A Sense of Place

This little bunch of flowers was almost thrown out with the yard waste this afternoon. I'm so glad I rescued it as it is one of the last plant to flower in the garden and being such a small thing it is easily overlooked and shaded over by its larger neighbours.  It is one of the Fall blooming Saxifragas sometimes called S. fortunei 'Silver Velvet' and sometimes S. cortusifolia 'Silver Velvet'. I suspect it is a hybrid of these two. Its foliage is a delight all summer, but it's late season foliage is always a surprise, it is after all November in Montréal, but no one has yet told this recent transplant from balmy southern Ontario.

I spent a few weeks this Fall  in the village of Mumbles which is now a suburb of Swansea. After decades of living in Zone 6 Toronto and Montreal, I'd forgotten just how temperate my home town is in comparison to the Great White North. Climate is complicated, and here I'm reminded that north and south are not the only things that affect cold and warmth. Montreal is just above the 45th parallel and Toronto is even further south just below the 44th. By comparison coastal South West Wales is just below the 52nd parallel, and yet experiences mild temperate weather throughout the year. The reason for this is, of course the Gulf Stream which sends warm currents of air and water up from the southern Atlantic which moderate the climate. Plants that would be considered tender in my Zone 6 garden. Rosemary, Fatsia and Passion Fruit are completely hardy in Mumbles, even in the smallest front gardens, and can grow into impressively large specimens. A typical row of cottages in Mumb...

My last post was, perhaps a bit negative, so I'm following it with these very beautiful images from a recent visit to the Jardin botanique de Montréal. There were some wonderful container plantings, but also flower beds planted out in seasonal (rather than perennial) combinations, one example that I show here is the pairing of a Dracena marginata possibly 'Colorama' and a pale pink Gaura .  There was a lot of use of Papyrus as a vertical element in many of the container plantings, and on closer observation we were thrilled to see it's new shots emerging from the base, reminding us of motifs in ancient egyptian art. At the time of posting this my header is an image of Persicaria 'Red Dragon' and an unidentified Coleus, another great JBM combo that I'm showing again in this collection of pictures. The final image is the base of a Penjing in the Chinese garden, the tree itself was lovely but I was most taken by the planting at its base, a combination of Sedum...

I've been a little hesitant to write this post being a newly adopted Montréalais, but I can't help but be surprised by the lack of care and maintenance in private gardens and balconies in my neighbourhood.  Meanwhile municipal plantings are spectacular, especially in tourist areas, and the Jardin Botanique de Montréal has eye-popping displays that should be inspiring to the any of the population with a garden or balcony. My street is particularly weedy, it is over-run by Manitoba Maple (Acer negrundo), in fact we have huge specimens that were planted as street trees and are now seeding themselves into every nook and cranny; no one seems to care if they are growing out of the side of the house or out of (and slowly killing) their favourite lilac or honeysuckle. This was once a very fine Peking Cotoneaster hedge, now it is over-run with Manitoba Maple  Conveniently at eye-level for a passing child,  this stinging nettle is thriving in the raised beds around a c...

How's this for a dramatic companion planting? It's completely accidental of course and, at the moment not perfectly composed, but this has the potential for being an excellent late summer combination.  The berries are from Arum maculatum, the leaves of which are dormant at this time of year and the foliage is of Hosta 'Osiris Soleil Levant'.  I'm thinking that a better composition could be created by surrounding the Arum with another one or two 'Soleil Levant' so as to combine the two plants and to make more of the differences in colour and texture. A. maculatum is also a wonderful foliage plant in the Spring with leaves marked with black inky spots and typical flowering spadix. Arum maculatum and Hosta 'Osiris Soleil Levant'. Arum maculatum dormant except for it's brilliant red fruit.

As you know, I have recently moved house, in fact I've moved cities, from Toronto to Montréal. I had to give up a number of my larger plants that were too impractical to transport and to fit into a smaller house and garden. There was some damage to some of the plants in the move, but they have all recovered and are thriving on my sunny balcony. These are  some of the smaller Agaves that made the trip. Lord Ganesh ensures that they have maximum growing conditions. Two of the big Agaves that made the cut, A. victoriae-reginae and A. filifera as well as three smaller spikey types.

 Blooms Day. I never remember this date, but today it seems unavoidable when there is so much happening in the front garden. An unapologetic "riot of colour" made up of Daylilies, Echinacea and Geraniums and much more.

It has been many months since I last posted here, and in that time there have been many changes in my life, primarily my moving to Montréal and giving up my house and garden in Toronto (more of this in future posts). The property in Montréal has been owned by Michel and myself for over twenty years, and so I have a great familiarity in both the house and garden. Although the garden is mostly Michel's work, I've had a hand in shaping it's design, both in the selection of plants and the building of paths and fences etc.  The pictures below were taken when I arrived here at the end of May, the Alliums were still in bloom and the Rogersias had just started to send up their elegant plumes. There is much use of limey green in this planting, with Hakonechloa, "Tiger Eye" Sumac and Dicentra 'Gold Heart' all  contrasting with the dark green fence and giving a cooling effect in the hot Summer days. Other outstanding plants this Spring were Clematis "Jacquel...

Usually by this time of year, my witch-hazel ( Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena') has been in bloom for weeks. As early as January, given a warm day, it will burst into bloom and close up again when the weather turns chilly again.  This year, the brutally cold Winter has held it in check, and even now in the first week of March it still sits waiting for a moment of warm air and sunshine.  Today I decided to treat myself to a little preview and cut a few branches and brought them into the kitchen, where they opened up in the course of an hour.

It has been a long, frigid winter and many plants have perished in the greenhouse on the coldest nights. However I was thrilled to see that almost all my clematis cuttings and seedlings have survived, despite being left on one of the coldest areas of the greenhouse. Among these are several cuttings I made last year of a plant that I grew from seed that was collected from Clematis 'Helsinborg'.  When it finally flowered it turned out to be coloured a very lovely clear blue, quite unlike its parent which is described as having slightly twisted tepals and, together with its steminoides, coloured a deep purple or mauve. C. 'Helsingborg is a cross of C. ochotensis and C. alpina and it looks was if "my favourite blue" has inherited its form from its alpina parent. Blue tepals with white staminoides are also common in C. alpina. Clematis cutttings and seedlings. Including my favourite blue. My favourite blue. Clematis 'Helsingborg' one of the pare...

It's St. David's Day and Wales will be celebrating the saint's day of its patron saint. The floral emblem of Wales is actually the leek (Allium pornum), but the daffodil is more often used as a more attractive substitute. On this day, people in Wales will be wearing one of these on their lapels with great pride. This gives a sense of the scale of Narcissus asturiensis. The delicate little N. asturiensis is actually from Spain, and blooms in my greenhouse around this time of year

It's been a miserably cold winter, and any sign of the survival of plant life is welcome, but I was amazed to see just how well this little colony of Sempervivums had survived. In fact they looked pretty damn good. A granite alpine trough containing a little golden Chamaecyparis, Sempervivums, Sedums and other perennials. Three different varieties of Sempervivums emerge from the snow  in excellent condition. 

There is a fine line between the enjoyment of observing the plants that we love and rabid Plant Lust . You know how it is, we see a picture of a plant and just have to have it; perhaps it's new to us or it has been a nagging yearning spread out over many years. This was the case for me, I've wanted to grow ( well really, more honestly, wanted to have) Narcissus cyclameus for many years, it is the lovely parent of the cyclamaneus hybrids that many of us grow and love. The obliquitous  N. 'Tete a Tete' as well as 'Jetfire and 'February Silver' all have the reflexed perianth of their N. cyclameneus parent. Although these hybrids are readily available in nurseries,  it has taken me years, here in Canada, to source their lovely parent; finally last Spring I found some bulbs for sale at Beaver Creek Nursery in B.C. and over the last few days, the first flower has opened and several more are on their way. Narcissus cyclameneus * There is a site called Plan...

When I was in Montreal over  Christmas, I saw this wonderful art installation near Place des Arts. It was a dull afternoon so these pictures give only a hint of the effect it has at night. It is made up of hundreds of reflectors which at times pick up the coloured lights surrounding the site. Suddenly they picked up the red light and turn into a field of poppies.