You can feel fall in the air, but the garden is far from slowing down. September is one of the loveliest times in the Pacific Northwest, when late-blooming flowers are still putting on a show and foliage is just beginning to take on its fall color. Here are a few of our favorite plants for carrying the garden beautifully from summer into fall.
Autumn is a great time to plant and refresh your fading summer garden with trees, shrubs, and perennials that offer a spectacular fall show. From fiery reds and golds to cool silvers with contrasting colors, here are some of our recommendations for a colorful fall garden.
The West Seattle Garden Tour celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. The gardens were lovely, and the views were spectacular, but what really inspired me were the small touches accessible to gardeners at all levels. Here are my top 5 takeaways from the tour. I hope they might inspire you in your own garden.
Whether you’re refreshing containers, filling gaps in the garden, or planning ahead for spring, fall planting sets the stage for a beautiful year to come. The nursery is brimming with colorful fall foliage and blooms. To help you choose, our buyers have highlighted some of their top fall picks.
Way up here in the land of tall conifers, dry shade is a common gardening challenge. I’ve had success with the following plants in the shade of conifers, and they also work well in deciduous woodlands or in the dry rain shadow of north-facing buildings and garden walls. As with any new plantings, they will require summer water for several dry seasons until they have established a root system capable of competing with existing tree roots.
Fall is here and, at this point in the season, it’s fun to start thinking about the new plants, colors, and textures for your containers so they will offer continued interest through fall, winter, and even into early spring. It’s the perfect time to get new foliage planted in the containers you would like to refresh so there can be nice root growth before frosts come.
One of the perks of working at Swansons is being able to visit PNW gardens. While the majority of gardens we visit are public, it’s always a treat to visit personal gardens and explore what local gardeners are doing in their private spaces. Nestled in an ordinary block north of Seattle, there is a floriferous wonderland called Fishtail Cottage. Complete with a white picket fence, romantic cottage garden flowers, and a bevy of animal greeters, you might feel like you have wandered out of the suburbs and into a modern fairy tale land.
There are a multitude of summer flowers, but one particular shrub always wows us with beautiful, show-stopping flowers: the hydrangea. With long-lasting pink, red, white, chartreuse, blue, and violet flower colors, hydrangeas will look right at home in any garden. I would like to feature a few most often seen growing in PNW gardens.
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