“North Wind Hybrid Japanese Maple”
Heatherwood Japanese Maple
Our North Wind Japanese maple is a hybrid that has been developed to withstand harsher environments than a typical Japanese maple. It is located in full harsh afternoon sunlight and will eventually flow over the Oribe Japanese lantern and a Tetsu Bachi water basin. It provides an entryway to our lower Japanese garden retreat.
“Shin Deshojo Japanese Maple”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
I posted an image of this Shin deshojo earlier this month when the leaves were just starting to break out and before the new ground covers were added. The Japanese maple is now in its peak brilliant pink spring color. This spring we planted a patch of Bressingham thyme. In a few years, we should have a blanket of purple to complement the Shin deshojo maple. It takes time for the thyme.
“Waterfall Japanese Maple”
Heatherwood Spring
As I have mentioned many times before, I love Japanese maples and can’t get enough of them. For the next several posts, I will present some of my favorites. This ‘Waterfall’ Japanese maple was planted in 2017. It started out as a little spindly plant a little over 2.5 feet tall. In five years it has grown to a beautiful specimen about four feet tall and wide. It graces both the entryway into our house as well as the entry area of our Japanese influenced garden. I look our my office window every morning and enjoy seeing ‘Waterfall’.
“Dogwoods & Redbuds”
Heatherwood Woodland Garden
One of my fondest memories of the rural Virginia countryside is the springtime bloom of the native dogwoods and redbuds. They were such a beautiful contrast of purplish pink and white that abounded along the country roads in the Virginia woodland areas. I remember the beautiful drives from Fairfax down to Jefferson’s Monticello and the trips along Skyline Drive.
Here at Heatherwood in Eastern Washington, we are trying to create a similar feeling in our woodland garden. Our first challenge is to select trees that will withstand the harsh summer sun. Both dogwoods and redbuds are understory trees that flourish under the canopies of taller trees. We have taken the risk of planting taller trees simultaneously with the dogwoods and redbuds. The second challenge is to select the dogwoods that will bloom at the same time as the redbuds. The eastern dogwoods and redbuds bloom together. However the Eastern dogwood is susceptible to anthracnose which we do not want to have. Thus, we are experimenting with different species of Kousa dogwoods to match the early blooming time of the redbuds. Time will tell how successful our efforts will be.
“Waterfall and Maple”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
The Japanese maple shown in my last post shields a secondary waterfall from a walker on the garden path. The curious can leave the path, walk up close and peek through the tree to see the lower falls. Walking about ten yards more along the garden path, the falls are fully revealed. There is often a surprise as one turns a corner in the garden.
“Japanese Maple and Waterfall”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
This morning’s garden stroll was focused on little vignettes of Japanese maples in our Japanese garden. This is one that I frequently turn to. This maple stands alongside our smaller waterfall. Its shape and green dissectum leaves provide a calm contrast to the rushing water.
“Front Yard Planting Area”
Heatherwood Spring
I try to be mindful when I make a photograph. I ask myself why do I want to take an image before I snap the shutter on my camera. There is nothing really unique about this image. It does not have any special composition or a single subject of interest. It certainly is not an iconic view. It was not taken during exceptional lighting giving it a moody feeling. It does have contrasting colors, shapes, and textures. When it comes down to the reason I took the image, I guess it was simply that I liked the view looking into our garden from the front yard planting area into the beginning of our woodland garden.
“Spring Vignette”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Spring is a beautiful time in our Heatherwood Japanese garden. The various trees and shrubs blend together to provide a beautiful patchwork of colors. As I peek through the trees, my eyes take a circuitous route through the vignette. They first focus to the left on the bright pink of a Shin deshojo Japanese maple, then move up to the magenta of a flowering crabapple. They move to the right corner to see the deep purple of a Bloodgood Japanese maple and then down to the rhododendrons that are just about ready to burst in bloom. They next move up to the center to see the white flowers of a fothergillia. Finally they move up a little more and see the chartreuse of a Shigasura Japanese maple. I squint my eyes and see a blurred impressionistic patchwork of color.
The image above is from the most mature area in our Japanese garden. The flowering crabapple was here when I moved in during 2016. The first tree I planted in the garden in 2016 was the Bloodgood Japanese Maple. The following year, I received the Shin deshojo Japanese maple from wonderful friends. In 2018, I added the rhododendrons and the Shigasura. And then in 2019, we planted the fothergilla. Now after three years, we have an intriguing combination of colors, shapes, and textures.
“White Kousa Dogwood”
Heatherwood Spring
Here come the dogwoods joining the blooming crabapples and redbuds. Individually each tree has its unique character. Together they yell out “Its Spring” in our Heatherwood garden!
Over the years, I have become addicted to dogwoods. The first dogwood tree I remember is a small pink one that Dad planted in our yard in the early 60’s. I received my first real appreciation of their collective beauty when we moved back to the Washington, DC area in the early 80’s. We planted a white Florida dogwood as a center piece in our front yard. It was so little when we left. Years later in the late 90’s, I drove by our past home and saw that it had matured into a beautiful tree that had was the star of the front yard. Since then we have planted several dogwoods in our Kent, Woodinville, and Fountainville homes as we moved back and forth between the East and West coasts. And now in Heatherwood, we have planted ten dogwoods. I can’t get enough and plan to plant several more throughout Heatherwood as the years go by.
“Blooming Redbuds”
Heatherwood Woodland Garden
The woodland is coming to life with the blooming redbuds and the new understory that we have been planting during the last two years. It will take 3-5 years for trees to get large enough and the understory to fill in to be able to start to get the feeling that we are walking through a woodland. In the meantime we will enjoy the blooming young trees and understory highlights and dream what it will be in the years ahead. Patience! Patience! Patience!