Super Powers of the Mighty Station Wagon

Today I stopped by Furney's Nursery in Des Moines to pick up a tree I had special ordered, a western hemlock, Tsuga heterophylla. Somehow I managed to squeeze this 14' / 4.3m tall tree (plus 2' / 60cm tall root ball) into my small station wagon and then drag it out again without any significant damage to either tree or car:

I am trying to include some native species in my yard. This specimen will hopefully go in the locust grove (Robinia pseudoacacia) where I recently cleared out several overgrown and weedy English laurels (Prunus laurocerasus). Hopefully this tree will thrive in the bright shade under the locusts. The only problem will be getting it up the 6' / 2m embankment to its new home...

I also picked up a nicely grown hardy guava (Acca sellowiana) in a five gallon pot. Hardy guava is a favorite shrub of mine, even though they flower only sporadically in Seattle and never set fruit.

The guava I have in the front yard has leaves at most two thirds this size, and noticeable grayer. On this plant the leaves are larger, greener, and glossier. I wonder if it is a different cultivar or if cultural conditions produce this difference.

Time for some digging.

Flash Back: Summer 2014

The weather has been exceptionally dreadful in Seattle lately, with a couple days of wind, driving rain, and hail. It seems the last few weeks have had a pattern of reasonably good weather on the weekdays and serious rain on the weekends, which has prevented me from getting out into the gardens much lately. Instead, I've been reviewing some photos of the gardens from last summer, in part to cheer myself up and as part of the never ending garden planning and revisions.

Lower tier in July, with loquat and windmill palm in the back and pindo palm, devil's tears, lobelia, dahlia, and lilies in the foreground:

Spring cannot come soon enough.

Bloom Day: January 15, 2015

More things are blooming in the garden than I would expect from January. Currently blooming is Sarcococca ruscifolia. The flowers are small but intensely fragrant and appear at the same time as last year's shiny black berries:

 

Elaeagnus pungens 'Fruitlandii' is still blooming after a month. This evergreen shrub also has a sweet scent, but not nearly as strong as Sarcococca, nor are the flowers as profuse.

 

Mahonia x media 'Charity' has also been blooming for more than a month, but is clearly reaching the end of its run. It is popular with the Anna's hummingbirds which frequent the yard. Hopefully blue berries will follow. They are quite attractive to robins.

Mahonia x media 'Underway' is new in the garden this year. Some if its bloom spikes were killed by frost.

 

Viburnum x pragense is blooming for the first time in the garden.

 

A few things are not quite blooming including Pieris 'Valley Valentine,' which is also new in the garden this year and fully decked out in reddish winter stems and folliage:

Viburnum rhytidophyllum has been growing in my garden for years and frequently sets buds, but unfortunately they seldom open. The leathery leaves and tan fuzz on the stems are attractive year round.

First Hummingbird Nest of the Season

Anna's hummingbirds are year round residents in my yard. I usually notice a few nests each spring and sometimes the breed sometimes as early as December. Often the nests are in surprisingly exposed locations as in this case, perched where a bamboo stem meets and overlapping leaf from another stem. The location is just above a path and quite exposed to wind and rain. The nest here is in its second day of construction and I was able to observe the builder gathering moss and lichens on a nearby locust tree:

As a side note, the bamboo is Hibanobambusa tranquilans 'Shiroshima' and is beset by bamboo mites. The damage is visible as the blocky tan patches in the leaf in the lower left foreground.