Julius Rosso Nursery in Georgetown

As I've mentioned before, Julius Rosso Nursery is my favorite nursery in town. It's not the nicest or the fanciest, but it's right by my house, and I love it.

They used to be wholesale only.



A gorgeous hosta.



These greenhouse-wintered variegated flax plants look happier than the ones that spent the winter in my front yard.



I haven't decided how I feel about Japanese blood grass. I've heard it's invasive. Love the sedge.



This burning bush looks sweet.



A pretty jumble of colors and textures. Rosso is not divided into neat, well-labeled sections, not at all.



I wonder what year their sign is from. This family-run business has been around for almost 50 years.



I'm glad I didn't bother to bring my siphon!



I wonder if this is the greenhouse that I once saw a rat in.



This looks just like the baby Euphorbia that is taking up residence in my planting strip.



There's no denying it. Chocolate sedge looks likes hair.



I'm crazy for this shape of leaf, the name of which I learned in like sixth grade. You know, palmate, pinnate, something like that. I love eucalyptus leaves, which look like smoke tree leaves.



A gratuitous eucalyptus leaf shot.



Personally, I think palms look silly in the Northwest, unless you're dedicated to cultivating a surreal garden, like Little & Lewis. I don't like seeing a palm tree as an element of an otherwise normal-looking garden here.



However, I have no problem with Canna lilies. Maybe because they're only seen during warm months, so they don't seem so totally out of place.



Rosso borders Boeing Field. I wanted to get a shot of an airplane landing, but I didn't see any. During the week the little airport is very busy with UPS, FedEx, and Airborne Express planes.



Scummy yet appealing?



Blue + orange = pretty.



I love this chartreuse glow.



It's hot in here.



Oh, cool, it's the lawnmower man! I want to get closer and take a better photo of him!



Damn. Too late. (I just found out that my husband went there and had him sharpen our lawnmower blade today. The lawnmower guy told him: "You're smart to have me sharpen your lawnmower blade. Because they cost $18 new, but I'll sharpen yours for $5.")



I wonder if I would like this Blue Medusa. I need to do some research on this. Might make a cool container plant.



I am scandalized that this Ceanothus is identified only as "California Lilac."



Hmm. Looks like Diamond Height stays low. This could be useful to me. I wonder that color the flowers will be. "Bright blue" sounds promising. I'll have to look this guy up.



Let's end with a shot of some lowly groundcover.

Trashy Yard, Great Ceanothus

Groucho Marx Heads and Plants

Subtitle: Bad Pictures of Good Things

OK, I've been trying to get photos of these bizarre Groucho Marx heads for you guys for weeks now. But we're always going too fast over the West Seattle Bridge. Today I noticed that most of them are gone, and there's only one left, so I'll just show you what I've got so far.

Pictures from 4/17:

(WTF?)





Picture from today:



Now back to the plants. Here are my beloved smoke trees back on 4/17. The blue oat grass has exploded since then.







Here's my Ceanothus on 4/17:



And the rest of the photos are from this evening.

Some books say you can cut the seedheads from your Helictotrichon sempervirens, but I would never do that.



Lovely Cotinus.



My husband sometimes complains that it looks weedy, but I love this big fluffy fennel.



This Japanese maple was a birthday present from my stepmother-in-law. The Japanese maple is like the patron plant of Mid Beacon Hill. Virtually everyone has one. They're nice. I need to try to find a protected place for this guy. It may be a planter plant, to tell you the truth.



Another gift. Euphorbia. I like them. 2,160 species can't be wrong, right?



More gifts. Raspberries!



Some of the leaves aren't looking so hot, but the alliums themselves seem to be fine so far.



I've been really busy with all that birthday stuff, so I still haven't had a chance to plant this beautiful little Hebe yet. I know I am going to love it.



Ginkgo leaves. So sweet.

Three Ceanothus Plants I Saw Today

My Chesnut District friends' Ceanothus.



Ceanothus at the Arboretum.



My Ceanothus.



Bonus photo. The plants I bought at the Arboretum plant sale today. A dwarf fir, a hebe, and some sedum.

Photos of Plants in Beacon Hill and Wedgwood

I liked the way the smoke tree's leaves caught the morning light yesterday.



Yes, another photo of my Ceanothus. It's just fucking killing me how close to bloom it is.



Here's a misleadingly cropped photo of the view of my living room from this morning. When you're actually in the living room, you see the top of mean neighbor dude's house right under this. But let's just look at the Olympics instead.



OK, off to Wedgwood. I believe this is where local gardening personality Ciscoe Morris lives.



He has one of the lushest planting strips in Seattle.





Moss, mondo, maple.



This is my friends' house.



They built this fence around their tree.

Quick Tour of the Garden

Nowadays whenever I come home from a trip, I'm so excited to see my plants that I tour the front and back yards before going in the house.

My blue oat grass is sending up some seeds.



Smoke tree is starting to show us its beautiful leaves.



Looks like the ginkgo survived the cold winter in its aluminum pot. I know this seems awfully sexist, but I'm afraid to plant it in case it's female. I bought it for $10 from a guy at a farmer's market last summer.



I think this may be the first honeybee I've seen in the yard this year.



Alliums are coming right along.



I love how juicy the barberry leaves look at this time of year. This summer they'll look more variegated.



A little bit hard to see in this photo, but it does look like this Julia Phelps Ceanothus is going to have brilliantly and deeply blue flowers. This one is doing better than a couple of the others, but that's OK. I think I may remove some of the weaker ones. Despite their incomparable beauty, no one really needs nine Ceanothus plants in their backyard.

Dick and Jane's Spot in Ellensburg

While looking for a place to have lunch in Ellensburg, Washington, on Saturday, I passed a weird-looking house and yard. These kooky homeowners call their place Dick and Jane's Spot.















The drive back to Seattle on I-90 takes us past farms and lakes in the Cascades.