Yes, they did. And MAN OH MAN! Controversy surrounds it. It puts me, gentle reader, into Zone 7A. We will discuss this after I get up off the floor where I’ve been rolling and laughing all day.
Here’s the link: MAP. Keep drilling down on the INTERACTIVE page, too. More fun awaits!
Discuss. I’ll be back tomorrow to hoot and holler and howl with you. Zone 7A. Indeed.
Wow. We’ve just blown through the first 11 days of January and I haven’t posted a single thing? EGAD! Well, here’s a good one for you. I poached this from Pinterest and the Better Homes and Gardens website. A very, cool and snazzy looking “planting calendar.” Just in time for getting all those seeds lined up. Yes, time to start that little project.
I just threw my hat in the ring for this little read along: Willa Cather, A Novel Challenge. Come on over!
I am certain I’ve gone off on this book before. But I read it about once a year, to simply keep myself grounded. Tonight I googled Kenneth Helphand and Defiant Gardens and came up with a website to boot:
If you haven’t read Defiant Gardens, please do. It makes me look like a hacker. That’s fine. I hope to never have to garden under such harrowing circumstances.
Sadly, there is very little snow in the high country right now. These images were taken a couple years ago. Peaceful and charming, all the same.
I’m often asked “what would be a great gift idea for the gardener on my Christmas list?” Hoo Boy! I have a list. Yes I do! Right now, if you hustle, your local independent garden centers (not the big boxes) have specialty, gorgeous, ginormous Amaryllis bulbs -often already potted up and starting to send up foliage or blooms. These glorious bulbs keep gardeners SANE in Dec/Jan/Feb. Trust me on this.
Paperwhite narcissus? I am not a fan of these. Yup, pretty as can be but the smell of them sends me screaming into the street or makes me toss these into the compost pile. Be careful who you give them to. I am looking for varieties to recommend that have little or not fragrance (will keep you updated). 
I’m all in favor of giving your favorite gardener a gift certificate to a local nursery. Especially a gift certificate for something memorable and enduring, say, a small, dwarf fruit tree. My favorites are the espaliered trees, where several varieties of one fruit are grafted onto on main trunk. Apples and pears make great espaliers. Expect to pay $40-$75 for these. Espaliers are well suited for small gardens since they can be situated in very narrow places, areas less than 12 inches wide or in a generous sized pot. And edible gardens are HOT.
Tools: I have some I heartily recommend: The Hoe Dag, a Hori Hori knife (Japanese farmer’s knife) and Nitrile gloves 
or Ethel Gloves. Nitriles are awesome since they cost about $5-$6 a pair, you can have several pair stashed around the garden, in the car, etc. I have several pair of Ethel Gloves because they are beautiful and they’ve held up very very well for me. 
Call your local True Value hardware for the Fiskar’s Big Grip Hori Hori/Garden Knife ($10) 
And the fabulous American made HOE DAG! 
Your favorite gardener will thank you.
Orange, Tango to be sure, is the new hot color for 2012 according to Panatone, the wizards and soothsayers of color culture.
Fashion images from the LA Times.
LAST YEAR: HONEYSUCKLE
This is good, since I live in a peachy colored house, or pale salmon? Anyway, here’s a sneaky peek at the color palette I am messing with:
(check out the hot cha cha Fire Spinner, Plant Select(TM) plant for 2012, in the center. Hubba Hubba!)
Last year, for Christmas, my BFF gave me one of these wonderful “POSTCARDEN” kits. I had a blast growing it on the kitchen counter. It’s a lot of fun to play with these after the amaryllis are shot and before the forsythias can be forced. Gives a gardener something to do.
You can order them online here: Brooklyn5and10.
From the legendary plantsman, Michael A. Dirr, another brilliant tome:”Dirr’s Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs”. This is the book every garden center worth its trees should have at the ready. Any nursery I work with has the old edition: a falling-apart-mud-splashed copy under the checkout counter. They don’t hesitate to use it. You get an idea how valuable it is.
As a home gardener, if you are going to be spending your hard earned cash on trees for your garden, this is the book for you. Do the research, folks. Trees take time to grow. Trees should be placed carefully. Trees are an investment in time and money and they will pay you back handsomely if you put the right tree in the right place. 3500 photos, 952 pages. $79.95 and absolutely worth every penny. This week, Timber Press is giving away a copy of this remarkable book. Go HERE to sign up for the contest.
For years I’ve relied on my old Dirr, and for good reasons. Dirr’s knowledge of the plant material (trees, shrubs, fine vines) is amazing. He is unerring in his assessment of each plant, and lets you know exactly what he thinks.
On Cornus alba, Tartarian dogwood: ”Their bright red and yellow stems (respectively) set against a steel-gray winter sky provide a tremendous psychological lift.”
I concur, whole-heartedly. And much better said than the old saw: provides good winter color.
And this bit about using the weeping white pine, Pinus strobus ‘Pendula’ just cracks me up:
“Use as an accent plant; one is acceptable, two represent bad taste, and three disgrace.”
In the world of landscape design, garden design, independent nurseries and the science of arboriculture, Michael Dirr is a rock star. He has received the highest honors from the American Horticultural Society, Garden Clubs of America, and the American Society for Horticultural Science, among many others.
Oh yeah, and there’s an APP for that: Click here to find the $14.99 Dirr Tree Finder http://www.timberpress.com/books/dirrs_tree_shrub_finder/dirr/9781604692136.
Disclosure: Yes, I am recommending this. Yes, I received a copy of it. I’d be buying one for myself if they hadn’t sent the one for review.
