🌿 NEW GARDENING CLOGS FOR CHRISTMAS ? 🌿

Danish wooden clog sole,
with Merry Christmas greens from Shaw Island
Anno seventeen December 2016.

Clipping from unknown publication.
Click image to enlarge. 

🌿 DECEMBER FLOWERS 🌿

Angel's Violas
cosy beneath low hanging branches
of Western Red Cedar
Shaw Island, WA. 
December 2016.

"I love to receive a bunch of flowers. Who does not? And when the bunch is small enough to sit on my dressing table so that I wake in the morning with its clear scent in my room, it is a double bonus. We were puzzled by this bunch, though [a bunch in an English garden.] Were they wild violets or cultivated Parma violets? They seemed to be a cross between the two, but in any case, why were they in full flower now, in early December, when they should be quiescent, waiting in the woods for springtime? I have them before me with their deep purple flowers drooping over the rim of their small container. They are not as large as the Parma violets I once grew in a frame but they are in every way as sweetly scented and the question is, how had they arrived in the wood beside my friends' house? Several years ago my friends had transplanted patches of wild violets to grow under their beech trees and had watched the patches grow wider and wider, making drifts of purple. Could they possibly be a cross between the wildlings and their superior Parma relations? We remembered how Parma violets had once been grown in frames in the walled garden of the neighbouring park. The garden boy picked and bunched buttonholes for the ladies to wear in the lapels of their elegant side-saddle coats on hunting days. All through history violets have held a special place for their scent, their use and romance. The Greeks picked them for garlands and chaplets; the Romans made violet wine and fried them with slices of orange and lemon; the romantic poet Fortunas, Bishop of Poitiers, sent gifts of violets to St. Radegunde as decoration for her church. Perhaps best of all, the beautiful Empress Josephine embroidered her wedding dress with violets, after which they were a signature of love between her and Napoleon. No other flower so small has been held in such high esteem as Viola odorata." Words from A Countrywomans's Year, Rosemary Verey. Little Brown and Co. 1989.

🌿 ROSEMARY VEREY ON STORING APPLES 🌿

November

Early Root House,
empty shelves, empty root-crop-bins,
former Glossop orchard,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.

"The problem of where to store our apples is now a perennial one, for the stables and hay and apple lofts were converted 35 years ago into retirement house for my father and mother-in-law; now this same building is my own home. Time and generations move swiftly on. When we came to live at Barnsley House, there were three large and prolific cooking-apple trees in the garden, all of the different varieties and keeping qualities. They lasted the winter through. The ritual of picking and storing went on for days, supervised by my father-in-law using child labor-our sons. Everyone enjoyed it, with much friendly calling of instructions––'Can't you see that large red one by your right hand?'––and to-ing and froing of large log baskets filled to the brim and taken gently on wheelbarrows. Picking was always more exciting than storing, which after a while became tedious. One full apple tray was stacked upon another, leaving enough space between each fruit for air circulation around the ripening apples. With careful management, they lasted well into March, and throughout the winter stewed apples or huge baked ones were a regular part of our daily fare. On Sundays it would be something more exotic; Apple Betty, crumble, pie or dumplings. Then two of the old apple trees died, one from old age and the other from honey fungus. The third was hard pruned and in spite of its age still bears quantities of the pale yellow fruit of a quality hard to beat; when baked they become lighter and more feathery than any souffle. We planted new apple trees to replace the old, some as potential standards with spreading heads, others as neatly trained affairs growing on dwarf stock. There is a Bramley and a Charles Ross, two Cox's, three Sunsets and two Tydeman's Late Orange. Who, I wondered, as I laid them gently on a tray, was Tydeman or Charles Ross? As the trees grow so does the harvest and this year we have had a bumper crop which we have thoroughly enjoyed picking and storing. All the Laxton's Fortune were eaten in October and even earlier, their juiciness enjoyed by all. The Cox's are awaiting their ripening later. The huge Bramleys and Charles Ross will be eaten after Christmas. Each apple has been laid carefully on slatted trays in a spare bedroom, the floor surrounding them alive with mousetraps. A heavy pungent aroma hangs about the room while the apples are giving off their gases. In 1618 William Lawson's advice was as relevant as it is today. 'For keeping, lay them in a dry loft, on heaps, ten or fourteen days, that they may sweat. Then dry them with a soft and cleane cloath and lay them thin abroad. Long keeping fruit would be turned once a month softly."
From: A Countrywoman's Year by an internationally known author, gardener, lecturer, Rosemary Verey. Little, Brown and Company. 1989.

🌿 HALLOWEEN ON SHAW ISLAND 🌿

Shaw Island Sculpture
(Private collection)
 by the honorable Richard Beyer
(1925-2012)
Creator of Seattle's favorite public art
"Waiting for the Interurban."

Anno thirty-one October 2016
Happy Halloween from Shaw Island, WA.

🌿 English Apple 🌿 BRAMLEY

Bramley Apple
Shaw Island, WA.
Anno eighteen October 2016.
"The best English apples by long training know how to 
behave in a pie; they melt but do not squelch; they inform
but do not predominate. The early apples, grateful as we
are for their re-appearance, are not true pie-makers.
We pardon these adolescents, who do the best they can,
but we pass on to the later autumn apples to find pie
manners at their best. And what should an apple do 
in a pie? Well I think it should preserve the individuality 
 and form, not go to a pale, mealy squash, but become
 soft and golden. In flavour it must be sharp or what's the
use of your Barbados sugar?"
Edward Bunyard. 
The Epicure's Companion, 1937

The first Bramley apple tree was grown from pips by a little girl in England, over two hundred years ago. For more history see this site.

🌿 MADRONA SEEDS coming down 🌿

Madrona berries
(Arbutus menziesii)
Shaw Island seeds freshly gathered 
by mother of the groom, Corinne.  
💞 Congrats to Regis and Chrissy 💞
who decorated their day with the heart-warming 
fall colors of Indian corn, gourds and pumpkins. 

🌿 OCTOBER THE FIRST, 2016 🌿

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

Montgomery. Anne of Green Gables. 

Medlars, rosehips & Asian Pears
Anno One October 2016,  
Shaw Island, WA.

For Michael, Jontay, Lily, Hanrah, Suzanne,
Erica, Greg, Thea, Bella, Jessica,  Harvey,
Mary, Mary, Annie, Mack, Tom & Rachel,
 Debbi, Luci, and all the writers of kind notes,
left at the Gatehouse on Squaw Bay Rd.
Thank you.  

🌿 NATURAL DEER REPELLENT 🌿

Rosa 'Kathleen' and tired foliage of culinary Sage
(Salvia officinalis) with Moon Snail from Indian Cove.
Mideke hand thrown porcelain pots.
On Shaw Island this day of twenty September 2016.

"A Swedish correspondent, Erik Malm, who read my note on rabbits in the garden, has sent me his recipe for controlling deer, who started making sorties into his garden from the nearby forest, but grew bolder and bolder until they 'are practically born in the garden.' Pretty though they are, they are too fond of flowers as fodder (rosebuds are a special favorite) to make ideal garden pets.
      Mr. Malm noticed that they never touched plants with aromatic leaves. So he experimented with a decoction of common sage in water, boiled for 15 minutes, which he put in a spray bottle and sprayed over the plants that deer preferred.
      It worked, he says, like a charm. He was soon able to abandon drenching whole beds with his sage-water and just gave a daily squirt or two here and there. The deer, it seems, have become like Ferdinand the bull: admirers, instead of consumers, of flowers."
Above words by Internationally known writer Hugh Johnson. Hugh Johnson on Gardening. London. The Royal Horticulture Society. 1993. Gatehouse Library.
      Editor's note: Deer are thick on Shaw Island and don't mind eating botanicals that appear on several "deer resistant" lists. This cooked brew of sage leaves has helped me discourage deer browsing on a foliage plant in my driveway wild garden. A good reason to plant more sage. 

🌿 CHARLOTTE'S YELLOW HOLLYHOCKS 🌿 (Alcea rugosa)

Alcea rugosa
"Russian Hollyhocks,"
Now giving up some seeds from the 7-ft stalks––
this listing honors Charlotte Lamoureux (1911-2004)
who shared her yellow hollyhock seeds
with many island friends. Charlotte & Mahlon Lamoureux
bloomed where they were planted on Shaw Island, full time 
from 1966 to 1999. Charlotte loved yellow.
Anno eighteen August 2016.
Shaw Island, WA.
Un-enhanced photo.

Common Name:  
Russian Hollyhocks.

Life Cycle: Perennial

Zone: 4 to 8.

Native Region: The original species is from Ukraine and Southern Russia. 

Plant height: 4-feet

Flower height: 6-feet.

Bloom: Midsummer to early fall. Showy, buttery yellow.

Culture: Sun.

Water: Medium.

Seeding: One source says direct seeding on the surface.

Days to Sprout: 14-21.

Viability: 2-3 yrs if kept cool and dry.

Notes: Excellent but rarely encountered hollyhock. The tall, sturdy 6'-7' spikes begin to shoot up in Spring. The bottom half of the stock is clothed with typical Hollyhock foliage while the top half is adorned all summer with large 4 inch, single butter-yellow, classic mallow flowers. Short-lived but can self-seed so that a colony can persist in a garden for years. Tolerates a wide range of soil conditions except for winter wet. 

Sowing: Indoors in early March/April or outdoors in May or later in autumn.

Attracts: butterflies and hummingbirds. 

Resists The ugly rust (Puccinia malvacearum) that normally attacks the foliage of other Alcea species. 

Recommended for vertical accent and general garden use and bouquets. Self-sows in optimum conditions, if allowed, but never a problem.

The Shaw Island connection continues––
These scrumptious Hollyhocks captured on film and in 
 pockets of gardener Ingrid L., bicycling in France in 2000.
She brought home some of these seeds to plant at her 
new Shaw Island garden just purchased from Charlotte.
Photo courtesy of Ingrid.

Alcea rugosa
"Russian Hollyhocks"
Seeds for sale at the Gatehouse,
Shaw Island, WA.

🌿 CLEMATIS seeds 🌿

CLEMATIS HELSINGBORG

Clematis "Helsingborg"

Life Cycle: Herbaceous Perennial Vine

Plant Height: 12' to 15' at maturity

Plant Width (Spread) 10'

Zone: USDA 5 to 9

Flower: Purple color.

Light Exposure: full sun to light shade.

Seasonal Interest: Spectacular spring show of rich purple flowers followed by fluffy seed heads in late summer.

Notes: Prefers rich, well-drained soil. Plant vines that are well-rooted & minimum 2 years old. Clematis are heavy feeders and appreciate fertilizer in Spring.
This Clematis blooms on old stems AND new growth, so best to prune lightly in late spring once the first flush of flowers is finished. Easy to grow and easy to control the small vine.

Well established, overgrown plants can be cut back to 12" tall in winter to remove tangles, allowing robust new stems to fill out the plant, but will not flower the next year.

These notes are from the Elizabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden where they list Clematis "Helsingborg" on the list of "Great Plant Picks" with cultural information, a great guide for PNW gardeners. The list contains the best plants for the maritime climate of the Puget Sound area. 

And here is what the great gardener/book author had to say regarding the soil this plant enjoys:

"The best kind of soil from every point of view is that which is rich in humus: decayed vegetable matter like leaf mould, peat, farmyard manure, garden compost, straw, spent hops, sewage sludge, road sweepings, ground bark as a forestry by-product, deep litter chicken manure based on sawdust or wood shavings. When I am asked what I recommend as a soil conditioner for Clematis, I think of all these things but which to recommend depends so much on the individual's locality. What she can acquire or make most conveniently at the lower cost." Lloyd, C. Clematis. Capability's Books. 1989.

🌿 Wordless Wednesday

Seeds coming in,
anno two August 2016.
I've never seen a Shaw Island Phormium 
plant produce seeds, (upper right.)
Thanks, Chris C!

🌿 WOODEN PITCH FORK MAKING 🌿

Wooden pitchfork
Under the dragon
Shaw Island, WA.
anno thirty July 2016.

Woodland Crafts periodical
Undated.
Click to enlarge.

🌿 Bells to ring thank you 🌿

Rhodochiton bells with Rhododendron leaves
 for M. Santerne (sp?)
Thanks for the note and seed purchase
at the Gatehouse, July 2016.

🌿 SUMMER HARVEST, MELIANTHUS MAJOR 🌿 Honey Bush

Papery seed pods of summer each containing
 3-4 black seeds of Melianthus major.
The drying lanterns are paired with French Quimper Faience, 
tin-glazed, hand-painted pottery plate donated by 
Neck Pointer, Ann Shilling, to the Shaw Inc Live Auction, 
4th of July in the 1980s. Thanks Ann.

Flowering Melianthus major.
Honey Bush.

Common name: "Honey Bush"

Life cycle: Evergreen shrub is sometimes grown as an herbaceous perennial 

Native growing region: South Africa. Naturalized in India, Australia, and New Zealand.

Height: Can reach 7 to 10-feet tall. Time to ultimate height, 5-10 years.

Bloom time: When established it will flower May to August.

Description: Lush, large glaucous leaves. Prized as a tropical looking accent plant. Hardy down to 23º F. Could use a protective mulch cover for winter.

Tolerates: DEER!

Seeding: Sow in Spring, Mar-May, in pots or trays of moist seed compost and cover with a light sprinkling of vermiculite. Keep temperature c. 55-64ºF. Keep moist but not waterlogged. Germination in 21-30 days. When large enough to handle, transplant into 3-inch pots and then again to 5-inch pots until a good size for planting out.

Uses: Flower borders; city/courtyard gardens/ exotic-sub-tropical gardens. Good background to Cannas, Dahlias, Alliums.

Culture: Likes light, well-drained soil and full sun in a sheltered position.

Notes: All parts of the plant are poisonous, as many of our garden plants, but it has earned an AGM from the Royal Horticultural Society.

"The blue-leaved Melianthus major is just about my favorite foliage plant."
Christopher Lloyd.  A Year at Great Dixter.Viking. 1987.

Seed Source: Shaw Island, WA.

🌿 IN A VASE ON MONDAY 🌿

Rosa Hanseat
Glassybaby "Jade"
Anno Monday eleven July 2016.
Unenhanced photo on an enhanced
Shaw Island, WA. 

🌿 Chives 🌿

Chives

Botanical name: Allium schoenoprasum
Life cycle: Bulb-forming herbaceous perennial herb.
Native: Europe, Asia. Naturalized in North America.
Height: 12"
Bloom time: May to June. 

Description: 
Christopher Lloyd says, "they are eye-catching plants, well deserving a frontline position in any border and making the greatest display in May." 
Mild onion flavor. One of the famous fines herbes of French cuisine; said to stimulate the appetite and strengthen the stomach. 

The degree of difficulty: Easy. Described as a "gateway herb" as in one of the easiest to grow; which encourages us to grow more herbs. One of the first to be seen in the cool spring garden.

Uses: Classic for potato salad, omelets. Lloyd enjoys the young shoots on a thin sandwich filled with a mix of cream cheese and chives, salt & pepper.
Single florets of Chives are pretty and delicious when scattered in a green salad.
They are also an ingredient of the gräddfil sauce with the traditional herring dish served at Swedish midsummer celebrations.
Companion planting: Chives improve growth and flavor of carrots and tomatoes.

Chive seeds.

Culture: 
After the danger of frost is passed, plant seeds in furrows in the garden or broadcast them where the plants are to grow into typical Chive clumps. 
All members of the Allium family benefit from full sun and rich soil. 
Clumps will last c. five years and then should be lifted and reset. If clumps are cut back after flowering and then fertilized, new spears will come up in autumn.
When the ground freezes, they will go into dormancy to store up for new growth.
Likes fertile, well-drained soil. Harvesting leaves of the plant, if grown from seed, should be left alone until July, in the 1st year, to allow a good root system to develop.
If they are grown in pots, it is advised to keep them out of the hot sun. 

History: 

Chives are one of the most ancient of all herbs; the first record goes back 4,000 years to China, when Marco Polo reported to the West, his culinary appreciation of chives.
Chives are a cultivated crop in Holland, Germany, and China. Dutch farmers used to feed their cows chives to produce milk with a fresh flavor.

Favorite reference for this post on Chives. 
Willow Creek Press. 1997.

🌿 Lou's Summer Rose 🌿 2016

June on Shaw Island

Lou's Pink Rose and
Clematis Jackmanii (?)
Shaw Island heart thumps,
Anno 21 June 2016
Thanks for the note and happy trails
to the Browns from Portland, OR.

🌿 LOU'S LUNARIA annua & Frog Hunting 🌿

LOU'S LUNARIA seed pods ripening for 2017,
paired with Broken Point Juniper maritima
(Seaside Juniper)
With Glassybaby "Frog Hunting."
Anno eighteen June 2016.

Seaside Juniper (Juniper maritima) is a newly named species as of 2007, with botanists separating this species from Juniper scopulorum. 
      On the site, Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria, there is a list of recorded observations of this Juniper maritima on the following islands in our county: "Broken Point Island", Posey, Reef, Gossip, many of the the Sucia Island group, Turn, San Juan, Coon, Skull, Cliff, Nob, Oak, Fawn, Victim, McConnell and little McConnell. 
      No Juniper seeds for sale at this time.
      The Juniper sprigs used in the bouquet came from private property on Shaw Island. We are not on the herbarium index and we don't mind.

🌿 SHAW ISLAND GARDENER EVE SHAW 🌿

Peony 'Eve Shaw'
Home grown spring bouquet for TC.
Unenhanced photo from Shaw Island,
Anno thirty May two thousand and sixteen.

"Eve Shaw was a large person when I knew her. Robustly doing. A grower. A gardener. She saved things. She kept bees. She dug wells. I cannot think she would sit knitting.
      She got herself a Rec Vehicle and traveled. She took Clayton out of his armchair, away from his views of Wasp Passage, away from his recording weather devices. And when her pet died on a trip, she simply wrapped and froze the body aboard the R.V. and brought it home for proper burial on Shaw Island, the Valhalla of the San Juans.
      She once told me proudly that her family fortune was derived from a chicken business in the South––big enough to supply KFC.
      At heart she was a kind and good friend, a stingy pioneer, on whom the Great Goddess could look with envy."
Words by Leon Fonnesbeck, Shaw Island gardener, friend, and neighbor to the Shaws. April 1995.
No peony seeds for sale.

🌿 SUMMER ROSE 🌿 2016

Up, up, up the fence,
to the top of a tree,
and over the entry path.
Five petalled beauty;

Rosa "Eddie's Jewel"
one of the largest climbing roses blooming
electric-red-turning-to-hot-pink, hybridized
in British Columbia in 1962.
Angel's Rose, rules this day of 25 May 2016.
Unenhanced photo from the rose-enhanced
Island of Shaw.

PUMPKIN SEEDS

1. JACK-BE-LITTLE

Jack-Be-Little pumpkins
Unenhanced photo from Shaw Island.
2015.

Cucurbita pepo "Jack-Be-Little"
aka–– "JBL"

Plant 1"-2" deep in a mound 2-3 ft apart in May-June in Northern states with rich soil of compost and manure. They are big feeders.
This vine can grow on a trellis or fence or in large pots to hang down from your deck.
Place straw or cardboard under each pumpkin as they are growing. 
Keep soil moist but not wet. 
Harvest: when fruits are completely orange and the stem has dried and turned brown. Cut stem near the vine with a sharp knife. Be careful not to break the stem; never lift a pumpkin by the stem. Great for decorating color, then when you are tired of all the orange in your life––roast them! Yes, they are edible. Invited to roast in the oven with seeds removed last winter, they were sweet and delicious. A pleasant surprise.

Days to maturity: 90-100.

Yield: 8-20 fruit per plant.

For more reading on the culture of pumpkins see this site

Mini-pumpkin "Jack-Be-Little" seeds
available, while they last, at
the Gatehouse, Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island
Spring 2017.

2. JACK TEMPLE's Gourds. 
Jack, former caretaker of the UW Preserve on island. Remember the large garden he and Bess tended? These seeds are from his crop growing along the driveway, in his Seattle garden. 
Same culture as the mini pumpkins listed above.
Gourds are used mainly for interior decoration, but they are edible.

Jack's Gourds.
Just prior to seed extraction winter 2015.
The yellow one is an antique fish cork.
Thank you, Cecily T., for the
handcrafted porcelain platter. 

Sold out.

🌿 ORANGE HONEYSUCKLE 🌿

"If you look the right way, 
you can see the whole world is a garden." 
Frances Hodgson Burnett

Lonicera ciliosa
Happy growing along the road
next to the Gatehouse, Reefnet Bay Road.
Photograph of this native courtesy of Billie K
visiting Shaw Island, WA.
May 2016.

🌿 Shaw Island seeds at the roadside stand 🌿

"Shaw Island Double Lilac Alba"
A late blooming variety that has been planted 
around the island for decades.
Glassybaby "Regal."
Bouquet for island gardener MLC
Anno twenty-eight April two thousand and sixteen.

What a treat to enjoy the native hot-shot orange honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa) blooming within feet of the roadside shed today as the place was swept out for another spring. It is time to share fresh seeds of island botanicals, packed, labeled, and stuffed in their handmade wrappers. The seeds are favorite flowers, a few herbs, and a few natives, with some being added through the season. All are chosen for being good-natured, dependable country flowers, grown down through the last century snuggled in the back corner woods and meadows of Shaw Island. 
      Thank you for the friendly notes that were left recently. No one scolded, but it's now true, like the gardens of Shaw Island, I'm out of dormancy.
      Happy gardening.  

🌿 YELLOW ISLAND WILDFLOWERS 🌿 2016.

The Fawn Lilies deserve a prize this year.

Photographs courtesy of Joanne.
By rowboat from Shaw to Yellow Island, WA.
Anno eight April twenty sixteen.

Back on Shaw Island
Corinne found this beauty, Fritillaria lanceolata
(Chocolate Lily) to photograph at the home of a friend. 
Scott Atkinson (Wild Plants of the San Juan Islands)
says that this specimen is common in the archipelago.
April 2016.

🌿 CALYPSO bulbosa (Fairy slipper) 🌿

CALYPSO BULBOSA
Shaw Island
Three April two thousand and sixteen.
This alert person behind the hand,
found a colony of Calypso, the
most I have ever seen in one location.

"Passing through a heavily shaded, coniferous forest during May [but in early April in 2016,] the watchful traveler will sometimes be rewarded by coming upon a classic orchid of bewitching elegance, so delicate as it grows alone on a bed of heavy humus or fern moss. Nature's artistry is hard to miss in the perfect design––a nodding head with five rosy-purplish tepals (modified petals) above a little face, that has a pink upper lip, a white lower one flushed with pink, and a blood red-streaked throat that seems as if it were hand-painted. If that isn't enough, the heads often have a pleasing, unusual fragrance. Calypso, Atlas' daughter in Greek mythology, was a sea nymph, often concealed below the waves, and here her name honors the lovely charms and inconspicuous nature of our orchid. The roots grow in association with certain fungi and, thus, attempts to transplant are futile; plants also can not tolerate picking or other disturbances. This species was formerly believed to be rare in our area, but naturalists in Washington have now found that it is widespread. The San Juans are particularly blessed, with impressive colonies present on many islands, such as Jones, Sucia, Lopez, Orcas, and many others."

      No one can say it better than these two authors:

Wild Plants of the San Juan Islands. Atkinson, Scott and Fred Sharpe. Seattle, The Mountaineers. 1985.
      How's that for the start of April on Shaw Island.

      If you'd like to be knocked over with some photographic art visit this PNW site to view the wild Calypso orchid captured by a master.Pacific Northwest Orchids
      Artist Joan Baez includes the Calypso in her song "If I knew"

🌿 HAPPY EASTER 🌿

The sweet "Fawn Lily" (Erythronium oregonum) is blooming now on the Biological Preserve. 
      The first orchids of the year to bloom are Calypso bulbosa, now budding-out on Fidalgo Island. Don't miss enjoying the gems with such an early spring now upon us in 2016. Please see this incredible photographic record of native orchids in bloom.

Have a great Easter weekend.
Antique litho postcard.

🌿 In the Spring ・・・ 🌿

"In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours." 

Mark Twain.

Helleborus argutifolius
Blooming on Shaw Island
anno twenty March twenty sixteen
Glassybabys, Frog Hunting, Jade & Pollen.