Back in October, we featured Liz Sanborn’s garden. Today she’s sharing her mother’s lovely garden. Clearly gardening runs in their blood!

Here is what Liz had to say:

I was visiting my mom today in Normandy Park, Washington—just southwest of Sea Tac Airport—and took some photos. My mom, Marian Floyd, is English, and her garden is a reflection of her ability to get anything to grow to enormous sizes. Her plants reseed themselves abundantly, and it is gorgeous. She is a few blocks from Puget Sound and gets the cool morning air that comes off the water. The house is a beautiful brick Craftsman that my husband built for her.

The walk up to Marian’s house, built by her son-in-law, is flanked by lush plantings. There is no doubt a very talented gardener lives here!

Big masses of Johnny-jump-up (Viola tricolor, Zones 3–9) self-sow in masses in the garden. There are two things required for plants to self-sow abundantly like this in a garden. First, the plants need to be very happy and well suited to the climate and conditions. Second, they need to have space in which to seed themselves that isn’t completely filled with other plants or covered with thick mulch.

Another plant that will often self-sow when happy is scarlet flax (Linum grandiflorum, annual).

White and blue are a perfect combination, always cool and sophisticated. Here, white star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum, Zones 4–9) blooms through self-sowing blue forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica, Zones 3–8). As beautiful as this combination is, be warned that star-of-Bethlehem can be invasive in some climates.

Another view of blue-and-white perfection.

The garden isn’t just self-sowing annuals! Here shrubs provide color and structure, with a doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum Zones 4–8) covered with white, hydrangea-like blooms, surrounded by other shrubs with a variety of colored and textured leaves.

Plants in the genus Ceaonothus go by the common name of California lilac. But I’ve got to admit, they blow every lilac I’ve ever seen right out of the water. This spectacular specimen is a cloud of rich blue flowers. Native along the west coast of North America, the blue-flowered species are poor performers in most other parts of the country. There are species native to eastern North America that are easy to grow in a wide range of climates, but they all have much less impressive white flowers.

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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