Hi Susan we are out of town right now, I don't have access to pictures but I will share some in a week or so when I get back, I have a few nice conifers like this one that have good color and winter interest a couple are bright gold right now and stand out in the snow but most show this color in spring with new growth.

The picture was taken at Mid America gardens in Salem Oregon there landscaping is awesome !! I visited there a couple years ago here is the link with some more of the pictures from there.

The thread "My Spring Trips to the West Coast" in Irises forum

Thanks Brad! ... the link is wonderful, so many beautiful pictures. This will definitely cheer us up till you get back!

Just 2 pix before the next big storm 6 to 12 inches starting tomorrow.
Azalea bushes



Mogu pine

Thanks Jo Ann! Good luck with that storm.

This fern has stayed bright and green all winter, I had some that I thought were Christmas ferns but they must have been mistagged because they all froze and turned brown. I was so hoping to have them stay green all year. This one I think is Autumn fern.


I have several Aucuba plants scattered about, they really look great this time of year, you can see the different in the two different patterns, but I don't know what varieties they actually are.


My giant evergreen Liriope is allways green, it does get the berries also.


Variegated Ivy


The Iris look great after all that bad weather.


My Cast Iron plant lived up to it's name though the storms.


My Pittosporum did not fair so well in the weather this year.


My other patterned Aucuba


I almost left of my Nandina, no berries right now.

Lachenalia

Velthemia
about to bloom
(yellow) (pink)
Erlicheer (daffodil)
about to bloom

Forcing bulbs (tulips and daffodils) - took 4 pots from fridge, to bloom w/n cpl weeks; will be removing them from cold to fluorescent lights from now till done.

More forcers (under covered stairwell to basement) in totes under blankets, these are probably March...

Very nice plants everyone!

It's going to be beautiful.I wish I had done something like that but I didnt know we werent going to have anything but snow for months.
Someone gave me a primula for my birthday in early Jan. Its still blooming and so cheerful in the livingroom window.

Happy belated birthday! Your primula is beautiful and very cheerful!

They sell the plants in a local supermarket.Great marketing idea,everyone is soooooo yearning for flowers now.

I don't know if this is the thread or even forum, but I need some help for my potted pine tree. Where can I post about it?

Thank you.

chelle said:Methinks I need some of that lovely bamboo. Susan, did you say somewhere that it took a number of years to produce berries?

My winter interest/camouflage plants can't touch it, but they do help to hide utilitarian items in the yard.

Personally...
I'm a fan of the bluestem...

And have been busily removing the nandina, ever since learning that it killed birds...
http://www.recordonline.com/ap...

Some homeowners plant Nandina to provide food for cedar waxwing, American robin, Northern mockingbird, Eastern bluebird and other birds that depend on winter fruits to survive. Nandina berries last for months, attracting hungry birds when food is in short supply.

When dozens of cedar waxwings were found dead in Thomas County, Ga., Moges Wolderemeskel and Eloise L. Styer from the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, found the cause to be Nandina berries.

All the birds had intact Nandina berries in their crops. There was hemorrhaging in the heart, lungs, trachea, abdominal cavity and other organs.

Nandina berries contain cyanide and other alkaloids that produce highly toxic hydrogen cyanide, which is extremely poisonous to all animals. Sudden death may be the only sign of cyanide poisoning, and death usually comes in minutes to an hour, Wolderemeskel and Styer report.

Bad enough that stuff is invasive...
http://www.beautifulwildlifega...

sfrangu,
Try the trees and shrubs forum, I have never been to it, but it sounds like the right place. If you don't get any response maybe the all things gardening forum.

stone
I find the info about Nandina berries very interesting, I just planted some because of the beautiful berries. I already had some Nandina, it had beautiful foliage but no berries. So I just planted some mainly for the beautiful bright red berries. I have had Nandina before, and there are literally thousands of them planted in this part of the country and that is the first time I have ever heard of birds dying from Nandina berry poisoning. I am sure the Nandina is very common there also. So I tried doing some more research, and that event in Georgia seems to appear in every single reference to the killing of birds by Nandina berries. Then I found that birds normally eat Nandina berries and they pass though with no problem, only in the rare instances when they eat an abnormal amount does it appear deadly. So, I guess I am wondering if the Nandina provides more good in the amount of food it provides than harm in the very rare cases of birth deaths from over eating.
I have grown the plant for years, my parents grew it for years, and in this part of the country it is not invasive. Yes, it does multiply, and you have to control it, but I have not found it to be hard to control at all, and I have never found a Nandina plant that seemed to sprout away from the main clump.
Now it is apparent that in some parts of the country the plant like many others may indeed be invasive, but that is so true of so many plants.
I would love to have more evidence on the harm and benefits of the plant, I think it is a lovely plant. If anyone had any other info I would appreciate it.

Here's an interesting question:

http://biologicalthinking.blog...
Nandina berries contain a toxin called cyanide. Birds in the US haven't figured out how to deal with the poison, and some cedar waxwing birds have died from eating lots of the berries. The berries can be toxic to any other animal too, so don't eat them. (It probably takes a lot of berries to hurt a large animal such as a human...still...don't eat them.)

Back to the original question: what's a good naturalist to do? That depends on who you ask. Some will say to never plant nandinas. Others say plant them but clip off the berries this time of year when birds start foraging. Others say don't worry about it - eventually the other species will adapt and nandina will become another important part of our ecosystem. The only problem with this last option is that adaptation takes hundreds to thousands of years, so we won't find out how nandinas mesh with our Middle Tenneessee ecosystem for a looooonnnngggg time!

What do you think we should do?

I've been doing some reading today about just how long it can take for these things to adapt...
The Trees That Miss The Mammoths

And the 300 page book "The Ghosts of Evolution":
http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/1...

Well, just a few years ago when I did road races, I learned that you need to drink water and keep hydrated. I also learned that for Marathon runners (not me) you could die from drinking too much water. So I guess unless there are more reported cases and more evidence that Nandina does more harm than good, I am leaving mine. I never thought about it, but I guess all our native plants were probably not native in the beginning, but adapted and evolved into what we know today.

stone said:

Personally...
I'm a fan of the bluestem...

And have been busily removing the nandina, ever since learning that it killed birds...
http://www.recordonline.com/ap...


Bad enough that stuff is invasive...
http://www.beautifulwildlifega...

I was wondering why it says 'All the birds had intact Nandina berries in their crops'. If the birds did not digest the berries then how did it kill them? I have never heard of this.
I have had Nandina for a lot of years (at least 15) and I have never ever seen any bird go to this shrub and take a berry. To me they are just for look at's and I know certain berries they will not eat unless they are desperate. I always have bird seed and suet for the birds and maybe they just chose to eat other things. This would be a good way to keep your beautiful Nandina and keep the birds happy too.
I have not had much problem with it being invasive. I had one huge Nandina next to a water spout at the other house and I had volunteer seedlings under that one, but they were easy to pull up and in my area I am use to pulling up saplings. I pull up 20 baby pine trees at a time on a good day, but I do not have a pine tree.

For me it's oak seedlings, I pulled up over sixty in one small bed just yesterday.
I wondered the same thing, but I had no knowledge of bird parts.

Definition:" A bird's crop is a compartment of muscle tissue that birds use to store and soften their food before it moves on to be processed by the gizzard."

Wow, 61! and I thought I had problems. LOL.