Peony Plants and More in Seattle, WA

Spring is Here and it's Time to Plant your Organic Garden!

Why not get the best quality and yield from your garden this year. We can show you how. There is still time to plant lots of great veggies in your garden, P Patch, patio containers or ???If you didn't get your seeds started by now, you may want to get started by planting vegetable and herb plants instead. You'll be much closer to enjoying a delicious organically home grown meal when you put these organically grown vegetable starts in the ground. We've been sourcing organically grown vegetables for Magnolia Garden Center since the late 90's and have found lots of great vegetable varieties for your growing pleasure. Enjoy fresh and organic produce this year by planting your veggie starts now. You can find many varieties of lettuce, romaine, kale and other leafy greens; as well as artichokes, broccoli, over 30 varieties of tomatoes including Ketchup N' Fries the new tomato/potato combination plant, beans, peas, beets and much more all ready for your planting pleasure.

 Pictured above: Staff helping new gardeners choose the right plant.

Plant Summer Blooming Bulbs Now!                                     

There is still time to plant dahlias, lillies, gladiolus, crocosmia, crinum, begonias and several other summer flowering bulbs in your garden and your potted containers so you can be greeted by lots of bright colors throughout the summer! Spend a few minutes now to plant them, forget about them and then you'll be surprised when they pop up later in the season - A great investment in time now for some summer cheeriness! We've got packaged bulbs to help make it easier to get the colors and numbers you'll need.

Anna's Hummingbirds love Mahonia

The best way to attract the wintering Anna's Hummingbirds to your yard is to plant a "hummingbird feeder" in your yard. One of the best type of plants to attract hummers this time of year is Oregon Grape or Mahonia. There are lots of nice varieties for the urban landscape that offer compact size together with abundant flowers for pretty blooms as well as great feeding opportunities for wintering hummingbirds. Other great northwest hummingbird plants include: Flowering Red Current, larger Rosemary plants (almost continuous blooming all winter), hardy Fuchsia (as well as the annual hanging basket-type), Penstemmon, Coral Bells, Strawberry Trees, ornamental Sage (Salvia), Columbine, Beebalm, Echinacea, Lupine and many more. Most of these also attract butterflies as well.

Enjoy home grown fruit this summer!  There is lots of fruit setting and starting to grow on the vines and trees here at the Garden Center. Blueberries are budding up well and are on their way to becoming those tasty berries waiting to pop into your mouth. Buds are also becoming evident on the Raspberry Shortcake Raspberries - a perfect container plant for deck or patio. We sold out over Mother's Day but more will be here late this week.

Cherries developing.

Apples can be seen on the patio friendly Columnar apple "trees". These grow on a single trunk and can be planted in a container if you don't have space for a real tree.                       

Figs developing on several of our dwarf figs trees.  We will show you the best techniques to get the most from these wonderful plants. There are plants in stock ready for planting now or later in the season.

Tomatoes, Peppers, Cucumbers 

 Whether its tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, cucumbers, beans or what-have-you, wait until the soil warms enough so these more hot-season plants can take off when planted. Last year we planted up one of our raised garden beds here at the store in late April and by late May we were ready to harvest many of the lettuces, kales and romaines we put in. This is only a 4' X 4' space and we had nearly 20 heads of lettuce, beets, peas, some onions, herbs  and more. You can be enjoying fresh salad from your own garden in late spring if you plant in April. Perhaps its time to start getting your garden ready. If you're not sure how to best proceed, we are here to make it easy for you. Bring your questions and we'll give you the answers you need for a bountiful season.

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Summer Blooming Bulbs Are Now Here

While the spring blooming bulbs are busy growing beneath our gardens and pots, you can start to get ready for the growing season by taking a few minutes and getting your summer bulbs in the ground or in a pot. You will now find a great selection of vibrantly colored dahlia tubers ready to spring into action once they are laid in the ground or into one of your summer containers. They will give you tremendous quantities of flowers all the way through the summer and well into fall for such little effort this time of year. In fact they will keep producing right up until we get our first frost of the season which may not even happen until winter! Come in soon for the best color choices and we'll show you how simple it is.

Colorful pots grow colorful vegetables!

From cedar raised garden beds to fiberglass pots to EarthBoxes you will find lots of ways to grow edibles beautifully at Magnolia Garden Center. There are hundreds of pots, containers, grow boxes, raised garden bed kits, wine barrels and more to choose from. Stop by and check 'em out. Click here for more information.

 Itoh Peonies and more "If you admire the colorful exotic flowers of tree peonies but prefer the perennial growing cycle of its herbaceous counterpart, Itoh peonies, also know as Intersectional hybrids, are made for you. In the quest to create a true yellow herbaceous peony, in 1948 breeder Toichi Itoh was the first to successfully cross a tree peony with a herbaceous selection.  However, because these plants were slow to multiply and expensive to produce, they were only available to a limited market.  This all changed in 2004 when a tissue culture laboratory learned how to produce Itoh Peonies in vitro.

 Itoh Peonies resemble tree peonies with a domed, vigorous growth habit and large double flowers with disease-resistant lacy, dark green foliage.  They are winter dormant and grown exclusively in our Oregon nursery."                                     MONROVIA PLANTS

Takara (Treasure) pictured above

Herbacious Peonies

Glorious Hydrangeas                         

We have a huge collection of beautiful hydrangeas in bloom right now. They are just covered with flowers and look simply divine. Here is a current list of those in stock: Annabelle, Golden Crane & Tuff Stuff Reblooming Mountain Hydrangeas (A couple of  Monrovia/Dan Hinkley introductions), Pinky Winky, Endless Summer, Invincibelle Spirit, Vanilla Strawberry, Expressions, Limelight and Little Lime. Stop by and add one of these beauties to your yard today!

Fall is Here                               

As the days get just a bit cooler and the nights just a little longer its time to start getting ready for a visit from the Great Pumpkin!   And to help get ready we have all the decorations you'll need from corn stalks (with real ears of corn) and straw bales to Cinderella pumpkins, ghost pumpkins and more. And for Thanksgiving you will find lots of great decor in our Fall display at the Magnolia Garden Gift Shop.

Winter Birds of the Pacific Northwest

Birds often struggle to get enough to eat in the winter. They rely primarily on wild foods such as fruit on trees and seed heads. However, due to changes in their environment or scarcity in an urban environment, these wild foods are often in short supply and many birds supplement the naturally available food with seed and suet found in home bird feeders.

Feeding birds is a good way to get them through the harshest parts of the winter months, but ultimately does little to counteract loss of environment. Still, having birds in your yard is a great way to interact with, learn about, and appreciate nature. In addition to feeding birds, planting trees and shrubs that produce fruit or seed, is a great way to create a safe and abundant place for wild birds to congregate and survive the winter.

Here at Magnolia Garden Center, we offer a wide range of products to suit your birding interests. Everything from food and feeders to bird houses and squirrel baffles. Check out our selection Here. Below is a guide to which types of man-made foods birds in  the PNW prefer during winter months: