New Improved Blog

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Tuesday Twosomes

This lovely twosome is one of the first to appear in Spring and is almost finished blooming by now.
Grape Hyacinth (Muscari  racemosum)

and one of the earliest Veronica groundcovers, Georgia Blue Veronica (Veronica peduncularis 'Georgia Blue'  AKA Veronica umbrosa 'Oxford Blue'

Grape Hyacinth naturalizes and forms lovely clumps of grass like foliage followed by its little blue torch like blooms. Georgia Blue Veronica is an evergreen (ever bronze, really) ground cover- that a least in my experience- spreads slowly with a  lanky-limbed nature. Both are deer resistant and drought tolerant, once established. It's a sweet, dainty combination for Spring.

Blooming Right Now

I've been seeing these chartreuse blooms around town. At first I thought they were just spring green emerging leaves. I asked CH about them and she said they were probably Norway Maples. I never considered the blooms of the Maples being very significant- but look along Reed Market Rd and you'll be entranced by the yellow hue. Kind of a nice contrast to the white and pink





Prunus family blooms that are just finishing up.  The gnarly bark always seems out of place to me with the delicate blooms.








Look also for the Ornamental Pears that are showing off right now. Beautiful display in the Cascade Village Mall. Also young  Callery Pear all along OB Riley.

Plant Watching

We've decided to step away from the Mystery Plant question and answer blog format. It's proving too cumbersome to follow since the posts end up chronologically backwards. So, until we can grow a few more blog skills, we'll continue posting about the local plants that are catching our attention. If you have a question for our team- please post a comment, email us at info@heartspringsdesign.com or come out to the nursery 10-4pm Mondays thru Saturdays.

Happy Springtime! Serviceberry Trees are beginning to blossom.

Tuesday Twosomes

A favorite combination. Perfectly blends with our native sages and junipers. Looks wonderful massed in dryland plantings. Takes on all the critter challenges...Blue Oat Grass and Walker's Low Catmint!!

Helictotrichon sempervirens

Nepeta 'Walker's Low'

Tuesday Twosomes

 Beautiful shrubs are great for so many landscape situations and this combo has it all. If you're looking for colorful foliage, hardy and adaptable 'personalities', and wonderful shape and leaf textures try 'Summer Wine' Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius) 

 with Dwarf Blue Artic Willow (Salix purpurea 'Nana).

Both shrubs have similar water needs. Both like sun or part shade and both grow about 5-6' with vase like graceful shapes. The only downsides are no great winter interest and no absolute deer resistance. Great choice if you have lots of room. And the colors really are striking together!

Answer to April 12th

Chionodoxa. "Glory of the Snow"
These hardy bulbs produce up to ten starry flowers per stem.












They are perfect matched with Scilla (Squil)

and
 Muscari " Grape Hyacinth"
 for a beautiful, delicate spring palate.

Tuesday Twosomes

We busy bees working at the nursery this week had fun pairing plants with Spring foliage interest.
We liked the way the emerging pink tinted foliage of the

Variegated Feather Reed Grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Overdam')

 
reflected the cherry pink blooms of the Red Flowering Currant
( Ribes sanguineum)

The Red Flowering Cherry develops a fountain like shape and can reach 8' tall. The Overdam grass flower plumes top out at 5' and have a pretty pinkish tint later in the summer. Both thrive in sunnier areas and are water thrifty when established.
Deer will browse the currant, but it's not a 'deer candy' selection.  Surrounding it with the tall grass might offer some protection.

Just a little Mystery

I like daffodils. I really do. It's fun to be flooded with their shock of yellow this time of year when you're tiring of brown and gray and white and brown and gray. But they don't leave anything to your imagination. There is no mystery in a mass of daffodils. AND the foliage hangs around way too long after the fun is over.

This little bulb, however, takes a bit of work to notice. It blooms earlier than it's yellow friends. The critters seem to ignore it for the most part. It's dainty and hints of a spring sky. Have you seen any?

New! Tuesday Twosomes...

Ani and I were very excited about this  great combination. Both plants are evergreen- interesting textures together with complementary blooms and foliage colors. Both thrive in full sun, like great drainage- but will do fine in part shade.

Pineleaf Penstemon, Penstemon Pinifolius- has a red or a yellow flower. Angelina sedum, Sedum rupestre 'Angelina' has yellow green foliage that turns reddish- orange in winter. I see that there's a Blanket flower in the sedum picture which would also be a fine addition to this twosome- Gaillardia aristata. Oh boy. Look for more fun combos every Tuesday on this blog. Mondays will be for Mystery Mondays. We're getting new plants in at the nursery every day now. Hope it stops snowing soon so we can open... looking at this coming Saturday.

Answer to Mystery Tree- March 22

Pin Oak,  Quercus palustris

To be fair- it's a beautiful tree the rest of the year. Lovely in summer with beautiful red color in fall.

Almost a good idea.

This mystery tree holds on to its dead leaves through most of the winter. It has a nice symmetrical shape and is very hardy so it is used a lot as a street tree. You can see it downtown on Bond and Wall Streets.  In theory, holding on to leaves should mean less clean up. Really, it just means that SOME leaves fall ALL WINTER LONG! I mean, its not like persistent berries or fruits that might provide winter food for the birds or extra color interest in the winter landscape. Nature came up with an almost good idea- less raking in Fall, maybe- but brown leaves just aren't that fun to look at all winter.  What tree is it?

Sustainable Landscapes- Class Series

Sign up now for this Sustainable Landscape Class Series
                                       taught by our own Chris Hart-Henderson.

    Accomplish more than you imagined

With less than you dreamed possible.

SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPES

SPRING SERIES

8 steps to creatively accomplish more than you imagined possible.

Use sustainable methods to make your yard a dream.

Instructor: Chris Hart-Henderson

Owner of Heart Springs Landscape Design, LLC

(25 + years experience as a landscape educator in Central Oregon)

Class Series is limited to 30 participants.

Class Schedule: Thursdays from 6:30-8:00 pm

Cost: $125 for the series.

Pre-register by April 8, 2010 and pay only $100!

Location: SolAire Homebuilders

593 NW York Drive, Bend

Email: info@hearspringsdesign.com for registration information.

Class Schedule:

Introduction to Sustainable Landscaping- April 15

Rain Harvesting in Central Oregon- April 22

Deer and Fire Resistant Landscaping- April 29

Colorful Drought Tolerant Landscaping- May 6

Understand your Irrigation System-Conserve Water- May 13

Edible Landscaping- Browsing in your own Backyard- May 20

Landscaping with Native Plants- May 27

Permaculture-Create a Sustainable Garden- June 3

Thanks to our Sponsor: SolAire Homebuilders   

Don't miss this great series!

 

Answer to March 4, 2010 Mystery Tree

Picea or Spruce Family. Picea pungens var. glauca is the Colorado Blue Spruce. Picea abies is the Norway Spruce but there are over 40 varieties. The older trees can appear more open and kind of lacy looking as in this picture.

Picea is derived from the Latin word pix, which means pitch.  Spruce can grow large and generally have a symmetrical and pyramidal shape. The needles are often flat, but sharp. They are different from the flat and soft tipped Fir needles and do not grow in bunches like Pine needles.

The cones shown here hanging down.

Something to Crow About.

This conifer is used extensively in our Central Oregon landscapes. I've been noticing that the cones seem to be clustered near the tree top and the brown hue attracts my attention as I drive along Franklin near Juniper Park. Varieties come in green and in blue- but both have cones that usually hang down.

Answer to Feb 23- It's A Larch

Western Larch or Tamarack Tree, Larix occidentalis is a deciduous conifer tree. The needle like leaves turn golden yellow in Fall and mostly drop off. It has a delicate lacy look in the spring- but it looks (to me CW, anyway) like it's a pine tree gone bad in Winter!

It's ok to look like this.

Well, at least some of the time.
This large (up to 250 feet) native tree catches my eye just west of the parkway by the Colorado Street off ramp near Downtown. You might see it this time of year and think we've lost another big conifer to environmental stresses or poor development practices, but, in this case, you're looking at a perfectly healthy specimen.

Great Groundcovers

Hurray for Hardy Yellow Ice Plant.
Delosperma nubigenum forms a low maintenance, evergreen mat. The succulent foliage is reddish in winter, spring green the rest of the year with bright yellow daisy-like blooms in early summer. I think it's easier to keep weed free than some of the creeping thymes.


This is one example of the many creeping veronica available. Veronica surculosa 'Waterperry Blue' has shiny evergreen foliage that turns reddish bronze in winter. Durable and drought tolerant, it sports large sky blue flowers in mid spring.
Colorado State has a very comprehensive chart of good drought tolerant groundcover choices. including Veronica pectinata or Woolly Speedwell that blends nicely with our native look plant choices.

Ways to be Waterwise

Green gardening no longer refers to just a green thumb. Heartsprings Design is at the forefront of green, waterwise and sustainable landscape design. Take a minute to read this article about one of our great new projects.

More Ever Mahogany

Here are two more evergreen choices for Central Oregon that have red or mahogany Winter foliage. These are ground covers. Do you recognize any of them? (The not so great pictures make this an expert challenge.)