'Munstead Wood' rose in my garden. Roses are coming into bloom in the Willamette Valley. They are so many rose options, it can be overwhelming. And I think when a garden has too many roses, it can look like the day after a confetti parade. In my garden, I only have seven roses: two Munstead Wood, two Charlotte, two Princess Alexandra of Kent, and one Gertrude Jekyll. They are all David Austin roses. David Austin roses, sometimes known as English Roses, are roses bred by David

The chance of frost is edging towards zero so it was time to put out the tomatoes. (Actually, we have a 10 percent chance of frost after May 19 and it doesn't reach zero until mid-June, but good enough for me.) We purchased starts in early April and potted them into five-gallon nursery pots. They had been confined to the garage workbench for the past six weeks on a heat mat and under a grow light. They were getting restless and some had even set fruit. I'm sure they are as ha

Red-Tipped Photinia (Photinia x fraseri) as a tree. Red-tipped Photinias (Photinia x fraseri) are in bloom in the Willamette Valley. While I think of them as useful evergreen hedging plants, in my neighborhood they are small trees. I assume they were planted as accent shrubs or hedges and then the owners allowed them (by choice or default) to grow as trees. Their small white flowers are insignificant but prolific and appear pink against the plant's new red foliage. The flowe

Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Biokovo' is a garden workhorse, which is a stock phrase in garden literature but is appropriate in this instance. 'Biokovo' is a hardy geranium, sometimes called cranesbill, as opposed to a tender zonal geraniums. Zonal geraniums, the colorful and slightly old fashioned plants that often provide the thriller role in pots and hanging baskets, are actually pelargoniums. (Apparently, the confusion results from a 17th botanical misclassification that gr

The tulip season ended for us today. It was just 30 minutes of work to dig out and bin the 2026 tulip order. I always feel guilty throwing away what seem like healthy tulips but Dutch hybrid tulips, with some exceptions, are best treated as annuals. This year, I had Flaming Purissima, Silverstone, Creme Upstar, and Blushing Beauty, all from John Scheepers. Lori and I agreed that Flaming Purissima was the top choice but we split on second place. Lori voted for Silverstone, whi

Several years, I co-founded the Mission Street Parks Conservancy (MSPC) and led it for three years. MSPC helps take care of Bush's Pasture Park, and particularly its historical garden areas. The organization and park are thriving. Recently, I've taken an interest in my local park, Wend Kroger Park. It's an 7-acre neighborhood park that includes an oak woodland, camas field, stream and riparian area, walking paths, a large lawn, basketball court, and play ground. The park has

Deciduous azaleas are in bloom in the Willamette Valley. I have only one in my garden, which I planted just last year. I would have a few more if I had space. There are few things as breathtaking as a drift of deciduous azaleas in bloom under a canopy of trees. Mine is 'Rosy Lights,' part of the Lights Hybrid Azalea series developed by the University of Minnesota Arboretum. The first in the series was 'Northern Lights' and 'Rosy Lights' was a selection from that plant. 'Rosy

Since I'm writing about my garden, I thought it would make sense to give you a sense of its design. We have a one-quarter acre city lot, which is what sold us on the house. The single-story ranch house was built in 1958 and is clad in thick, old-growth cedar siding (in case you wanted to know where all the old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest went). Our sub-development is called Liberty Gardens, and prior to a residential sub-development, it was strawberry fields. Prio

It's lilac season in the Willamette Valley and my three young Syringa vulgaris 'President Grevy' are in bloom. Gardenia.net tells me that 'President Grevy' was bred by French hybridizer Victor Lemoine, introduced in 1886, and named after the then-president of France, Jules Grevy. Lemoine was a prolific hybridizer and introduced the first double begonia. He also bred Peony ' Sandra Bernhardt ,' a classic fragrant pink double that is popular today, and his son bred Philadelphu

My neighborhood park is Wendy Kroger Park, five blocks west of my house. It was never fully developed and features a large oval lawn, a few pieces of play equipment, a basketball court, and walking paths. It is also home to a remant Oregon white oak woodland with trees that pre-date western settlement in Salem. Pringle Creek, which used to be salmon-bearing, runs through the park. This week I noticed a grove of Camas quamash in bloom under the oaks. Camas quamas is a spring

Rhododendron 'Crater Lake,' used as a hedge in my front garden, is in bloom. April 2025. Rhododendron 'Crater Lake' is a small leaf, purple flowering Rhododendron that looks more like an evergreen azalea than a Rhododendron, which most of us associate with large leaves. Rhododendron and azaleas are in the same genus: Rhododendron. What separates them is that what we call Rhododendrons have 10 stamens and what we call azaleas have 5 stamens. Since R. 'Crater Lake' looks and be

A young Viburnum 'Mohawk' in my garden. A few years ago I planted two one-gallon Viburnum x burkwoodii 'Mohawk, ' one on either side of a Camellia williamsii 'Taylor's Perfection.' I underplanted the area with daffodils. This spring, they bloomed for the first time. The plant can get to 8' tall by 10' wide but I will keep mine pruned to about 5' wide and 8' tall. I've read that V. 'Mohawk' can be evergreen in Zone 8, but mine is deciduous with brilliant red fall leaves. The b

My 2026 order from Swann Island Dahlias was pretty modest, just a single selection: Dahlia 'Candlelight,' which arrived yesterday. It joins a very small collection of four other dahlias. They are all in shades of orange, yellow, and purple. I have a small cuting garden with peonies, fragrant lilies, and dahlias. I grow my dahlias in 10-gallon black nursery pots with very free draining soil. I've found that five gallon pots don't provide enough soil mass to protect the tubers