Shrubs

Propagating cuttings in water – the lazy method

Sometimes, it’s just useful to take the lazy approach, right? Like propagating cuttings in water. Yeah, you’ll read a lot online about how you should dip cuttings in rooting hormone and place them in a sterile medium, waiting several weeks to see if the roots are growing. But sometimes, it just works to put them […]

We’ve moved to Camellia City!

After a few years, I’m starting to write about our garden again. And it’s a new garden! Last summer, we moved to Fair Oaks, a sweet, older suburb of Sacramento. This house is a little over 50 years old, a nice rambler in a solid neighborhood. We’re enjoying discovering its garden secrets as they unfold. […]

Spring flowering shrubs at our California home

Spring always comes early to California, but it seems a bit earlier than usual this year. Up at 2,500 feet, the camellias don’t bloom as early as down in Sacramento, but ours are already on the waning end of bloom season. Here are a few sweet shots of them, plus the lovely forsythias. Both of […]

This is what forsythia should look like… and not

I love forsythia! It’s always the cheery harbinger of warm days, and it’s one of those shrubs that in my mind is best left to look wild. It should be allowed to send its long branches out, covered with beautiful blooms, sometimes arching under the weight of those awesome blossoms. The example above is in […]