Gardening Report — March 14

Last week­end the front bed with the cedars in it got new shrubs.

Con­tin­u­ing the theme of happy flow­er­ing shrubs and brood­ing conifers that we started with the cedars and the (now gone) bud­dleias we’ve added more happy and more brooding.

Start­ing with the happy, a flow­er­ing cur­rant. I’ve seen this plant on both the lists of –plants that birds like– and the lists of –plants that deer don’t like-. We shall see. The shock­ing cerise of the flow­ers is a nice stun­ner — at the far edge of the bed.

And now a lit­tle gloom. Okay, maybe not so gloomy. This lit­tle White Cedar cul­ti­var has a lovely fluffy, bunny look up close.

Con­trast­ing nicely in form is this whip­cord West­ern Red Cedar. It’s an Iseli intro­duc­tion. I’m always happy to see that they’re still in busi­ness and still devel­op­ing  inter­est­ing plants.

Also along the back of the bed there’s a white flow­er­ing quince. I know, I know, flow­er­ing quinces are sup­posed to be that red-orange color. But this one is so pretty… I also like how well the wrecked, stick-figure angu­lar­ity of the this par­tic­u­lar one is already devel­oped. (I’ll plant one of the prop­erly col­ored ones down by the farm sign, I promise.)

These creamy flower clus­ters were irresistible.

There are three of the­ses lit­tle red twig dog­woods. The var­ie­gated leaves will con­trast nicely with the green wrinkly cur­rant leaves behind them.

The other gloomies. Two nicely col­ored conifers. The juniper in the front will have a pur­plish cast dur­ing the win­ter, the yew in the back will be some­what bronze. Both will head more toward full green in the summer.

Now I just have to be patient. And dili­gent with the deer repellent.

Tagged as: Chaenomeles, Chamaecyparis, cornus, currant, dogwood, juniper, juniperus, quince, ribes, taxus, thuja, whipcord, yew