Winter Colors/Garden Style nw

[Music] hi everybody Debbie here with Garden style so long time no speak I have been a little busy over the last few months but I'm finally tuning in for the year of 2025 and I know for some of you it's going to be tough to talk about gardening right now because some of us are seeing subzero temperatures uh quite a few of us have some snow on the ground fortunately here in the Northwest we are definitely seeing freezing temperatures at night but we're not quite that cold but I thought I would talk to you today about some winter color winter blooms things we can start thinking about during the month of January being a lot of us just cannot get out in the yard right now and and uh kind of clue you in as to why you haven't seen me in a while now for those of you who have followed me for a while you knew that my uh mother had been staying with me we went to go get her a little over a year ago and she did pass uh this last October so it's taking me a few months to kind of gather my thoughts together and of course deal with that but uh that's the main reason you haven't seen me in a while but we are moving on moving forward forward and looking forward to a brand new year and brand new ideas for the garden so let me get into someplace warm I'm standing outside in the back of the nursery right now right behind me you can see here is our new Greenhouse uh our old one collapsed in a snowstorm last year and it took us the summer to get this guy built but it's really super cool I'm really pleased with it um so that's finished and now we can move on to some other things and you'll see behind me here those are all of our trees out there no leaves just sticks which is why I so look forward to the month of March cuz finally the leaves start to show up and things start to get pretty and fluffy and I have a little kitty who just showed up a little Mackie cat so let me get inside where it's a little bit warmer and let's talk about some things and some ideas we can do during the month of January all right so I'm out here in the front of the nursery and I apologize if it's a little noisy cuz there will be some traffic going by but I had to show you this this is Sara coka or sweet box is the common name this is an evergreen and you can see they have already started blooming we've kind of had a mild winter here already and um uh they're already blooming usually I don't see blooms on them till February so they're a little freaked out and the frost shouldn't hurt them a bit in fact they're on our covered porch here by the front door but I just had to show them to you cuz this is a fabulous winter Bloomer and if you want to plant them put them like near your front door or your back door so you can smell them as you're going in and mixed in here this is Nandina and you can see it's beautiful red colors and this is what happens when it gets cooler out they start to turn red so what's some beautiful color for the Winter Garden just sitting right here and I can tell you right now the Sara coca smells absolutely amazing but this is an evergreen shrub that loves the shade um this particular variety will get about 3 to 4T tall there's also a shorter variety uh the rapia variety that's more of a ground cover so it kind of hugs the ground but this is definitely the shrub version um and and personally it's my favorite just because it does this and these it is so fragrant it is unbelievable uh I taught a class last week and I had to put these in the back of my car and I tell you talk about an awesome car freshener they were smelling me out of the car it was pretty heav but uh just had to cover that as a winter Bloomer cuz they're already doing their thing now here's another winter BL bloomer that a lot of people don't even think of and that is Chamas um and you can get the sanqua variety which will start blooming in as early as November December and the one I'm showing you here is called buttermint and this one just started blooming in fact you can see where there's a bud right there and I'm kind of peeking underneath Frost covers you can see here that we have covered a lot of our plants just due to the fact that it's you know down into the 20s tonight so when they're in pots like this they're a little more vulnerable than if they were to be you know outside but they're hearty and they'll certainly deal with really cold temperatures chameleos are Hardy down to zone four zone 5 depending on where you live this is another one that prefers shade and uh I just love them because they do this during the winter time and of course Chamas come in all kinds of colors um you can get them in white red pink you can get them in by colors uh but a lot of folks forget about chameleos and with a lot of the new hybrids that are coming out now you can get them in shorter varieties a lot of Chamas can get quite large which actually comes in handy if you need a hedge for instance uh something that will Bloom for you in the late winter early spring uh of course they're Evergreen and they actually make excellent Hedges you just want to keep them trimmed so they stay dense and of course do this for you the more more you trim them after they're done blooming the more blooms they're going to give you the following year um so yeah there's another one for winter color you just got to love them Chamas have been around a long long time and uh something that I've always appreciated hey hey hey look at that we just got our first batch of Prim roses in this is always a sight for sore eyes uh especially at this time of the here when we're all craving a little bit of color but these guys are tougher than they think we bring them in early simply because we know if our customers go to plant them right now they can survive a frost or two and we're currently hardening them off here in the LA house so they're no longer in the greenhouse where they'll be tender they're they're out here in the cold but uh what a gorgeous plant to put into your containers or in the garden during the winter time so if you're not frozen over um and you're actually thaw out during the day don't be afraid to plant these we always bring them in early knowing that they can put up with cold temperatures but as you know Prim roses come in all kinds of colors and this is the ballerina version of the prim roses there's all different kinds and I just love them for their double flowers and of course color something we are craving this time of the year here's another fantastic winter bloom Boer um and that is helbor look at that they're just gorgeous now the helbor are another Evergreen perenial plant they're kind of like a shrublet um they only get maybe 2 feet tall by about two maybe 3T wide depending on their age but the cool thing with helor or the Lenton Rose they're often called is they can start blooming as early as December uh these are kind of a mid Bloomer these have just started to uh get blooming but there's several varieties that you can have bloom in December January and February and the thing I love about hbor number one they're deer resistant the deer will not eat them they're Evergreen so they hold on to their leaves and uh they give you a nice surprise when it's really cold out it's just nice to see their colors and right next door here you'll see a variegated variety see how pretty the leaves are and you can see they're already sending up their blooms and their buds mine out in my yard haven't started yet they're a little bit later Bloomer varieties but the hellor you can get in pink you can get them in dark red black white light pink and white you can get them with double flowers singles um but highly recommend that everyone should have these in their yard and honestly they are very drought resistant once they're established and I usually plant most of mine underneath fur trees hemlocks places that are really dry dry in the shade and they do quite well and I fertilize mine twice a year I'll usually fertilize them in the spring and again in the fall just so they have an extra boost during the winter time to do this for you which is awesome yep there's another one just loaded with buds in there you can see that and I love them cuz their blooms last forever mine will start blooming and I'm usually not trimming them back until April and speaking of trimming I will usually go out in the yard like right now and I'll trim off a lot of the bottom leaves are kind of ugly and have been weathered and that way your plants can put more energy into their blooms and they just look better uh especially after getting beat up a little bit during the fall but you can't beat them hobor have become extremely popular um super easy to grow just keep them well watered during their first year and uh you will be amazed at how tough this plant is so here's another beautiful specimen that starts blooming during the winter time and that is Heather now this is actually a heath which has teeth so you know the difference if I go up real close you can see how it kind of has pine needles sitting on the branches there so that's what can you that's how you can tell the difference um Heath and Heathers are all part of the same family but what I love about them is this particular variety actually blooms in the winter and it's so nice to see and you can get it in a pink and a white and if I find the tag here I can give you a variety here we go yeah this is an Erica and this is called Kramer's rot and talk about Hardy these guys are Hardy down to zone five or minus 20 de they prefer full sun so find a Sunny Spot for these they don't get very very tall they're great as ground covers this particular variety will only get about 12 to 18 in high so I love planting them underneath shrubs and things where you could use a little ground cover and they don't get very wide they get maybe 2T wide uh but they're great for a border in the garden um and especially at this time of the year when they start to do this it's just nice to see some winter color and these are fantastic for that now let me sit down here for a second and I'll go over some more for you okay it is crispy Critters out here it's getting towards the end of the day Sun's going to be setting here in a couple of hours uh one thing I can say is we're finally starting to notice a little more Daylight uh when you live as far north as we do here in the state of Washington you really notice the darkness during the winter time so I'm always thrilled by the time we get to the middle of January we're finally starting to see our light coming back our days are gradually getting longer and honestly since December 21st we've gained almost 3 hours of sunlight it comes back and it comes back fast uh by the time we hit January so Hallelujah that's a really good sign we're getting a little closer to spring so I hope I have thrown out some ideas for you as to what type of color you can look for forward to in January uh especially here in the Northwest we've actually had a very mild winter um and it hasn't been until just this past week where we're starting to see night after night of freezing temperatures and I'm actually grateful for that because it just means a few less bugs few less diseases we need freeze uh during the winter time and I'm always happy to see the Four Seasons anyway but you know it's questionable at this point being it's been so mild as to whether we're going to see any snow or not not um but knock on wood February is usually our coldest month of the year so we're not out of the woods yet not yet so anyway um some other plants that you can look into for winter color is witch hazel winter Jazmin um there's a beautiful viburnum called pink Dawn which is extremely fragrant that's also fantastic for some winter color and those are just blooms you can you know get the Nandina like what I uh showed you a little earlier for for some winter color um the heath and the Heathers uh especially the Heathers show lots of foliage color some really deep bright oranges and reds um Pacific fire Maple and of course I'm flashing these pictures up for you so that you can get an idea uh what to look for coral bark maple is another one so it's just a good sign when you start to see these winter Bloomers starting to bloom it just means we're getting a little closer to Spring at the nursery we're seeing signs already uh our seeds will be in this coming week um and after that we start to receive bulbs for the spring and the summer and then it just keeps coming after that uh nice shipment of evergreens are coming in next week and I promise as soon as we see a lot more of these specimens starting to roll in I want to cover more with you but uh just wanted to get back in touch uh for 2025 I'm looking forward to a really fantastic spring uh busy spring um and I hope all of you are managing to stay warm out there uh 3/4 of the country is in a deep freeze right now so hang in there stay warm and I hope to talk to you soon bye for now [Music]