Ribes sanguineum 'Brocklebankii'

Flowering in the garden this week: Ribes sanguineum 'Brocklebankii', native to the Pacific Northwest but this cultivar arose in the UK then traveled back to America! The pink flowers are set off by the yellow foliage. Brocklebankii is significantly slower growing that most green leafed cultivars of the species.

Osmanthus delavayi

Osmanthus delavayi is often given short shrift in favor of some of the more exotic members of the Osmanthus family but it's hard to beat when in flower! But then so many of the plants discovered & collected by Jean Marie Delavay in the 1800's are still hard to beat even today!

New Aesculus Liners

Aesculus hippocastanum 'Lacineata', A. neglecta 'Erythroblastos' & A. glabra 'Nana', grafted last month & now leafing out! Here are a few more Aesculus pics from our garden.

Potting begins!

So while I spent Saturday grafting Wisteria & listening to BBC Radio 4 podcasts Chiyoko began potting up the grafts that we put on the callus bed 3 weeks ago. Beginning with about 25 cultivars of Hamamelis!

Stewartia monodelpha is up!

The Stewartia monodelpha that we sowed last fall has finally made it through the perlite! Looks like the S. rostrata, S. sinensis & S. pseudocamellia are going to sit & wait until next year though!!

Wisteria grafting

This weekend we began grafting our 2010 Wisteria crop. We cleft graft bareroot seedlings & put them on our callus bed for a couple of weeks before potting them up.

Azara microphylla

Our favorite & toughest Azara is flowering in the garden this week. Our coldest winter temperatures in more than 20 years (10F) didn't do it any harm!