Newsletters
Christianson’s Nursery publishes two newsletters: The Garden Gazette and Garden Notes.
The Garden Gazette is our paper newsletter and it’s mailed out five times a year. The Garden Gazette always includes a cover story written by Toni Christianson, as well as articles about specific plants, garden-related topics, nursery updates, and detailed information about upcoming events. It also has a calendar of all our events, classes, and seasonal specials.
Garden Notes is our online newsletter and it is sent out via email the first week of each month. Garden Notes features practical ‘how to’ information, intriguing tidbits, and reminders of our upcoming classes and events. It also contains links to the current issue of The Garden Gazette and to our website. Garden Notes is paperless, easy to email to others, and it helps you stay connected with us more frequently.
Our two newsletters are like companion plants – they work together and compliment each other – and you are welcome to subscribe to both. However, if you want to reduce the paper you receive in the mail, we suggest that you subscribe to Garden Notes and from there you can easily click on the current issue of The Garden Gazette.
To sign up for Garden Notes < click here >
To sign up for The Garden Gazette <click here>
Current Issues and Archives
Garden Notes
Current issue <click here>
Past issues <click here>
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Northwest Flower and Garden Show 2011
Excerpt from the April – May 2011 Garden Gazette
John and I are thankful to our dedicated staff of employees and volunteers who helped install our Flower and Garden Show display ‘A Day Well Spent.’ A garden is always challenging to design and then surprising to finally see the complete design that has only been in our heads and in some pictures and drawings up until it is finally finished. We are able to see the layout of our space and line out how the little buildings will fit within that space, but the overall effect with buildings, plants and garden elements is always a mystery until it is finished and we start placing plant labels at the base of each plant and then walk away to wait for the Preview Party in the evening. We are very pleased with the response from the judges and even more delighted with the ‘Peoples’ Choice Award’ which is the one we feel to be the most important. If fellow gardeners like our show garden we feel we have accomplished our goal.
The most asked questions at this show were about the Wisteria venusta growing on the “propagation house” at the side of the garden and about the Flowering Almond (Prunus triloba) in the raised beds. Our word of caution about the wisteria (see front page story) is an important one. Many people walked away wanting to grow this wisteria, which is magnificent when established but will need annual pruning to keep it from taking down whatever you use to support it. The word of caution about the flowering almond is about disease control. I have wanted one in our garden since seeing it years ago in just about every well-grown garden of my childhood. John would not carry it because of the disease problems. However, Michael French, our forever good friend and great plantsman who helped staff our display garden, told John that he cuts his down to about ten inches every year after it flowers. Because the disease problems are in the blossoms, this eliminates the potential for disease. And, since it blooms on year old growth, it will shoot up after pruning and those stems will be the flowering limbs for the next year. By religiously pruning it back it has stayed disease free. As a consequence of their discussion we will be carrying this shrub from now on and we are going to plant one in our garden. I love plants that take me back to my childhood. Other frequent questions were about the Corkscrew Willow, Daphne odora, Akebia quinata ‘Shirobana’ and the old Schwinn delivery bike. The whole affair was great fun for us and many thought this particular show of 2011 was the best show in years.
Special thanks to our local business supporters: Lefeber Turf, Skagit Gardens Wholesale, Agri-Turf Inc., Lovejoy Nursery, La Conner Flats, JP Automotive, and Jensen’s Greenhouse.
