The Mountain Gardener: Early spring color in a vase

Every year, the stirrings of early spring excite me. There’s even a name for it — spring fever. There are lots of early-season plants that can go in right now, or you can spend some time planning for later additions to your garden. Both are great ways to kick-start this gardening season.
An article in this month’s Sunset magazine talks about the “5 Mile Bouquet.” The concept is buying locally gown food. How about a 50-foot bouquet using flowers from your own garden? There are flowers we can grow in every season around the Santa Cruz Mountains. Who wants to put flowers doused in chemicals and shipped halfway across the world on the table? Plan to use your entire property as a cutting garden. You can have fresh little bouquets year round from your own backyard.
Winter-flowering, fragrant sweet peas could be in your vase right now, or bright orange and gold calendula. Stock blooms during the winter, along with early narcissus. Both are very fragrant. Deer-resistant sweet violets are blooming and smell wonderful in a tiny vase by the kitchen window. Anemone and snapdragons make good cut flowers and will be blooming soon.
It’s easy to plan ahead for a spring or summer bouquet, because there are so many choices, but make sure you have aster, scabiosa and gaillardia for those fall arrangements.
A garden good enough to eat
This year, plan an edible garden around what grows best for you.
It’s not always cost effective to devote space in your vegetable plot to something that peaks at the same time when it’s plentiful at the local farmers market. What makes sense for your taste, time and garden space? Easy-to-grow edibles like strawberries, blueberries, herbs, lettuces, arugula and peas are delicious freshly picked and don’t take up too much room in the garden.
There are ways to make your whole landscaping edible. Fruits, vegetables and herbs can be intermingled with the ornamental shrubs and flowers in the yard. Plant an apple where a crape myrtle was going to go, or an artichoke instead of a New Zealand flax. A border of parsley or chives around the flower bed would look and taste great. Or maybe French pole beans to grow up a bamboo arbor you tied together yourself. Take advantage of your entire property to incorporate your favorite edibles.
Showy camellias signal abundance
Now is a good time to pick out a camellia for that morning-sun or shady spot that needs a shrub with year-round good looks. Looking at pictures of camellia flowers in a catalog is nice, but seeing them in person is even better. What better way to choose the perfect one?
If you’re partial to vivid flowers, Nuccio’s Bella Rossa is right up your alley. An abundance of huge formal, crimson red blooms open slowly over a long period for an especially long bloom season. This brilliant camellia is believed to bring wealth if planted at the entrance to your home, as are other red flowering plants.
A great camellia to espalier on a trellis is a sasanqua variety called Fairy Blush. Deep pink buds open to apple blossom-tinted blooms with a sweet fragrance. Growing to a compact 4 to 5 feet, this plant is perfect for a small courtyard or patio.
Then there’s the soft blush-pink, semi-double flowers of Magnoliaeflora (pictured) that can be the prized plant of the winter garden. It’s deer-resistant, and the showy flowers are good for cutting. It would make a great privacy screen and looks natural in the woodland garden.
Camellias are easy to grow, requiring a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system. Provide well-drained soil, rich in organic matter. Feed with an acid fertilizer after bloom. Keep roots cool with a thick layer of mulch, and prune them in spring after flowering.
– Jan Nelson, a landscape designer and California certified nursery professional, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Email her at

ja******@ao*.com











, or visit www.jannelsonlandscapedesign.com to view past columns and pictures.