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Craig Sailor is the Arts & Entertainment editor at The News Tribune. Last year he planted his first vegetable garden. Focusing on unusual varieties, “Freak of Nature” returns for 2008 with a new crop of uncommon vegetables and flowers. This year he’ll try yin yang beans, giant pumpkins, blue poppies and mutant sunflowers. He gardens at his North End Tacoma home and sneaks seeds in to his mother’s garden at Willapa Bay when she’s not looking. E-mail him at craig.sailor@thenewstribune.com.

Sue Kidd is the Lifestyle Editor at The News Tribune and the ringleader for the Home&Garden section. She is a decent vegetable gardener, but occasionally a tragic mess at growing other stuff. She’ll blog about gardening events, gadgets, her weird obsession with guerrilla gardening and all her assorted garden disasters. E-mail her with thoughts/rants/questions/bizarre observations. sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com.

More gardening blogs:
Greengirl
"Starting seeds, dreading weeds."

You Grow Girl
"Gardening for the people."

Between Plow and Wood
"Meditations on farming, nature, food, art, sustainability, the environment and rural living."

Downtown Tomatoes
"A gardening club for the rest of us."

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A Gardening Blog
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
Posted by Craig Sailor @ 06:09:47 pm

A Get Growing reader emailed me that he was the proud owner of two new trees. He got them after reading my post on fall color.

I thought I'd show you a few more autumn happenings in my garden.

This is beautyberry, aka Callicarpa. It has the most amazing (inedible) berries I've ever seen on a plant: metallic purple. It's incredible. I have two in my garden. They seem to like water more than my other shrubs do. The one I have planted in partial shade does much better than the one I have in full sun. The rest of the year it's rather inconspicuous but that changes comes fall.

This is sedum 'Autumn Joy.' There are several similar varieties on the market, all closely resembling each other. The leaves are grey-green and fleshy. It only grows about a foot high and makes a good front of the border choice when planted in a group.

I showed a branch of this tree, the stewartia pseudocamellia, in my last post. The tree has since turned a full crimson. It's spectacular. Can't reccommend this four-season tree enough.

This is a two-in-one. The foreground tree is a witch hazel (Hamamelis x intermedia). I have the red flowering variety 'Diane.' Right now the leaves are almost all bright yellow. These trees stay small and are the first to bloom (right after New Year's) with spidery red flowers. Looks fabulous when backlit.

In the background is a paperbark maple (Acer griseum). This is another great four-season tree. As you can see it has wonderful fall color. But it also its trademark flaky brown bark in winter and wonderful little green tri-tipped leaves in spring and summer.

Get out of the house this weekend and check out fall color whether it's in a nursery or just in the yards and forests of Puget Sound.
Categories: Ahhh, that's adorable

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