Apple Trees

• Akane Attractive red ‘lunch box’ apple, dessert quality, excellent tart, sprightly flavor.  Ripens late August to September.
• Braeburn Medium size golden red apple.  Excellent flavor, matures late, keeps well.
• Chehalis Large yellow-green, mild sweet flavor, juicy and crisp eating apple.  Resists scab.  Ripens mid-September to Early October.
• Fuji Sweet tart flavor, yellowish apple with orange-red blush stripes.
• Gala Bright scarlet stripe over yellow.  Excellent quality.  Mildew resistant.
• Golden Sentinal Large yellow fruit, ripens mid-September.  Good eating and baking.  Upright narrow growth 8-12 feet.
• Granny Smith Large green apple, tart.  Late maturing.
• Gravenstein Red striped over deep yellow, firm, juicy, crisp, excellent flavor.  All time favorite.  Ripens early Fall.  Not a reliable pollinator.
• Honeycrisp Big red apple, crisp, juicy.  Keeps well.  Ripens late September.
• Jonagold Red striped over yellow background.  Good dessert and canning apple.  Ripens late October.
• Liberty Red, crisp and juicy.  Disease resistant variety.  Ripens October.
• Pink Lady Large crisp, sweet, tart apple.  Pink blush, yellow skin. Early bloom.
• Red Mactintosh Medium to large bright red apple with white, tender flesh. Ripe fall.
• Scarlet Sentinal Large yellow with red blush.  Juicy sweet.  Ripens late September.  Good keeper, compact form, 8-10 feet.
• Spartan Medium, dark red, crisp, excellent flavor.  Good storage.  Tree needs thinning due to heavy bearing. Ripens mid-October.
• Yellow Delicious Yellow, aromatic, crisp, excellent eating and cooking. Ripens late.
• Yellow Transparent Medium-large, tender, tart, good cooking. Ripens late Jul-Aug.

Peach and Nectarine

• Frost Peach Leaf curl resistant.  Medium to large fruit, yellow flesh, freestone, good quality and producer.  Ripens mid-August.  Self-fertile.
• Hardy Red Nectarine New promising variety for the Northwest.  Red skinned with golden blush, yellow flesh.  Ripens mid-August.  Excellent flavor.  Self-fertile.

Pear Trees

• Anjou Medium to large, fine flavor, good keeper.  Mid-late ripening.
• Bartlett Medium to large thin-skinned, very sweet and tender.  Excellent eating and canning.  Ripens early September.
• Colette High quality, medium size pear.  Waxy yellow with pink cheeks.  Sweet, juicy with a spicy flavor.  Continues to flower and fruit from August until it freezes.
• Comice Large fruit, thick-skinned.  Best when stored 1-2 months.
• Flemish Beauty Medium to large, yellow with red blush, fine flavor, good canner.  Just after Bartlett, fruit best when ripened off tree.
• Rescue Large, sweet mild flavor, orange-yellow skin and good producer.  Ripens late August.

Oriental Pear Trees

• Chojuro Medium round, brown-skinned, mildly sweet, texture, firm and crisp.  Ripens mid-August.
• Housi Medium-large brown skinned pear.  Crisp sweet flavor.  Ripens September.
• Nijisseiki Medium round, greenish yellow-skinned, firm, crisp and juicy, good to excellent quality.  Ripens late August.
• Shinglo Golden brown skin, sweet, juicy, excellent flavor.  Ripens early August.
• Shinseiki Medium, round, yellow-skinned, crisp and juicy.  Ripens mid-August.

Cherry Trees

• Bing Top quality, large, juicy and sweet black cherry.  Ripens mid-season.
• Rainier Yellow skin with pink blush, good pollinizer.  Ripens few days before Bing.
• Sam Large, jet-black, firm, heart-shaped fruits of good quality.  Highly resistant to cracking, good pollinizer, ripens one week earlier than Bing.
• Stella Red fruit, self-fertile, good pollinizer.  Ripens mid-season.
• Surefire Late flowering and self-fertile.  Tolerates frosts and produces crack resistant crops.  Fire engine red color.  Highly regarded, the first sour cherry.
• Van Black, shiny fruit, firmer and slightly smaller than Bing and ripens about same time.  Heavy bearing tree and a good pollinizer.

Plum Trees

• Green Gage Medium, round, greenish yellow with amber flesh.  Sweet, good flavor, good for eating, cooking, canning or jam.  Ripens mid-season.  Self-fertile.
• Imperial Epineuse European type, medium sized oval fruit, purple-blue skin, yellow flesh, freestone, firm, sweet, great for fresh eating and drying.  Very productive.   Ripens mid-August.
• Hollywood Pink flowers, early.  Purple foliage, very good eating and canning plum.  Upright.  Self-fertile.
• Italian Prune Medium, purplish black sweet.  Excellent fresh, canned or dried.  Ripens mid-season.  Self-fertile.

Fruit Tree Cultivation

Site

Choose a site that is well-drained in full sunlight.  Take advantage of sun pockets or sheltered areas in your yard.  A soil test is recommended to determine which fertilizers and amendments may be needed.  Keep well-watered, especially when fruit is maturing.

Planting

Plant bare root trees when they are fully dormant—the earlier the better.  Keep the roots of the bare root tree covered or moist until planting time.  Prune off any damaged roots.  Form a small mound of soil and gently spread the roots over it.   Back fill with native soil and compost.  Be sure to keep the graft union above the soil level.  Gently press down on the soil, removing any air pockets.  Water well.

Pollination

Pollination is the transfer of pollen between flowers to set fruit.  Cross pollination is recommended for most apples and pears and many sweet cherries and plums.  Most peaches, nectarines and sour cherries are self-fertile.  The act of pollination depends mostly on bees.

Pollen compatible trees should be within 100 feet of each other to ensure adequate pollination.  The bloom periods of both trees must overlap enough to provide at least several days for cross-pollination to take place.  Most white flowering crabapples are excellent pollinizers and they are often used in orchards because of their abundant, long lasting bloom.

Pears and Oriental Pears are genetically compatible, so they can cross-pollinate just the same as any varieties whose blooms overlap.  Keep in mind however that Oriental pears tend to bloom earlier and not all European pears are suitable pollinizers.

Pests and Diseases

The most serious disease problems for fruit trees in Western Washington are apple anthracnose, apple scab and leaf curl (Peach and Nectarine).  Other less threatening diseases are powdery mildew, bacterial canker, pear scab and brown rot.  The apple maggot and the codling moth do the most damage on apple trees.  For detailed information on these insects and diseases, read the online resource from WSU Extension: Insect and Disease control for Home Gardens: Small Fruits and Berries.

Pruning

Pruning is essential in a young fruit tree.  It will encourage early fruit production and help develop an optimum structure for supporting future crops.  Pruning of mature trees is aimed at producing new growth of fruiting wood.  Pruning fruit trees is covered in great detail in many publications.  A few basics essentials are:

• Start out young trees with a sound framework of scaffold limbs.  Spreaders or weights can be used to position the limbs.
• Maintain good exposure to light throughout the tree.
• Don’t let the top of the tree outgrow and shade the lower limbs.
• Use thinning cuts that remove entire shoots, branches, or limbs.
• Avoid heading cuts that remove only a portion of the branch and often result in regrowth of a cluster of new shoots that may shade out other parts of the tree.
• When in doubt, thin it out!

Thinning

Thinning is the removal of small fruit or blossoms to improve the size and quality of the fruit.  It also helps ensure an adequate crop the next year.   Some general guidelines are:

• Thin early for maximum effect, when fruits are about marble size.
• Remove the smaller fruits and leave the larger ones, because the smaller fruit have fewer cells and will remain relatively smaller, even after thinning.
• Remove fruit with disease spots, weather damage, or other defects.
• Aim for an even spacing as much as possible.  Keep in mind the size of fruit at maturity and leave room to avoid overcrowding.
• Adapt all thinning to the type of fruit being thinned.

Resources

Fruit Handbook for Western Washington, Washington State University Extension, by G.A. Moulton and J. King

Crop Protection Guide for Tree Fruits in Washington, Washington State University Extension

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag29.html

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07003.html

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“During the 1800s and early 1900s, most of those New Zealand (and a few South American) species that would later become recognised as hebes were included in the genus Veronica, a genus originally established for an assortment of temperate Northern Hemisphere taxa. The genus name Hebe (after the Greek goddess of youth…) was originally established in 1789, but didn’t really enter use until the 1920s (Albach et al., 2004). Even after the botanical community recognised the distinctiveness of Hebe, horticulturists still tended for some time to regard the hebes as Veronica (Metcalf, 2006). Over time, everyone seems to have adjusted to the new view, and some groups of ’Hebe’ species were even committed to further segregate genera - Parahebe,Chionohebe and (ha ha) Hebejeebie.”

Hebe topiaria is an evergreen shrub that reaches 3-4 feet tall and 4-5 feet wide in zones 7-9.  It needs well-drained soil and full sun to grow the best.  Flowers are white, but they occur infrequently on this Hebe.  Hebes with large leaves and showy flowers are the most tender to cold, while those with small leaves and white flowers are the most hardy.  Hebes are  intolerant to excessive hot or cold weather and therefore the Pacific Northwest is one of the best places in the United States to grow them.  The key to growing tender cultivars is to place them in a protected spot near a house, fence or other plants.   For an in-depth discussion on Hebe hardiness, visit this site:  Oregon State University Hebe Test.  Put the right plant in the right place and you will have horticultural success!

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Dawn Viburnum Blooming in December

Flower buds on Dawn Viburnum

Written by Elaine Sawyer December 18, 2011

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Hellebores are shade to part sun loving plants that bloom in winter. They are evergreen and provide interest when much of the garden is asleep for the winter. Rosemary has big pink flowers that fill the inside of the plant. If you want to see the blooms even better, you can trim off some of the leaves to open the plant up more. This won’t harm the plant, since you’ll want to trim up most of the leaves anyways in the spring to allow the new fresh foliage to emerge. Rosemary’s plant tag says she will be a foot tall by a foot and half wide. I can tell you now, the tag lies! My plant is easitly two feet wide and a foot tall. So maybe anticipate a bit more room than the plant tag says. Rosemary would be pretty in the ground or in a pot by the front door so you can enjoy her blooms close up. Where ever you plant her, make sure its someplace you pass often in the winter months because you won’t want to miss her show!

Oh! PS- Rosemary is a deer resistant plant! Don’t you want her even more now?!

Rosemary has HUGE pink flowers!

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Two of the common species are sasanqua and japonica, but what’s the difference?  Camellia sasanqua grows 6 to 10 feet tall and blooms in the fall/winter.  It grows best in semi-shade, but will tolerate full sun more than the spring blooming  japonica.  The leaves are usually two inches long, smaller and narrower than japonica and the new twigs are fuzzy, not smooth like japonica.  Flowers are short lived (less than a week) before petals drop, but many enjoy the colorful carpet of petals that forms around the base of the shrub.  Sasanquas grow best in climates similar to their native habitat with hot summers and mild winters, like the southern United States.  They will tolerate our cold winters, but may have leaf damage or leaf drop and problems with flower bud formation.  They can easily be grown in containers, or espaliered against a wall or fence.

Camellia japonica is a bigger plant with larger leaves,  reaching 8 to 15 feet.  It blooms later, during  the winter/spring. The best time to prune camellias is after they flower each year, just before the plants starts growing in earnest for the season.  Use a fertilizer for acid loving shrubs during this time of new growth to supply nutrients.  Both types of camellias have a long bloom period, showing color for most of the season.  Enjoy some winter flowers this year and try a camellia!

Written by Elaine Sawyer December 8, 2011

Resources:   Camellias, The Complete Guide to their Cultivation and Use by Jennifer Trehane, 1998.

Camellia sasanqua 'setsugekka'

Camellia japonica

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Noble Fir (Abies procera)   The Noble Fir is often used as a Christmas tree and is very fragrant.  It’s an ornamental tree and well suited for the garden, not growing too quickly.  This tree will not tolerate shade, especially when young, and some varieties have a natural blue coloration.  The noble fir is the largest of all the world’s Firs.  Some are over 300 feet tall!

Subalpine Fir (Abies lasiocarpa)  More than any other native conifer, this tree has become a popular landscape addition, and is often used as a specimen tree.  It matures at 30 to 50 feet and has a narrow, conical shape.  The foliage is stiffly upturned and is a bluish, gray green color.  The cones are dark purple and age to a resinous brown.

Grand Fir (Abies grandis)  This fir has lustrous, flat needles that grow in two distinct rows that spread horizontally.  It is a common understory tree below the Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine and Western Larch.  Therefore it is shade tolerant, but not as much as the Western Hemlock, Western Red Cedar or Coast Redwood.  It’s fast growing, but relatively short-lived (short-lived in tree time is less than 300 years!).

Fraser Fir (Abies fraseri)  This fir comes from the mountainous region of the Eastern United States.  The needles are spirally arranged on the branches and have silvery white stripes underneath.  This tree has been used as the official Christmas tree of the President of the United States more than any other tree.  It is a fairly small tree, growing slowly up 80 feet high.  Fraser fir grows best in a cool, moist climate, in well-drained acidic soil in full sun.

Nordmann Fir (Abies nordmanniana)  This tree is from Europe—Turkey, Russia, Armenia. Two subspecies are the Turkish Fir and Caucasian Fir.   It has dark green rounded needles and dense foliage, growing up to 60 feet high.  The Nordmann Fir needles have no significant scent and are directed forward.  It grows best in full sun, is adaptable to varying soil types and has a fast growth rate.

Horstmann’s Silberlocke Fir (Abies koreana)  This slow growing fir only reaches 10 feet tall in ten years, with an ultimate height of 20 feet.  The striking feature on this tree are the upward curved green needles which reveal the bright silvery-white underneath, giving the foliage continual contrast and illumination.  Cones are a steely blue color.  This plant was discovered in Germany by Gunter Horstmann.

Cork Fir (Abies lasiocarpa ‘arizonica’)  This fir is named for it’s thick, creamy white bark that resembles cork.  It has blue needles and can be used as a substitute for Colorado Blue Spruce.  Grows best in sun, but will take part shade.  Will grow to 15 feet in ten years with a maximum of 40 feet, forming a narrow pyramid.

Douglas Fir (Psuedotsuga menziesii)  This one is not really a fir and it’s name means ‘false hemlock’!  Where does it belong?  With the conifers!  Douglas Fir has been an important lumber tree in the Pacific Northwest, yet it has persisted in the suburbs as urbanization has spread.  Look around if you live in the PNW and you’ll immediately see one or two….twenty or thirty….it’s just part of the landscape.  The best distinguishing feature is the cone which has many three pronged protruding bracts over the surface.  The foliage is a dull, lusterless green and the needles are flat or bottlebrush.  Seedlings establish easily in a sunny spot and the tree is fast growing, averaging 75 to 125 feet tall at maturity.  Sadly, the largest Douglas Firs are gone, cut down by loggers.  The groves at Quinault Lake in the Olympics are one of the few old growth forests that remain.  The Mineral Tree Southwest of Mt. Rainier was the largest Douglas Fir ever recorded….393 feet!  It fell in 1930 and was over 1000 years old.  Trees are cool.

Disclaimer…yes, I know Douglas Fir is not a ‘true’ fir, but it needed some friends today, so let’s include it.  Maybe it will have it’s very own post someday.

Resources:
Fir Trees by Heiderose and Andreas FIscher-Nagel 1989
Gardening With Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest by Kruckeberg 1996
Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast by Van Pelt 2001
Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast by Pojar and Mackinnon 2004

Written by Elaine Sawyer, November 30, 2011

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Written by Elaine Sawyer November 27, 2011

Licorice Fern

licorice fern on bigleaf maple

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