Category Archives: Trees

Complementary Trees and Sculpture

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“Hokkeji and Japanese Maples”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

The early spring color of our Japanese Maples highlight our garden. These two frame in the Hokkeji lantern beside the Japanese garden entry path. We enjoy the nice flash of contrasting color as we enter the garden.

Japanese maples are one of my weaknesses. Heatherwood has several throughout the garden. However, whenever I see something a little different, I want to add it. We are at the stage in our garden development that I need to have patience and wait for some of our shade trees to grow to provide the right condition for some of the less sun tolerant species.

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The Japanese Maples Are Coming Out!

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“Shin Deshojo & Kotoji”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

The Japanese Maples are finally leafing out! It may be my lack patience, but our Japanese maples seem to be late in leafing out this year. Their leaves are still in their opening phase, but it looks like all our Japanese maples made it through the bitter cold weather we had earlier this spring.

The Shin Deshojo is one of my favorite Japanese maples. I first saw one in a good friend’s yard in Seattle and fell in love with it. A little later my friends and I were walking through the Washington Arboretum and saw a mature Shin Deshojo in full spring glory. It was breath taking. A couple years later when my friends came to visit, they had a wonderful surprise for me. They brought me their Shin Deshojo as a gift for my fledgling Japanese garden. It struggled a couple of years during its transition from the mild Seattle climate to the harsh dry Yakima area. But it has survived and is now doing well. I added my second Shin Deshojo as our cornerstone tree when we built our waterfall and pond. It proudly graces our sitting area next to the pond.

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Today’s Challenge

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“Woodland Garden”
Heatherwood Spring

Today’s challenge is where do we place all the new perennials, ground covers, and understory shrubs that we will start to plant this morning. I ask myself many questions. How do I accent and outline the garden path? Does this plant need filtered sun or can it withstand the harsh summer sun of Central Washington? Will it complement the existing plantings or interfere with them? How can I create special little vignettes that draw special interests for viewers? Where do I need to block views from the street and where do I need to create windows looking through the garden?

I better stop thinking and start laying out plants. The crew gets here at 7:00 AM!

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Looking In

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“Front Yard”
Heatherwood Spring

As well as view windows looking out to the surrounding hills from our garden, we have also designed windows looking into Heatherwood from outside the garden. This one is from our driveway looking down through our front yard. The bright green of the spring grass snakes through the various planting areas. Most of the perennials are showing their fresh new growth while the deciduous trees are just starting to leaf out. It is May 1, time for the spring explosion of life!

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Blooming Together

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“Crabapple Grove”
Heatherwood Spring

Last year our crabapples bloomed one at a time in sequence. This year five of seven have bloomed together. The remaining two in addition to the original one that came with the house when we moved in should be blooming any day now.

Today we finished our first week of spring planting, hopefully we will be able to finish late next week. We have about 2500 plants to put into the ground. Most are small ground cover plants, but they still take a lot of time. We are also adding several small shrubs to fill in the mid-tier in our Japanese and woodland areas. We are not planning on any additional planting in the Crabapple Grove area. We still have to decide how we want to cover the area covered with daffodils once they have bloomed. This is a project for another day.

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Almost Passed Me By

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“Crabapples in Bloom”
Heatherwood Spring

I have been so busy getting ready for and executing our spring planting that I almost missed the peak bloom on some of our crabapples. Today we took the time to take an early morning stroll before we started planting. As the daffodils in the grove fade, the crabapples start to bloom. This is the second blooming season for our new crabapples. They are gorgeous, even though they are still in their youth.

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Next…

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“Pink Cherokee Chief Dogwood”
Heatherwood Spring

After the early blooming yellow Cornelian Cherry dogwood, our pink Cherokee Chiefs are the next dogwoods to bloom. The sepals are just starting to spread now. In a day or two, I anticipate that they will be in full bloom.

Our two pink dogwoods were here when I first moved to our Selah home in 2016. They greet us as well as visitors as we/they enter our upper driveway.

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Still a Garden Star

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“Cornelian Cherry Dogwood Bloom”
Heatherwood Spring

Our Cornelian Cherry Dogwood is one of the first bloomers of the year in early March. The blooms have remained for over a month! They start off as little yellow “puff-balls” then mature into graceful blossoms as the sepals spread out. This beautiful little tree remains a star of the garden through early spring!

There is so much going on in the garden as the temperatures start to rise this spring. I discover new tiny leaves, bulging buds, new baby conifer cones, along with new blossoms every day. I enjoy just walking through the garden examining the changing details of all the new life! It’s a wonderful way to start the day.

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Easter Emergence

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“Celebrating Easter”
Heatherwood Lower Garden

Easter is a time of emergence and new life. Heatherwood welcomes Easter with its early spring burst of bulbs, trees blooming and leafing out, perennials popping out of the ground, and grass greening up. It is a celebration of life that nature and our Lord has given us.

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A Little Brightness

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“Neighbor’s Willow”
Heatherwood View

Our neighbor’s willow tree brightens my day. Most mornings while I am waiting for my early morning coffee to brew, I walk to our living room window and look over our garden and up the hillside above. This willow always draws my gaze. Even on a dreary early spring day, the tree’s brightness is a harbinger of a good day ahead. Thank You!

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