A Sense of Place

This a picture of ginger lilies (hedychium) collected for use in flower arrangements in a St Lucia resort. David returns to St Lucia tomorrow to work (as a volunteer) at the Diamond Botanical Garden for the winter months.

I once asked a couple, both well known as gardeners, what they wore on their feet when gardening, they seemed offended by the question and said ,rather tersely "What ever we're wearing at the time". I had a picture of them tripping through their bog garden in fluffy bedroom slippers and decided not to pursue the subject any further. Perhaps they thought that I was looking for a recommendation for a pair of over-priced "branded" wellingtons; but rather, I was hoping to find that they had a pair of shoes that though wear and familiarity had taken on the character of a much loved side-kick. There are certainly many examples of these well-worn items, William Nicolson's painting od Miss Jekyll's Boots is almost as well known as his portrait of the lady gardener herself. Miss Jekyll's Boots by William Nicolson. More recently I found in Edwin Smith's beautiful photography book "Evocations of Place" a wonderful picture of Vita Sackville-West...

Now that Winter is here, I thought it might be a good time to reflect on the influence of travel on ones ideas and attitudes to gardens. Although I wouldn't even attempt to build a Japanese Garden, I am always inspired by them and try to incorporate many of the details in my own. This picture was taken in Kyoto at the Ginkaku-ji Temple, it shows a display of the mosses used in the design and layout of the temple gardens. Each one was carefully labeled and arranged under a sign that said "Very Important Mosses".

It has been an unusually long Autumn and a beautiful one too. Tonight we have a low of 11C, positively balmy for this part of the world, and yet it all comes to an end very soon and if the weather channel is to be believed, in 24 hours the temperature will plummet to a chilly 4C and on the night after that a frigid 0C. There also seems a chance of snow on Friday, which I think must be the end of this wonderful long run of weather. However it does look like we have a few mild days that will allow us to enjoy our gardens even this late in the year. Today there were many plants still looked very fine, some flourishing in the cool weather that suits them best, the Cyclamen, Heuchera and Arums seem particularly happy right now. Then there are others that have been transformed by the short days and cold nights and have taken on the vivid colours we associate with Fall. There were surprises also, a dwarf Thalictrum only 8" high and growing in a trough, has turned a pale yellow and Corn...

I had a great difficulty capturing the beauty of the exquisite leaves of Oxalis palmifrons and decided that I would need to post at least three pictures to do it justice. This little South African plant comes to life in the cooler and shorter days of the year and although I've yet to get its white flowers to bloom, these charming leaves are reason enough to give it space in my crowded greenhouse.

Thanks to the Battersbys for first drawing attention to this very expressive face.

Back on October 5th, I posted images of the Nasturtiums growing with great vigor in the cool Autumn weather, and commented on the fact that so many of the 'tender' plants seem to enjoy those conditions. Well the inevitable happened, last night, our first frost. The Nasturtiums put on a good show right up to the end and with the help of the low temperatures and the high humidity, were left, this morning, with spangles of tiny ice crystals attached to the veins of their leaves. I always think of my garden, which is close to Lake Ontario, as the banana-belt of this part of the world, but I was surprised to see that in gardens much further north and away from the moderation of the lake, that Nasturtiums, Marigolds (both Tagetes and Calendula) were still blooming in the morning sun. Micro-climates are created by such particular conditions, that no two locations are the same and are constantly surprising, as mine was today with the frosted Nasturtiums.

Crassula species ( obiculata?) Cedric Morris: Painting of Succulents.

I have been so enamoured with the macro lens on my camera that I'm afraid I'm losing the bigger picture. I can't help but notice that so many of my posts are close-ups or extreme close-ups of plants, flowers and foliage and I think it's about time that I looked up and point my camera at the garden world at large. This is a picture of my garden taken from the third floor deck. It is home in the summer to my Agave collection and so I had to lean perilously over the wicked spines in order to get this shot. By swinging my camera to the left (east) I can take in my neighbours garden and the small park ( it's actually called a parkette). Neither of these features is particularly interesting, but I hope this illustrates that this is a very urban location, gritty, you might say. Turning 180 degrees, I can show the roof of my house and the Honey Locust (gleditsia triancanthos) looking splendid in it's vivid Fall colour. Looking east again you can see the relentless mar...

This display on a telephone post is made up of Virginia Creeper ( Parthenociccus quinquefolia) and Bittersweet ( Celastrus scandens). The old adage about planting vines is pretty true to the mark, "First they sleep, then they creep, then they leap". There are a few variations on this truism, as it was with my Clematis rehderiana which slept for several years in one place only to leap this year after being moved to a better location, it seemed to have missed the creeping stage altogether. There has been a lot of leaping going on this year in the vining community, although in such slow motion that I hardly noticed it until the colouring of the leaves over the last few weeks. Suddenly there seemed to be rampant vertical displays everywhere, all the more vivid when viewed against clear blue skies. How could I have missed the Morning Glory that had climbed up through the centre of a hollow post of a street sign, reappearing ( probably around June) at the four foot mark and then di...

Not much of a reference , but a great cover. I always introduce myself as a "general gardener" since my interest in plants and gardens is so diverse, I grow alpine plants and desert plants, native plants and exotics, plants that need the shade in the under-story of trees and plants that need blazing sun. I also have very different ways of growing plants, some I try to grow in the most natural of habitats and others I grow in containers with a definite artifice trying to match the plant to the container. But for all this, when reflecting on what seems an unfocused mix, I can see some connections between these disperse collection. This little group of succulents perhaps will illustrate how my various interests come together, they are three different plant families, but are all considered caudiciforms, that is, they all have swollen trunks (and maybe roots) that enable them to store water in extreme dry conditions. They are great subjects for growing in containers and (to m...

The nodding campanulate flowers of Clematis rehderiana. In its new location my C. rehderiana has found a new lease on life. I am finally able to enjoy Clematis rehderiana. For years it languished, in what was obviously the wrong place of the garden, it never flowered and produced only a few vines and unattractive leaves. This Spring I decided to dig it out and throw it on the compost, but when I lifted it with a fork I discovered a very healthy looking root system. Taking pity on the plant decided to give it another chance and re-planted it on a west facing fence and from there it really took off. It obviously enjoys this cool Fall weather and has bloomed steadily for the last three weeks and shows no sign of stopping. The weather forecast for the next two weeks ( should we believe them?) predicts night time temperatures of 5C and higher, so the frost, that would surely be the downfall of C. rehderiana, is still a while away. And I am hoping that the fabulous Fall weather that we ...

Begonia sutherlandii going into dormancy. Bulbils forming on the leaf axils. Bulbil complete with leaves and roots. Begonia sutherlandii in its prime. I've just come across a post on a gardeners chat site from someone who calls themselves 'Bigoniac'. I can sympathize with this condition as I could very easily become manic about this family of plants myself. However, I have been unusually disciplined, deciding that I just don't have the space to go whole hog on another plant collecting jag. I have allowed myself only one and that is Begonia sutherlandii. In its prime it has fresh pale green leaves with red veins and stems, it blooms most of the summer with lovely pale orange flowers. As it approaches Autumn, as if sensing the need to survive, it produces fascinating little bulbils at the juncture of the leaves and stems. This year they seem to be particularly well developed, having formed leaves and roots on the tiny bulbs.