This is the end...

Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae

Of my blogging hiatus. What, did you think I was shutting it down? If you believed that, I would suggest you pay attention to the date this was posted. Ok, I'll admit that was a bad joke. My very poor attempt at breaking the ice after a long time away. To those of you who have been pestering me to get back to blogging, thank you for letting me know that I was missed in my absence. I really do appreciate it.

Now, let's get right down to the meat of things with a garden update. As my break spanned the winter months, not much has been happening in the garden, but my brain has been quite busy making, scrapping, and remaking plans for the upcoming gardening season.

It was a zone 9a winter in my zone 8a garden, at least until February, which brought snow and a low of 18F. Still vastly preferable to the much greater quantities of snow and low of 11F last winter.

Last summer and fall, I had planned on adding many clumping bamboos to the empty spaces in the shadier parts of the garden. The bamboo fever has ebbed, at least in respect to this garden. The wide-topped, arching nature of most hardy clumping bamboos is simply too difficult to fit into a garden as an afterthought. Whole areas would have to be redesigned to really give them the room they need and deserve. While not extremely demanding in the maintenance department, it does take some heavy annual labor to keep them looking their absolute best, too. In consideration of my parents, I scrapped most of the bamboo I had planned in favor of lower-maintenance trees and evergreen shrubs. One of those bamboos was an experimental species introduced relatively recently, with a potential to grow 20-40 feet tall but of questionable hardiness. I had been excited to trial these plants for a friend to test their hardiness (it would have been 5 different plants in total) but decided to restrict myself to the one specimen I had already received, which will go in a less-prominent location where it won't be too much of an eye-sore if it gets damaged in a hard winter. Now I'm dreaming of planning my next garden to feature bamboos. Not squeezing them in as an afterthought, but carefully laying out the garden from the start to give them room to shine.

But back to the current garden and my plans for it. I have several areas where I'm particularly focused on this year. It pains me a bit to show these areas in their winter bareness, but this is the Practical Plant Geek, where you get to see things at their best and at their worst.

A very slap-dash illustration of the plans for this area. I had planned on putting two of the experimental bamboos in this bed to help screen off the ugly view. The new plan places one experimental bamboo behind the bed further into the trees (dark green) where it will have more of the shade it needs. In the bed itself I'll be planting a Cornus controversa 'Variegata' (grey) and a native Acer circinatum (light green). The vine maple is already in place. The bamboos would have had to be pruned annually to keep them from arching too low over the path, and since it's a relatively open clumper the bed may have been too narrow to accommodate the base. The trees will be a better fit and add more fall color to the garden. And since I already have evergreens planted along the fence to eventually screen the view, I don't necessarily need evergreen trees in the bed. I resisted the idea of the variegated dogwood at first, thinking it too garish and attention-grabbing to fit harmoniously with the rest of this garden area, but gradually warmed to the idea, especially picturing the backing of dark evergreens that will eventually screen the view behind it.

Another area that was slated for bamboo is now planned as a home for Mahonia x media (or more correctly Berberis x hortensis, under current nomenclature) 'Lionel Fortescue' (IF I can find one), an Osmanthus x fortunei 'San Jose', and possibly a Sycopsis sinensis. Underplantings are still somewhat in flux at this time.

The area I'm most excited about this year is this bed, next to the big leaf bed. Again, originally slated for bamboo, I'm now planning a trio of Trachycarpus fortunei 'Wagnerianus', with a Stachyurus salicifolius growing between them. I think the textures of this combination will be absolutely amazing (it is in my head, anyway). Additionally, I want to put a Fargesia sp. Jiuzhaigao 1 towards the right and a Schefflera delavayi to the left. The Acer metcalfii, barely visible in the back left of this bed, has an uncertain future, with two large scars at the base and an unknown fungus fruiting from one of the scars. Last summer it failed to produce its typical second flush of summer growth after the spring flush. I also kind of prefer the idea of something evergreen there, so it may be replaced with a Fargesia robusta 'Wenchuan' or Borinda yulonghshanensis. However, I've gone back and forth on this issue many times. It's so hard to get rid of a tree.

This hodgepodge bed of American SW meets Chilean and Australian is on the project list this year, too. It just looks so shabby in winter, and is too visible from the house to leave that way. The Elymus magellanicus is getting torn out. I plan to transplant some of the many Calluna vulgaris seedlings that pop up in the driveway island here, and plant some of the foxtail rosemary and Myrtus communis ssp. tarentina that I started from cuttings here as well. A Pinus sylvestris 'Albyn' will be added at the front to spread out from the yucca on the right to where-ever it ends up on the left, and three more Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard' are going in as well.

This bed, on the far side of the path from the bed along the dry creek, rounds out the list of specific areas I'm focusing on this year. Also very visible from the house, it needs smaller shrubs and other underplantings to fill in around the larger shrubs (still small at present) that will grow to become the bones of this bed. Again, it needs to look better in winter. The bed along the dry creek needs work, too, but I'm not entirely sure what to do with it just yet.

I have done a little more than just make plans. Over the last couple weeks I've been cutting back all the dead stems that I had left up over winter to provide some structure to the winter garden. With the trees and shrubs mostly quite small, still, the bleached stems of last summers annuals and perennials give me something to look at in winter, as well as providing shelter and food for overwintering insects and birds. Cutting things back does leave the garden feeling a bit empty, but it's also a change of scenery and a signal that spring is beginning and with it new growth and a new gardening season.

All cleaned up and ready for things to grow!

Of course, not all garden denizens have lain dormant over this mild winter. I have an awful lot of weeding to do....

Shotweed on bark, and I'm to blame. You give Cardamine, a bad name...

I kicked off the new planting year with the addition of a Stewartia pseudocamellia Koreana Group (aka Stewartia koreana) from Gossler Farms. It went in a spot among the big leaf rhodies, where a transplanted Embothrium died (they really don't like to be moved) and where I decided there would be too little room for a clumping bamboo as the rhodies and Itea ilicifolia grew. I didn't want to move those plants to make room for the bamboo, so a tree to grow above them with space underneath was the solution, and every garden should have at least one Stewartia, if at all large enough to have room for one and the climate is suitable.

The greenhouse has been the major hub of activity in the garden this winter. I've been busy propagating. Some of them will stay in my own garden, others will go to friends. The bulk of these starts will be sold locally to help pay for my plant addiction!

The greenhouse is rather packed, right now. During cold snaps, even the floor was completely filled with containers that spent most of the winter outside. I need these freezes and close calls of late March to go away so I can move some of these things outside and get vegetables started!

Myrtus communis ssp. tarentina putting out all sorts of new growth.

Enough of the Cyathea dealbata I started from spore last August survived the initial transplanting that I have a decent crop, but they have a lot of growing to do before their next transplant.

A trip to Yachats in February involved digging divisions of Chusquea gigantea to plant at the Gerdemann Botanic Preserve. Unable to resist experimenting with propagules, I brought back two single culms with buds at their bases and a few roots. Chusquea are known for being difficult to divide, and single culm divisions rarely survive. These ones are leafing out, but that may simply be the energy stored in the culm. We shall see if they survive or not. I'm not really sure what I'll do with them if they make it...

 And with that, the Practical Plant Geek is back in gear. I have a lot of backlog to cover, but plan to move forward more than looking back. It's good to be writing again. Here's to a new gardening season!