Signs of Hope

FIRST OF ALL, MY condolences to all of you patient gardening friends who see a carpet of white outside your windows. I hope my post will inspire hope in you. Although it's still only January there are signs that spring is not far off. 

As you know, I've been lamenting the constant fog but last Thursday, the skies opened up and we've had glorious sunshine since. Cold mornings, but sunny days in the low 50s. 

Coral Bark Maple (Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku') 

The plants (as well as the people) have responded favorably to the sunshine. My Wintersweet blossoms are not all that exciting to look at but catching a whiff of scent stops me in my tracks.

Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) blossoms

Sweet Box (Sarcococca ruscifolia) is also in full bloom and smells delicious.

These early-blooming daffodils are so reliable. Every January I see those plump buds! They're planted beside an Escallonia shrub that lost all its foliage after the December freeze. 

Early Daffs

 And more:

Snow drops (Galanthus ssp.)

And my favorite Daff, Narcissus 'Geranium' is the last to bloom in early April. 

 There are other signs of activity:

Stupid moles! Another reason to do away with the lawn. 

Clematis foliage is alive and sprouting

The flower buds on 'Sunshine Blue' Blueberry are starting to plump up.

My Hebe 'Pink Elephant' is blushing a little.

Hebe 'Pink Elephant'

Little leaves all lined up like soldiers.

I am surprised by the vigor of this golden Feverfew plant. Somehow it survived the single-digit temps of December and looks no worse for the wear. How'd that happen? Probably because it is a volunteer growing in the pathway. Tenacious little thing. 

Golden Feverfew

One of my coworkers brought "Denver" his new golden retriever puppy to work. His fur is downy soft. Isn't he adorable?

And on the subject of pets, I captured a keeper of Taz yesterday. He's such a lover!

Stay warm my friends. Spring is coming! 

Ramblers and Ramblings

 HI PEEPS! I spent the weekend on this:

English Ivy creeping (or should I say LEAPING) through the fence. 

The same neighbors that are cultivating running bamboo also have a gargantuan spread of English ivy growing a few feet from the fence that divides our properties. In moderation, I like English ivy. The waxy dark green foliage is a nice counterpoint to the gray skies of the typical Oregon winter. I said MODERATION. But this plant doesn't do moderation. It's an invasive monster that must be kept in check with regular pruning (or blow torch) to keep it from eating the neighborhood. 

Of course, I neglected pruning it last summer, in lieu of more enjoyable pursuits. Dealing with ivy was too much like work especially in this part of the garden which sees temperatures that are at least 50 degrees warmer than the rest of my spread. While I was otherwise occupied, the sneaky stuff had rambled its way over the fence and into our wood box, located just to the right of the photo above. I cropped it out for your protection and my vanity. 

In November the ivy bloomed and despite the fact that Mother Nature had turned the temperature to something more doable, I couldn't disappoint the swarm of honeybees taking advantage of what appeared to be delicious ivy nectar. 

Then we had our arctic event, then Christmas and here it is January. Of course, the ivy flowers are long past their prime and the bees have vacated the premises. With decent weather this past weekend, I figured it was finally time to tackle the beast. Besides, indoor pursuits (read: taking the Christmas tree down) felt too much like work. 

First I had to remove all the wood from said wood box. In case you're wondering, the box is bigger than a small car. It measures roughly four feet tall, five feet deep and about six feet long, and weighs close to five thousand pounds. 

On Saturday I tugged and heaved and tossed the wood out, creating a giant pile. Picture the painter painting himself into a corner. There are purposely no pictures so you'll have to take my word for it. 

Then with everything out and with the hubby's help, the wood box monstrosity was relocated away from the fence so I could get to the aforementioned monster ivy. But I was tired so I called it a day. 

Sunday meant restacking the wood which took a few hours, several cups of coffee and subsequent trips to the bathroom which meant stepping over piles of logs and scrap wood with exposed nails. Yeah. I had to be careful, which is why the coffee was so important. 

Finally, with the wood neatly (sort of) stacked in the wood box, I could tackle the ivy. I was mistaken. A few hours into it, I realized that taking the Christmas tree down was not work. 

Today, I'm fine, as long as I don't move. My muscles are annoyed with me. 

It was too late in the day to get an "after" photo so you'll have to--again--take my word for it. Despite my excessive bitching, the results were worth the effort. 

Moving on, I thought I'd do like the many talented bloggers out there and share a few of the highlights of 2013. 

Here is a photo of what I call the "South Lawn" in the dead of last winter.
The sticks in the foreground are raspberry canes awaiting my pruning prowess. 

Here is the same area in July of 2013.

And just for fun, a different angle of the same border.
So, are we ready for spring? 

Bleh! Here it is in October.
Reality sucks.

In April, I was lamenting to my friend Joy the plight of my 'Tiger Eye Sumac' (Rhus typhina). Basically I thought I'd killed it when I dug and moved it. Joy encouraged me that it was alive and that I needed to exercise a little patience. She was right, of course. Thank you Joy. 

Tiger Eye--alive and well, with rose foliage

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you may remember that my hubby and I finally got up the nerve to remove our pathetic excuse for a deck. I documented the project here.

Part of the deck is behind this jungle of plants (below).

Stage 1 -- Crazy Jungle 

Stage 2 -- The taming begins,
Deck removed, no patio yet

Stage 3 -- Much better, patio installed
(If you look closely, you'll see the aforementioned English ivy behind the umbrella.) 

A few weeks ago I posted a photo of my Winter Sweet (Cimonathus praecox) almost blooming.

Stage 1 -- Buds!

On Sunday: 

Stage 2 -- Fragrant Flowers! Hooray. 

In closing, I rarely get good photo of my kitties (not enough patience) but I just happened to be at the right place at the right time to capture Nala in her basket. The photo is a little grainy which proves I'm not a photographer. 

Nala 

Kittens & Mystery Plants

MANY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU who so sweetly shared your condolences on the passing of my garden kitty, Willow. The sadness will linger as I venture to the garden and she's not there. However, my progeny, always looking ahead, have adopted a brother and sister team to carry the torch. Meet... 

Sister Nala and... 

Brother Taz. 

My photography isn't even close to stellar but this is the best I could do under the circumstances. Aren't they adorable?

*    *    * 

While driving last evening, I spotted this mystery shrub gorgeously cascading over a pristine fence. Quickly pulling the car over, I grabbed my camera and took these photos. I'm thinking it must be some kind of Escallonia but I've never seen a weeping form. Are any of you savvy people familiar with this gem? If so please enlighten me. 

The Albany Master Gardener garden tour was this past Saturday. It was WON. DER. FUL. The gardens were amazing and inspiring. The only drawback is that it was a clear, blue-sky June day, which meant most of my photographs, with the stark contrast between shade and sun, were not Blog-worthy. However, on the subject of mystery plants, I thought I'd share a photo of this hardy Geranium I spotted on a shady nook. The pink, star-shaped flowers are unfamiliar to me. Do any of you have a guess as to what variety this is? 

And since we're on mystery plants and pink flowers, (you know me), I thought I'd post a few more shots of my Gazbera, taken on the aforementioned clear, sunny day. Love, love! 

The rest of my photos are from the rose garden in Avery Park, Corvallis, Oregon. I don't have names for most of them. It was kind of breezy and cool so I just snapped and tried to enjoy the stroll. If you're familiar with these varieties, by all means, do tell. 

A HUGE rambler, this one has small flowers that start out pink and age to purple. 

Pink, ooh, la, la! 

Love the serrated edges of this gem. 

More pink. This might be 'Bonica.' 

This is 'Cinco de Mayo.' I have it in my garden. I love the indefinable coloration of the petals. 

I tend to favor the small-flowered bush types. This one really wowed me. 

Here it is again. 

Rosa mundi perhaps? 

This is another small-flowered, bush-type. Check out those petals! 

And finally, from my own garden, 'John Cabot' is outdoing himself this year,
despite having a 'Polish Spirit' clemmy winding through his branches. 

'Scentimental' is also a shiner this year. 

Finally, James Missier of Garden Chronicles blog awarded me the Versatile Blogger award! What a nice thing to do, James. Thank you! I wanted to alert you, my awesome readers, to his blog, if you're not familiar with it. He lives and gardens in Malaysia and it's difficult to leave his blog without a huge case of plant-envy.  

As always,