I have the greatest job, though some days I only make $5 an hour. I have the pleasure of writing about trees for an online tree retailer in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. I write about the stories behind the trees—where they came from, how they were used in their native lands, who “discovered” them for the West. I often… Read more →
I visited a special garden last month. Dragonfly Hollow, the garden of Vanessa Gardner Nagel in Vancouver, Washington, is the garden of a professional garden designer, art lover, and author. She literally wrote the book on garden design, and her newest book is on garden furnishings. I knew her garden (23 years in the making) would be a treat, but… Read more →
I’m back! I decided to retire What Blooms When, retool, rebrand, and relaunch. Still writing about gardens, gardening, new plants, old plants, phenology, photography. A friend told me the new blog title would “indicate [my] incredible humility to [my] billions of readers.” I was thrilled that www.amycampion.com was still available. You wouldn’t think Amy Campion would be an unusual name,… Read more →
So, I’ve been looking for a plant to screen a gap in the hedge that looks right into the neighbors’ backyard (and trampoline). I thought a well-behaved clumping bamboo might do the trick, and I checked out the helpful website of Bamboo Garden Nursery near Portland, Oregon. It seemed the common and quite hardy (to Zone 5) Fargesia nitida looked like… Read more →
The nursery industry is big business in Oregon, but most members of the general public will never get to see what goes on behind their gates. Many of the nurseries in the Willamette Valley are huge wholesale operations that sell their plants all across the country, but they don’t sell to the public. My old buddy Don Blocker, who reps for the… Read more →
For some, it was too much gorgeousness to take in. Visitors seemed dazed, and could be heard muttering, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.” If you took their reactions out of context, you might have thought they’d been in a car wreck and were in a state of shock. But I forged on, exploring Old Germantown Gardens—the incredible, almost two-acre garden that… Read more →
Yesterday I had the great fortune to visit J. Frank Schmidt & Son Nursery on a personal tour led by none other than the fabulous Nancy Buley, Communications Director at JFS. If you’re not familiar with J. Frank Schmidt, umm, it’s one of the largest and most respected wholesale nurseries in the country. They sell bareroot, B&B, and potted trees to garden… Read more →
If the gardening bug has bitten, sooner or later you’re going to want to start some plants from seed. Vegetable starts, bedding plants, perennials, and even some trees and shrubs (for the patient) can be grown from seed. When you’re ready to graduate from the sunny windowsill to a real propagation station, here’s a seed-starting rack you can make at home for… Read more →
With MUCH fanfare, happy tears, hugs, and rejoicing, I am ecstatic to report that my garden buddy George the cat is home safe. That little fuzzy-faced muppet walked 12 MILES back to our old home after slipping out during the move across town. This is a cat who regularly locks himself in the bedroom when he accidentally nudges the door shut. This… Read more →
I’ve been off-line for some time, in a deep and sorrowful funk. We moved into our new house two and a half weeks ago, which was a joyous occasion, but it was also the day our youngest cat, George, ran off in all the commotion, and we haven’t been able to find him since. He is microchipped, but no one… Read more →
