GOLDEN OATS GRASS

Reaching for the stars,  
it is Stipa gigantea.

Golden Oats Grass

(Stipa gigantea)

The florets can be seen

in the upper foreground gifting seeds 

to those of us under the 8-ft stems.

Location: The Gatehouse garden©

this day of 5 August 2021

Botanical name: Stipa gigantea

Family: Poaceae

Native to: Spanish Pyrenees

Life cycle: Perennial

Hardiness zone: USDA 05-10

Foliage: 18" evergreen hummock with arching evergreen gray-green leaves.

Bloom time: May until early July. Seedheads soaring to ca. 8-feet, last until late summer or early autumn. These are useful in dried flower arrangements.

Tolerates: Drought after it has been established; also resistant to deer.

Sow: Spring.

Notes. This grass brings texture, form, and movement to the garden. It has a long period of interest. Popular for its soaring silver stems and golden drooping awns. The flowers make a great see-through "scrim" in gardens. It has a long period of interest.

Do not fertilize or it could cause the long stems to droop.

It can be tidied by raking through the clump to remove dead grass. and cut back in late winter or early spring for a cleaner look. If it is not a vigorous plant cutting it back can kill a weak or young plant, according to the Elizabeth Miller Library, Seattle. 

Stipa gigantea was awarded an A.G.M. distinction by the Royal Horticulture Society in 1993 and is on the Seattle's Elizabeth Miller Library noted "Great Plant Picks" list.

Seed capsules of 
Golden Oats grass
(Stipa gigantea)
Source: the Gatehouse garden
5 August 2021
Clay art by Jodie and Terri

Packets are now installed at the seed shed on Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island, Washington.

YANSEN FARM LUPINES

 

End-of-season
Two-toned Lupine blooming on the
Yansen Farm,
USDA Hardiness Zone 8-b
Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
photo courtesy of Diana.
July 2021.

Common name: Big Leaf Lupine

Botanical name: Lupinus polyphyllus x Russell hybrids.

Life cycle: Hardy perennial

Hardiness zone range: USDA 03-10

Native growing region: Western North America

Preferred climate: Temperate

Soil type: well-drained, moist to wet.

Sun: Full sun to partial shade.

Height: 3-4-ft

Blooms: Early to mid-summer in shades of bi-color pink and blue-purple.

Tolerates: Drought and usually deer resistant.

Degree of difficulty: Easy to grow and one of the easiest perennials to propagate from seed.

Description: According to Diana these are vigorous, self-seeding plants.

Attracts: Pollinators, hummingbirds.

Germination: 7-14 days.

Planting: Tough seed coat so nick lightly with sandpaper or soak in water overnight. Plant outdoors only 1/4" deep where they receive full sun. Lupines have long tap roots so plant in their permanent location. Thin to 18-24 inches.

Notes: This plant is an important food for larvae of some butterflies; wildlife eat some of the mature seeds following the bloom cycle.

Lupine seeds have been unpacked 

from their mature pods and

 installed in new packets.

They are colorful, nitrogen-fixing, 

pollinator-friendly

plants growing on Shw Island.

Available at Gatehouse Seeds,

Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island, WA.

 

BLUE COLUMBINE

Columbines in spring
(Aquilegia vulgaris)

Gatehouse Seeds
USDA Zone 8b
Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island, 
 San Juan Archipelago, WA.

 Columbine

Scientifiic name: Aquilegia vulgaris

Type: Herbaceous perennial

USDA Hardiness Zones: 3 to 8

Height 1.5 feet to 3 feet.

Bloom time: April to May
Bloom color: Blue or violet-blue
Sun: Full sun to part shade.
Water: medium
Maintenance: low to medium
Flower: showy.

Attracts: Hummingbirds
Tolerates: Rabbits and usually deer.

Culture: Easily grown in average, medium moist, well-drained soil. Remove flowering stems after bloom to encourage additional blossoms. When foliage dies, plants may be cut to the ground. Aquilegia may be easily grown from seed, will naturalize in the garden over time. Seed collected from garden plants might not come true because different varieties of columbine may cross-pollinate in the garden, producing seed that is at variance with either or both parents.

Notes: Genus name comes from the Latin word for eagle (aquila) in reference to the talon-like spurs on most flowers. Columbine comes from the Latin word columba, meaning dove-like. 

Garden Uses: Borders, rock gardens, cottage gardens, woodlands, or naturalized areas. A good selection for a hummingbird garden. Continue to water plants after bloom to enjoy the ground cover effect of the foliage.

Source of some of these notes: The Missouri Botanical Garden.

There are a few solid white-colored columbine seeds mixed with this lovely blue strain. They are too beautiful to extract from the Gatehouse Garden. You may rogue them out, but they agree with me.

Seeds from a beautiful
bluish-purple shade of
Columbine
(Aquilegia vulgaris) 
while the supply lasts,
with a few white-white columbines 
 mixed in. May these self-seeders
 enjoy life tenancy in your garden and mine.
Packets available at 
Gatehouse Seeds
Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island, WA.

SUMMER ROSES

Rosa glauca
Unenhanced photo 
Single species rose this day of 12 June 2021
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.

Deadheading is the one profoundly rewarding war. It tidies away the signs of death and encourages yet another show of flowers. It was wonderfully understood by Vita Sackville-West, in her garden at Sissinghurst Castle. 

"Deading-heading roses on a summer evening," she wrote, "is an occupation that carries us back into a calmer age and a different century. Queen Victoria might still be on the throne. There is no sound except the hoot of an owl and the rhythmic snip-snip of our secateurs."

Vita Sackville-West
Courtesy of Robin Lane Fox
Thoughtful Gardening
Perseus Books
New York, N.Y.

Rosa glauca
Species single rose nestling in with 
native Alders of Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA. 
This day of 12 June 2021.

Disease-resistant and undemanding sweet treasure. Easy from seeds which will soon be at the Gatehouse Seeds shed, Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island, WA.

This rose is included on the noteworthy Elizabeth Miller Library's Great Plant Picks list.

Rosa glauca seeds

GIANT SCABIOUS

Giant Scabious
(Cephalaria gigantea)

Deer resistant perennial 
Happy in our Zone 8 climate.
Easy street.

Giant Scabious

Botanical Name: Cephalaria gigantea

Life-cycle: Herbaceous perennial

Hardiness Zones: USDA 03-7

Ease of Care: Low

Habit: Erect, tall blooming plant for the back of borders.

Flowers: Light yellow at the top of wand-like tall stems in June to September, 4-6 feet tall.

Habitat: Average, well-drained soil in sun, light shade.

Tolerates: DEER.

Uses: Food plants for bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects, and for flower arranging. 

Notes: Develops a long taproot so it resents being disturbed. Dies to nothing in late fall and then bounds out of the ground in spring but not invasively. Doesn't need staking except in exposed areas. A plant to use for height in the garden without overbearing large plants. It is an exceptional plant that looks good in a cottage garden or among large shrubs and trees in a woodland garden.

Sowing: April to August for flowering the next year.
January to March for flowers from June onward. Sow in trays or pots with good, moist well-drained seed compost. Cover lightly with vermiculite after sowing as they need light for germination. Prick out to four-inch pots after four weeks.

Giant Scabious
(Cephalaria gigantea)
Seeds for sale 
Shaw Island Gatehouse 
Reefnet Bay Road, 
Shaw Island, WA. 

A Happy Easter

 

"No winter lasts forever;
no spring skips its turn."

Hal Borlan
(1900-1978)

BLIND BAY PUSSY WILLOW

 

Blind Bay 

Pussy Willow

(Salix ?, a large leaf gem.)

To view the sugar glaze,

please click the image.

Planted from a cutting

of Mrs. Difford's floral bouquet

many years ago.

The photo was taken 

Valentine's Day 2021

Shaw Island, Washington.

"Time does make a difference in any garden. At first, you wonder if anything will ever get large enough to count in the general picture. Then you wonder if there is any way to keep it from growing further. For years the little Cunninghamia, say, a favorite shrub, then all of a sudden it becomes a small tree, then after a while, you start thinking of it as a gnarled and marvelous fixture of the garden and can hardly think back to the time before you had it.
      The great trick, I am now sure, is to flow with the tide."

Henry Mitchell, you are gone, but please be my Valentine.

SNOWDROPPING

SNOWDROPS 
Blooming on Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA., 
before the SNOW.
9 February 2021.

"Some gardeners think of the Winter Aconite as the first flower of spring but I have never done much with those pleasant little yellow flowers and the shooting of the “Snowdrop leaves is my particular signal that spring, even if far away, will come in time. It is strange that no country name compares Snowdrops with bells for they are bell-like as they swing to and fro. How they do swing on those delicate threads which connect flower to stem. You’d think they would be torn off. But they can stand any gale that blows. They yield to the wind rather than oppose it. A tree may be blown down in the night but never a single Snowdrop head is blown off. Their strength is that they know when to give in. There is moral in that somewhere.”

H.L.V. Fletcher, Popular Flowering Plants.