A Sense of Place

Is it a garden? Is it a greenhouse on wheels? No, it's David Leeman off to make another garden.

We had an extraordinarily severe storm here last night. It was the remnants of the destructive weather experienced in the U.S. midwest and although nowhere as damaging, it did give us torrents of rain and spectacular thunder and lightening. It is just the sort of weather that seems to follow the emerging blooms of peonies leaving them shattered and rain sodden. Only a few days earlier I was happy to see that the peony 'Le Printemps' was in bloom (also seen at this time in the header of this blog), in the middle of last nights storm I thought to myself "Well that's the end of that" and dreaded to see what I would find in the morning. But, as you see from this picture, 'Le Printemps' survived perfectly and looked untroubled by the weather of the night before. 'Le Printemps'was created by Victor Lemoine in 1905 by crossing P.lactiflora with P. wittmanniana. It is described as being cream yellow, but in my experience also has a pink blush. It is one...

Last summer I had to admit to feeling envious of gardening friends who, when asked about a particular Clematis would reply "Oh, that's just one of my seedlings". Envy is, of course one of the most unattractive emotions, but I had to own up to it. Fortunately it was short lived as this year one of my Clematis seedlings finally bloomed and I am very pleased with it. It is from seed collected from C. 'Helsinborg',from which it inherited its nodding bell-shaped flowers, but unlike it's parent, it has white staminodes and lighter blue tepals.

This is another record taking of a growing collection of plants in my garden, this time, it's Anemone nemorosa. These are the ones I can identify at the moment. Anemone nenorosa 'Vestal' Anemone nemorosa from Reford Garden, Quebec. Anemone Nemorosa 'Mart's Blue'. Anemone nemorosa 'Virescens'. Anemone nemorosa 'Monstrosa'. Anemonex seemanii 'Pallida'.

This is how I imagine the conversation between the Florist and the Grower/ Supplier: Florist: Oh that's nice. What's it called? Grower:Rhodohypoxis. Florist: Oh no! My clients could never handle such a difficult word. Grower: Well, the bulb mix that I grew them from was called "Twinkling Stars". Florist: Perfect! That's what we'll call it. And so the this lovely little South African, which like all plants, has a life cycle that is fascinating to observe, gets called 'Twinkling Stars' and is dumbed down and turned into a commodity that can be easily disposed of when it looses it's bloom. To be fair, the label does bare the title 'Rhodohypoxis' but it also describes the plant as "Living Decor". To the proprietor and staff of the Florist shop I would like to say, put some thought into your Hort and add some flourish to your floristry.

I thought it would be useful to me (and maybe interesting for others) to make a record of the various forms of Ranunculus ficaria I have in my garden. Ranunculus ficaria flore-pleno and the dark foliage of 'Brazen Hussey' grow together forming a patch-work of colour and texture. R. ficaria 'Primrose'. R. ficaria 'Collarette'. R. ficaria 'Double Mud'. An interesting leaf form I found this Spring. A selection of leaves from various forms. R. ficaria flore-pleno. R. ficaria 'Copper Knob'. R. ficaria 'Randall's White'. R. ficaria 'Green Petal'.

I find Sempervivums irresistible, I have hundreds of varieties and yet I keep buying more. Of course, at this time of year they look their best as they come out of dormancy and are their most colourful, and this only adds to the attraction. At my local Hort Soc. plant sale last weekend I bought amongst others Sempervivum 'Aymon Correvon' and was reminded of the book I found last summer in a second-hand bookshop in Portland, Maine. It was M. Correvon's "Rock Garden and Alpine Plants" which has many beautiful illustrations including two of Sempervivums. This is no surprise as he had also written "Les Joubarbes, etude du genre Sempervivum", but who, I wonder was Aymon Correvon? Perhaps his son or his father? Illustration entitled Sempervivum montanum. Second Illustration of Sempervivum arachnoideum. Correvon a dapper Belgian reminiscent of M. Poirot. Sempervivum 'Aymon Correvon'. Sempervivum mix, with S. 'Jubilee Tricolour' in the foregroun...

Being a bit of a Nipponophile ( my word, I hope it's PC ), I've always loved the use of mosses in Japanese gardens . I've also been the owner of and admirer of the book "Moss Gardening" by George Schenk and between these two influences, I've finally been inspired to try and create some moss gardens of my own. Last weekend my good friend David Leeman returned to the city from a visit to his parents barring a flat of mosses that he had cleared off their roof. Now, I had no excuse, I had the plants and the containers, there was nothing for it but to get cracking. Here are the results, I have to add that I am moss neophyte and as yet, I can only vaguely identify the species, but so far I can see that I have some Sphagnum, Racomitrium and even some goblet lichens (Cladonia). The start of my container moss gardens. Some are with single species( Aulacomnium ??). Most are a mosaic of different species.