Find that Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) you’ve always wanted to add to your garden. Our first plant shipment from Oregon is arriving this week with Japanese maples, dogwoods, magnolias and a host of hostas. All of these plants are cold hardy and can be planted now. Their branches are now bare, so it’s the perfect time to choose a Japanese maple. This first shipment contains several of our favorite varieties for our area; these are a few:

Acer palmatum Butterfly is a delicate-appearing, small tree topping out at 9 feet with a width of 5 feet. It has small green leaves edged in white that come out pinkish in spring, then turn magenta in fall. Butterfly is a slow grower well suited to the small garden or for containers.

Acer palmatum Emperor I is probably the best red-leafed upright Japanese maple for our area. Its foliage keeps its red color all summer then turns a brilliant scarlet in the fall. Even its bark is a dark red. Emperor I forms an airy tree to fifteen feet tall and wide.

Acer palmatum Seiryu is an upright open tree with finely cut (dissected) foliage of a rich green. Its foliage deepens to a cordovan color in the fall. It is exceptionally lacy and lovely making it an excellent focal point for the garden. Seiryu grows to about 10 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide.

Acer palmatum Sango Kaku is one of our most popular varieties. It is a beautiful small tree with light green foliage in spring and summer, turning golden yellow in the fall. Lovely as its shape and leaves are, it is its bark that is the star. It turns bright coral red in the winter after its leaves have dropped. It is commonly known as coral bark maple. It grows to 15 to 20 feet tall and wide.

Because I mix roses into my postage-stamp sized garden with such glorious success, Yamagami’s has asked me to share some photos and gardening wisdom gained from experience. The love of growing flowers gives me pleasure and sharing my personal space is my gift to you.

I chose two pictures of my garden to share, both illustrating the value of mixing roses into a garden, even a small one. One is of my side garden room in summer, bursting with blooms and one is of my back garden room sleeping in winter. Both are beautiful to me and neither is a formal rose garden.

Five years ago my side garden (the summer shot) was a 50-year Bermuda grass lawn facing the street. As I began planting I only amended my soil as I planted. Before long there was no Bermuda and a beautiful garden unfolded. Eventually, with lots of mulching, I created a garden in a small area that does not get more than 4 hours of sun. Amazing as it seems, this is the area that was once prone to mildew. Using Maxsea has proved invaluable in helping to prevent the terrible mildew by keeping my roses healthy. Healthy roses do have greater resistance to mildew! Over the past 5 years I’ve added planting mix for mulch, fertilized with Dr. Earth Rose and Flower Food, Alfalfa Meal, GreenAll Sul-Po-Mag and some Epsom salts.

The ‘winter’ picture is in an area of my back garden room. I have a flagstone patio and enjoy eating breakfast in the morning sun. I love winter because deep down in the soil roots are getting strong and bulbs are beginning to push their way up. Buds on the roses and the trees are swelling. The entire garden is working hard right now to give us pleasure in the spring and summer and fall. This is a time for me to clean up. I enjoy chopping away old rose canes knowing the garden will reward me with the fruit of my labor in a few months. Pruning is important to roses as they produce their best flowers on healthy young canes. Notice that when roses are mixed with other plants, there is year-long interest, not just when the roses are blooming.

I would like to invite you to come to my Winter Rose Care classes. I will share tips for pruning and using amendments so that you can garden the way you want, using only healthy products. I will share my favorite tools, which make that task possible even for me. As many of you know, I have arthritis and using good tools is essential for me. I’m here at Yamagami’s Nursery to help you from Sunday through Wednesday, so my garden does not get much fussing. It does provide a lot of joy and that’s what is important to me.

Happy Rosy New Year

Lorena Gorsche, Rose Buyer, Horticultural Consultant

Start marking your calendars for upcoming winter classes at Yamagami’s Nursery. Starting Saturday, January 13th we are offering weekend classes on timely garden projects starting with fruit trees, roses and general pruning. Class fee is $20 per person per session, which is rebated as a credit on merchandise good for the day of the class. Classes last between 1 and 2 hours, allowing time for individual questions after each session. We suggest you dress warmly and consider bringing a cushion for your folding chair.

As your Winter pruning and garden clean-up gets underway, don't sabotage your efforts by using dirty tools.

One of the best ways to prevent the spread of fungus and other plant diseases is to prune out infected parts when pruning out crossing branches and lanky growth. However, seemingly healthy wood can be infected in the process, so disinfecting your pruning tools between cuts becomes very important as you clip.

In 1992, scientists at Kearney Agricultural Center in California's Central Valley tested various readily available and commonly recommended disinfectants. The disinfectants tested were chlorine bleach, hydrogen peroxide, Listerine, Lysol concentrated disinfectant, Pine-Sol, and rubbing alcohol.

The scientists found that soaking or spraying pruning blades for a minute or longer in either full-strength or 1-to-5 solution of chlorine bleach, Lysol, or Pine-Sol brought the most consistent protection. Interestingly, just dipping the blade quickly often did not disinfect properly. Chlorine bleach generally did a better job for quick dips, although none of the disinfectants proved completely effective.

Although chlorine bleach is the least expensive and generally most effective disinfectant, bleach corrodes tools quickly and - as many of us know from clumsy experience - can splash up and ruin clothing. Lysol caused the least damage to clothes and tools; so keeping a small can of Lysol and an old rag in your gardening bucket is a good idea as you work your way through winter pruning and clean-up.

For information on how and what to prune, attend one of our pruning classes in January and February. Check our website, www.yamagamisnursery.com for a complete schedule of coming events.