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.