Spring Flowering Shrubs

In the spring we are surrounded by flowers of every color. It's our reward after the winter. My heart goes out to those gardeners in other parts of the country where snow still covers their perennial beds. The availability of winter sports only goes so far as consolation for all that white stuff. I've lived along the coasts of California my whole life and personally, I'd rather be sitting out in my garden enjoying the birds gathering nesting material than planning the summer garden on paper.  But I digress. Early spring flowering shrubs are getting my attention these days and here are a couple of varieties that you'll want in your garden, too.

ceanothus_Celestial_Blue 2There's a ceanothus for every garden. You can't have too many of these workhorses in the landscape. They range from groundcover types for erosion control to shrubs for screens and accents. A new variety I've recently learned about from my friend and fellow Press Banner columnist, Colly Gruczelak, is called Celestial Blue. She planted several 2 years ago from 4" mail order sleeves and now they are 3 ft tall and 4 ft wide. In her sandy garden, home to her personal deer population, the flowers look like blueberry sherbet.

With a light fragrance, described as grape tart, this medium shrub makes a good screen or accent. This cultivar is probably a hybrid of Julia Phelps and Concha. A horticultural cultivar is simply a plant variety that's been selected specifically for gardens.  Celestial Blue flowers 9 months a year especially in the summer when it explodes with rich purplish blue flowers.

Ceanothus provide excellent habitat for birds and insects. They are good for attracting bee and fly pollinators and are the larval host plants for the beautiful Ceanothus Silkmoth. Ceanothus seed is readily eaten by many local birds. Even a deer resistant plant like ceanothus may have its new tasty growth tip-pruned in spring and summer. Think of this as natures way of producing a well shaped shrub, dense and compact.

Planting a ceanothus is an important step to attracting more birds and wildlife to your garden.
rhododendron_occidentale 2
Want even more fragrance in your early spring garden? Plant a Western azalea, the common name for rhododendron occidentale. One of our most beautiful native shrubs in the Coast Ranges it grows also on the western side of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada mountains.

Western azaleas were described by explorers in western North America in the 1800's. The plant contributed to the development of deciduous hybrid azaleas in Great Britain such as the Exbury azalea.

If you're out hiking you'll know you are near a stand of these awesome shrubs by the sweet and spicy clove scent reminiscent of cottage pinks and carnations. Western azaleas are tolerant of our native serpentine soils which are high in iron and magnesium. Like many of our western shrubs, they have the capacity to resprout from the ground if the top has been destroyed by fire as long as the root system remains intact.

To grow Western azaleas in the garden provide routine moisture and keep the roots cool by shading the root zone with a deep mulch. Protect them from hot afternoon sun. Also to prevent late summer mildew provide air circulation by growing them in open areas not crowded among understory plantings or in dead air spaces under eves.

Give this lovely native shrub aloropetalum_chinense 2 try. It's a wonderful addition to your garden. Visit some of them in Henry Cowell and Big Basin to see them first hand this spring.

My other favorite early spring blooming shrubs are Lily-of-the-Valley shrubs. I especially like a two-tone dark rose variety called Dorothy Wyckoff although those with pure white flowers are spectacular in the garden, too.
The white flowers of loropetalum chinense or Fringe Flower are even more showy than its pink flowering relatives.
Add a graceful, double butter yellow flowering kerria japonica to your landscape, too. Your spring garden will be a rainbow of color.
 

San Francisco Flower & Garden Show 2013

flagstone_steps 2Every year I look forward to the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show for inspiration and landscape design ideas. Held in March of each year, it takes all day to look at everything, inspecting each display garden for new plant introductions and new uses for familiar ones. Creative pathways and unique solutions for seating, arbors, water features, outdoor kitchens and patios greet you at every turn. Even the marketplace offers plants and garden objects that you simply must have in your own garden. This year was no exception.

I started attending the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show back when it started in 1986 and was held at Fort Mason in San Francisco. My father, a retired Army colonel, enjoyed it because he was already familiar with the army post. He accompanied me many times even after the show moved to the Cow Palace. I always think of him when I'm at the show as he nurtured my interest in gardening with those giant pansies in my first garden.

Now the show is at the San Mateo Event Center. It's still a huge and complex production using 150 dump truck loads of sawdust and mulch and 280,000 pounds of rock to create the display gardens. Even the drive up to San Mateo starts one thinking about plants as the ceanothus are covered with cobalt blue flowers at this time of year and the Western redbud are striking clothed in magenta blossoms.

Another native plant that caught my eye at the show was a yellow flowering cribes_aureum_gracillimum 2urrant, Ribes aureum gracillimum. Golden currants are native from Riverside county to the south Bay Area. Masses of yellow flowers in early spring are enjoyed by Anna hummingbirds, bumblebees and Monarch butterflies.  California thrashers and robins love the berries which are edible and taste like Thompson seedless grapes. It's a beautiful, low water addition to the garden along with the deep, pinkish-red flowering currant, 'King Edward VII'  ribes sanguineum.

Several display gardens featured a small tree with interesting contorted branches. Twisty Baby Dwarf Black Locust grows to only 15 ft tall and at this time of year bloomed with fragrant, white flower clusters. In the legume Twisty_Baby_Dwf_locust 2or pea family, the robinia species has nitrogen-fixing bacteria on its root system. For this reason it can grow on poor soils and is an early  colonizer of disturbed areas. They have been planted well beyond their native range of Eastern United States by settlers for fast homestead shade and hardwood fence posts. Early settlers of our area planted them also and they can still be seen along Hwy 9.

In the Marketplace of the show, I couldn't resist buying some metal sculpture birds hand crafted from cast off 55 gallon steel drums. Artists in Haiti create the garden art which is sold through Beyond Borders providing them access to global markets. The Fair Trade movement helps build sustainable trading partnerships that honor the value of labor and dignity of people.

Another booth offered pine needle baskets and trays created in the mountains of Mexico. Weavers in this area collect the long pine needles off the forest floor bundling them together. Many were trimmed with sand-cast polished nickel alloy trim which has the luster of silver but requires no polishing. These handmade baskets and trays were beautiful and functional.

Western Horticultural Society offered their Hot Plant Picks 2013 and several caught my eye. With silver foliage, the Spanish lavender, lavandula stoechas 'Silver Anouk', would make a great addition to any garden. Ditto for a new lavender flowering, variegated, deer resistant 'Wynyabbie Highlight' westringia. I also really liked a 'Lemon Light' salvia greggii new introduction as well as a dwarf leucadendron called 'Little Bit'.

It was fun and educational this year at the SF Flower & Garden Show. As they say "a good time was had by all" and I'll be using these new plants whenever I can in gardens I design this year.
 

Summer Bulbs

begonia_tuberousA couple of warm days and I'm ready for spring. Good thing the vernal equinox got the memo. Spring officially started March 20th. The longer days that we get during Daylight Savings Time makes my spring fever complete. I look at my garden and the Easter egg colored daffodils, narcissus, tulips and hyacinths and never want the show to end.  By planting summer bulbs now I can get just that.

Think of cutting brilliant flowers for bouquets during the summer, combining them with a couple stems of mother fern and a sprig of late flowering wisteria on the dining room table. There are so many summer bulbs to choose from and they live over to increase in size each year. Here are just a few of my favorites.

Tuberous begonias make a spectacular show in bright shade or a morning sun location. Their flowers are so huge and brightly colored they put on quite a show. Upright varieties are easy to grow in the ground if you have good drainage. Otherwise, either dig up the bulbs to overwinter in the garage or plant in pots that can be placed under an overhang to spend the winter with dry feet. Those jewel-toned hanging begonias start blooming during the summer and continue until fall. The 61st annual Begonia Festival in Capitola takes place over Labor Day weekend if you want to see them up close and personal.

At Easter time we see tall, white calla lilies blooming everywhere. They make great cut flowers and are deer resistant but I especially like the smaller colored varieties that bloom a little later in the spring and summer. Many years ago we were impressed with the yellow and pink ones that were being grown. Then came the rusty orange ones and now you can buy calla lilies in black, lavender, plum and flame red. I especially like a two-tone deep rose and burgundy one called Dark Eyes.

Dahlias are another deer resistant summer bloomer. One visit to the dahlia competition at the county fair and you'll be wanting several giant dinner plate dahlias in your own garden. Dahlia flowers come in many forms. Cactus dahlias have a starburst shape. Ball dahlias are large, perfect formal types that make superior cut flowers. Then there are dark-leafed varieties and powder puff dahlias as big as dinner plates. Karma dahlias were developed by the cut flower market in Holland because of their extraordinarily strong stems and almost iridescent colors.

Daylilies come in so many colors these days you'll run out of room in the garden for all of daylily_Always-Afternoonthem. There's a dark rose and burgundy variety with a yellow throat that I have my eye on called Always Afternoon. Daylilies provide long lasting color in the garden and naturalize easily. All are good cut flowers but be careful if you have cats. Some flower varieties are toxic for cats although they are non-toxic to dogs.

If you don't have any freesias in your garden you should. This fragrant flower blooms in March right along with the daffodils. The old-fashioned favorite, a white variety called freesia alba, has a rich sweet scent. Freesia hybrids come in all the colors of the rainbow and are deer resistant.

We've all gotten Stargazers lilies in a bouquet that seemed to last forever. Grow your own to bring inside during the summer. Salmon Star is an Oriental lily hybrid of the original Stargazer and equally beautiful. Asiatic lilies, Trumpet lilies, Tiger lilies also make good cut flowers and are easy to grow. Keep flowers away from cats. Dogs are okay.

Don't forget about adding some new gladiolas for that summer bouquet or deer resistant crocosmia in one of the new deep apricot and red combinations.  Or how about Ixia or African corn lily or brodiaea for the cutting garden?

Bulbs are super easy to grow. I always design some into a garden for their color and fragrance and you can, too.

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