Spring arrives in Puget Sound…
Mahonia buds
Amelanchier × grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance’
Autumn Brilliance Single Bud
Salix caprea ‘Pendula’ Weeping Pussy Willow
Salix caprea’s male catkins mature yellow
Lilac Buds
Viburnum carlesii – Korean Spice Viburnum
Primula marginata ‘Mauve Mist’ bud just emerging
Camellia buds
Walking around the garden today looking for signs of bloom brought a few surprises among the expected early bloomers. Hellebores, always reliable (and not the least surprising) are a welcome sight as our grey, wintery Puget Sound days slowly lengthen.
Nodding Hellebore, aka Lenten Rose, an unknown cultivar
New stems emerge laden with buds over last year’s blackening leaves. I usually wait to see the swelling buds before cutting away the spent leaves.
When the flowers finally open the newer leaves are still relatively small, which makes them less likely to vie for attention with drooping flowers. Later in the summer the large, heavily serrated leaves are the dominant feature of the plant.
Because of their nodding habit the flowers deserve closer inspection.
Newer Hellebores showing up in the nursery trade continue ascending upward, as the breeders work mightily to remove their nodding habit from the plant’s history. Droop no more is the Hellebore breeder cry!
Helleborus x ballardiae ‘Cinnamon Snow’ awaiting planting
The recently purchased Cinnamon Snow cuItivar, still in the growers pot in the above photo, stands tall besides the older Hellebore clump. Time will tell if it reverts back to the familiar drooping habit.
While the Hellebores were the stars of the garden, an alpine plant in a four inch pot started blooming early in the greenhouse.
Gentiana acaulis ‘Holzmann‘ beginning to open
This Gentian, Gentiana acaulis ‘Holzmann’ is destined for a new hypertufa trough I’m hoping to get make later this spring.
Erica canaliculata, a South African Tree Heath, too tender to survive reliably in my neck of the woods, continues to bloom in a pot. Up close the tiny blooms are a nice surprise.
We’ve had a few hard freezes this winter that might have threatened the small potted Heath. Fortunately it was easy to grab the Tree Heath pot and bring it inside our mudroom for protection. In a warmer climate this would be unnecessary. On the other hand, if you live where it seldom freezes, beware of planting it into your garden. In Northern California, Erica canaliculata has escaped from cultivation and threatens native species. At the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, in Marin County, it has justifiably earned the reputation of a noxious weed. https://www.nps.gov/goga/index.htm
Since I’ve been on the road in January I haven’t been able to post until today. Regretfully weather issues kept me away from the National Arboretum in the District of Columbia, as well as the U.S. Botanic Garden near the Capitol Building.
In fact we arrived in D.C. the night before extreme cold temperatures and snow shut down both the Federal Government and much of the city the following morning. Later in the month, in Raleigh and Wilmington N.C., we encountered similar problems.
However, in a municipal park in Wilmington we stumbled on these funny Hobbit-like protuberances at the base of Cypress trees near the man-made lake.
Cypress knees?
A local photographer on assignment in the park explained that the locals claim that these little “knees” provide the Cypress trees added oxygen to help the submerged roots. Turns out this is a widely held belief, but not at all warranted. More on that when I have a chance to update this post.
The local pine tree cones in the park were huge and I couldn’t resist taking one home to the Pacific Northwest.
As I write, the airport in Raleigh is struggling to recover from the ice and snow, temperatures are about 17 degrees Fahrenheit. We’re hoping our flight to Florida will leave on time.
Taxodium distichum in Florida
A few days later in Florida we encountered more “knees” at the Green Cay Nature Center in the city of Boynton Beach, which was not surprising considering the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) is found along the coastal plain from southern Delaware to southern Florida, west to southeastern Texas, and inland along the Mississippi Valley as far north as Southern Illinois and Indiana. Nevertheless, it brought to mind the phenomenon of learning of a new word and then encountering it in speech and conversation everywhere you turn.
Now for the enigma of the knees. It seems that oxygenation (the aeration hypothesis) is just one of many hypotheses for the function of these little tree bumps: Vegetative reproduction, mechanical support, methane emissions, nutrient accumulation and carbohydrate storage have all been proposed, but none are definitive.
Christopher H. Briand, writing in Arnoldia, the quarterly magazine of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard, explored all the above hypotheses and concluded the function of the knees is still a mystery. You can read his findings by clicking this link: https://arboretum.harvard.edu/stories/cypress-knees-an-enduring-enigma/
Pacific Northwest Specialty Plants 