Politics - January 11, 2026

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: More Garden Successes in the PNW

January 11, 2026

0 18 7 min read

A bit of a well-deserved victory lap, from staunch photographer / master landscaper Dan B:

It’s a gray evening here after partly sunny and 50°. The Cascades are snow covered and more plants are blooming.

Satby mused that Seattle is having Spring. I quoted a pundit who said, “Seattle has two seasons: early Spring and late Spring.” The past three years we’ve had two months of real summer — if days over 80° and nights above 65° count as summer then days over 90° and nights near 70° might also.

Top photo: We planted a hybrid Camellia called ‘Buttermint’ along the south property line. It’s starting to cover the ugly chain link. It’s much appreciated. The flowers shatter and cover the ground with snow white petals instead of holding onto them until they turn brown. The blooms are modest in size but prolific.

This Garrya x Issaquahensis, Issaquah Silk Tassel, hides the truck from the street. It was bred by acquaintances of mine to be hardier than other Silk Tassels. It’s named after the town, Issaquah – headquarters of Costco, where they lived. Little birds shelter in it so the local Hawk and Eagle can’t find them. In a few weeks the tassels will be shedding heavy, non allergenic, pollen.

Arctostaphylos ‘Sunset’, bred by Sunset Magazine, is in full bloom and the peeling bark is gorgeous. Its forebears are Manzanitas that inhabit dry coastal California and Southern Oregon. I’m not sure what pollinates them in California but there are no actives bees here and the flowers don’t seem to interest our resident Hummingbird.

The Hellebore which I believe is ‘Wedding Party’ is very precocious. The previous post of mine had only one fully open bloom. My photos from other years that are as advanced as this are dated mid February and March. Several other plants have one flower open so our warmest ever December has primed them to go full blast.

Here are a couple more showing color. It was 50° today, Friday, so they’ll be opening soon.

In the back yard in winter, heavy rain makes for a noisy pond. And a slush covered pond in freezing weather.

The gutters on the house and the tool shed (clubhouse) were reset to direct rain from the roof into the pond and down a waterfall, in the case of the shed. I was inspired by the Japan Center at UBC. it’s a huge pyramid with no gutters, except at the entries. The water falls into concrete ponds around the perimeter that descend over waterfalls down the hillside. It dawned on me that this was celebrating the rain instead of cursing it.

I’m not sure how the employees whose offices look out through the sheets of water from the roof like it, but I’m glad to have our water noise varying depending on the intensity of the precipitation.

The pond looked fine in mid December, as did the golden leaved Jasmine Vine on the fence. It is a friendly privacy screen from the neighbors. The pots by the pond had Tomatoes hence the Tomato cages.

My partner covered the door and unglazed windows in the shed to store tender plants like the Calocasia in the next photo.

This Calocasia has black foliage. You can see the outside of one leaf in the lower right of the photo. We enjoy this view with the light coming through the leaves from inside the shed / clubhouse. It makes me think of stained glass.

It’s tucked away in the shed, and will get a few strings of incandescent Christmas lights around it if we get a hard freeze. They’ll be inside double layered mylar sheets to hold the warmth.