danger garden

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Cathi's garden, finally

My friend Cathi Lamoreux has invited me over to visit her garden on my previous visits to Spokane. However, since there's never enough time to do all the things I want to do when I'm up there, I hadn't managed to make it by. This last trip up (in late April) I had the time, but it was still so very early in the growing season for a Zone 6 garden, I wasn't sure she'd want me to stop by. Thankfully she was up for it and so I finally got to visit.

The vine growing along the front of the garage is a large leaf, non-producing grape vine (Vitis NoID). Cathi says it's at least 20-25 years old. I wish I could have seen it all leafed out.

I don't remember how long exactly Cathi and I have known each other, but she's visited my garden a few times, one of her daughters lives just a few miles from me. Cathi is very active in the Spokane County Master Gardener Foundation...

I suspect the rock garden in the protected corner between the house and the garage holds all sorts of treasures that reveal themselves as the season progresses, however I was thrilled to see a couple of seriously spiny opuntia.

As well as a pair of interesting containers, I love the "pipe with flared lip" look of them.

A few years ago Cathi gave me a big handful of Helleborus foetidus seedlings. They're now blooming in my garden, my mom's garden, a neighbor's garden and a friend's garden—as well as untold stranger's gardens as I potted up several and put them in the little free greenhouse in our hellstrip. It was fun to see them throughout her garden and know just how far the babies have traveled.

Looking out towards the street...

And at a few blooming tulips...

Cathi's down to just a couple patches of tulips in her garden and not planting any more (deer? changing tastes?) but I loved the color of these.

I was too late to enjoy the blooms of the Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Diane’ (too early for many other things, too late for this, *sigh*), but I've always enjoyed the bits that remain after the blooms fall.

Another extraordinary pot. I was told this one used to be a fountain in the back garden, but once it was no longer water-tight it was moved and repurposed. Such a great shape!

Snowdrops!

I've always been a little jealous of anyone with a cold frame, and this set-up definitely had me feeling the envy.

In fact this whole corner had me feeling rather covetous...

What perfect shelves for staging small pots!

Cathi and I were busy chatting when I took that photo above and I didn't get a chance to ask her what she used the shelves for. She kindly replied via email "many things over the years. I used to have wooden planter boxes my father built... They had succulents in them for 15 years until the boxes fell apart. Then, I had a year of annuals mixed in with herbs because I never plant annuals so thought, why not? The shelves aren’t wide enough for bigger pots and I ended up watering twice a day in the heat of the summer to keep them alive. Last year, no plants because I was going to be gone for a month in Scotland. I just displayed some of my antique garden décor and the bottom shelf held our collection of heart-shaped rocks. I have no idea what will be on the shelves this year except the heart-shaped rocks are still on the bottom shelf and will stay there."

The fabulous structure behind the shelves came about as many do, a need to camouflage an eyesore in a neighboring lot. Cathi grows Clematis 'Paul Farges' and Ampelopsis aconitifolia var. glabra on it.

Standing under the structure, facing the potting bench, and looking back at the house. Yes those are two Pot Inc, Hover Dish planters. Cathi bought them from Bob Hyland's Portland shop, Contained Exuberance, back in the day.

Oh! Now we enter the garden house...

So many fabulous things...

I could have spent hours in here looking through all of these wonders...

That funnel! I seriously considered grabbing it and running. But I did not.

Back outside and looking at those shelves again. My mind spinning with the possibilities, especially now that I laid eyes on Cathi's antique garden décor.

Mahonia aquafolium

Planted by birds (or?) but not Cathi. Still, she let it stay and it's grown to take up a sizeable chunk of real estate. Such bright yellow blooms!

Earlier I mentioned that Cathi wasn't planting more tulips, these are the only others in the garden. I included this photo because I thought the protection idea was genius. Something had been munching on the tulips and so Cathi tossed a wreath over the foliage. Don't throw away your holiday wreaths, use them to protect plants in the garden!

Ha, yes, still thinking about that corner. Also, I realized I neglected to call out the Rhamnus frangula (Fine Line Buckthorn) at the corner of the garden house and the potting bench arbor. Such a fabulous plant.

Primula snowballs...

The Hover Dish planters aren't the only thing in Cathi's garden from Bob Hyland's shop, she scored this three-tier wire shelf during Bob's closing sale. Soon she'll bring out some of her many houseplants to summer on the shelves.

Another interesting piece that was hard to miss, this mask by artist Diana Scott.

Ms. Scott was a professor of art in San Francisco, and split her time between SF and Priest Lake, ID. She passed away in 2019. The longer I looked at the mask the more I saw.

When I followed up with Cathi to get more detailed information for this post she shared that I'd missed spring in full bloom in Spokane by a week; "The dogwoods are blooming their hearts out for the first time in several years. All the fruit trees are still in bloom. In my garden, the akebia vine on the deck is in full bloom. The grape vine on the garage has leafed out, the false Solomon Seal, Brunnera, candy tuft, and sweet woodruff are blooming plus all the regulars (tulips, daffs, hellebore)." Ah well, isn't that always the case? She also shared the names of a few plants she'd purchased at Floralia in Spokane (I love Floralia and wrote about them back in 2022, but didn't get a chance to visit on this trip) including Arctostaphylos /coloradenis ‘Chieftain’... yay! An Arctostaphylos (manzanita) for Spokane. Spokanites, y'all get down to Floralia and buy yourself an Arctostaphylos!

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Monday, May 4, 2026

White flowers in my garden; not so much

I'm frequently accused of not liking flowers, however nothing could be further from the truth. I love flowers. If I could afford it I would buy fresh cut flowers weekly. I just don't garden for the flowers. Meaning I chose plants for the foliage, the flowers are a bonus.

There is one kind of flower I wish I could avoid though, plants that bloom white (bet you thought I was going to say pink? nah, they're fine in the right context). I don't care for white flowers in my garden, or white variegation, or especially white containers. White is extremely stark, too bright. It commands attention through the absence of color, almost reading as a hole in the garden. Yes, I know, technically white is all the colors, but that's not how my eyes see it. If you asked about white flowers I'd tell you there are only two, my magnolias; Magnolia macrophylla (which won't be blooming for several weeks) and M. laevifolia...

However I've realized that's simply not true. This spring I've been paying attention, and there are more white flowers in the garden than I realized. This Rhododendron laramie for example...

And Erica arborea var. alpina...

The flowers of Citrus trifoliata are white.

And rather perfect with the bright green new foliage and a blue sky background (yes, I am full of contradictions).

Fothergilla gardenii 'Blue Mist' has white puff-ball flowers.

And my lone trillium, T. albidum is most definitely white.

The flowers of Podophyllum peltatum almost escape my eye, hidden as they are beneath the foliage.

The smallest white flowers also may be the ones that make the largest impact in the garden, the tiny blooms of my many saxifrage (this one S. × urbium 'Aureopunctata'). There are literally hundreds of them (maybe thousands?) around the garden right now.

They are a bit much. I will have to start cutting them back soon before they really start to irritate me. Yes I know. But it's my garden not yours, and that's how I feel.

Do you mind white in your garden? Maybe there's another color you try to avoid? (for many people I suspect it would be orange)

One morning a few weeks back—on a bright sunny day—it looked like snow was falling in the garden. White petals from a neighbor's tree were drifting down, it was kind of magic (I'm not completely lacking in romantic imagination).

Enough about white, I also want to talk about how my mahonia are thrilling me this spring. The new growth on Mahonia oiwakensis ssp lomariifolia v tenuifolia started out as a bight red bud.

That bud exploded into this...

The red remains, for now.

But the new foliage is the show-stopper.

New growth on Mahonia eurybracteata 'Cistus Silvers'.

And another (they're seed grown plants so there's some variation).

Mahonia eurybracteata 'Indianola Silver'

And Mahonia x media 'Marvel'.

My oldest mahonia, M. x media 'Charity' (planted on the north side of our house), has reached ginormous proportions. The wind, rain, and heavy fruit load had it leaning into the neighbor's driveway so I trimmed it back last weekend.

But not before taking photos of the fruit...

I love the many shades of blue, purple and green, as well as the subtle powdery "bloom" on the individual fruits. Mother nature can be quite the artist.

The Bit at the End

Speaking of art, and nature, enjoy this gift article from the NYT. At the very least click through and scan the photos: In the German Countryside, a Farmhouse Turned Lush Cultural Retreat.

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