Pacific Northwest Gardening: If I could only keep one plant this week....., 0 by Rarejem

Rarejem wrote:
Hi guys!

More research for you all to help me with. What I would like to do with this thread is get an idea of superstars in the Pacific Northwest garden by date. I know that all of us strive to have garden interest year round, and that is sometimes very hard to accomplish. With the help of our members, I would like to come up with a list of outstanding garden plants for every week of the year. I know that some winter weeks may be tough, but we have such a temperate climate that we should be able to come up with something for almost a full year. Wouldn't you love to have a reference to find something that would bloom for you around the third week of March? The second week of January? It changes year to year depending on the weather, and our individual climates will vary as well, but if we all participate, we should be able to come up with a pretty spectacular "PNW garden for all seasons".

Please share with us the BEST plant of interest in your garden this week. I am looking for just ONE plant per person per week. Doesn't have to be flowering... it could be a lovely tree, and impressive eye-grabbing clump of grass, or stunning new foilage on a shrub. It just needs to be the favorite focal point of your garden that week. This will be used in a similar way as the full bloom info that I asked for in the other thread, but this list is designed to incorporate non-blooming flora and summarize PNW favorites rather than "everything".

It would be most helpful for me if you would include the date for the week, a picture if possible, common and latin name of the plant, and any info that you can about your zone, elevation, location, etc. , this info will be going into a summary

This is my contrbution for the week starting Feb 14th. I am in a zone 6/7 area.... 500 foot elevation and not near a body of water. The most notable plant in my garden this week is a Rhody, Rhododendron 'Christmas Cheer'. I would say that it is in almost full bloom right now, and as the majority of the garden is still browns and greens, the bright splash of pink is breathtaking. (And check out the sunbeam I took the picture in.... that was pretty stunning too!)

As with the bloom time list I am compiling, I will post the results for everyone's access.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Edited to meet my own request about including a "full" name. Also edited to add a bit of info for anyone who is interested in rhodies... I bought both 'Christmas Cheer' and 'Rosamundi' because they are supposedly two of the earliest blooming rhodies. My CC picture was taken yesterday. My Rosa. is still tightly budded with just a tinge of pink here and there.

This message was edited Feb 18, 2010 5:32 PM