IN THE GARDEN

By Doreen Trudel

With the excitement and festivities of year-end holidays behind us it is time to relax and recuperate. When you look outside from the comfort and warmth of your home and see an uninviting cold, wet, windy perhaps even snowy scene it is easy to think the garden doesn’t need you this month. Gardens, like dogs, are great at getting us outdoors for some exercise. Take a walk around the garden and check for damaged or broken branches to prune away or plants in a flooded area which need rescuing or snow-laden shrubs to uncover. Towards the end of the month, weather permitting, you should spray dormant oil and lime sulphur on deciduous trees including fruit trees to kill insect eggs and disease spores. A back-pack type sprayer is the easiest to use and remember to always follow the application directions on the label for weather considerations, timing, proportions etc.

If you have found a space in your garden that needs some interest here are a few more plants that brighten the winter landscape. Hamamelis (witch hazel) is a large deciduous shrub or tree with yellow to rust colored spider-like flowers. Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’ (winter jasmine) is a semi-evergreen shrub or vine with fragrant white flowers with yellow anthers which bloom in winter and early spring.

Chinonanthus (wintersweet) is another large deciduous shrub with fragrant purple-marked yellow pendant flowers. There are many species of Crataegus (hawthorn) which grow in this area which are known for their year round interest including lots of bright berries in winter. Callicarpa (beauty bush) is a deciduous shrub with an open profile of long branches producing bright purple berries in winter. Corylus avellana Contorta (Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick) is a shrub or tree with interesting corkscrew branches which are bare in winter. Be warned that the leaves also twist and pucker in summer making the plant look quite sickly so it is best used in the middle of perhaps a perennial bed which is empty in winter but lush in summer. Cornus alba siberica (Siberian dogwood) is the beautiful red-twigged dogwood which has a beautiful silhouette in winter. Look for the varieties that have variegated leaves for good summer interest too. Another deciduous shrub providing a delicate pink puff-ball of a flower with a fragrance is Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn.’ Although most ornamental grasses have something to add to the garden throughout the year Miscanthus sineinsis (eulalia grass), Carex buchananii, Hakonechloa macra and Helictotrichon sempervirens (blue oat grass) are particularly stunning in a winter scene.

January is also the time to start thinking about a vegetable garden. Many vegetables seeds can be sown directly into the soil but there are some plants that benefit from a head-start of being sown indoors and transplanted into the garden later in the season. I do not have enough space in this column to go into the details but I would suggest that if you want to grow vegetables locate the sunniest patch in your garden, decide which vegetables you want to grow, purchase a good book on the subject and do some reading. You will save yourself some disappointment if you understand the basic requirements of various food crops. There are lots of good hints that can save you time, money and energy. Why not benefit from the experience and mistakes of other gardeners who are willing to share their expertise. One popular title since 1989 is Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon or The New Vegetable and Herb Expert by Dr. D.G. Hessayon. This book is written for England but as I have mentioned before the information is pertinent to our climate. If you want to grow a year round vegetable garden you should read Winter Gardening in the Maritime Northwest by Binda Colebrook. Ms. Colebrook’s book is easy to follow, informative and entertaining.

One final remnant from the holidays; if you purchased a living Christmas tree remember that it should not stay indoors too long, usually not more than 10 days. When you are ready to put the tree outside it should be acclimatized first. Do not take the tree from your heated house directly to the cold outdoors. If you have a colder room of your house first put it in there or at least put it into a garage to protect it from frost. Even just a few days in the colder environment will help “harden” the tree, preparing it for outdoors. You can plant an evergreen tree as long as the ground is not frozen or water-logged. If in doubt wait until spring. If you are trying to keep the tree in a pot for another year make sure the pot is big enough for the roots, keep it sheltered near the house and remember to make sure it does get some water. If the tree is too tall to bring inside next year do not just cut off the leader. You will ruin the shape of the tree because that leader will never grow back.

Catalogs & Suppliers

When it is just too cold to be in the garden you can sit by the fire and peruse the many seed and plant catalogues which begin to arrive in the mail. Here are a few of my favorites:

Raintree Nursery specializes in fruit trees, berries and unusual edibles for our climate. www.raintreenursery.com or 360/946-6400.

Territorial Seed Company has an excellent reputation as vegetable, flower and herb seed suppliers to the Pacific Northwest. www.territorialseed.com or 541/942-9547.

Heronswood Nursery is an excellent supplier of seedlings of unusual ornamental herbaceous plants and shrubs. The catalog is not free but it is full of valuable information and worth the $5 – www.heronswood.com or 360/297-4172.

White Flower Farm specializes in lilies, bulbs and perennials. www.whiteflowerfarm.com.

The David Austen Roses Ltd catalog is full of beautiful photographs and information. www.davidaustinroses.com.

Jackson & Perkins Roses offers more lovely roses. www.jproses.com.

Heirloom Roses carries hard-to-find old rose varieties. www.heirloom
roses.com

Pickering Nurseries are in Ontario but will ship to the U.S. and they have additional hard to find roses. www.pickeringnurseries.com or 905/753-2155.