"Where have all the PNWers gone"

The camelia is lovely!

Laurie,

Were you thinking of tulipa pulchella, or something like that? There's also a tulipa bakerii???

Camellia is GORGEOUS! There are two huge camellia trees outside the door at work. They are a very bright spot in my day there. Definitely will put some in here, but not this year.

Thanks Laurie and Gwen. No one has any bulbs around here yet, probably another week or two, so will probably order out of a catalog. Now I've started, just. . .can't. . .stop. . .(help me........) S=O

Gwen - 475 bulbs ! That is alot, lol ! I'm anxious to see if the crinums I planted in the Fall will bloom.

Narcissus and daffodils are great for naturalizing. As Laurie said, most tulips only give you one or two years, with a few exceptions. Watch out for the squirrels and moles eating them. Some people make little metal 'cages" for their bulbs. I got tired of that and just put a "wall" of hardware cloth at the edge of the bed. We'll see if that works to keep the little pests out.

I started a thread about camellias with your inspiration, RTP. There's a great site called Camellia Forest that has quite a selection of camella sasanqua. I just love them!!

Pixy - you are ahead of me. My hellebores are up, but I think it will be a little bit yet before they open. I am up in the foothills, though, and mine are in kind of a shady spot. Congratulations on the activity in your greenhouse.

Gwen - lotsa bulbs. But I'll bet it looks awesome. Pictures, pretty please!!!

Laurie - sorry you have to leave your oasis and head back into the city. I don't like my commute, but I can't imagine what it must be like to have two homes [to maintain].

So I got my free trees for my Arbor Day membership renewal. Just when I had re-homed all my white cornus florida (white flowering dogwood), I now have 4 more. I got 3 cercis occidentalis (western redbud - a national tree condidate) and 3 koelreuteria paniculata (goldenraintree). I got one bonus tree - don't know what it is, but I still have them all inside soaking in water and the bonus tree has leaves on it!!! Not sure what to do now. Will plant it and keep it inside, maybe . . .

Gwen...475 bulbs is amazing! I can only aspire to such heights. I thought I was doing well with the 50 or so I've got going as of now.

This is our weekend project, finished, sort of. This is the new bulb bed. DH busted his hump harvesting rocks and creating the border around the 30 or so existing bulbs. The bed now contains (as just a starting point) a couple of tulips, daffodils, narcissus, crocus, hyacinth, bearded lily, hyacinth, a dwarf cherry bush, and a cone rosemary (bulb wannabes!). I can hardly wait to start filling in the gaps! Thanks everyone, for the encouragement, education, ideas, etc. I am SO ready for this now! BRING IT ON!!!!! WOOHOOO! (p.s. ~ it hardly rained at all here this weekend, was sunny most or "bright" most of the time. Feeling SO much better!)

And from the other end. The garage is 24' long, so the bed is probably about 26 or 28'.

Oh, cool! Very nice! I really like the wavy edges. And native stone, no less :)

This message was edited Jan 14, 2008 1:04 PM

Unbelievably, a beautiful sunny day passed without more than 1/2 hour outside in the garden. I sacrificed this day to spend the afternoon on the boat with DH. I did get this photo of this large group of California sea lions who had taken possession of this barge of sand. They have their own private beach! I managed to get this shot just as this large creature leaped out of the water onto the barge. Imagine the power of this animal!

Here's the only full family portrait we have ever taken! You may remember that our Claire graduated from college last month. We took the extended family for a dinner party at the Space Needle. This photo was taken on the way out to the car.

wow Pixy - it's weed-free. They must hire their own gardeners so they can bask in the sun all day.

hi pixy looks like you had a fine day. We love to go out on our boat in the summer it smells so good and fresh. What a nice day the weeds and chores aren't going anywhere. 5:00 and still light out we are getting closer to spring. I just found this website for all you seed people it might be helpfu. tomclothier.hort.net. Can't wait till spring Heidi

Pixy...great pic of the sea lions. Really doesn't get much better, eh? There's a lot to be said for being out on the water...I really miss it sometimes. Your family is beautiful ~ you must be VERY proud.

Outta- The new bed looks great! I'm excited to see pics of everything blooming!

Pixy- I sure wouldn't want to get in a flipper fight with one of those guys! Great pic of the family, how tall is Andrew now? I love your wrap too!

Pix - lovely photo! Great looking family - and everyone is sooooo clean! You really scrub up nicely.

Katye - that's really funny - always the gardener - first check if there are any weeds showing! And Outta, I just love the beds - mostly because you have a semi-permanent rock wall - It can be moved out and out and out and out........... excellent planning!!!!

RTP the camellia is gorgeous.

Outta - nice work on the new bed, so inspiring to see that fresh black composty bed !!! Love the rocks, and the way you made it curved.

Pixy - Wow ! Your family is beautiful, you must be very proud of your daughter. Sounds like you had a perfect day!

** I cant believe everyone had so much sun, it was foggy here almost the ENTIRE day, but when I took the girls to Washington Square (Sophia had a $20 gift card burning a hole in her pocket) it was blue sky, sunny. harumph!! - so unfair!

Thanks for the nice words about the photo. Mike and I just HATE having our photos taken and so I consider it the height of fortune that this one turned out reasonably well. Claire always takes a good photo, Andrew sometimes does. Rachel, the answer to how tall he is is TOO TALL! TALLER THAN ME! And eating us out of house and home. Mike and I are at that stage in life where we look at our children and think :wow! How did we do that? Why didn't we have more?
And then we remember that they are turning out well in spite of us, not necessarily because of us! LOL! And many of their genetics must surely be recessive!

sorry about your foggy day, redtootsie. If if makes you feel any better, I was gardening in the rain today.

Outtamygourd, Laurie is right about the rock 'walls'. Great use of natural materials, and it makes those beds so easy to extend!

this is totally off topic, but does anyone have a trey ceiling in their house?? I'm wondering if it's okay to go darker on said ceiling (in a dining room) thoughts??? I'm hoping it would make it "intimate" but also am a bit scared, there is a good sized window (which should be french doors- imho) in the room, & very light wainscotting.


I posted some pictures in the home decorating forum.... but don't know how many users there are in home decor




This message was edited Jan 14, 2008 2:54 PM

RTP- I just looked at your pictures on the home decor thread. What a lovely home! I have been in homes that have painted the tallest part of the ceiling (the part on the ceiling inside the trim.) Hope that makes sense, I will attach a picture. I saw it done in a rich, deep, aqua sky blue and it was gorgeous.

Check out the thread I just posted. Trust me you want to see it! http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/804436/

Thank you Rachie! That is exactly where I want to paint, I did get some of those Devine samples and the richer colors definitely look better and more dramatic. (Altho, I did get a comment that I should NOT go dark on my original post - lol ) But, the lighter color I tried "olive" is bad - it looks really light minty green (how odd is that)

Thanks for the encouragement, I think I'm going to go for it !

Hi redtootsiepop, I went a dark burgundy in my dinning room and I think it looks great. I'm only in here usally at dark so the lights are on so it makes it warm and cozy. my folks have a 1907 house and they just painted their dark dinning room a terra cotta color and it looks great warm, my burgundy is nice I kind of like theirs better. Remember it is only paint and you can change it again. I had 16 colors on the outside of my house at one time I am tring to narrow it down some because it is hard to save all those colors to paint a few years later. I went through a painting phase where I changed the whole inside of the house color every year. My husband see me coming home with a bucket of paint and thinks oh no not paint. Good luck Heidi

ha ha ha haha - thank you for that, oh my gosh, my husband thinks that when he comes home to a pile of ripped out sod in the street.

16 colors on your house! You've put it into perspective, it's just one ceiling.

Ditto the terra cotta, I put that in our bedroom 2 years ago and it is really still one of my favorites - found some pillowcases at Target that match the color.... still, rather be gardening!

RTP...DH and I were at Home Depot this weekend and saw the Bellagio Faux technique. Way cool. It may look beautiful on the ceiling. We are going to start with the bathroom. I'm not a huge faux fan, but this looked really great. The right color scheme could really add a dynamic look to a trey/tray ceiling. I would LOVE to have a ceiling to do this on, but ours are only mildly vaulted...dang.

My mom got very bold (her idea of color was "Celtic Linen," a fancy name for off-white) and painted a wall in her family room a deep sage green. She then put two shades of cornflower blue, one quite dark, one a little less so, in her bedroom and master bath. The dining room we call the pumpkin patch due to the two colors she used in there (I wouldn't want it in my own home, but it does look really good), and the guest room got a wall painted a very, VERY dark cranberry. Really inspirational to me to get some color in this "Aria Ivory" house of ours!

Putting up a pic of a kinda basic Bellagio Faux wall. Behr paint makes the stuff pre-mixed with the little white beads already in it, so all you have to do is paint it on then run a putty knife over it. Anyway...food for thought. Post pix when you get it done.

I'm afraid you guys misunderstood on the 475 bulbs. They're currently in my greenhouse in boxes. They are not planted yet! It stresses me out on a daily basis. I'm ready to go dump the lot in the middle of a dirt pile and see what happens!

They are all perennial bulbs.

Gwen

Perennial bulbs-what kind of perennial bulbs? If they're daffs, hyacinth, tulips, maybe even crocus, I'll bet they'll still bloom if you get them in the ground soon. The small bulbs are easy to plant, so if that's what they were, 475 wouldn't be too unbearable if they were all chionodoxa or something. I suppose you could force some now and plant them later, too.

RTP - an architect friend taught me a great lesson years ago - floors and ceilings reflect, walls tone. So if this is a dark room, darkening the ceiling will darken the room, and lower the ceiling considerably. That being said, don't let that stop you if what you want is somewhere that has a more muted feeling. But I am wondering if that is what you are looking for: you also point out the large window that you think should be french doors (i.e. larger). I think what you are looking for is an intimate room, not a dark one. I wonder if the first thing to tackle is changing the windows to french doors - then decide on ceiling colour. (Knocking a hole in the wall for doors is not all that difficult or much upheaval - just get the sequence right).

I think once the windows are changed you will find it much more intimate by bringing the garden into the room - that having been done, I would stick with a warm white on the ceiling, then give one wall a deeper warm colour. Painting the ceiling moulding in a muted similar tone but different colour (in example: if the accent wall is deep cranberry, paint the moulding in french grey - same tonal intensity, but good contrast) - then use a white with some yellow ochre and some lamplighter black in it for the ceiling (the yellowing of the white will lift the intensity of the cranberry/grey and warm them considerably). The walls can be a lighter shade of the white (still with a yellow ochre hint) to warm up the walls. I like to paint woodwork around windows and doors in a very light grey - almost the colour of wet unfired porcelain - great colour. They frame the outside beautifully, and have, again a warming effect.


Can you tell what I think about while I'm digging in the garden? sorry for taking that over - when I'm in london I'll take over anything to get away from workwork in the 10 mins. between appointments.

Just looked at Home Decor - RTP, lovely room - (oh gawd!) I'd definately knock out that side wall and put in whacking great french doors and a patio to sit on - excellent!!!! Well that's me kicked off the thread. Whats under the staircase, is that accessible storage?



This message was edited Jan 14, 2008 9:50 PM

um, Laurie can you come over and be my new best friend? tee hee hee.

I have to say I agree with what your saying - I was desperate for a way to add drama (and not paint the walls - all the rooms are connected on the main floor (except powder room & Laundry) ... which is pretty, they put arches in each, but they pretty much have to be the same color.

here are some paint samples, lol - my dh didn't even notice this... he did get home late, tho.

since we are moving, I will go with just a barely deeper color on the tray to show off the moulding. Hopefully that won't bring the ceiling down too far on our heads.

ah, the french doors - I even planned the garden outside that window for a future french door to be put in.

under the stairs is actually a pantry accessible from the kitchen, heres a shot from the kitchen. This is fantastic for a fam of 5, and I do like to cook when I can't garden. Summer time is paper plates and sandwiches, tho, my hands are too dirty for anything else.

outta,
I love that, we did do that in our last house (living room) except they didn't have all the great new materials then. We had to mix the paint with the glaze, roll it on and take handfuls of cheesecloth and "take off" - it was great because the house was built in 1909 and as you can imagine, the walls were imperfect, it really helped them out! My arm felt dead at the end of the day, lol.

Show me pics when you do yours, I'd love to see it.

RTP!! You're moving? Why bother doing this then? Let the next people work it out. Sheesh - get on with plantnapping all the greens you want to take with you! And get to planning what you want to do with the next house! (I do like your pantry - great idea).

ha ha ha - I'm going to wait until I get inspired again. it really wouldn't take too much time just to do the ceiling. I don't know what's wrong with me, but the girls school was 2 hours late today (icy roads) and I've completely let that derail my day - I've accomplished nothing, well except I've already eaten lunch ! lol

All kinds - hyacinths, daffs, camassia (sp?), some perennial tulips, and about 10 other things. I know, I just gotta do it!

Gwen

Gwen, Would you feel better to know I just found some alliums and daffs in the garage that I forgot about? Only about 12 each, but still, you aren't the only one with bulb-guilt! :)

OK, all you painters! MORE talent! I'm impressed!!!

oh, gwen, get the camassia in - I love it!

I've been thinking-what would all of you think about a thread of favorite winter combinations to go with the favorite summer combination thread? Or was it done last year before I was around?

I'd love it! Yet another workwork distraction!

OK Laurie, Here you go!

Favorite winter combinations:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/804921/

Let's see some pictures! :)

Laurie-
When are you coming over to give me my paint color consultation?! I love your ideas, you are so talented my dear!

Oh, Rach, you do make me blush.