On Shy Days, A Generous Gift
A Season of Giving
It remains a pity that so many of the treasures found in our collection at Heronswood come into their finest after the garden has closed for the year. Of those that shine brightest in mid-November through …
Haunted Heronswood
Haunted Heronswood is here at last! Our gardeners have conspired with the weather and the plants to create the perfect Halloween outing for you and your family. Come see the Heronswood you know and love transformed into a spooky version …
Parting Shots of Autumn Color
Going Out with a Flash (of Fothergilla)
The days have shortened and the skies have darkened. Yet for many, the finest moments of the gardening calendar are upon us. The garden at Heronswood is downright punchy with brilliant autumn color, …
Pretty in Pink
We tend to think of spring as a time for flowering bulbs. Perhaps that’s because sunny yellow daffodils bring to mind the warm weather ahead of us? From a bulb’s perspective, spring is a good time to bloom as it’s …
The spiny charms of the genus Colletia
Life can be prickly. Bloom anyway.
The genus Colletia can really get under your skin. Literally. A small genus of small trees or large shrubs hailing from the southern Andes, the 16 or so species are not known to possess …
I don’t grow Buddleja
What attracts you to a plant? Beautiful flowers, pungent aromas, pleasing habit? For me, it’s novelty and weeping buddleja certainly has that. With silver-backed foliage and flaky bark, it resembles its namesake Buddleja davidii, but the flowers are presented …
Cyclamen Season Commences
The Most Beautiful Cyclamen (Ever)
As the days shorten and the first rains appear, one of the more magical moments of the autumnal garden awakens from our woodland floor. The first of the hardy Cyclamen begin to present their beguiling, …
The Perfect Time to Plant
Fall is Planting Season
The rain has returned! And with it, an excellent reminder that there is still plenty of time to add new plants to your garden. We’re at the end of another gardening year here in the Pacific …
Flowering Hardy Gingers
Ginger Zinger
Late summer and many plants have passed their peak, but while other flowers fade, hardy gingers are at their blooming best. Here at Heronswood, Hedychiums are in their prime, with proud spikes of pungently-scented flowers in several hot …
Autumn Crocuses
Don’t Get Your Crocus Crossed
Hard to believe I’m saying this in August, but fall is here. Certainly, that’s what some of the plants at Heronwood are saying. While our herbaceous borders are still afire with colourful lilies, dahlias and …
True Blue Indigo
Some plants have such a long history of use that we can’t rightly say where on this planet they first sprang forth. They have been harvested, cultivated, and distributed by enterprising humans for so many thousands of years that scientists …
Learning From Lilies
A Wealth of Mid-Summer Lilies
Besides those cheery, early-blooming Lilium martagon, which have already come and gone, we’re entering a peak lily moment this very week at Heronswood. It seems appropriate that we’ve once again passed through a (very …
Hydrangea Kith and Kin
Heart of the Matter
At Heronswood, we love hydrangeas! From super-rare, wild-collected Hydrangea sikokiana, to common garden mop-heads, we have a fine collection and they’re blooming now. And it’s not just hydrangeas – we grow many other members of …
The Marvelous Molecules of the Thunder God Vine
Big Pharma Finds a Vine!
If I had been more intelligent, I think I might have been convinced to become an organic chemist, making my living exploring the infinite ways in which the natural world has assembled Carbon into a …
Peak Season for Cardiocrinum
A woodland perennial with four season interest is a rare thing, but species in the genus Cardiocrinum come close. Rosettes of glossy, heart-shaped leaves tease us with promises of skyscraper-like blooms for years. New flowering stalks add a graceful, upright …
Valiant Rodgersias
Boldness Incarnate for PNW Gardens
Can you even imagine? Only a bit over a century ago, all you need do was sail a boat into a harbor in Asia and your legacy would be cemented into the genus of a …
Amazingly Graceful Libertia
If you’ve been near the Garden House at Heronswood recently, you’ve no doubt noticed the cloud-like profusion of small white flowers blooming by the front door. This plant stopped me in my tracks when it first opened a few weeks …
Take a Cyp
Growing up in northern Michigan, a somewhat rare but always exciting encounter would occur each spring while hunting the elusive morel mushroom with our family, when we would stumble upon a patch of one of our native Cypripedium orchids. Three …
True Blue
Flowers come in almost every color and you’ll find a kaleidoscopic range in bloom at Heronswood this weekend. From pure white trilliums to dark, sultry arisaemas, we have every shade covered. But there’s one color that’s far from common and …
A Late Spring Bloomer
Certain woodland plants help ease our transition out of peak spring ephemeral bloom. Just as we start to miss the Erythronium and Anemone, these stalwarts come into bloom and herald the rest of the season in the flowering understory. …