Add A Beautiful Blooming Witch Hazel to Your Winter Garden

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena', best all-around cultivars,  intensely-fragrant orange flowers and fiery fall color. Photo by Janet Loughrey.

Sharing a great article by Garden Design Magazine, 

"Witch Hazel: A Tonic for Body and Soul"

The months between Christmas and spring stretch interminably for ardent gardeners, who grow restless for any sign of life in the landscape. While most plants lie in dormant slumber, the long, slender branches of witch hazel burst into bloom with ribbon-like petals of yellow, orange or red. The delicately fragrant flowers give renewed hope that spring is not far away.

American witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is known for its medicinal properties, the bark extract used as a time-honored remedy for a variety of skin and other bodily ailments. These east coast native shrubs or small trees are commonly found in wooded areas from Canada to Georgia. Clusters of citrus-scented petals appear in late fall before the leaves have dropped.

Perhaps the greater therapeutic value of witch hazel is the balm that soothes the soul when their tasseled flowers unfurl at a time when little else is blooming.
  

Read More at Garden Design Magazine

Shop For Witch Hazel At These Mail-Order Plant Sources:

Gossler Farms Nursery gosslerfarms.com
Greer Gardens greergardens.com
RareFind Nursery rarefindnursery.com

 

Hamamelis mollis (left), H. x intermedia "Orange Beauty" (right) Photo by Janet Loughrey.

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Air Quality Alerts All Over the West

AP Photo/ Nick UT

 

Droughts Across the West Promoting

Metropolitan Air Quality Alerts

 

Article Excerpted From The Weather Channel     |    By Sean Breslin   |   Read MORE

Images of Rodeo Drive or the Hollywood Sign are getting hazier by the day, and the long-term drought across the Southwest is a culprit.

As a dry pattern prevails across all of California (and Nevada), rain refuses to fall and snow cover in the higher elevations has been so thin that residents are worried their source of drinking water in the summer months will be at risk. When there's no precipitation to clear the air, a nasty haze hovers in the valleys of southern California.

"The West Coast has been dominated by a persistent weather pattern since last year with the jet stream staying far to the north, preventing moisture-laden Pacific storms from affecting California," said weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce. "Unfortunately, it appears this pattern will persist through the end of January with no significant precipitation in the forecast."

This has led to officials issuing additional no-burn alerts, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

Residents are no longer allowed to burn wood in their fireplaces, and outdoor burn bans were already in place due to the threat of any spark causing a major wildfire.

Still, clinics are treating more patients than normal who have breathing problems and other pollution-related ailments, the Times also reported.

It's more bad news in an area that already ranks lowest in air quality on a near-annual basis. Los Angeles has topped a national list of cities with the worst air pollution in 13 of the last 14 years, according to an ABCNews.com report.

"If the month concludes with no rain in Los Angeles, January 2014 would join only four other Januarys in the last 100 years that no rain was recorded in the city," said Dolce. "January is typically one of the two wettest months of the year in Los Angeles."

California isn't the only state suffering: Areas all over the West are experiencing air quality problems due to the lack of precipitation. Northern Utah is also under a health alert, according to the Associated Press, as officials have banned wood-burning and asked residents to drive less.

Faerieland, Moodscapes & Other Enchanting Photography from Ashley Lebedev

The Enchanting Photography of Ashley Lebedev

Based in the creative city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, photographer Ashley Lebedev does amazing portraits, landscapes and images that derive from, or are inspired by nature caught in another time long ago. A Grimm Brother's fairy tale.

The images are enchanting, innocent, mystical and will draw you in.  In a total online random moment, I first came across Ashley's work when I landed on the Facebook page for Alexandra Parker, new wife of Napster founder and Facebook President, Sean Parker, as I was caught in a moment viewing images of their enchanated performance art wedding in a Tolkien-esque, old growth forest.  On her Facebook page, of other stand-out photography, Alexandria gives a photo credit to Ashley Lebedev and her web site.
Lebedev's photography is worthy of national museum exhibits, if it hasn't already been exhibiting as such yet.

See more of Ashley Lebedev's work, known as Bottle Bell Photography at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebottlebellphotography/8654043178/in/photostream 

  

All Images © Ashley Lebedev | Bottle Bell ™ - New Faerieland! 

www.bottlebellphotography.com

 

Entertaining Outdoors: Throw a Winter Party

 

The Unforgettable Winter Theme Party

Hosting a winter party in colder or snowy outdoor temps has it's challenges, but can be a fun and forgettable event your guests will enjoy.  Read on for more winter party ideas...

Image From Martha Stewart Publications

Hosting the winter party is a great way to hold a community gathering too. Just be sure to ask your guests to dress warm with extra layers, hat, scarf and gloves to ensure comfort for several hours outside in a wintry landscape.

Your central guest element is a warm bonfire and ensuring you're adding wood to keep it burning for the duration of your event. Place chairs with pillows and blankets that guests can wrap them selves in at the fire.

If you've got a marquee, (synthetic or fabric cover supported by poles), gazebo or covered outdoor kitchen, you'll have a covered area to place a few tables to hold food and drink.

Outdoor entertaining tables can be as easy as getting two hardware store saw horses holding a plywood sheet hidden with a jazzy tablecloth.  Add or hang torches, hurricane lamps and strings of lights to create a warm ambiance as the evening night settles in.

 

 

 

 

For a touch of wintery decor, place antique sleds, skis or snowshoes around -they might even get used!

Serve cold drinks in buckets filled with snow.

Have warm drinks available at all times, such as Apple Cider or Hot Chocolate in coffee warmers and allow guests to add flavored marshmallows or alcohol if needed. Providing a hot cocoa bar with cocoas, toppers, whip cream and cookies makes an awesome area to converse and have fun mixing drinks at any age.

Gourmet dogs or sausages can be provided for guest to grill over the fire with buns to heat at the fire's edge. A tray of mustard's, sauces and relishes set out for guests to dress up their dogs or sausages is perfect.

Provide food warmers or iron pots with easy to eat wintery food: fondues, chili; baked beans with crusty french bread covered with napkins in baskets.  Pies of any kind are always a favorite wintery desert.

And don't forget the s'mores tray, arranging grahams, various marshmallows, and varied chocolates to let your guests toast over the fire in celebration of winter.

DIY: Winter Pruning In The Garden

Get bundled up, get the kids outside and try pruning your garden.

Take a day and connect with nature -disconnect from the TV, computer, couch or work and get outside in the winter garden.  Even if the winds are blowing, if you dress warm enough and put clothes on that you don't mind getting dirty, you'll be glad you got outside and in the garden and connected -not with your peeps online but your plants outside.  I know, because I did it today.

It was cold out with raging winds, requiring a hat, gloves and warm coat, but I got out and gardened.  I almost shed a few tears cleaning up plants that appeared to have died from recent freezing single digit temperatures; my dog noticed my sadness and came over to check on me.  Plants I've had for years in the high desert of Southern California that survived winter low temps of 11 degrees; plants that I dug up from my garden when I sold my house last spring carefully planting them into containers; plants that I moved three times, at great expense, to finally be with me in my new life in the Sierra Mountains region surviving temps in the 20's on a daily basis; seemed to have died out once we hit ten days of single digit temps. 

I had left the dangling plants for dead in those containers, so I could at least view them and their tattered remains in memory of their brighter, beaming days.  But today, I pruned and cleaned them up, in a funeral goodbye. And it was indeed sad as these were my "friends" for seasons in a place I was new to and did not know many people. I know however, that Spring will surprise me with life for an unknown amount of these plants.  And I will not know until then...

My own connection to gardens goes back many years.  Through my teens and twenties, I did garden design, pruning, clean up, and other services for garden owners in the Seattle area.  I held jobs in the summers working for tree pruning companies or landscape nurseries and learned great tips from the various "master gardeners" I worked under.

Eventually, I built up a client list in the Seattle area that included Mercer Island, various Seattle neighborhoods, and areas of the East Side. And through practice, I became quite good at mastering pruning of trees and shrubs.

Winter is the best season for pruning plants, shrubs and trees. The lack of leaves on many wintered plants allows you to see the lines of the plant and quickly determine it's structure as far as where to cut and improve it's growth patterns. The growth in spring will cover up any mistakes you might make, unless you do something pretty severe. Try to avoid that. Either case, you can prune your shrubs and trees yourself following the key pointers listed here.



Exceptions to Consider When Pruning in Winter:

1.)  If you have trees with heavy sap, minimize the stress on these sap-bleeding trees and wait to prune until after their leaves have fully developed.

2.)  For early-spring blooming shrubs, including Lilac, Forsythia, Rhododendron, and Hydrangeas, these plants bear flowers on wood formed the previous year. Thus with thier coming spring blooms, wait until they're finished blooming until late spring or early summer; unless you don't mind having a smaller display of blooms.


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Tips for Your Pruning Cutting Tools:

• Use sharp and proper cutting tools: tree and shrub pruners, pole pruners and saws.

• Sterilize your tools with alcohol and spray with W-2 oil when needed.  

Key Pruning Tips to Follow:

• First find and cut off all dead or injured wood.‬   

• Work carefully and don't hack: with the exception of topiary or formed hedges, don't hack your trees and shrubs into boxed shapes that promote unhealthy growth. 

• Remember to make your cuts after the point of a bloom or branch out. And avoid cutting against the trunk.  
  
  

• For large branches, make a cut into the under side of the branch, then cut from the top. This reduces rips and tears in the bark that can introduce disease into the main trunk of the tree.

• Finely cut away branches that are growing too close or remove one that's growing into the other.

• Remove branches that are crossing another or growing backwards in direction.

• Cut suckers -the twigs growing up from the ground or base of the plant.

• For taller trees, the first layer of structured branches should be six feet above ground.
• If you're cutting back height, give a natural rounded curve to the overall structure while cutting.

• Trim away branches that are growing directly straight up.  

• Step back, away and walk around the plant you're cutting to ensure you're making the right cuts.

• Remember, to open up the structure and create clean lines on more complex shrubs.

• Step back and get a good view of the overall shape -don't remove too much and don't tip ends: cut from within.

So give it a shot, take a few hours and get outside in the garden.  You'll be glad you did.

Shop Land & Garden for garden tools, garden ornament and outdoor furnishings: www.landngarden.com.