Archive | March, 2011

Bestill our Hearts – Kate Frey at the Nursery!

30 Mar

NEWSFLASH!! The incredible Kate Frey is coming to speak at the nursery for our AMAZING SPRING PARTY on Saturday, April 9 at 11 am! Kate will be giving a presentation on “How to Create a Pollinator Paradise in your own Garden.” As pollinators the world over are struggling, we think this is an extremely important talk – you must come!

Once there was a princess in Cretan Greek mythology who was changed into a bee after she learned how to collect honey. Her name was Melissa.

Bee Goddess, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg, New York, 2010, Mixed Media

Last year, Kate invited all of us at Annie’s to visit the thrilling “Melissa Garden” she created in Healdsburg, CA for “bee-stewards” Barbara and Jacques Schlumberger. The Melissa Garden was created as a bee sanctuary extraordinaire where hives are treated as living beings. The bees are raised in innovative hives under natural conditions and provided with an exuberant garden brimming with year-round nectary flowers. I don’t think anyone else has created a garden quite like this anywhere in the world. I highly encourage you to check out this enchanting world Kate has created. The garden is open once a month to the public. Do visit it yourself and be inspired as much as we were! (Or, if you live far away, you can watch the SLIDESHOW from our visit last July).

The Melissa Garden, Healdsburg, CA

I first met Kate in the mid-1990’s when I visited the organic gardens she designed at Fetzer Winery in Hopland. It was, simply, the most awesome garden I had ever seen. Awestruck and delighted, I felt giddy. The air was alive with butterflies and bees zooming around and each plant was a glorious, perfect specimen.

Kate and her garden was the goddess Melissa come to life!

Gorgeous black compost blanketed the ground – grapeseed compost from the winery, one of Kate’s fantastic secrets for extraordinary plant growth! I was an instant convert and started using it my own gardens with awesome success. We began offering it at the nursery and it now has a devoted following – all thanks to Kate!

I see Kate as a goddess, I really do. Not only that, she looks like a princess.

Princess Kate meets The Queen

Kate's Gold Medal Garden at The Chelsea Flower Show

Over the years, Kate has sprinkled her magic around the world. She has twice won the gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show and met the Queen! In 2009 she created a sustainable garden in the World Garden Competition in Hamamatsu, Japan. Her latest adventure is creating a sustainable and organic food garden in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Kate Frey!

Kate and Annie at the nursery

This is really a great opportunity to meet our wonderful Kate in person. Plus she’ll be sharing her favorite varieties to create your own Melissa Garden! How can you resist!

Visit Kate and her husband Ben’s BLOG to see more of their incredible gardens!

Tags: , , , , ,

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day – It’s On!

15 Mar

Sometime in the last month, Mother Nature hit the “on” button for Spring here in USDA zone 9-10. More sunshine, bees, birdsong and – oh yeah! – longer days to enjoy it all. So many pretty things have woken up and unfurled their flowers, way too many to post! I’ll keep it simple with a handful of hard-working but easy going CA natives that never fail to knock our socks off.

Ribes 'Claremont' and hummer

Ah, Ribes! How you brighten up our Winters and make the hummingbirds so happy! Our mother plant of Ribes sanguineum ‘Claremont’ is in massive beautiful bloom back by the seeding shed. With extra large, pendulous, 4″ blooms, you can see how the hummingbirds are mad for it. Just don’t get too close, or they might get mad at you. Check out the habit on this lovely plant – stunning!

lathyrus_vestitus

We’re excited about this new-to-us NATIVE sweet pea that climbs by delicate-looking tendrils to 6-10′. Not thuggy like some of the other perennial peas (Lathyrus latifolius, we’re looking at you), Lathyrus vestitus can be found growing under oaks in light shade in both clay and sand in its native habitat. Supposedly deciduous, ours remained evergreen during our mild Winter and burst out in violet-pink, lightly grape-soda scented flowers in February. It’s been blooming ever since. Love!

Galvezia speciosa

The first few flowers of Galvezia speciosa are starting to peep out. This tough Channel Island native blooms Spring through Fall, with electric reddish-pink flowers and small fuzzy leaves on a pretty shrub 3′ tall by 3-4′ wide. It’s clay and drought tolerant, making it extra useful in the garden. I probably should have waited to take a picture of it next month when it will be even bloomier, but I couldn’t help myself.

Ranunculus californicus

Just last weekend I went for a walk in Briones Regional Park and was cheered to see Ranunculus californicus starting to bloom along the trails. It’s wide awake and starting to bloom in the nursery, too. Easy to grow and requiring virtually no-care once established, I dare you to find a more cheerful and quintessentially buttercuppy buttercup. It makes me happy every time I walk by it, whether on the trail or in the garden.

Of course, there are many, many other wonderful things starting to bloom right now. If you’re nearby, come see for yourself! Or visit our Flickr stream for frequent updates.

Big ups to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day! See what’s blooming on other folks’ gardens this March!

Tags: , , , , ,

Prickly New Plants

7 Mar

Check out my super cool shirt!

Hi all! It’s Megan blogging at ya from the sign department here at Annie’s. Part of my super cool job as sign-maker is putting new plants online. I’ve also been known to pose with a chicken in my hand while modeling a sweet t-shirt.

Agave parryi hanging at Huntington

This week I’m bringing you two of my favorite new prickly plants. I’ve been a fan of Agave parryi after first laying eyes on it in the succulent section at the SF Botanical Garden, but this past December I made my first trip to Huntington Gardens (succulent junky heaven on earth) where they have an entire posse of them planted amongst the ginormous barrel cacti.

Agave parryi

Propagator Claire Woods describes it best, “I think Agave parryi looks like it was designed rather than grown. Beautiful symmetry & form, compact size, plus those grey blue leaves & black thorns?” Bonus points for drought tolerance AND deer resistance! They stay relatively small (1-3’ wide and high) compared to many of the big honking Agaves out there. Shortly after moving to California from Agave-less Wisconsin I made the mistake of planting an Agave americana I found free on craigslist, having no idea they could grow up to six feet tall, and 10 feet wide. Oops! Click here for more info about Agave parryi.

Ribes speciosum hummingbird party (photo courtesy of marlin harms)

Want the neighborhood hummingbirds to party like rock stars in your garden? Ribes speciosum will have the hummers raging on its sweet fuchsia like flowers as early as January through late-Spring. Its pokey thorns serve to protect the partiers from birdy hunters (kitties, we’re talking about you).

Fabulous fuchsia-like flowers

This California native is typically found growing in Coastal Sage Scrub, Chaparral, and isn’t the least bit finicky about soil. Got clay or sand, no problem! It’s even drought tolerant! Check it out on our site here. Stay tuned for more new plants next week!

 

 

Tags: , , ,