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February 2012
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Vol 1, Issue 10
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Garden Notes

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Greetings from Christianson's Nursery!
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"The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size."
~Gertrude S. Wister
February 8th is my Christmas morning. I will wake up early, tiptoe past my sleeping family, make some coffee, and then I'm off to pick up a friend and drive to Seattle for the opening day of the Northwest Flower & Garden Show. It's hard to explain why it's so exciting. I know it will be a long day. There will be traffic, crowds, and lots of time on our feet. Yet none of that seems to matter. All I know is that after going to the show I'm always inspired to start working in my own garden. It's ironic that driving to Seattle and spending a day in the Convention Center is the catalyst that gets me in back in my garden but that's how it works, and what a gift that is! Speaking of the Flower & Garden Show, in this issue of Garden Notes you'll find a new section called 'Remembering Our Roots' and this month it's about our very first display garden at the 1993 show. It was fun to look back at the old scrapbooks and see how far we've come since then. And finally, in other exciting news, John and Toni's home garden was featured in an article in The Seattle Times 'Pacific Northwest' insert last Sunday, February 5. The article was written by Valerie Easton and is titled 'Nostalgia, For Real' (it starts on page 16). In case you missed it in print, here's a link to the article on The Seattle Times website.Happy February!
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Coming up this Month
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February 8 - 12 Washington State Convention Center Tickets for the show are available for purchase at our Garden Store (tickets are $20). For more information about the show, visit: www.gardenshow.com
Winter Gardens Photography Contest
Entries accepted January 16 through February 17. Visit our Garden Store for contest details and entry form A Fascination for Hellebores
Christianson's Annual Winter Festival
February 24 - 26
On Saturday, February 25, at 1:00 pm Guest Speaker Marty Wingate will be presenting
'Hellebores and Beyond - Decorating your Garden with Color, Texture and Scent' Please call us at 360-466-3821 to make your reservations for this complimentary presentation.
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Where to find us
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15806 Best Road
Mount Vernon, WA 98273
360-466-3821
1-800-585-8200
Winter Hours Open Daily: 9 am - 5 pmBeginning March 1st,
Open Daily: 9 am - 6 pm
Voted 'Best Greenhouse and Nursery' in Skagit Publishing's People's Choice Awards for 2011 NW Flower & Garden Show "People's Choice Award 2011"
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The Garden in February...with Ani Gurnee
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Red-flowering Currant
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February can be a month of extreme variability. It is often challenging to decide just how early to start on those late winter and early spring tasks. Sometimes even the most experienced gardener gets it wrong. Here are a few thoughts for this month.
- For the pruning of most trees and shrubs, cold and snow are not a problem. If the temperatures drop into the teens you might hold off. I don't expect that too many of you are going to be THAT gung-ho anyway. There are a few species that can wait until March, such as roses and hydrangeas. Both of those suffered significantly last year after our late frost. I prefer to wait on figs too. They originated in the Mediterranean and have a very loose cell structure compared to other woody plants so they are more prone to cold damage. Any shrub or tree whose hardiness has proven marginal these past few severe winters - Hebes, Mexican Orange (Choisya ternata) and Escallonia - can wait to be pruned until next month.
- Some of the big flamboyant Euphorbias will be coming into bloom. E. characias wulfenii is one of the most dramatic, with bright lime-green flower clusters emerging from a thick crown of 2-3 foot stalks of velvety grey-green leaves. Protect eyes and skin when cutting these stalks as the sap is quite caustic.
- Make sure the very succulent and vulnerable new growth on such perennials as Delphinium is protected against the slugs that venture forth on those first mild days. Any kind of a transparent cloche broad enough to span the crown and seat tight against the soil all around the plant will work. It is more than disheartening to part the crown expectantly to find only the neatly excavated craters where swollen bright nubbins should have been!
- Cloches of all sorts can be useful early in the season not only for slug and rabbit protection but as a buffer against wind and excessive rain, and to trap heat. The bigger the volume of enclosed space the better it will perform, greenhouses being the biggest. A gallon milk jug with the bottom cut out placed over a young basil or pepper plant will make a huge difference in the growth rate you observe. If you have a whole row to cover, one continuous tunnel of plastic film or corrugated poly over hoops will hold much more heat with much less radical temperature fluctuation and will continue to perform long after the plants would have outgrown the milk jug, sometimes aiding heat-retention through the June-gloom cool spells. Remember that any kind of cloching also requires venting. Leave the top off the milk jug. Make your tunnels so that the ends can be opened on warm days.
- Tradition has it in Skagit Valley that George Washington's birthday means it's time to plant peas and sweetpeas. Either direct-sow or plant out little pots of seedlings. The Nursery carries seedlings already off to a good start. If you have a light upland soil you can count yourself lucky this time of year because working up the soil is usually not a problem. But if you are on the flats or have heavy clay that is still wet this time of year, transplanted seedlings will have a far greater chance of success than seeds. Peas like a limey soil. If you didn't lime last fall (lime powder takes a few months to really incorporate), a good way to get an immediate change in the pH is to make a slurry of wood ashes and water, soak overnight and then pour alongside the peas.
- Those of you who are thinking about plantings to attract hummingbirds this year, some of their earliest-blooming favorites are the Oregon grapes, especially the native forms, and the Madrone. The Madrone's European form, the strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo, is a good choice as it is much smaller in a garden setting, much healthier and more adaptable to variable situations, and much more readily available. Possibly the most loved of all, the red-flowering currant (see photo above), is a beautiful native and another great choice for this time of year. The Nursery carries a wonderful selection of all these native plants.
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Ani Gurnee
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Ani Gurnee is a popular and greatly-adored guest speaker at the nursery. Ani is the owner of Aulos Design and she can be reached at 360-445-2028.
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Remembering Our Roots
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 | 'A Sunday Afternoon' 1993 Display Garden at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show
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The Northwest Flower and Garden Show began in 1989 and here we are today, twenty-three years later, still atwitter as we gather our friends and head to Seattle to enjoy the sights (and smells) of this amazing event. Christianson's first display garden was unveiled at the show in 1993, back when Christianson's Nursery was still known as 'Hart's Nursery'. This first display garden was titled "A Sunday Afternoon" and was designed by John and Toni Christianson. It featured a wide array of blooming flowers, the facade of a Victorian country home and a table set for tea. Little white shoes, kicked off by a young girl at play, completed the image of a sunny spring day spent on the lawn at Grandma's house.
Here is the description used for this display garden:
In times past, a visit to Grandma's meant a relaxing time in her garden; a place for tea, for storytelling, a game of croquet. In this garden memories are easily recalled by the nostalgic fusion of flowering shrubs and perennials, vibrant bulbs and annuals. Perhaps the fragrance of a rose will transport you to a forgotten time when life allowed us to linger in the garden together.
This display garden struck a cord in the hearts of both the judges and the thousands of show attendees that year. In total, we were honored to receive five awards for our 1993 display garden: the People's Choice Award, the Gold Chelsea Award, the Northwest Perennial Alliance Award, the Silver Palette Award, and the Washington State Nursery and Landscape Association Award.
In the years since, John and Toni have designed eight gardens for the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. Each garden required a full year of planning and preparations, including the selection of plants that bloom from March to June that can be forced into bloom for the February Show of the coming year. The fun for John and Toni extends well beyond the selection of plants. Together they decide on the garden's theme and the choices of recycled wood, windows, gates, and fences. They think about where the sun will rise and set in their garden so the combinations of plants looks natural. They even contemplate the people who would have lived and worked in that garden. Would a working mid-day lunch with thermoses and lunch pails be appropriate, or would a romantic evening dinner with white linens and candlelight complete the scene?
There are many other considerations which John and Toni discuss and debate for the two to four years in between show years for the Nursery. During meals, on trips to gardens and other nurseries, on drives around Skagit Valley, or any other time they have together without kids, planning a display garden is one of their favorite pastimes.
 | John and Toni Christianson in front of their display garden in 1993 |
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The Language of Flowers
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 | Primrose |
During the Victorian era, the language of flowers, also known as floriography, was a means of communication in which flowers with specific meanings were used in floral arrangements and gardens to express feelings or send hidden messages which otherwise could not be spoken. Times have changed but our fascination with the meanings of flowers, herbs and plants continues on today.
Starting with this issue of Garden Notes, we will highlight one flower each month, listing the meaning of the flower and other interesting pieces of folklore or history related to that flower.
To celebrate the arrival of early spring and Valentine's Day, the flower we've selected for February is...the primrose!
Primrose meanings:
First love, young love, early youth, eternal love
Traditionally, the meaning of a primrose was "I can't live without you." The primrose was the sacred flower of Freya, the Norse goddess of love, and was used in rituals giving honor to her.
The gift of a primrose will tell your significant other, "I am yours forever." Who would have ever imagined that the little primrose would be the ultimate in romantic gifts, conveying your enduring, eternal love. Happy Valentine's Day!
To learn more about the language of flowers, there are numerous books and websites dedicated solely to the subject of floriography. Here are just a few examples:
About Flowers
Santa Monica Flowers
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Early Spring Specials
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NEW ARRIVALS AT THE NURSERY
Primroses
Early spring bulbs in bloom
Witch Hazel
Winter Heather
Roses
Hellebores
a wide selection of doubles, singles, and
many colors to choose from ~ all in bud and bloom
Bare Root
shrubs, berries, trees, and much more!
Conifers
a wonderful selection of conifers just arrived
Rhubarb, Asparagus, and Horseradish
February 1 -12: Heather and Blooming Witch Hazel - 20% off
Hundreds of winter and spring flowering plants
February 13 - 29: Roses - 20% off Our biggest Rose Sale of the year! Includes the new 2012 All-America Rose selections, antique, English, climbing, and drought tolerant rugosa roses March 1 -11: Bare Root - 20% off The best bare root selection of the year including fruit trees, flowering and shade trees, berries, lilacs, and hydrangeas. March 12 -31: Camellias - 20% off Winter and Spring flowering beauties ~ many in bloom! April 1 -15: Magnolia Trees - 20% off Hundreds of beautiful blooming trees with white, pink, purple, and yellow flowers |
Spring Calendar
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Saturday, February 4
Basic Fruit Tree Pruning
11 am - 12:30 pm (reservations required - $5 class fee)
Saturday, February 11
Growing the Great Pumpkin
11 am - noon (reservations required - $5 class fee)
Saturday, February 18 Espalier Pruning
11 am - 12:30 pm (reservations required - $5 class fee) Saturday, February 25 Hellebores and Beyond - Decorating your Garden with Color, Texture and ScentGuest Speaker: Marty Wingate 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm (complimentary but reservations are requested)
Saturday, March 3
Basic Fruit Tree Pruning
11 am - 12:30 pm (reservations required - $5 class fee)
Sunday, March 4 Renovating Old Fruit Trees 1 pm - 2:30 pm (reservations required - $5 class fee) Saturday, March 10 Rose Pruning with John Christianson
11 am - noon (complimentary but reservations are requested)
Saturday, March 17 Pruning Ornamental Trees and Shrubs 11 am - 12:30 pm (reservations required - $5 class fee)
Sunday, March 18
Hedging Techniques
1 pm - 2:30 pm (reservations required - $5 class fee)
Saturday, March 24
Pretty Enough to Eat - Using Edible Plants in Your Landscape
11 am - noon (reservations required - $5 class fee)
Saturday, March 31
Decorating with Spring Botanicals
10 am - 11 am (reservations required - $5 class fee)
Saturday, March 31
Spring Walk with John Christianson
1 pm - 2 pm (complimentary but reservations are requested)
Following the 'Spring Walk' on March 31, plan to have 'Tea at the Granary' at La Conner Flats. This tea features sandwiches, scones, fruit, and dessert ($14 per person). For tea reservations, please call La Conner Flats at 466-3190.
For reservations for classes and the garden walk, please call us at 360-466-3821 or 1-800-585-8200 To see full class descriptions, visit the 'Classes & Events' page on our website |
Closing thought...
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"Flowers grow out of dark moments." - Corita Kent
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Garden Notes Editor:
Eve Boe, Public Relations and Events Coordinator
Christianson's Nursery & Greenhouse
eve.christiansons@gmail.com
360-466-3821
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