trees are available on a first-come, first-served basis, with a suggested minimum donation of $5 per fruit tree. Trees can’t be reserved or held in advance – you must be present on Saturday to purchase your tree.

The trees are donated by local nurseries so FOT cannot know in advance what kinds of trees will be available. Apparently, there were many apples and pears in previous years, but it all depends of what there is an excess of at local nurseries, so be prepared to wing it. I would suggest having a smartphone available for googling varieties – or, bring a resource like The Western Garden Book or a fruit tree book.

In advance, here is a partial list of what they’ll have on hand. There will be dozens of some, and only one or a few of others. Do come early to increase your chances of getting the types you want, or to scope out others that are not on the list. And read up a bit on root-stocks if your space is small. Half of keeping your tree within bounds is choosing the right dwarfing root stock. (The other half is pruning…):

Apples
Red McIntosh
Cortland
Yellow Delicious
Akane
Chehalis
Fuji
Gala
Granny Smith
Gravenstein
Yellow Newton
Melrose
Winesap
Yellow Delicious
Yellow Transparent

European Pears
Bartlett
Red Bartlett
Comice
Flemish Beauty
Seckel

Japanese Plums
Beauty
Satsuma
Brooks
Burbank
Friar
Peach
Santa Rosa
Satsuma
Shiro
Elephant Heart

They will also have shade trees available, with prices ranging from $25 to $85 per tree.

If you have any questions, contact Andrew Land at 503-467-2518.

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Seed vs Starts: the Great Debate

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Apr 15, 2012 at 04:24PM 0 Comments

Peas are among the easiest veggies to start from seed

Planting a vegetable or cottage flower garden doesn’t have to be expensive. But buying starts in spring can add up, with individual plants costing from $1 to $4 apiece. And it isn’t always clear when to sow seeds and when to plant starts. Herewith, some simple guidelines.

Plant seeds yourself when…:

- the plants you want to grow are easy from seed. (See list, below.)

- you aim to grow more than two or three of a particular plant (like, a row of beans versus a few plants in a pot)

- organic starts are not available in your area

- you crave unusual varieties that wholesale growers don’t carry

- you just want the experience of growing plants from seed. (Planting and tending seeds will teach you a great deal about plants!)

On the other hand, there’s a time and a place for buying starts. You may as well buy starts when…

- you don’t want to mess around with seeds, soil and labels (no brainer on that one)

- your garden is small, or for some other reason only want one plant (say, a single tomato plant, a single pepper etc)

- you’re running late in the season and forgot to sow your tomato seeds in March, or you were out of town when the corn should have been planted. In that case, rather than not growing tomatoes or corn this year, invest in some tomatoes or scads of little 2-inch corn starts. (Note: the financial return is better with plants that produce lots of fruit over a season, such as tomatoes or peppers, versus a vegetable like corn that just produces one ear or maybe two at best and is finished.

- you spot some cool variety that you want. Even if it’s not perfectly economical to do so, it can be delightful to have just what you want. Why not, go ahead and splurge out on a plant that will make you happy – especially if it is a good self-seeder and you get more plants next year from it.

- you run into a great deal on six-packs or starts. (Big sale at your favorite garden center? Go for it!)

- you want to support a local, organic grower who is doing a great job. I often buy plants I don’t even need at the farmers market because they are just so frigging gorgeous and the proprietors are so kind and generous with information…

- you have visitors coming and you want to pretty up the vegetable garden or you just want an early season boost for yourself. (I’ve been known to buy a six-pack of lettuce just to give myself visual encouragement while waiting for my own little slow-poke seedlings to grow.)

- Your seed crop failed

Personally, I do a mix of both, and often, it will vary a bit year by year. Here are some more thoughts…

You won’t see carrots, beets, parsnips, or other root vegetables sold as starts. Why? Because root crops just don’t transplant well. They are best sown directly in the garden where they will grow. On the other hand, if you want to try to grow one of those naughty-looking carrots that show up on Facebook sometimes, go ahead and sow them in pots and then transplant them!

You do see plants like bok choi, arugula and cilantro offered as starts. But these plants are prone to bolting when stressed (and it’s stressful to experience temperature and watering fluctuations on a nursery bench so they’re sometimes doomed before you even take them home). For the price of one or two starts, you can buy a seed packet and sow 50-100 plants. Besides, what are you going to do with just one or two bok choi?

Some seeds should be started indoors; others can be scattered on prepared soil beds outside.

(Here’s a list of the top ten easiest common vegetables and flowers to grow from seed, according to the Home Garden Seed Association.)

Vegetables: (lettuce, peas, and radish now outside, the rest outside in the coming weeks, or inside now)
- beans
- cucumbers
- lettuce
- peas
- pumpkins
- squash (I assume they mean summer and winter)
- radish

Flowers: (start inside now, or outside in a couple weeks, unless you’re a risk-taker or have a nice, extra-warm spot – then do it now!)
- cosmos
- sunflowers
- zinnias

To this list, I would add a few personal suggestions:

Vegetables: (bok choi and mustard are cool-weather crops and can be started outside anytime; beans, wait a couple more weeks unless you have a super-cozy warm spot for them)
- bok choi (spring is best)
- leaf mustard (late summer and spring are the two best times to sow it)
- beans

Flowers: (best sown directly outdoors – poppies can be started in early spring; nasturtium best after last frost, which is about now)
- annual poppies, including California poppies as well as shirley and breadseed/“opium” poppies
- love-in-a-mist (Nigella)
- nasturtium

Annual Vines: (start inside now, or outside the coming weeks)
- morning glory (I love the dark purple Grandpa Ott variety)
- lablab (Dolichos lablab)

Go ahead, try it!

Resources:
The Home Gardeners Seed Association has lots of good info about starting plants from seed
Renee’s Garden Seeds offers many useful articles related to starting seeds: check out this list – including this info on starting seeds indoors.
The Portland Nursery has a good, downloadable pdf seed-starting chart
OSU’s sheet on How To Start Seeds Indoors
OSU’s info on making your own potting mix at home

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The New Western Garden Book

This new edition is fresh, updated, and definitely speaks to the modern gardener

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Apr 12, 2012 at 03:55PM 0 Comments

Image courtesy of Sunset

Most local gardeners’ first experience looking up a mystery plant in a book involved the renowned Sunset Western Garden Book. Now in its ninth printing, this hefty volume has been the go-to gardening guide for western gardeners since 1954.

Western Garden Book, baby, you’ve come a long way! This new edition – just out last month – is nothing if not ecologically driven. The text is totally refreshed, with proper emphasis placed on contemporary issues of deep relevance to western gardeners, including climate and climate change, sustainable gardening, water conservation and edible gardening.

Open the book up and look inside the front cover: you’ll see a roster of some of the West’s most knowledgeable horticulturists, botanists, breeders, nursery owners and garden writers who were responsible for the plant descriptions, as well as captions and solid information on the distinct regions that make up the West, as far north as western Canada and including Hawaii and Alaska.

The new version also has about a thousand more plants listed than the last edition, and the line drawings have been replaced with some 2,000 color photos. That’s a great improvement, if you remember the older versions with line drawings which were, in my opinion, nearly useless. It looks like there is at least one photo for each genus listed, which is helpful.

Here’s something neat about the book: let’s say you want to offer plant advice to your sister in Petaluma – or Anchorage, for that matter. You can check out the map and learn a bit about the plants that do well there. Map geeks, beware: it’s pretty fascinating to peruse the 17 pages of climate zone maps…

Perhaps one of the most useful features is the Plant Finder, which provides lists of plants for specific locations (shade, under oaks, wind-resistant etc); Earth-friendly plants (for waterwise gardens, damp areas, to attract beneficial insects); and for special design effects (such as flowers, fragrance, for pots, etc). Within each category, listed plants are organized by type (perennials, ground-covers, shrubs, trees, etc). There’s an on-line version (listed above), as well as an excellent 78-page paper version towards the front of the book.

This is a great resource for anyone who gardens in the West, whether a rank beginner who needs to learn and have a resource handy to look plants up while shopping at the nursery or for more experienced gardeners who want an occasional reference and could use the Plant Finder to jog the memory from time to time.

Sunset Western Garden Book, 9th Edition retails for $34.95 in the US (but is available for less via the above link)

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Red Flowering Currant

surely one of the showiest of all Pacific Northwest natives

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Apr 05, 2012 at 11:55AM 0 Comments

The classic red-flowering currant – enough to drive any hummingbird mad with nectar-lust!

Who doesn’t love the sight of the iconic red-flowering currant in bloom in forest clearings throughout the Pacific Northwest in early spring? It’s a wonderful sight to behold in March on low-elevation hikes… and in April or sometimes later at slightly higher elevations.

You can find flowering currant west of the Cascades from central British Columbia down to central California, growing in forest margins and clearings.

A red currant bush can probably be spotted from space, they’re so bright.

It’s a big, lusty shrub, with pretty leaves that look like small, crinkled maple leaves. The foliage has a delicious scent that I adore but not everyone agrees with me: some characterize it as a cat spray smell. To me it’s resinous, woodsy, and utterly captivating, especially when the sun is beating down on it and volatilizing the resins. Mine is planted close to my garden lounge area.

Of course, it’s the flowers that draw the most attention. They are small, and tubular, and arranged in big, fat, drooping clusters. A healthy plant grown in full sun is like a beacon to hummingbirds: they flock to red-flowering currant in droves. Note: if you prefer the pink or the white forms, no worries – the hummers are just as intoxicated by these paler delights as by the flaming, cerise-red.

Ribes x gordonianum – a hybrid between R. sanguineum and R. odoratum. The golden currant lends the soft yellow-apricot color to the blossoms. The colors are a dream to work with – so soft and complimentary to spring-flowering bulbs…

Here’s what you need to know to grow it:

Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum )

Size: 6-10 feet tall x about 6-8 feet wide
Habit: Bushy and rounded in full sun; open and rangy in shade.
Flower color: From a cerise pinkish-red to pale pink to white.
Foliage: Approximately one-inch long leaves are shaped like small, crinkly maple leaves.
Culture: Flowering currant is a forest margin plant so dappled light is just fine. It also thrives in full sun. It is unfussy about soil, except that it should drain properly. In addition, the plant is amazingly tolerant of dry soil and well adapted to our summer-dry climate.

A pretty pink form of flowering currant at the Ecotrust Building downtown. Quite a few of them adorn that space – go visit them soon, while they’re in flower!

Flowering currant is gorgeous and that’s the best reason to grow it. But its flowers also attract hummingbirds, bees, and some butterflies. The foliage has a yummy scent. The small, powder blue-black berries are eaten by a range of birds, as well as other wildlife. And once established – it thrives without summer water except in the dryest, hottest spots. (That’s what Ceanothus are for!) So it’s a great plant for the margins of your property, where the hose won’t reach easily, or where you might cluster drought-tolerant plants like Ceanothus , manzanita (Arctostaphylos ), yuccas and such.

Cultivars:
Elk River Red: red
King Edward VII: red
Pulborough Scarlet: red
Gibson Woods: red, upright form
Pokey’s Pink: pink shading to white
Claremont: huge pink flowers, from subspecies glutinosum
Hannamans’s White: white
White Icicle: white
Brocklebankii: pink flowers, golden yellow foliage, to about 6’ tall (slow)
Variegata: pink flowers, white marbled foliage, to about 6+’ tall (also slow)

Local Sources: Gossler Farms, Forest Farm, Cistus Design Nursery, Dancing Oaks Nursery, Greer Gardens, Far Reaches Farm (WA)

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Hortlandia!

The Hardy Plant Society of Oregon’s spring plant sale – this weekend

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Apr 03, 2012 at 09:09AM 0 Comments

I mentioned this garden art and plant sale a couple of weeks back but I thought it deserved a second mention, since it’s the biggest, most fabulous plant sale of the spring – recently dubbed Hortlandia by the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon

WHAT: Hortlandia: the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon’s Spring Plant & Art Sale
WHEN: Sat April 7 from 10 am to 4 pm; Sun April 8 (Easter Sunday) from 11 am to 3 pm
WHERE: Portland EXPO Center, Hall E

The HPSO opted to stop running the fall plant sale (no matter how hard ardent gardeners try, the public still prefers to buy plants in the spring, although though autumn is a great time to plant). Thus, for the time being, there’s just this one magnificent spring plant sale run by the HPSO per year. Yes, it can be crowded some years around midday, but it’s a priceless opportunity to access the knowledge, expertise and plants from the best nurseries the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

Needless to say, the plants are fantastic – visitors from other parts of the US, and other countries, see what we have at these sales and go weak in the knees. But just as great as the plants is the opportunity to speak directly with the people who grow the plants. Many vendors at this sale are wholesale-only – except for the occasional plant sale like this one. Sometimes, the person selling the plants is actually the one who collected the seed of the very plants you’re admiring on the tables, so there’s no better person to whom you could direct all your questions. So go early and give yourself enough time to look at plants and talk. And keep a notebook and pen handy.

Primula auricula ‘Butterball’. Photo courtesy of Annie’s Annuals

Here are some details about this year’s show:
1. The Easter Bunny may make an appearance Sunday morning.
2. Admission is free but there’s an $8 charge to park at the EXPO center. Take Trimet, carpool or ride your bike to skip the fee. (But make sure you have a way to carry your goodies home.)
3. The American Primrose Society will hold their national conference and show alongside the sale. Even if you think you aren’t into primulas, you’ll likely discover the genus is far more interesting than you might have imagined.
4. There should be primula vendors at the Primula Society Show, and there are always some lovely primulas available at the HPSO plant sale, too. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Annie’s Annuals has a spectacular selection of 38 lovely and unusual primulas. But that’s on-line only – the paper catalog only shows one.

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Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival

admire fields of flowers, buy bouquets and order bulbs at Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm this April

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Mar 30, 2012 at 07:33AM 0 Comments

This year’s cooler temperatures have put a bit of a damper on flower development, so the tulip fields at Wooden Shoe are still a couple weeks shy of this kind of display (this shot was taken March 28, 2010). The upside? Tulip fowers last longer in cool temperatures!

In the Pacific Northwest, late March is when the earliest tulip blossoms begin to color up and crack open. Flower development is a little slow this year thanks to recent cold temperatures, but the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival is rarin’ to go! They have the games and pony rides for kids ready, German sausage and Mexican food booths cookin’ and flowers cut for bouquets!.

But the main draw is the immense fields of brightly-colored tulips. There’s just something about the old-fashioned jolliness of it – so different from the rarefied pleasures of city gardens. As with other rural flower festivals in the Willamette Valley, it’s many things: agricultural display, unrepentant glorification of color and floral finery, and even a return to childhood, when perhaps we weren’t so jaded that we couldn’t be dazzled by fields and fields of jewel-like flowers.

Of course, for anyone who scrutinizes color, Tulip Fest is a great opportunity to concentrate on picking out those tulips we can use in particular schemes. The tulips are mostly labeled, both in the fields and in the small square display beds. You can also find an array of daffodil cultivars to compare. It’s great to see what the blossoms and even foliage look like in damp Oregon spring weather versus on the glossy pages of a catalog. Sometimes, they look better – more subtle and attractive in person than in the pages of a catalog. (By the way, click here to have a catalog mailed to you, or to read the digital version here.

If you’re wondering whether there will be anything to see in the fields yet, check out Wooden Shoe’s field report before you go. There, you can determine how far along the fields are and what you’re likely to see. They say they’re at least a week behind normal bloom time, which isn’t surprising, given how cool it’s been this spring. (My photos here were taken on March 28 of 2010, which was ahead of this year by several weeks.) So mark your calendar, but maybe give it a week or two – unless you are the type who is as excited by the anticipation as by the event itself. The fields probably won’t be showing those brights bands of full-on, knock-your-socks-off color until the second week of April, weather permitting.

DETAILS:
WHAT: 27th Annual Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival
WHEN: Fri March 30 to Mon April 30 / hours: daily 9 am to 6 pm – gift shop open same hours during Fest
WHERE: 33814 S. Meridian Rd., Woodburn, OR 97071 – directions here (it’s about 45 minutes from Portland, 30 minutes from Salem)
COST: Parking – cars $5 weekdays, $10 weekends (unlimited passengers); bikes and motorcycles are always $2 each; and buses are $20 always.

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Ecotrust in Bloom!

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Mar 29, 2012 at 11:22AM 0 Comments

Red flowering currant (only this one is pink – probably Ribes sanguineum ’Poky’s Pink’). This is an iconic shrub of the Pacific Northwest, beloved to hummingbirds, and with pungently-scented foliage that either smells deliciously resinous or like cat spray, depending on the sniffer.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Red flowering currant (only this one is pink – probably Ribes sanguineum ’Poky’s Pink’). This is an iconic shrub of the Pacific Northwest, beloved to hummingbirds, and with pungently-scented foliage that either smells deliciously resinous or like cat spray, depending on the sniffer.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

One of many smaller manzanitas that are well-suited to life in containers. (These reside in tall, concrete planters, along with Ceanothus and other evergreen plants.) This manzanita is in full flower right now, as the hummingbirds within a mile of Ecotrust well know. Why do we not plant manzanitas in containers more often?

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Another view of the tall concrete planters with Ceanothus (due to burst into flower next month), along with Oregon grape (Mahonia , left), manzanita (Arctostaphylos , right) and other sundry good-lookin’ broadleaf evergreens.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Moving along, from the south side planters to the west side path… this curbside planting includes creeping Ceanothus and Oregon grape (Mahonia, as well as a variety of springtime flowers which will start emerging later in April and May.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

This elegant filigree of red twigs is red-twigged dogwood (Cornus sanguineus), a native plant with year-round interest, starting with red winter stems. This display is followed by pretty chartreuse new leaves and creamy umbels of flowers later in spring. In summer, the flowers gradually develop ornamental white berries. Fall color is buttery yellow and red. And that’s just our regular native – doesn’t even include all the variations on the orange and yellow twigged forms, and the variegated leaf forms…

View Slideshow » Illustration:

The troughs along the west edge of the parking lot (on 10th Ave) are filled with a diversity of plantings – here, the handsome evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum), with pretty coral new growth at the tips in spring. Behind, you’ll see red-twigged dogwood and osoberry, a very early-flowering native with pendant, cream flowers and bright green leaves that emerge in late February.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

One of the same troughs planted with snowberry (berries still clinging – no leaves yet); Smilacina (taller foliage at left); wakerobin (Trillium ); Oxalis , ginger (Asarum ) and bleeding heart (Dicentra ).

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Our own native sword fern (Polystichum munitum) looks great in planters – elegant, simple, and nearly impossible to kill, in a shady or semi-shady spot. (See inscription in lower right granite slab.)

View Slideshow » Illustration:

An exquisite frame for some beautiful plantings. There is clearly a great story behind this piece of ingenious preservation…

Portland is home to some lovely public downtown gardens, if you just know where to look. One of my favorites to visit throughout the seasons is at the Ecotrust Building at 721 Northwest 9th Avenue, in the Pearl District. I’ll write again later in the season about how this beautiful mostly native garden designed with year-round beauty in mind came to be. But first, just take a look at how lovely it is in March, with just the evergreen foliage, some twigs and berries, and the first few stray buds and early blossoms adorning the branches.

If you are in the area – or even if you are not! – stop over, get a coffee or a nibble at Laughing Planet or Hot Lips Pizza and take a look at the gardens. And stop to admire the ingenious structure of the place, particularly along the west side of the parking lot (along 10th Avenue), where there are 16 granite benches flanking the sidewalk, six of which are engraved with evocative quotes by the likes of Wendell Berry, Jane Jacobs and other ecologists. (Thanks for checking on how many benches there are, Sam Beebe!) The inscriptions are easy to read now, as the foliage isn’t obscuring them.

The remnants of the original building remain standing, creating a kind of holding space for the garden and the parking lot inside it. Take a walk around the entire parking lot gardens and see what’s popping up.

Return in mid-May to June, when the mock orange, ninebark, Pacific coast iris, native columbine, larkspur and penstemon are in flower. Autumn’s great, too – there’s wonderful fall color from the red-twigged dogwood and various damp-loving deciduous trees in the bioswales. Winter’s pretty grand, too: all the broadleaf evergreens create a cozy, green atmosphere that brightens the rainy days: incense cedar, Umbellularia, Ceanothus, manzanitas…

It’s a great place to admire the beauty of Pacific Northwest and Southern Oregon natives, and learn about design, planting, and long-term maintenance (watering, pruning, etc) of native plants in an urban setting.

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Spring Plant Sale at Lan Su Classical Chinese Garden

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Mar 26, 2012 at 07:44AM 0 Comments

Edgeworthia chrysantha ‘Red Dragon,’ one of the Garden’s most asked about and sought-after plants. It’s not easy to find in the nursery trade. And while I’m not sure it will be available at the sale, there’s a good chance it will be. Go find out! Photo courtesy of the Portland Classical Chinese Garden.

Lan Su, Portland’s Classical Chinese Garden, is holding its Annual Spring Plant Sale on Saturday, March 31. This sale is one of the spring’s best, with an inspiring gathering of some 20 of the Northwest’s best small nurseries selling hard-to-find, collectors plants, mostly of Chinese origin, including favorites that are most commented upon and asked about in the Chinese Garden.

Details:
WHAT: Lan Su Garden Plant Sale, with Chinese music, food and volunteers on hand to answer questions.
WHEN: Saturday March 31, 2012 from 10:30 am to 4 pm. (Members only can begin shopping from 9 to 10:30 am)
WHERE: The sale is held in the parking lot just behind the garden.
COST: Admission is free. Also, customers get a free 2-for-1 admission coupon to the Garden with purchase.

Nurseries, art and other vendors confirmed for the sale:

Bamboo Craftsman Co.
Bloom River Gardens
Brothers Herbs & Peonies
Dancing Oaks Nursery
Dragon Gardens Northwest
Experienced Materials
Flat Creek Garden Center
Gossler Farms Nursery
Joy Creek Nursery
Klos Studios
Lan Su Chinese Garden
Native Habitat Nursery
Rainyday Flowers
River Rock Nursery
Shan Shui Penjing
Three Sisters Nursery
Woodland Way Nursery

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Daffodil Season

visit Mitsch Novelty Daffodils to see some unique specialty flowers – you only get to do it once a year!

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Mar 20, 2012 at 07:55AM 0 Comments

Narcissus ‘Hawaiian Skies’ from Mitsch Specialty Bulbs. Image courtesy of Mitsch Specialty Bulbs.

There’s a lot more to daffodils than the floppy ol’ yellow daffodils that grow around the foundation of old houses in Portland. Not to say that we aren’t crazy about them! But the range of species and hybrids that exist is astonishing, and many of them possess qualities we don’t associate with daffodils, like sweet fragrance, delicate leaves that don’t make a big mess and upright flowers of apricot, coral, pink, and pale lemon yellow, as well as the more common shades of golden yellow and white. There are even doubles which, admittedly, don’t look much like daffodils at all.

And wouldn’t you know it: there’s a local breeder and grower, Mitsch Novelty Daffodils, that opens its gates to visitors at this time of year.

Mitsch’s specializes in unique, hand-bred varieties, including some late-flowering types, that you definitely won’t see every day. Some of them are spendy – you’d buy one bulb and wait for the clump to increase over time – but they are no more expensive than other specialty perennial plants. We just don’t usually expect bulbs to cost over a dollar, because most available bulbs are sold in bulk from Dutch wholesalers. So adjust your thinking a little when looking at the prices: these are the flower equivalent of buying a delectable bunch of locally-grown carrots from the farmers market (but longer-lived!) or buying a one-of-a-kind hand-made dress style by a local designer (but way cheaper!)

Narcissus ‘Orange Candy’ from Mitsch Specialty Bulbs. Image courtesy of Mitsch Specialty Bulbs.

At this time of year, you can’t buy daffodil bulbs to take home (because they’re growing!) but you can pre-order them for fall. And you can buy pots of blooming daffodils, as well as bouquets of cut flowers and daffodil notecards), hop on down to Mitsch’s in Hubbard.

Check out some of the selections here. Many more – some 200 altogether – can be found in their color catalog (call them or pick it up there for $3). Order by mail, fax or on-site (not set up for Internet orders).

WHAT: Daffodil flowering season at Mitsch Novelty Daffodils
WHEN: from mid-March through early April (flowering season is a little late this year)
WHERE: Grant Mitsch Novelty Daffodils, 6247 S. Sconce Road, Hubbard, OR / Tel: Tel. (503) 651-2742
COST: Free and open to the public every afternoon during flowering season (but bring your credit card, in case you are seduced by some lovely blossoms)

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Indoor Seed-Starting

it’s easy, it’s fun — and it doesn’t have to be expensive, either!

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Mar 18, 2012 at 10:40AM 0 Comments

Last year’s seeds, started in early April, still turned out fine. But they were mostly small-fruited peppers, tomatoes and eggplants!

Why not start some flower and vegetable seeds this year? You don’t need any special equipment (although you might think about graduating to a more sophisticated set-up eventually). But even if you’ve never done it before, give it a try. It’s easy, it’s fun and it doesn’t have to be expensive, either. Try just a couple of seed varieties – some of the easiest to start now are lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes. In late April or early May, sow squash, cucumbers, melons and other quick-growing summer vegetables indoors, for planting out in late May/early June. But to begin: Vegetables Round One:

Here’s what you need:

- planting containers. Almost anything that holds potting soil can be used. To recycle nursery pots (2- to 4-inch size best) or flats, run them through the dishwasher or scrub them clean and dry them.
- drip dishes or trays for underneath pots. If you re-use old drip dishes or trays, wash them too. Some recommend using bleach but I stopped doing that a few years ago and haven’t had problems yet.
- potting medium. Save yourself from any possible disease/insect issues and purchase seedling mix for seeding plants indoors.
- seeds. If you’re using older packets, make sure to check that the seeds are still viable. Most seeds have a date and will say how long the seeds are viable if stored properly. If not, you can google it. Best to start indoors are leafy greens, onions, cole crops, and fruiting plants like tomatoes. (Root crops are best to sow directly outdoors.)
- labels. Re-use plastic nursery tags that have one blank side, buy new plastic tags or use popsicle sticks.
- pencil. Pencil is most durable on plastic tags.
- lights. This is really valuable but not completely essential. If you have a very bright spot in a bright room, right next to a window, your seeds could get enough light… especially if we have unusually bright days for the next month. But a grow-light’s more reliable! I use shop lights and actually, mine aren’t even full spectrum – just regular shop lights. Full spectrum is better but you can get away with regular shop lights for short-term seed starting projects (versus trying to bring plants into flower under lights).
- heat mats or cables. These are easy to find at local nurseries but if you’re just starting a few plants, get creative. Those plants that do best with bottom heat (eggplants, peppers, even tomatoes) can be put in a warm spot such as the top of an inefficient, old-fashioned fridge or even close to a heating vent. (Try setting them on bubble wrap or another insulating material, to retain heat between blasts.) Just be sure to move the tray into a bright spot once seeds have germinated.

But first… what seeds to start, and when?

The ideal time to start the slower-growing, warm-season crops like tomatoes, eggplants and peppers indoors is mid-February to mid-March. But choose quicker-growing, smaller-fruited types and you can start them now through late March. Most beginning gardeners find their tomatoes sown in February are getting too leggy in late April, and yet it isn’t warm enough to plant them outdoors yet. Once you’ve done it for a few years, you’ll have a system locked in and can adjust your lights and have a succession of seeds going. But for beginners, I suggest starting with easy, small-fruiting jalapeno peppers, cherry tomatoes, and Asian eggplants now and plan to set them out in late May/early June. (Mid-May if you have an exceptionally warm spot near a building or use floating row covers, Wall-O-Waters or Kozy Kotes or other forms of season-extending devices.) Personally, I’m starting mine now. Now’s also a good time to start cool-season flowers like pot marigold (Calendula ), poppies and love-in-a-mist (Nigella), herbs like parsley, cilantro and chervil, and cool-season vegetables that can be set out in 3-4 weeks including lettuce, kale, mustard and bok choi. If you’re feeling ambitious, start perennial flower seeds now. Check seed packets for details.

Get planting:

Okay, the moment of truth has arrived – it’s time to start your seeds.

Wet your soil mix in a large bowl or tub. (It’s harder to wet the peaty seed mixes when they’re already in the pot – you’ll have to keep adding more soil, and it’s a pain, take my word for it.) Once the soil is thoroughly damp, gently press the seed mix into the trays or pots, taking care not to compact it too much. If the mix is chunky, mist or gently water to settle it. Now, label your pots so you don’t forget what you’re planting where! With pots labeled, sow your seeds, following the directions on the seed packets. Cover with soil to the depth recommended on the seed packets. Water gently with a spray bottle to settle seeds. Most seeds don’t need any light until they germinate so check on them regularly until you see the first seeds sprout. At that point, switch the lights on or just place pots in a bright spot.

For a more in-depth coverage of seed-starting, with diagrams and illustrations, read this I wrote on starting seeds indoors.

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