In and Out of the Garden By Marion Wells

Well, we made it through one of the wettest winters here on the North Coast since records began and came out the other side into a Spring well worth waiting for.

Volunteers (or soldiers, as my husband calls them!) are springing from every flower bed, nook and cranny, just the way I love it. Everywhere you look the eye is treated to a feast of flora.

Out on the headlands the Douglas iris are in full flower, standing in colonies this year rather than in patches as in drier Springs. Small ponds have formed and the trail along the south side has turned into a running
stream. 

All around town the flowering fruit trees are giving way to the viburnums, syringes, flowering quince, and the old fashioned roses are peeping through with their fresh faces promising us a glorious May and June.

In my own garden as I write this at the end of April, the hydrangeas (I have 32 different types currently and increasing!) are mostly (except for the paniculatas) fully leafed out with fat buds emerging. I can hardly wait. There are miniatures (H. macrophilla 'Pia'), mop heads, lace caps, even a tree form, in colors ranging from delicate white to perfect pinks and electric blues, fiery reds and exotic purple shades. Some have conical shaped flower heads, others are flat and ringed with coronets of single florets, others are big, blue and blowsy and are the best for drying. If you walk by the front of my house you will notice about 20 of these wonderful shrubs poised for a spectacular display. I wonder what the word is for one obsessed with hydrangeas (hydrangeaphile!)

There is no problem in planting a garden for a long spring display, and autumn is also well catered for. It is the summer period that presents a problem and here the hydrangea provides the answer with a wealth of color over many weeks.

I have propagated many varieties and plan to have a "Hurray for Hydrangeas" sale sometime in June. Watch the Beacon classifieds. If anyone is interested in my list, please feel free to email me, my address is at the end of this column. 

Every season brings its own spate of "trendy" plants and this spring is no exception. Your favorite local nursery has new selections of species geraniums (very exciting) and all kinds of goodies from Australia and New Zealand. Look for many new viburnums, some with pink "snowball" flowers, others with amazing apricot lace caps (V. 'Onondaga').

When visiting England a couple of years ago, the rage was Verbena (not to be confused with Viburnum) bonariensis. At Christopher Lloyd's garden, Great Dixter, he had them popping up everywhere, in the front of the Long Border, and even in the vegetable gardens. My sister and I fell in love with them, and the affair continues. This is a sensational plant, referred to by many as a perennial, but should be treated as an annual here. It is tall and willowy, it will grow up and through other plants, you can plant them singly or as a show stopping group. North Star Nursery sometimes has them in six packs, but if you cannot find them, email me, and you can drop by for a 4" plant.

Take a little time to walk around Mendocino looking at all the wonderful gardens and out on the headlands where the wild flower display is getting underway, with California poppies, Indian paintbrush, yellow wallflowers, periwinkles, mallow, and many more waiting for the warm early summer sunshine to open them up. Please forgive me for not knowing their botanical names!

Don't forget:

Art Centre annual garden tour on June 20th and 21st.

Hortus Botanical Open House - Mother's Day weekend

(already over, but be sure to check out his wonderful collections of David

Austin Roses, clematis and unusual perennials)

See the fabulous new introductions from New Zealand at North Star Nursery.

They also have a wonderful selection of garden ornaments (best on the coast), pond plants and several varieties of grevillea. Visit their garden shop for a very affordable gift for a friend or a well deserved one for yourself.

At Heartwood, Dan and Patty are learning how to grow bedding plants!
(Their words, not mine.)

When driving by the Botanical Gardens, be sure to pop in and look at the rhodies (it will do you good). Since all those trees blew down, forests of foxgloves have sprung up; they are sensational.

email me with your garden events for inclusion in next months column jdhbmw@mcn.org

Marion Wells gardens at the John Dougherty House in Mendocino.

In and Out of the Garden By Marion Wells

I actually ventured out of my garden in the middle of June. This is something I am not usually tempted to do in case I miss the spectacular opening of a new rose or a much acclaimed clematis, newly planted seedlings requiring watering, ad infinitum; you get the picture.

This was achieved by appointing our nephew, Jeremy (here for the summer), as "water boy" and presenting him with a long list of watering procedures.  It was thus without my traditional fear and trepidation that I climbed into the car bound for a 4-day camping trip down the coast.

As soon as we crossed the Navarro River bridge I knew I had made the right decision. There are wildflowers exuberantly peeping, popping and protruding from every hedgerow, rock and crevice imaginable. I have not seen anything like it in the 22 years I have lived in California. Mimulas, Indian paintbrush, yellow evening primrose, nasturtiums (climbing in the
trees) are all along the roadsides. And the roses! All colors from white to dark blood red.

Out on the sand dunes at Manchester Beach were white yarrow, yellow tansy, billowing waves of wonderful grasses, cheerful ice plants and little surprises everywhere we walked. It took us quite a bit of time to cover even the shortest distances, as I had to keep stopping and examining each precious new discovery. Mind you, the wind was pretty fierce though, and it's not hard to see why so many beach plants are practically flat on the ground.

It was a lovely trip, but I'm glad we didn't go for longer as even after 4 days my garden seemed to have grown at least 4 inches, especially the nasturtiums or "nasties" as a friend of mine calls them, and the snails were definitely 4 times fatter.

I am actively in the process of enlarging all my flowerbeds to accommodate the larger proportions of all the edging plants due to the late rains. My husband calls this "unauthorized garden expansion". What's the alternative? Whacking off their heads with a weed whacker? I simply have no choice. Spilling, climbing, trailing, weaving, these are all expletives readily applicable to the state of the plant life in my garden.

I do not think I will ever tire this El Nino year of my constant wanderings around the garden reveling in the latest thing to emerge without any help from me.

In my various talks (and fanatical ravings) with other local gardeners, I find nearly everyone to be in accordance. The only negative aspect raised is the fact that we are about 6 weeks behind in terms of flowering, compared to more normal years and the snails are inexorably marching, munching, munching. Did they have snails in the Garden of Eden, I wonder?

The roses in my garden this year are and will be the most beautiful since first planted. Some of the single pedaled "Altissimo," "Dortmund" and the elegant old "Silver Moon" have been dominating the scene for a couple of weeks and now here come the little fluffy double antique roses whose names I have to admit I have not yet committed to memory. I'll have to ask my friend Joyce Demitts of Heritage Rose Gardens to come by and name them for me - again!

This year's Mendocino Art Centre's Garden Tour - "Artists in Their Gardens" was for me at any rate, the best I have attended over the years. What a brilliant conception, and how natural. Our wonderful local artists of course have equally wonderful gardens, which provided us with a wealth of ideas to incorporate into our own "backyards."

I hesitate to single out any particular garden, but I was most impressed with first of all a certain natural free-flowing element in all of them; and secondly the artistic use of non-garden items. This is all that sets them apart from us mere mortals. Jim Ellis, husband of Claudia of garden angel fame, told me "Never throw anything away." So now I am desperately searching about in our junk for that old saw I remember seeing behind the water tank, and would I get killed by you know who if I drilled a few holes in the bottom of a certain antique copper wash tub and planted stuff in it and where could I place some stone balls and a mysterious mirror or two? I definitely need to weave some trellises and fences from bits of wood and saplings.

Thanks to all of you for a truly inspirational Garden Tour.

On a closing note - take the time to smell the roses and I hope you had a great 4th of July.

email me with your garden events for inclusion in next months column jdhbmw@mcn.org

p.s. I was talking quite a bit in last month's column about Verbena bonariensis. If anyone has difficulty finding them, e-mail me at the address shown below and come by for a free one.

Marion Wells gardens at the John Dougherty House in Mendocino 

In and Out of the Garden By Marion Wells

As the last strains of the 1998 Mendocino Music Festival fade away, so too hopefully has the fog. It was the worse kind of fog too, wet, drippy and actually drizzling some days. In some ways it is good as we do not have to water all the time, but all that overhead moisture takes a toll on the garden. The roses especially do not benefit from constant wetting of their petals and are apt to turn to mildew. Unfortunately, my beloved hydrangeas have suffered some discoloration, but overall have fared quite well. The darker blue ones from which I make wreaths later in the year have water spots on them that I hope will not make too much difference when dried. There, I didn't even make it through the first paragraph without mentioning hydrangeas!

Speaking of which reminds me that there are some wonderful sources of information on the Internet for gardeners. If any of you are familiar with the gardening magazine "Fine Gardening" you will know that they have a question and answer column. Well, the entire magazine as well as its sister and brother magazines (such as Fine Woodworking, Kitchen Gardening, etc.) is on line. The question and answer column is entitled "Sprout Off" and is an open discussion group where gardens can go to ask questions, express their opinions and exchange information about the craft of gardening. I currently have an unanswered question in this forum about hydrangeas and if anyone knows the answer I would greatly appreciate it. Here it is: "Amongst my 32 different varieties of hydrangea, I have a particularly beautiful one "Ayesha", the individual florets resembling lilac. One of the flower heads has opened up like a Macrophylla. Is this a case of 'reverting back'? Should I cut it off? Any information would be gratefully received". This site address is http://www.taunton.com/fgdisc/index.htm.

Another really cool site is www.garden.com .  They also have a forum where you can discuss gardening stuff with people all over the country (if not the entire world). There is also a unique feature, which enables you to keep ideas and information in your personal file. Isn't the Internet wonderful? This is a question that anyone who knows me would never have expected to hear escaping from my lips. It's not that I sit glued to the computer screen hour after hour (like you know who) but in spare moments during the day and in the evening I do manage to pick up the odd invaluable tip. I have obtained some of my best hydrangea catalogues, ideas and general information from the "Net". This is not to say that I still don't spend a thousand hours each year browsing and drooling over those glamorous, glossy gardening magazines, it's just that the Internet has added an extra dimension. And this to me is what gardening is all about: constant change.

Without this continual injection of new ideas we would find it hard to maintain interest in the same old plants year after year. Just walking around in my garden to day I was mentally taking note of how all my "new things" were coming along. A new phygelius "Winchester Fanfare" is looking good and sporting some very unusual coloring. Mimulus Bifidus "Pink Cloud" is supposed to require only occasional summer watering, so I'll keep my eye on that one along with Lobelia Laxiflora (Mexican Lobelia). This one is purported to be nearly ever blooming in coastal areas (that's us), deer resistant and fairly drought tolerant. If it lives up to only one of these claims I'll be happy. Here's something unusual: Patrina scabiosa "Nagoya". The label reads "Long lived, seldom needs division. Will self-sow, remove flower heads as they fade to discourage 'volunteers'. Good with tall asters and grasses and as a cut flower". Wow! I love the sound of that, except of course I won't be removing the flower heads, as "volunteers" are one of my personal joys of gardening.

The more plants I can find requiring minimal watering the better, as who knows when we will next have a winter like the last one. You would think that gardeners could enjoy their garden as it is on this day, but no, we have to be thinking ahead all the time to next month, next season, next year and five years from now; poring over the catalogues and plant lists, dreaming up new ways to spend our time and our money. Am I the only one who visits nurseries on the same trip as going to the grocery store and then tries to sneak the plants by a certain "watchdog"?! Ho. Hum.

email me with your garden events for inclusion in next month's column jdhbmw@mcn.org

Marion Wells gardens at the John Dougherty House in Mendocino

In and Out of the Garden By Marion Wells

IN MY GARDEN I HAVE A SINGING TREE. Everybody comments on it. Sometimes the "noise" is so loud that we cannot hear each other speak. It sings all day long until late afternoon, when it abruptly ceases. This will continue on now for probably another week or so when it will shut down completely until the Spring. There is quite a bit of bickering going on up in that tree and plenty of coming and going. Have you guessed yet? It is a holly tree filled with dozens of noisy blackbirds. It is a source of constant amusement for our friends and neighbors. For us it signals the end of Summer and as William Wordsworth so aptly puts it "season of mellow fruitfulness".

But how can it be November already? Haven't we just had Memorial Day? Now I know I am not the only one to be saying this, but really, where did the Summer go? Is it because we actually did not have a proper summer and what we had only began about a month ago? Mind you, my garden is looking gorgeous at the moment (more like August) with several things just beginning to flower which I had planted in July and August, so I can't have it both ways. . I estimate that we are about six weeks late this year due to all that rain in the early summer and all around town the gardens are still looking really lush.

This is shaping up to be one of those years when I don't cut things back as they are still flowering a little bit, or the leaves look nice, and then suddenly it is winter and raining so hard that its impossible to get out there and "put the garden to bed". That happened last year and I had to struggle with "wilderness areas" in the Spring, so you may see me in the garden this year in the pouring rain whacking things down.

I always have pots and pots of gorgeous begonias on the deck and this year is no exception; to see them out there glowing in the late afternoon sunshine is such a treat for everyone, and next to Tristan my precious cat, these must be amongst the most photographed things in Mendocino.

Also looking good are the tall and stately yellow mulleins, the raucous red pineapple sage and the purple Mexican sage; these will all keep going until frost (if ever we have one). A couple of new penstemons are also adding some good color - P. firebird (a fiery red) and P. orange glow (as its name suggests).

The delicate gauras are also holding their own, and I recently discovered that this beautiful plant is a California native. If you are interested in native plants at all you should drop into the Botanical Gardens and take a look at Alan's new California native landscaped area in the nursery, which he is busy planting and is full of some very lovely specimens.

I just happen to have a few new hydrangeas (all macrophyllas): H. Tokyo Delight (a large shrub with very many smallish lace cap flower heads comprised of soft-pink central fertile flowers which are raised above the encircling white sepals), H. Bodensee (a small plant which will be a dark pink in neutral soil and pure blue in acid), H. Hamburg, (a large shrub about 6' or 7' tall with huge flowers deep pink or deep blue, depending on the soil) H. Schenkenburg (deep pink to red) and H. Amethyst (a medium-sized and unusual mop head with single and double florets on the same flower head). The "garden grouch" doesn't know about these yet as I mail ordered them and they obligingly arrived on a day when he was out! Of course I shall be found out when the bill comes in, but I love to live dangerously!

Counting all the different types of hydrangeas, including cultivars, I now have close to 40. In the early summer next year I will be having another "Hurray for Hydrangeas!" sale for which I am already preparing and will advertise this closer to the time.

Still on the subject of growing, only deviating slightly, I was having a very interesting conversation the other day regarding the numerous beneficial qualities of the hemp plant. I knew the fiber from this plant could be made into clothing and other woven items, but I certainly did not realize that the pulp could be made into paper. In fact if hemp was grown on a large scale the need for cutting timber to make paper would be greatly diminished. Apparently certain tobacco growers are beginning to realize the benefits to be derived from a hemp crop monetarily speaking!!! George Washington in his second inaugural address said something to the effect that "may the seed of the hemp plant be scattered throughout the land and grow abundantly". Something to think about.

Marion Wells gardens in Mendocino, California. A native of England, she and her husband David, also own and run the John Dougherty House, a bed and breakfast Inn in downtown Mendocino.

In and Out of the Garden By Marion Wells

It really is Winter now, and if you couldn't tell from looking at the garden, you certainly could by all the Christmas catalogues in the Post Office. At least we do have the option to leave them there! I bring the garden ones home in case I spot something that I would like the "garden grouch" to buy me for Christmas. Amongst some of the wonderful new products on the market which I would dearly love to own, there is a certain something that I have my beady eye on; it is a computer compatible digital still camera. A friend has lent me hers for a couple of days and I must say I am completely hooked. You can take the picture with the camera directly onto a floppy disc, insert the disc into the computer and view it right on the screen. Amazing. I have just come in from the garden with a full disc of flower pictures which I can now edit in the PhotoShop software. This means that I can photograph all my hydrangeas and make color labels in readiness for the Hurray for Hydrangeas sale next year. I can also get a head start as some of them are continuing to flower in this lovely soft weather we are enjoying at the moment.

This year I seem to be well ahead with the cutting down of the garden and on days which are not conducive to gardening, when it is too wet or I am blown indoors by a restless wind, I am starting work on dried hydrangea wreaths (what else), and now my latest innovation: gold painted hydrangeas. They look fabulous, especially the purple ones and the whites are rather stunning too. Up at Lindstrom's craft store in the new (old) Company store Sandra has everything you will need to make these elegant decorations and wreaths.

Start with the background wreath of your choice, grapevine would be good. All you will need are hot glue gun, clippers, gold and copper spray paint (the kind for use on dried flowers and other delicate items) and of course quite a few dried hydrangeas. You can also add pine cones, dried roses and any other interesting dried thing.

I lightly spray the hydrangea with the copper (just a pass over) and then gold on top. You can cover up any brown areas quite nicely with the paint. Stick the newly painted specimens in a piece of oasis block or similar material until completely dry (a day or so) before proceeding with the wreath.

Cut the stems down to about two inches in length and hot glue them onto the wreath. A combination of natural dried materials and the spray painted ones looks very beautiful. Add an elegant bow of French ribbon if desired and you have something festive but not gaudy with which to decorate your home or give as a gift.

If you are making a spray, make it in the usual way with the natural dried flowers and then insert some gold painted ones, such as roses, and add a gold hydrangea and a bow to finish it off. Look out Martha Stewart!

The Anderson Valley is looking so beautiful at the moment, but the colors won't last long now, so if you have a chance drive over there and feast your eyes. Towards the east end of the valley the wild grapevine is showing its autumn hues and now is a good time to cut some for wreath making. This wild grapevine makes a much more delicate wreath than the more commercially produced grapevine, and it's free!

The oak trees are turning a fiery red and are great to pick and bring indoors to add to arrangements both fresh and dried. I have some which I hung in an alcove a few years ago and they still look good; a bit dusty but good.

We will be doing a building project here at the John Dougherty House this winter and sadly in order to accommodate some off street parking I have to dig up a really large chunk of my garden. The whole idea of digging up a beautiful garden in order to park cars is entirely ludicrous to me, especially in the heart of a historic village. But the mighty planning department has decreed this and so it seems I must obey. The area to come under the axe (or spade) is the very first part of the garden I landscaped in 1989 and is now of course the most mature containing some gorgeous buddleias, herbs, old roses, an apple tree and a fifteen foot weigela with a Dorothy Perkins rose climbing through it. This is not a project which I will be throwing myself into wholeheartedly, needless to say. The only thing I can hope for is that although the garden will be reduced in size the smaller version might be even better. It remains to be seen.

I have just returned from a quick trip to Fort Bragg and popped into The Mendocino Hemp Company (upstairs next to Tangents) to see what they have and to find out a little more from Andrea Luna, the owner. She started becoming interested in hemp fiber whilst working on fabric printing about five years ago. She says it is the strongest fabric known to man. The hemp plant itself is quick growing (as fast as bamboo and kelp), requires no pesticides and has the capability to leach toxins from the soil. As if that isn't enough, it is also non polluting. The crop can be harvested a couple of times a year and the unwanted parts of the plant can be ploughed back as fertilizer. What a wonderful plant!

Apparently, one of the main reasons the English were so interested in colonizing America is that they wanted to get their hands on the hemp trade!! Also, it just so happens that the Declaration of Independence is written on hemp paper.

Hope everyone is enjoying this quieter, more mellow time of year and Happy Holidays to all.

Marion Wells gardens in Mendocino, California. A native of England, she and her husband David, also own and run the John Dougherty House, a bed and breakfast Inn in downtown Mendocino

Summer must be coming, my holly tree is starting to sing again. This means that dozens of blackbirds are starting to build their nests and the chorus of these noisy birds has begun. They have appeared a little earlier this year as has everything else in the garden. Last year we were complaining that everything was about a month late and this year it's the opposite story.

What an incredibly mild winter we had. If your garden is anything like mine it will have amazed  you with princess flowers (tibuchina) flowering all winter long, hydrangeas retaining all their leaves, and in some cases, flowers as well. The age old question of when to cut back was even more difficult this season as nothing behaved itself properly, compounded with the fact that spring and summer came all at once, I am in my usual dither. So what's so unusual about that says my husband the garden grouch!!!

In my garden at present (the beginning of April as I write this) the antique roses are all in bud bursting to flower. In half wine barrels I have delicate daffodils in pastel colors vying with the newly leafed out hydrangeas and they are not used to sharing their space that I know. All the different viburnums are out and the dark red Empress of India nasturtiums never stopped blooming all winter. It will all sort itself out in due course I suppose. All this is nothing compared to the fact that I am already watering and it's only April; let's hope we get some rain soon and that by the time you read this we have had plenty of April showers.

My latest new project is designing and implementing a "gravel garden". Last summer when I was in England I had the good fortune to visit Beth Chatto's garden in Essex. Although my gravel garden is nothing compared to the size and scope of hers, I am greatly influenced by what I saw.

She started with an area where nothing would grow due to poor soil and the full sun situation of her garden. I am imitating Beth's garden to the extent that mine is in full sun but there the similarity ends. My garden is small (I dug up some more lawn when the garden grouch was out of town); measuring only about 40ft by 15ft at its widest point.

Everything, or nearly everything, is planted out and well watered. When the plants are a little more mature I will cover the whole area with gravel so that the effect will be lower growing spreading plants spilling onto the gravel, backed by taller more eye-catching elements. Then, according to Beth Chatto, nothing gets watered the whole summer. This will certainly be an experiment in xeriscaping.

My arrangements and color schemes are a little random, which is how I garden in general. If I don't care for certain colors or shapes, I can easily move them later on. Here are some of the things I used: 

In the foreground; citisus (Wisley yellow and pink), lithodora, nepeta (Five Hills Blue), some alchemilla mollis, chives and armeria. For the middle section I used verbascums, lilies, penstemons, lavenders, gaura, verbena rigida, several different kinds of poppies and a liberal scattering of annuals, such as cosmos and bachelor buttons. At the back are euphorbias, verbena bonariensis, leucodendron and many more.

My garden will be on the Art Centre garden tour again this year which takes place the third weekend in June. It will be on display the Sunday walk around Mendocino tour when you will be able to see whether my experiment has worked or not!.

Marion Wells gardens in Mendocino, California. A native of England, she and her husband David, also own and run the John Dougherty House, a bed and breakfast Inn in the village of Mendocino.

Summer must be coming, my holly tree is starting to sing again. This means that dozens of blackbirds are starting to build their nests and the chorus of these noisy birds has begun. They have appeared a little earlier this year as has everything else in the garden. Last year we were complaining that everything was about a month late and this year it's the opposite story.

What an incredibly mild winter we had. If your garden is anything like mine it will have amazed you with princess flowers (tibuchina) flowering all winter long, hydrangeas retaining all their leaves, and in some cases, flowers as well. The age old question of when to cut back was even more difficult this season as nothing behaved itself properly, compounded with the fact that spring and summer came all at once, I am in my usual dither. So what's so unusual about that says my husband the garden grouch!!! In my garden at present (the beginning of April as I write this) the antique roses are all in bud bursting to flower. In half wine barrels I have delicate daffodils in pastel colors vying with the newly leafed out hydrangeas and they are not used to sharing their space that I know. All the different viburnums are out and the dark red Empress of India nasturtiums never stopped blooming all winter.

It will all sort itself out in due course I suppose. All this is nothing compared to the fact that I am already watering and it's only April; let's hope we get some rain soon and that by the time you read this we have had plenty of April showers.

My latest new project is designing and implementing a "gravel garden". Last summer when I was in England I had the good fortune to visit Beth Chatto's garden in Essex. Although my gravel garden is nothing compared to the size and scope of hers, I am greatly influenced by what I saw.

She started with an area where nothing would grow due to poor soil and the full sun situation of her garden. I am imitating Beth's garden to the extent that mine is in full sun but there the similarity ends. My garden is small (I dug up some more lawn when the garden grouch was out of town); measuring only about 40ft by 15ft at its widest point.

Everything, or nearly everything, is planted out and well watered. When the plants are a little more mature I will cover the whole area with gravel so that the effect will be lower growing spreading plants spilling onto the gravel, backed by taller more eye-catching elements. Then, according to Beth Chatto, nothing gets watered the whole summer. This will certainly be an experiment in xeriscaping.

My arrangements and color schemes are a little random, which is how I garden in general. If I don't care for certain colors or shapes, I can easily move them later on. Here are some of the things I used:

In the foreground; citisus (Wisley yellow and pink), lithodora, nepeta (Five Hills Blue), some alchemilla mollis, chives and armeria. For the middle section I used verbascums, lilies, penstemons, lavenders, gaura, verbena rigida, several different kinds of poppies and a liberal scattering of annuals, such as cosmos and bachelor buttons. At the back are euphorbias, verbena bonariensis, leucodendron and many more. 

My garden will be on the Art Centre garden tour again this year which takes place the third weekend in June. It will be on display the Sunday walk around Mendocino tour when you will be able to see whether my experiment has worked or not!.

Marion Wells gardens in Mendocino, California. A native of England, she and her husband David, also own and run the John Dougherty House, a bed and breakfast Inn in the village of Mendocino.

Website promotion by Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc.