The 10 Best Plants for Your Northwest Garden

Hostas are a group of perennials that should be included in every garden. On our patio, we have a group in pots and they set the tone for our entire backyard. They are lush, exotic, incredibly varied and very hardy. Right now it's spring in the northwest and the hostas are poking through the dirt. Some are already unfurled and presenting us with that incredibly vibrant, fresh spring green. In addition to having beautiful leaf form, variety and colour, hostas put up beautiful flowers ranging from light purple to white, some of which are very fragrant. We often get hummingbirds visiting our hostas in mid summer.

The only knock against hostas, well maybe two knocks. They are kind of expensive, typically running $25.00 and up at our local garden shops. Secondly, they die back in the fall and turn to mush. Countering those two slight drawbacks are the fact that they are easy to divide and swap with your neighbours and cleaning them up in the fall is dead easy.

Speaking of two knocks -

"Knock knock"

"Who's there?"

"Hosta"

"Hosta Who?"

"Hosta go now" Bye bye.

In the Pacific Northwest we are blessed by an ideal climate for Rhodos and their close cousins - azaleas. What's not to like? Beautiful and abundant flowers, incredible varieties and an exotic, tropical appearance. Rhodos are a must for every garden where they can thrive.

For anyone whoever gets to Vancouver a spring visit to the Van Dusen Botanical Garden and a walk through the rhododendron and azalea display can be a psychedilic experience without the drugs. In fact there is one secret passageway through the deciduos azaleas with an understory of bluebells that is on eof the all-time great garden experiences. It is a kaliedescope of pastel pinks, oranges, yellows, blushing whites and blue that surrounds and envelopes you accompanied by a honey scent that will transport you to places you haven't been since the late '60's,

So here's the thing about the ceonothus, it comes from the chaparrals of California so the Pacific Northwest can be a little too cold. But it is probably my favourite plant. It has masses of lilac blue flowers redolent of honey. Grow one by you back door so that when you step outside in June, you'll get a waft of sweet, perfumed honey and hear the buzzing of the bees. It has small glossy, dark green leaves and grows rather quickly. I had one underneath the the roof overhang right up against a south facing wall and it thrived for about 10 years. We even planned our back porch around this plant. Then it died. That was a bummer! Fortunately I had a backup growing along the fence and it was doing quite well until this last winter which was definitely not California! It's looking a bit dodgy right now. However if it dies I will buy another. My garden is not complete without a ceonothus. Oh yeah - if you have a phobia about bees, do not get a ceonothus -bees love it!

One of the critieria for a plant to be on this list is this - if it died would I replace it right away? If the answer is yes, it gets on the list. So rosemary fits that criteria because in the Pacific Northwest, we really shouldn't grow rosemary since it is more suited to a Mediterranean climate. However, we have zonal aspirations here and if your lucky like I was you might get a decade out of your rosemary before it gets wiped out by a particlarly nasty winter like this last one. Sadly, the -17 temperatures and the month of sub-zero weather this year did mine in. It really is a great plant and I can't resist rubbing the spiky leaves with my hands to get that fresh, piney scent every time I walk by. I'll be looking for a new one next trip to the garden shop. However, make sure you put it in a sunny southfacing spot, preferably up against your house or a fence to capture the heat.

Every garden has that tough spot - deep shade, not enough water,maybe because you have a dense overhanging shrub or tree. In my garden it's the bed with an eight foot high retaining wall on the south side of our patio. There are three large shrub/trees (they used to be shrubs 50 years ago). In the western end of that bed there was a spot that was plant graveyard - no sun, poor water, deep shade. In my quest to find a plant for that spot I came across the skimmia. I planted three - two males and a female. You need both sexes if you want the red berries. They thrived there, in fact there growth is so vigorous that I need to cut them back twice a year.

What's so good about the skimmia? It has attractive, glossy leaves, it is evergreen, it produces beautiful red berries after a delicate display of small white flowers. Best of all, it's the one plant that you can put into the worst spot in your garden and it will thrive.

This plant does everything. It is evergreen. The new foliage comes out with a vibrant flower-like colour, it has clusters of delicate bell-shaped flowers and it comes in many varieties, One of the spring highlights in our garden is the display of the three varieties of pierus japonica. The leaves are a bright intense pink or red when new and slowly fade into a solid or sometimes variegated green. It is slow growing and easy to train into a standard. No question this is one of the top plants for your garden.

Every garden should have a spring display of tulips. These Orange Emperor tulips reside underneath a Japanese Maple. Although their display is brief, a mass of brightly coloured tulips herald the arrival of Spring and better things to come. Tulips must be done en masse. There is nothing so lonely as one or two forlorn tulips plopped into a bed. You needs ranks of them, they should be planted in multiples of 20 or more.

If you're a gardener, or just love a beatiful garden, the Van Dusen Garden is a magnificent destination. Created when the Shaugnessey Golf Course was moved, it opened to the public on August 30th, 1975. This spectacular 22-hectare (55-acre) garden in the heart of Vancouver has matured into a botanical garden of international stature since opening to the public in 1975. The mild Vancouver climate allows the cultivation of an outstanding plant collection which is a delight any time of the year. VanDusen boasts over 255,000 plants representing more than 7,300 taxa from around the world. Their plant collections represent ecosystems that range from tropical South Africa, to the Himalayas, to the Canadian Arctic, as well as plants native to our own Pacific Northwest.

VanDusen Botanical Garden is located at 5251 Oak Street at West 37th Avenue (north west corner).

This plant would be a welcome addition to any garden in areas with a mild winter. It is evergreen and in the spring puts out attractive clusters of fragrant white flowers. The variety I prefer is a golden colour known as Choisya Ternata Sundance. The common name is Mexican Mock Orange. It nneds to be prtected from extreme weather, and in the winter of 2008/09 I lost a beauty in my back yard. Fortunately a smaller specimen in the front yard survived. One of my favourite colour schems in the garden is a golden yellow or chartreuse-leafed plant, combined with a dark purple or maroon leaf and a dusky blue. An example would be the Choisya Ternata Sundance with a purple smoke bush and an unusual rhododendron I have with a dusky-blue-green leaf.

In all it's varieties, the Acer Palmatum deserves a spot or two in any northwest garden. Graceful, slow growing and available in a dazzling variety, it should be a focal point in your landscape. Trees grow fast and they grow big in the north west so this is an ideal choice since it doesn't get to be a 75 foot tree.