A Sense of Place

Asarum splendens

2012-02-02T14:20:00.000-08:00

Although it's hardy to Zone 5, this year I kept Asarum splendens in a pot and wintered it over in the greenhouse. Last week I noticed that it had set a dozen or so blooms, and so I removed all of last years leaves and have enjoyed the amazing sight of these strange and wonderful flowers open.
I have another Asarum waiting in the wings, A. maximum 'Green Panda' should be the next one to show off its spectacular flowers in the next week or two.
In the meantime, enjoy this zoom in:

Groundhogs? Humbug!

2012-02-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

In 2003 I bought my first copy of Margeret Bennet-Alder's 'The Toronto Gardener's Journal and Source Book'. It is an informative publication and in particular I found the charts in the inside covers very useful.
The inside front cover has a weekly count down to the usual last frost for Toronto, which at this time is eleven weeks away on April 20th.
This may astound many local gardeners who stick to the old-school idea that the gardening season starts on May 21st. This is ridiculous, of course, as most of the Spring flowers have finished by then, no more Narcissus, Galanthus or early Tulips and the Hellebores are past their best.

Starting Cyclamen from Seed

2012-01-25T16:23:00.000-08:00

The ripe fruit capsules of Cyclamen are best planted when ripe, although even seed such as these which have ben stored for several months have a high ratio of germination.

Cyclamen seed on damp paper towel, fold the paper over and then put them in a sealed plastic sandwich box.

Leave the box in a cool dark place ( a cool corner of the basement works for me). Check them every now and again and you'll find that in about two weeks the seed will start to sprout a little corm with roots and the beginnings of a leaf stem.

I then transfer them to soil, making sure they have good contact with the surface and then I sprinkle some fine gravel ( I use Turface ) until they are just covered.

In a few weeks you'll see the leaves break through the gravel.

Keep them in the pot for at least two years, in that time you will have identified your favourites which you can pot up or plant out in the garden ( the best time for this is late July just before they come out of summer dormancy).

Although plants may take up to three or four years to bloom, every one has unique foliage that can be enjoyed in the years that they mature.

Under Glass

2012-01-22T08:27:00.000-08:00

This has been an unusually mild Winter, but under glass it is even milder and already many plants are beginning to bloom.

These Narcissus romieuxii enjoy the cool atmosphere of the greenhouse and even though they are eventually pollinated and set seed, the flowers seem to last for weeks.

In the greenhouse the Cyclamen coum are just beginning to bloom.

This a promising sight, a large number of buds have been set on thee seven year old plants.

The buds have been sitting close to the soil for months and now triggered by lengthening days they are starting to raise above the leaves and open.

Agaves in Winter

2012-01-18T14:42:00.000-08:00

In the Summer I keep all my Agaves on a series of shelves on the third floor deck, I call it my Agave Theatre. Here they can enjoy the great outdoors from late April to late October. If there is a touch of frost at the extremes of this period, I cover them at night and so far they have not suffered from the sudden drop in temperature. They are surprisingly resiliant and in fact a few have survived being left out in the snow. In the Winter the small Agaves go downstairs and are kept under lights, but the larger plants stay on the upstairs in a bright cool window.

Many of my Agaves are unidentified, often they are rescue plants from florists and the dreaded killing fields of the houseplant department of Home Depot.

This is one I can identify, as I found it as a sport offset of Agave angustifolia.

I wish I could identify this one, I bought it in very poor condition from a garden centre and over time I have been rewarded as it grew in vigor into this lovely form.

The Roller-coaster

2012-01-17T06:51:00.000-08:00

The graph of the fourteen day local weather forecast looks like a roller-coaster. This weekend the temperature was a frigid -12C with a heavy snowfall. Yesterday it bounced up to+3C and over the next few days it is supposed to reach +6C with a steady rain that has already washed away the weekends snow.
Because of this, it has been difficult to post images that show the current state of the garden, it's been cold enough to bring out the intense colour on the Abies koreana Aurea , but warm enough for my witch hazel Hamamelis x intermedia "Jelena' to burst into bloom. For a short time we had enough snow to transform the appearance of plants and objects, but now that has washed away, for the time being anyway. More snow is forecast for the end of the week!

This is not an unusual sight in January, the witch hazel is always ready to take advantage of any mild weather that comes its way. When its mild the flowers unfurl only to fold up again when the temperature drops.

This little Abies koreana is colourful year round, but is at its best in the Winter when its foliage ranges from lemon yellow to lime.

This Molinia caerulea is not one of those grasses that provides vertical interest in the winter garden, in fact it seems to collapse way before it's hit by heavy snow falls, for that reason I gave it a severe haircut this Fall and I have been rewarded with this spiky transformation.

Ancient Yews

2012-01-11T14:18:00.000-08:00

One of the most impressive sights we saw on our trip to Wales this Fall were the ancient Yew trees that we found in a number of places. The largest of these were in church yards that were allowed to grow into great towers that threw the cemetery into deep shade.
But others found in gardens were carefully groomed, but with age, had taken on an asymmetry that followed the wishes of Nature rather than that of the gardener.

These old yews in Powys Castle were not the largest or even the oldest, but they date back to at least 1743 when they were included in a drawing of the castle and gardens.

This is the trunk of one of the yews that makes up the yew tunnel at Aberglasney Gardens and this too is thought to be planted in the eighteenth century.

This shows how a row of Yew was bent over and trained into a tunnel.

This is one of the Yews surrounding Capel-Y-Ffin which has been described as 'squatting like a stout grey owl among its seven great black yews'.

In this picture my friend Vicky helps give some sense of the scale of this Yew in Nevern Church in Dyfed.

Seed Starting Update

2012-01-10T08:20:00.001-08:00

"Planting Out" a linocut by Clare Curtis.
I found this to be a great inspiration to get started
www.clarecurtis.co.uk

Back on 7th December I posted this image of Pelargonium seed that I collected in the Fall. At that time I also planted some Geranium and Salvia greggii seed. It was an early start, but since all these are tender perennials, I figured they could be grown on indoors for some time ( although I know they will much prefer the Summer sunshine when they are eventually moved outside).

The nice thing about Geranianaceae and Salvia is that they germinate very quickly and you get instant gratification at a time of the year when you most need to see something growing.

This is a Geranium sanguineum seedling emerging after only ten days or so.

I have four Salvia greggii seedlings from seed taken from a hot pink form.

These are Geranium and Pelargonium seedlings. They were collected in a hurry and are unidentified, and should lead to some interesting surprises as they mature.

Entrances

2012-01-07T05:55:00.001-08:00

Entrances and exits mark the beginning and the end of your journey through a garden. Like the cover of a book, they inevitably give you some hint of what to expect when you walk through to the space beyond.

Sometimes they invite you in...

Other times they say "keep out".

This substantial door in the wall of a kitchen garden had a sign that said "Please keep the door closed as rabbits can enter this way".

This gate was intriguing, but I'm not sure if it's saying "Keep Out".

This gate has a story, David and I visited Powys Castle twice in the course of the last few years and twice found that we had arrived on the the one day of the week when it was closed to the public. David( who hadn't visited before) could only look longingly up at the Castle and gardens from the wrong side of the gate.

Fortunately on the second visit, we had time to come back the following day when the castle reopened.

New Years Day at the JBM

2012-01-03T06:14:00.000-08:00

I was in Montreal for the New Year's celebrations and had the opportunity to visit the Montreal Botanic Garden, which turned out to be a good way to start 2012.
The glasshouse displays were terrific, although sadly, thir excellent Begonia collection had not yet been planted out.
Since I'm not terribly knowledgeable about tropical plants, I decided to focus my camera on colour and texture.
This is something of what I saw, please don't ask me to identify any of these plants in any detail.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T18:43:00.000-08:00

Photo by Michel Lefebvre taken in Quebec City

Sedums- In December!

2011-12-21T11:12:00.000-08:00

The mild weather continues, allowing the Sedum to keep on producing these lovely rosettes of colour.

Sedum spurium 'Tricolor'

Secdum spurium 'Dragon's Blood'

Blooms

2011-12-15T09:02:00.000-08:00

I haven't participated in Blooms Day very much in the past, but after an illustrated talk by Dan Benarcik last week at the Toronto Botanical Garden, I'm inspired to copy an idea that is used by Chanticleer Garden to show what's currently in bloom.

So here's my effort, just as they do at Chanticleer Garden, current blooms are floated on a black bowl of water and photographed from the top. In this picture I've got Hellebrus niger 'Praecox' and some little roses. I've filled the display out with some foliage, giving me ideas for a Foliage Day display. Maybe tomorrow?

Christmas Roses by John Nash

2011-12-14T06:08:00.000-08:00

Another Post on Wednesday (wordless).

2011-12-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

Seed Starting

2011-12-07T05:31:00.000-08:00

Over the course of this Summer and Fall, I have collected seed from many plants that have taken my fancy. I am particularly fond of the family Geraniaceae ( have I mentioned this before?) and since I've come across a number of interesting species Pelargoniums, these have, so far, been my main preoccupation. They are the first seed I sowed this year and they are very rewarding as they give instant gratification, germinating in a matter of days.

Clearing away the casing of this Pelargonium species resulting in...

...seven plump seeds.

A few days later, species Pelargonium breaking the surface of the growing medium.

Pelargonium seedling showing the start of secondary leaves.

Geranium sanguineum seedling germinating in about the same amount of time.

End of the Season for Salvia leucantha

2011-12-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

The unusually mild weather has continued in this part of the world and this has meant plants like Salvia leucantha have continued to bloom and grow into November. However it has finally wilted under the weight of last weeks brief snowstorm, and it's leaves blackened by by several nights of light frost.
Now that it is going into decline, I plan to pot it up and over winter it in my greenhouse.

This unidentified Salvia I saw growing in a garden in my neighbourhood, I was impressed by its intense blue and the contrast with the faded red of the fence. This was taken hours before the snowstorm, so I will be interested to see how it survived.

My interest in Salvias started after seeing this incredible Salvia border at Kew in October 2009. Although they are not hardy here, they are well worth the trouble of wintering over to add interest to the garden in late Summer and Fall.

Frank Cabot, Gardener.

2011-12-03T19:38:00.000-08:00

Shortly after my post on Aberglasney on November 16, Frank Cabot died at his home in Malbaie, Quebec. He was 86. Link to the tribute on the Aberglasney web page.

Cyclamen graecum

2011-11-26T22:45:00.000-08:00

In 2005 David Leeman purchased some Cyclamen seed from the British Cyclamen Society and together we germinated the seed and grew them on to maturity. The result has been dozens of plants that are now happily colonizing areas of my garden as well as in those of friends and neighbours.
But also from this pool I have been able to select specimen plants to grow in the greenhouse, these have been mostly C. hederifolium, C. coum and C. mirabile.
They have all been rewarding plants and spectacular in flower and foliage, however I had overlooked two 2" pots of Cyclamen graecum that had not been divided and were struggling for space. It was not until 2009 that I gave them their own pots, and finally last year I selected four plants with particularly finely marked leaves and moved them on to larger clay pots.

C. graecum in 2" pots in 2010.

A selection of the same plants grown on in 4" clay pots.

They have beautifully marked leaves that are typical of C. graecum.

There is endless variety.

And each plant distinct.

Flowers and Foliage at the NatBot

2011-11-25T05:18:00.000-08:00

NatBot is what my friend in Wales called the National Botanic Garden of Wales, and so it was for us too for the remainder of the trip. Our little group are all lovers of the Mediterranean flora and so, the Great Glasshouse was a treat with its collection of plants from those wonderful climatic regions. The Glasshouse is divided into mediterranean climates around the world including those of Europe, South Africa, Australia, Chile, and Pacific North West America. Here are some of my pictures which I'll try to identify if possible.

Haemanthus albiflos.

Pelargonium acetosum.

Acacia pravissima

Gazania.

Dryandra sp.

Anigozanthos sp.

Fascicularia pitcairnifolia

Alyogyne huegelii.

Helichrysum were great favourites of butterflies and bees.

The National Botanic Garden of Wales

2011-11-24T10:23:00.001-08:00

I have a lot of pictures of the National Botanic Garden, so I'm dividing it into several post starting with this one on the buildings and layout.

The National Botanic Garden is a millennium project for Wales and was opened in 2000. It is set in a National nature reserve of 500 acres which includes the lands of the historical Middleton Estate and utilizes many of its surviving building structures.
The most exciting of these is the double walled kitchen garden which has been restored and now contains a vast collection of plant families. The other outstanding feature is the great dome designed by Sir Norman Foster to be the largest single span glasshouse in the world. Link to more complete history.

David and John are following the source of the rill that runs from the top of a hill to the entrance and leads visitors to the Walled Garden and the Great Glasshouse.

Looking up the hill at the rill with the Glasshouse on the right and the Walled Garden to the left.

This complex of buildings, old and new, houses exhibits, restaurants and administration.

The remaining wing of Middleton House.

A section of the Walled Garden featuring Grasses, Bamboos and Palms.

The spectacular interior of the Glasshouse.

Visitors can follow paths at surface level...

or go down into canyons and ravines.

November

2011-11-22T10:19:00.000-08:00

This has been an unusually mild month, it has felt more like October, but with the shorter days and dramatic sunsets I associate with November. Looking out the window I noticed that Clematis rehderiana was still very green and still in flower, this inspired me to see what else there was in bloom in the garden. Here are my finds:

Clematis rehderiana, still in bloom with a few older flowers damaged by light frosts.

Geranium 'Rozanne', the blooming machine is still cranking out flowers that have turned bluer by the colder weather.

Salvia leucantha still happily blooming and so far unaffected by frost and cold nights.

Helleborus niger 'Praecox' this reliable late bloomer is just reaching its prime.

The Cowbridge Physic Garden.

2011-11-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

On my last visit to Wales my friends Graham and Denise took me and their neighbour Margeret to Dyffryn Gardens. It was a great visit and was preceded with an unscheduled visit to the Cowbridge Physic Garden. And like many unexpected detours, it turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
This is a fairly new garden and has been made in an old walled garden in the middle of the little town of Cowbridge. There appeared to be a lot of community input and seemed to be maintained mostly by volunteers.

The sign in Welsh on one side of the entrance.

The main entrance with bilingual signs.

It was a warm day in September and there were many people taking advantage of the sunshine.

Some nice ornament that suited the formal design.

The layout of the garden was formal and organized in groups of plants with similar healing properties.

Aberglasney House and Gardens

2011-11-16T16:53:00.000-08:00

Whether from benign neglect or respect for the past, many gardens in Wales have survived time and changes in fashion. As can be seen in my earlier post, Powys Castle has retained its Italianate terraces and the house and farm at Llanerchaeron remain intact.
The most recent story of survival is the rediscovery of Aberglasney House and Gardens, which although neglected for decades was rescued in the late 1990's and has seen a miraculous recovery.
I have been lucky to have witnessed the transformation from a muddy archeological dig in 2000 to a fully realized renewal of the Cloister Garden, which is now confirmed to be from the late Tudor and early Stewart era. And, in fact, seeing the remaking of the entire garden and restoration of the house has been an ongoing pleasure for the last 12 years.

Aberglasney House. The Cloister Garden which until recently was buried under metres of soil and covered in lawn.

The house and gardens are under the care of the Aberglasney Restoration Trust and one of the most steadfast supporters is Frank Cabot.

One of the many projects supported by Ann and Frank Cabot was the Ninfarium, the atrium covered semi-tropical garden laid out in a ruined wing of the house.

It is named after the Italian garden laid out in the 1920s among the ruins of the small medieval town of Ninfa.

This summer house, another gift from the Cabots is in a sunny corner of the Kitchen Garden.

In the Kitchen Garden, this crabapple tunnel was heavy with fruit this Autumn.

Staircase to an adjoining enclosed garden.

The second enclosed garden, originally another kitchen garden, is now a new formal garden designed by Penelope Hobhouse.

Paths and Paving

2011-11-15T16:54:00.001-08:00

At this time of year when much of the garden disappears under layers of falling leaves, it is a great pleasure to take a rake and with a few strokes uncover pathways. It's only a temporary gesture, as very soon they will be covered by snow and remain that way until the Spring.
If gardening is "an act of disturbance", this was certainly the sort of gesture that reasserts ones control over this intimate place, and if gardening is a shared creation between gardener and Nature, then this is me having my say. Of course nature wins in the end, if these leaves were left unraked for an Autumn or two, then as they break down into humus,and it would take no time for tree seedlings to invade the pathway and reclaim for Nature this manmade thoroughfare.

This the pathway as Nature would have it.

The same pathway after a few strokes of the rake.

The design of this path was partly influenced by a Japanese design and partly by the need to adapt to the slim resources at my disposal, and to be honest I like this cottage garden ingenuity of using whatever materials are available. The stone pavers were left over from a friends kitchen renovation, they are set in an inexpensive gravel and edged with granite sets left over from another project..

Here are two examples of cottage garden craft of using "mixed paving" that I photographed in the South Cottage Garden at Sissinghurst.
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The Plant House at Hidcote

2011-11-12T07:28:00.000-08:00

The Plant House in 1930. It was demolished in 1954.

Hidcote Manor Garden is one of the most famous and influential 20th Century gardens in Europe. At it's centennial a large sum of money was raised to renew and rebuild some of the features in the original garden that were in need of repair or were lost over time. One of these features was the Plant House which was demolished in 1954 after an exceptionally bitter winter had wiped out the plant collection. It has now been resurrected to provide winter protection for a collection of semi-tropical plants while in summer when the glazed panels are removed it becomes an airy arcade for visitors and many of the plants spill out into the adjacent Lily Garden.
When we visited Hidcote this September some of our party were disappointed with the appearance of many of the gardens, they seemed rather shabby and down at heel, and so it was a special pleasure to find the plant house in great shape with colourful borders of annuals glowing in the Autumn light.

Plant House with border of Verbena bonariensis, Cosmos sulphuereus and Nicotiana 'Lime Green'.

The perimeter of the Lily Pond has large tropical plants in pots spilling out from the Plant House in the Summer.

The entrance to the Plant House has tables of tender plants .

Aeonium tabuliforme.

11.11.11.

2011-11-11T14:59:00.000-08:00

Llanerchaeron, Ceredigion, Wales

2011-11-11T05:32:00.000-08:00

A chance meeting with my old friend Carol, resulted in a lovely weekend in mid-Wales and the introduction to two places that were unknown to me and that I would otherwise not visited. The first was Llanerchaeronand the other was the Pavillion at the Serpentine Gallery (see post on October 5th) .
Llanerchaeron is a self- sufficient 18th century Welsh estate with a dairy, laundry, brewery, bakery and walled kitchen garden. It was designed by John Nash and has survived to this day virtually unaltered and is now under the care of the National Trust.
The walled garden was huge with apples, pears and medlars growing as standards as well as espeliered against the walls and all manner of soft fruit and vegetables. There were also greenhouses with an interesting collection of unusual Pelargoniums.

The elegant main house designed by John Nash in 1790.

This is the approach to the house when entering the estate.

A nice arrangement of interesting Pelargoniums at the front door.

The main courtyard at the rear of the house surrounded by laundery and dairy and other workrooms.

The doorway from the courtyard to the farm buildings and walled garden.

Time and wear have textured this windowsill looking into the courtyard from one of the work rooms.

Carol at the entrance to one of the walled gardens.

This will give some idea of the scale of the walled gardens.

Medlars ready for harvest in mid-September.

Espeliered apples in the walled garden.

Autumnal Wednesday

2011-11-09T05:34:00.000-08:00

Container Planting at Powys Castle

2011-11-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

The gardens at Powys are wonderfully located on the italianate terraces of a red sandstone and terra-cotta brickwork of the castle. Facing south they have a perfect micro-climate for the eclectic mix of plants from many climate zones around the world.
The style of planting is unique to this garden and was established and refined largely from the creative efforts of Jimmy Hancock the recently retired head gardener.
The borders that line each of the four terraces are planted with an endless variety of plants and are combined in a profuse display of shapes, colours and texture.
Throughout the garden, plinths, niches and staircases are punctuated with urns and flowerpots, many in the terracotta basket-weave pots that have become closely associated with Powys.

Five niches on the Top Terrace each with a tall terracotta urns.

The tall urns were similarly planted with Fucshia 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt', Lobelia richardsonii and a hot pink Salvia greggii.

More Fucshia 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt' , yellow oxalis and blue Lobelia.

This double form of Tropaeolum majus 'Hermine Grasshof' is often used in Powys container plantings.

A pale orange double nasturtium also used in Powys containers.

This is the effect given by the inter-planting of the two nasturtiums.

One of two matching pots at the bottom of a staircase with a lush display of Pelargonium 'Mrs. Kingsley'.

This dramatic display of Aeonium arboreum 'Zwartkop' and Cosnos atrosanguineus in a basket-weave pot.

More subtle use of colour with Helichrysum and other purple and green foliage.

This is a detail of the container above.

These matching containers again with subtle use of colour and texture.

A detail of the picture above.

Powys Castle Gardens

2011-11-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

It was interesting to see these old pictures on our visit to Powys Castle this Autumn. They were taken in the early part of the last century and are displayed in places around the garden from approximately the original point of view of the photograph. Surprisingly, the gardens seemed unchanged and only the gardening techniques seemed to have altered in that time, for instance it was interesting to see the perilous heights gardeners went in order to trim the ancient yews as seen in the 1925 picture below, whereas these days gardeners are hoisted up in mechanical cherry-pickers complete with safety harness and , no doubt, health and safety training.
Powys is one of the few Italianate Gardens that survives in the U.K. and the beauty structure of the place is unchanged. I'm not sure what it is about Wales, but either through benign neglect or conservative taste, several gardens have survived the urge to conform to changes in fashion (Aberglasney, was found to be a Jacobean Gareden is another example).
Some things have changed and developed, the combinations of plants in containers and terrace beds are well known for their endless variety and creativity, and I will share more of this in my next post.

A 1908 photograph taken from the Great Lawn in the lower level of the garden.

Approximately the same point of view taken this September.

The Orangery Terrace photographed in 1930.

The same point of view this September.

Gardeners trimming the massive old yews in 1925.

The extraordinary yew forms now maintained with electrical trimmers and reached by cherry-pickers.

Here and Now

2011-11-02T08:43:00.000-07:00

I've realized that, lately, all my posts are looking back at my vacation in the month of September and early October, and that it's about time that I commented on the here and now. We've had a very mild Fall, and from here it's hard to imagine the wet snow that has confounded our garden friends in eastern U.S. and Canada.
We have, in fact, had some frost but not enough to damage even the most tender plants. Some like Salvia leucantha and Amicia zygomeris are loving the cool temperatures and the short but bright days that we are experiencing right now. Saxifraga fortunei, although not at all tender, are also enjoying these conditions and continue flowering, unaffcted by light frost.
You'll see from the long shots of the garden that although it is definitely an Autumn scene, that there is still a lot of green in the picture. But there are some seasonal colour provided by my little Acer shirasawanum and Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena'.

The garden looking south/west.

Looking south/east.

Acer shirasawanum.

Amicia zygomeris.

Salvia leucantha.

A pink flowering hybrid of Saxifraga fortunei.

Hay-on-Wye

2011-10-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

This is, maybe, a good segue from my earlier post on 'growing on stone', since the first picture is of a large colony of moss growing on the roof of a building in Hay-on-Wye. It was taken on the main street of this little town on the Welsh/ English border (on the Welsh side) which is one of the major centres for the antiquarian book trade in Britain.
We were visiting on a very sleepy Sunday afternoon, and with the attention grabbing food festival going on in the neighbouring town of Abergyvenny it was practically deserted.
After lunch I was happy to find the bookshop specializing in garden books, only to find the owner on the point of shutting up shop. "You're the only one to come in all day" he said. "I was just about to go home".
Not wanting to keep him any longer than necessary, I grabbed what looked like a vaguely interesting book from the 50% off table and left the bookseller with his only sale of the day. Luckily, my quick choice turned out to have been a good one, it was a Swiss published book on alpine plants by Prof. C. Schroter, F.L.S. (retired) and with charming illustrations by L. Schroter. Inside there are dried samples of Silene and Saxifraga and five beautiful postcards with photographs of alpine plants.

Hay-on-Wye (I can't remember there being that many people around that day).

Hay-on-Wye market, deserted and raining!

Alpine Floraby Prof. C. Schroter.

Postcard of Crocus vernus.

Postcard of Senecio dronicum.

Postcard of Sempervivum arachnoideum.

Postcard of Anthyllis vulneraria

Postcard of Anemone sulfurea.

Interior of book showing illustrations by L. Schroter.

Living on Stone Walls

2011-10-31T09:38:00.000-07:00

This the last of my travel pictures of plants and stone, these are plants growing on and sometimes in stone walls. There were many examples in great variety, Kenilworth Ivy, English Ivy, Kentranthus, Linaria, Buddleia to name a few. Some took over and enveloped the wall, others were beautifully miniaturized by the lean living conditions.

A fern and campanula kept in check by their lean conditions, and forming this lovely miniature garden.

Boston Ivy has taken on the shape of this crenellated Wall in Aberglasney Gardens.

At the top of this wall a small ivy finds a root hold.

On the bottom of the same wall a Euphorbia finds a home.

Living on Stone

2011-10-22T11:37:00.001-07:00

It has been acknowledged for many decades that air quality has a direct effect on the survival of lichen, so much so, that the pollution present in most cities has eliminated them from the urban environment creating a veritable 'lichen desert'.
So as a city dweller, I rarely have the chance to enjoy the fascinating patterns of lichens on trees and stone. However on my recent visit to Wales I had lots of opportunities to make up for this loss and was able to take pictures of these curious living forms ( don't ask me to define them more accurately than that, I'm no lichenologist). I have tried to identify them in these pictures with the aid of Oliver Gilberts' 'Lichens'.

This is the celtic high cross outside Nevern Church in Dyfed. It is one of the best examples of early-celtic crosses in Wales and unlike the Irish ones, its superb carvings are geometrical, with no human figures.

It is over 7' high and covered in bright orange patches of lichen.

Architectural detail of red sandstone covered with Leconora rupicola.

A rich community of lichen.

Caloplaca aurantia on a stone wall near the coast in Pembrockshire.

On a tombstone at Capel-Y-Ffin, the fine texture of a Lecanora species.

Stone Flowers

2011-10-17T03:42:00.000-07:00

This September when traveling through the Gospel Pass on the way back from Hay-on-Wye to Abergyvenny , we stopped to visit Capel-Y-Ffin.
In a remote valley it is a curious sight, described by the Revd Francis Kilvert ( in the 1800's) as 'squatting like a stout grey owl among its seven great black yews'.
It was built in 1762 replacing an older 15th Century structure, and it is said that before that it may have been an even earlier religious site. The ancient yews may even pre-date these both these structures and it would be nice to imagine them as surrounding a Druid place of worship.

In the church yard , the majority of the grave-stones were from the 19th century decorated with lovely representations of flowers . The quality of the carving was very skillful and the flowers were recognizable as roses or lilies as well as many other botanical subjects.

One of the ancient yews enclosing the chapel.

On this stone there are roses and (maybe) Forget-me-nots.

A lily and roses.

Roses and a wheat-sheaf and sickle.

Vitis 'Brant'

2011-10-10T06:58:00.000-07:00

Last month I was lucky enough to visit Dyffryn Gardens a lovely edwardian garden near Cardiff in South Wales. It is soon to be under the care of the National Trust and has already undergone a considerable amount of restoration supported by a private trust fund. Dyffryn has impressive vistas as well as a series of interconnected, enclosed gardens designed by landscape architect Thomas Mawson in 1906. These were commissioned by John Cory a relative of Cedric Morris.

V.'Brant' is a popular ornamental vine in Europe valued for it's spectacular Fall colour, but frequently mislabeled as V. 'Brandt'. In fact this was the case two years ago when I visited Dyfferyn Gardens. So at that time I left a lengthy note leaving the details of Brant's history and I was delighted to see at this visit that the labels had been corrected. Yeah! a victory for Canadian horticultural history !

V. 'Brant' was hybridized by Charles Arnold in Paris Ontario in 1860. Paris Ont. is in Brant county the home of Joseph Brant the famous Mohawk military and political leader, after whom, I like to think, this vine was named.

Joseph Brant portrait painted by George Romney in 1776

Hortus Conclusus

2011-10-05T05:35:00.000-07:00

It's been difficult to decide on what to post after five eventful weeks of travel, but I finally decided to start with my most recent experience. On the last leg of my journey I spent four days in London, which as it happens, was during a record-breaking October heat-wave.
On the recommendation of a friend I visited the temporary pavilion, which is commissioned every year by the Serpentine gallery in Hyde Park. This year it was designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor and featured a garden by Piet Oudolf. It turned out to be a spectacular experience, the building itself was a black rectangular box with an inner corridor running around its outer walls with openings into the interior. Inside was a courtyard open to the sky and containing this wonderful garden which in contrast to the matt black surface of the building glowed in the hot autumn sunshine.

See this link to the Serpentine Gallery

The unassuming exterior of the structure.

A close up of the surface of the structure.

Inner corridor leading to the courtyard and garden.

The spectacle as you enter the courtyard.

Open to the sky.

Details of the planting.

More detail.

Away on Vacation

2011-08-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

I leave today on a 5 week vacation to South Wales and English Border Counties. I will be visiting friends, family and the spectacular gardens in that area. The gardens will include the National Botanic Garden of Wales, Aberglasney House and Gardens, Powis Castle Garden and on the other side of the border, Hidcote Manor Garden. I will also be attending the Abergyvenny Food Festival in mid September.
For the first half of the month I will be staying in a little row house in the village of Mumbles ( now really a suburb of Swansea). I'm posting here two images of Mumbles seen from the vantage point of Oystermouth Castle. The first is a drawing made in the 19th Century and the second a postcard from the early 20th century; it's much more built up now but still recognizable.
I'm not sure if I'll be posting during this time, but I will, no doubt, be coming back with lots of pictures and stories to tell.

19th Century image showing Newton Road running off to the right. That's where I'll be staying.
Early 20th century postcard of Mumbles from the same vantage point.

Cyclamen Hederifolium

2011-08-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

I'm so careful with the Cyclamen specimen that I grow in my greenhouse, and I'm amused to see these C. hederifolium growing with great vigor outside in the garden. They have, no doubt enjoyed the heavy rains of Spring and got through the dry conditions of this years Summer by slumbering under-ground.
In the meantime only a few of my indoor plants have started to emerge; they've had a slow start but will at least enjoy the shelter of the greenhouse and will be performing well when the outdoor plants will be covered in snow.

Miss Haversham's Garden Party

2011-08-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

I noticed this scene the other day in a neighbourhood front garden. The table and chairs are set up in a very public venue and impractical a place to sit al fresco (unless you didn't mind the bindweed reaching out for your leg). To add to this a number of tea cups had been left near the curb, conjuring up images of an abandoned tea party

Late Summer Flowers

2011-08-24T05:08:00.000-07:00

My friend Gayla is overwhelmed by Morning Glories right now. They have arrived uninvited into her new garden and have taken over in their usual exuberant manner. I can understand how she feels about these boisterous vines, but I find when I don't have any in my garden, I end up envying those who have had the forethought to plant them in the Spring.

This large moonflower-type has been spectacular. It reminds me of the large delicately coloured forms that the Japanese seem to favour.

There is nothing unusual about this plant that volunteered in the vegetable garden, but who could resist these vivd colours and bold forms.

Plants at My Front Door

2011-08-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

Last year I had a rather autocratic message from the UK suggesting that my love of limey, gold and chartreuse plants could lead me down the path to "brassy" tastelessness.

I bristled at this, but tried to ascertain whether this was a fair comment. My critic, perhaps had not taken into account that I live in a completely different environment from her, and that the quality of light and extremes of climate affect our reaction to colour in a different way.

In our hot, humid summers and brilliant sunshine, I find that these yellow/greens are actually cooling and rather than being strident, are very subdued and complimentary to other colours in the garden.
Well, judge for yourself. I'm showing here an arrangement of plants at my front door, which I find very pleasing, A cooling vignette in the last few days of a very hot summer.

Plants at my front door.

Durantia, Angelonia 'Purple Stripe' and purple Callibrachoa.

Coleus 'Fishnet Stockings' and Durantia.

Feels Like Summer

2011-08-10T04:46:00.000-07:00

Goblet Lichen (Cladonia).

2011-08-03T05:07:00.000-07:00

Hot Summer

2011-07-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

Hot Summer

2011-07-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

Sempervivum 'Sunset'

2011-07-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

Digitalis

2011-07-01T20:11:00.000-07:00

I recently resolved that, in my garden making efforts, I would concentrate more on design and less on plantsmanship, but when Digitalis obscura, opened this week, I couldn't resist compiling a list of the other species I have growing in the garden.
I also remembered a print that I have of John Dillwyn Llewelyn's "Foxgloves and Ferns" and I have added that to the list.

Foxgloves and Ferns by John Dillwyn Llewelyn

D. obscura

D. purpurea

D. lutea

D. grandiflora

Hybrid of D. lutea and grandiflora ?

Wednesday

2011-06-22T04:54:00.000-07:00

Zoom in on Wesnesday

2011-06-15T04:07:00.000-07:00

A Partnership Made in Heaven.

2011-06-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

I wish I could claim that this combination of plants was the result of years of experience, but like many successful garden pairings, this was a complete accident.
The slowly maturing gasplant, shown in the first picture is described by one grower as Dictamnus tadzhikorum and by another as Dictamnus albus turkestanicus 'Silent Thunder'. Both agree that it was from seed originally collected by Josef Halda in Tajikistan and distinctly different from D, albus having larger flowers in looser umbels.
Happily, this year, it combined with Geranium 'Sirak' a plant that I thought I had lost some time ago, but which has reappeared in this most fortunate location.

Dictamnus albus turkestanicus 'Silent Thunder' (d. tadzhikorum).

Geranium 'Sirak' a G. gracile and G. ibericum cross.

For the Record- Polygonatum

2011-06-08T17:26:00.001-07:00

This is a record of the Polygonatum I have in my garden. It's mostly a personal reminder, but I hope it will also be of interest to others. This is almost all the species that I have except for P. hookeri which is only just breaking the surface in my trough for shade plants.

Polygonatum curvistylum.

Polygonatum X hybridum 'Striatum' ( odoratum 'Grace Baker').

Polygonatum falcatum ( Silver striped selection).

Polygonatum biflorum.

Polygonatum multiflorum 'Variegatum'.

Polygonatum 'Betburg'.

Polygonatum humile.

Polygonatum odoratum 'Silver Wings'.

Wednesday-Zoom Out (or In).

2011-06-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

Michel's Garden 2011

2011-06-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

I go to Montreal several times a year, usually to attend Rendezvous Horticole, the Spring plant sale at the Jardin Botanigue de Montreal held on the last full weekend in May.
Arriving on the Monday, I missed the sale by one day but enjoyed my stay as it involved a number of events including an evening at the theatre, a tour of the theatre district which is undergoing a major rebuilding, a day trip to the great nursery 'Les Jardin Osiris' and finally seeing Michel's garden at its best in early summer.

Polygonatum 'Silver Wings' and pale yellow forms of Uvularia and Hosta.

Dicentra 'Gold Heart', Uvularia and Hosta.

Cypripedium reginae in foreground with Pulmonaria nd Hosta.

Hosta 'Thunderbolt'.

Michel prepares dinner.

My view of the garden while having a drink before dinner.

Is it a Garden?

2011-05-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

Is it a garden?

Is it a greenhouse on wheels?

No, it's David Leeman off to make another garden.

Le Printemps

2011-05-26T17:22:00.001-07:00

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 of the earliest peonies to bloom and I first encountered it at Rendezvous Horticole at the Montreal Botanic Garden.

Tale of the City

2011-05-25T04:52:00.000-07:00

Just One of My Seedlings.

2011-05-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

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.

Wordless Observations on Wednesday

2011-05-18T14:49:00.000-07:00

For the Record - Anemone nemorosa

2011-05-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

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'.

I Rant

2011-05-14T02:20:00.000-07:00

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.

For the Record - Ranunculus ficaria

2011-05-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

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'.

Sempervivum, Rock garden Plants and Mons. Correvon

2011-05-11T05:30:00.001-07:00

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 foreground.

Mosses

2011-05-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Heart's Delight

2011-04-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

Heart's Delight sounds like a town in Newfoundland, and it may well be so, but it is also the name of lovely kaufmanniana tulip.
It could well describes how I felt when I arrived home today, from an early appointment, to find so many of the early Tulips open in the warm morning sun. It has been a miserable Spring so far, so cold that most reckon that we are two weeks behind the usual progression of the season. So it was with an extra special delight to see these early tulips finally in bloom.

Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Heart's Delight.

Tulipa turkistanica.

Tulipa humilis 'Violacea'.

Slowly Across the Pane of the Front Door

2011-04-27T05:14:00.000-07:00

Looking Closer at Snowdrops

2011-04-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Like many plants, Galanthus can be viewed en masse in great drifts or close up to enjoy their delicate markings. In both cases, they are very rewarding and happily one does not have to choose one method of viewing over the other. I suppose it's the attraction of the close up method that has led to the current Galanthomania trend. Galanthus seem limitless in their ability to experiment with variations in their form and colour markings and observing these differences can be an absorbing activity.
I found this out recently when David Leeman and I were given permission to examine an old planting of Galanthus nivalis and G. nivalis 'flore-pleno' in the gardens of an historic house on the outskirts of Toronto. The results were very interesting. There were indeed, many variations from plant to plant, especially in the double flowers. You can see what we found in this link to David's post on this subject.
Interestingly, when I got home I looked more closely at the Snowdrops in my own garden and found similar variations. The doubles were again the most individualistic. From this observation, I've decided not to seek out the numerous named forms of this flower , but to enjoy the differences of those in my own garden and in those of my friends and neighbours. This may just be sour grapes on my part as the importation of plants into Canada is a daunting exercise and at this time I am unwilling to resort to smuggling. However here are some of the varieties of flowers found in my well established colonies of Snowdrops, I think some would be well worth cultivating.

This double Snowdrop has prettily marked reflexed petals. It will be interesting to see if this feature reappears permanently in years to come.

There are lots of green centres, this seems to be a fairly common variant.

Door Opens on Sunday

2011-04-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

On Sunday 24th April from 1.00 to 4.00p.m. my garden will be open as part of Open Gardens Toronto.
Use link for my address and directions.

Simple and Sumptuous

2011-04-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

Eleanor Perenyis loved Dahlias, and when a friend implied that they were a little less than tasteful, she defending them by saying "But to me they are sumptuous, not vulgar, and I love their colors, their willingness to bloom until the frost kills them and, yes, their assertiveness. I do like big flowers when they are also beautiful".
I was reminded of this when I looked again at my recent purchases of new Hellebore cultivars, they too are sumptuous with flowers of rich colouration and complex structure. They have come a long way from the forms they would have in the wild and although many people abhor anything that differs from this primal state, I still seek out the variations that Nature can supply, and find them so extraordinary and beautiful.
But I suppose I want it all, as I also love the simplicity of the species and primary hybrids, they are at their best in my garden at the moment and I decided to look at them again as a group.
We often see Helleborus hybridus displayed by floating the flowers in a bowl of water, but not so often this group and so I gave them a chance to strut their stuff in the same manner.
In the picture below I've put together H. niger (also pictured in header), H. niger 'Praecox', H. nigercor, H. foetidus and H. 'Ivory Prince', and although they have a simple palette of colour and structure they still make a lovely composition.

A composition of Hellebore species and primary hybrids.

David taking the last of our plants (Helleborus "Ivory Prince') to be sold at our local Hort Soc.

Chrysosplenium

2011-04-17T14:39:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure where it came from, but I've found Chrysosplenium alternifolium growing in my garden this Spring. I have to admit that I am increasingly forgetful of what I've planted, and this seems to be another example of my failing memory.
I think I must have been decisive in placing this little Saxifrage relative, because it is situated close to one of it's cousins the exotic asian species Chrysosplenium macrophyllum which I bought at Crug Farm in North Wales.
I had my doubts that it would be hardy here in Southern Ontario, but it seems quite at home and happily spreads around by stolens to produce satellite plants each producing these strangely beautiful flowers

Chrysosplenium alternifolium.

Chrsosplenium macrophyllum flower.

Chrysosplenium new leaves unfurling.

The Last of the Cyclamen

2011-04-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

At this time of year when I'm beginning to move plants outside, the greenhouse is losing many of it's best performers, the Cyclamen coum have been spectacular for many months and are now, literally, going to seed. The one exception is the lovely Cyclamen peloponnesiacum which is the last to bloom and is, at the moment, at its best. These pictures show a pot of about six plants showing a variety of leaf markings and delicate flowers that also sweetly scented.

Garden Visiting

2011-04-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

I was looking for an image to accompany the announcement of the dates for my Open Gardens and found this picture of Margery Fish ( with her back to the camera), the caption read "A tour of the 1/4 acre garden with her could take up to five hours".

I'm often disappointed at how little time some visitors take when they visit my garden and love it when others stay for an hour or so with lots of questions and observations. I think five hours might be excessive, but hopefully Mrs Fish did stop for tea at some point.

My garden will be open as part of Open Gardens Toronto on April 24th from 1.00 to 4.00p.m., and on the following dates this Summer and Fall: June 12th, July 10th and October 16th, all these dates fare Sundays and from 1.00 to 4.00 p.m.

Margery Fish showing her visitors around her garden in East Lambrooke Manor in Somerset. This photograph by Valerie Finnis is from Garden People by Ursula Buchan, a wonderful book on the photography of Valerie Finnis.

Hellebore Sale

2011-04-02T17:19:00.001-07:00

Today was the first day of our two day event Hellebores Galore. We had an unprecedented turnout as a large number of people had been alerted to the sale by an article in the Toronto Star by garden columnist Sonia Day.
She'd warned me that "if I put this in, you'll get a hoard off people", and she was right , so much so that we had practically sold out in the first hour.
This was great for us, but now I feel bad for the folks who turn up tomorrow. I will take their email addresses and hope to have more plants available on another weekend soon.

David getting the plants ready for the event.

Some of the plants we had for sale.

We had to use every available surface to display plants.

Hellabores Galore

2011-03-31T16:54:00.000-07:00

I'm not a slave to the fashionably new, but when so many new hellebore cultivars were made available last year, I was frustrated when I was unable to find them for sale. To make matters worse, here in Southern Ontario, most of the nurseries and garden centres don't get going until May, by which time my own hellebores have been in bloom for several weeks.
This frustration is compounded by the fact that the plant material from nurseries is wintered over in hoop houses and are in bloom even earlier than those in the ground. The result is that most plants that are available in the Spring are way past their best when they go on sale, and since hellebores are one of those plants that need to be selected when they are in flower, this is a very disappointing prospect.
In many other parts of the (tremperate) world, nurseries organize hellebore sales early in the year, when the plants look their best, but again in Southern Ontario there is no such activity, and so this year my friend David Leeman and I have decided to organize our own, starting this weekend ( April 2-3) we will have Hellebores Galore, for sale in my own garden( details of this in the sidebar).

David at the wholesale nursery. Yes that is snow outside!

Helleborus 'Jade Tiger' strain.

Another form of H. 'Jade Tiger'.

Little Willows

2011-03-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

Salix vestita

Salix reticulata

A Swift Recovery

2011-03-28T14:30:00.001-07:00

Almost a week ago we were under a 14cm blanket of snow, and with frigid temperatures too. Sunny days have melted most of the snow but the nights continue to be sub-zero, however the early bulbs have come through it all and today took advantage of the sun in a sheltered corner of the garden.
The Eranthis seem completely unaffected by the nasty turn in the weather and the Crocus tommasinianus also recover immediately, however the Crocus chrysanthus hybrids were a little ragged after the big chill.

It Might as Well be Spring

2011-03-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

Lulled into a false sense of security,I was sure that it was just a matter of time before we'd see the weather get warmer and that the Galanthus , Crocus and Eranthis that were already in bloom, would be joined by the usual procession of Spring flowers.
We are, after all, in the banana-belt of Southern Ontario and are used to a relatively early Spring. However we were surprised on Wednesday by a late and quite fierce storm that dumped 14cm of snow and left us in frigid sub-zero temperatures.
It's continued to be cold, but very sunny and clear and as a result, a great deal of the snow has melted.
Today I saw that a number of the Spring bulbs have re-appeared through the surface of the snow and I hope will quickly re-assert themselves into the garden landscape as the weather( surely) improves.

Crocus tommasinianus

Eranthis, Crocus and Galanthus.

Anemone de Caen

2011-03-20T16:25:00.001-07:00

On the way home from my weekly chiropractic appointment, I pass a florist who, at this time of year, regularly has Anemone de Caen.
I can't resist buying them and it is always a pleasure to watch the buds open in the warmth of the house to show the extravagant arrangement of stamen and pistils in velvety blacks and greys.
I suppose that we have the people of Caen to thank for the hybridizing of this colourful piece of floristry, but the species from which it developed is the mostly red Anemone coronaria.
In fact, the name Anemone is derived from its namesake Adonis who is also known as Naamen. His blood blood is said to have given rise to the blood-red flowers of Anemone coronaria.
A Bowl of Anemones. by photography pioneer John Dillwyn Llewellyn

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Japanese Clematis

2011-03-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

As a post script to my last posting, I thought I'd say less and show more.
The subtle beauty of japanese clematis has always impressed me and I'm glad that so many of them are now easily available in commerce. Here are a few of my favourites.

Clematis 'Yukikomachi'

Clematis 'Odoriba'

Clematis 'Rooguchi'

Japan

2011-03-14T05:28:00.000-07:00

I'm at a loss for words to say about what is happening in Japan. I decided to look through my photographs to see if I could focus on a something that would convey my sadness at the terrible disaster that has beset this country.
I came up with these two, the first is Murin-an, an exquisite private garden in Kyoto that once belonged to a Meiji era statesman. It was built in 1891 and after the owners death in 1922, it was donated to the City of Kyoto and is now protected as a cultural asset.
The second picture, a detail of a bamboo fence was also taken in Kyoto at the Ryoan-ji temple, the site of the most famous Zen Garden.
I hope that between these two pictures I can express the qualities of the people of Japan, their love of the natural world and the ability to interpret that beauty in the making of everyday objects that fill their lives. The bamboo fence I hope will demonstrate their ingenuity, creativity and strength.

Murin-an.

Bamboo screen.

Open for Business

2011-03-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

If you were following this blog back in November 2010, you might remember me posting a picture of Helleborus niger 'Praecox'. It was still in bloom then and continued to produce flowers as it disappeared under snow in December.
After the thaw we experienced over the last few days, it was interesting to see that the same plant was still sending up buds and although many of the flowers from the fall had decayed in the cold and wet, there were a few still functioning. Inside the rather shabby sepals I found that the nectaries, pistels and stamens were all in working order and waiting for a passing pollinator.

A shabby flower burnt by sub-zero temperatures.

Its' reproductive organs still intact.

New Agaves

2011-03-12T03:51:00.000-08:00

This week I was able to find two new Agaves for my collection, they both have dramatic variegation and will be given pride of place in my Agave Theatre this Spring.

Agave lophanta variegata 'Quadricolor'

Agave schidigera 'Shira ito no ohi'

Both plants transplanted into nice hand-thrown pots.

Tecophilaea cyanocrocus

2011-03-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

During the winter months I lend a small section of my greenhouse bench to my friend and neighbour Erika, who being a fellow plant geekster, shares an interest in many of the same plants.
The nice thing about this arrangement is that Erika looks after the greenhouse when I'm out of town and when I'm at home I get to enjoy her plants as well as my own.
Currently, I've had the pleasure of watching Erika's Tecophilaea come into bloom and since she has only been able to visit on the weekends, I have been documenting it's progress and sending the images on by email.

Cyclamen coum 'Found in Compost'

2011-03-01T20:48:00.000-08:00

A few Summers ago I was repotting some of my cyclamen seedlings, I found that some of the corms were soft to the touch, assuming that they were rotten I threw them in the compost.
Later that Summer at a time when the cyclamen were coming out of dormancy, I was surprised to find one of the rejected corms growing quite happily on top of the compost, I potted it up and it has grown on to be one of my favourite plants.
I keep careful records on the plants that I grow from seed, each of there labels recording where the seed originated, when it was sown and repotted, however my favourite Cyclamen bears the label that says 'Found in Compost'.

St. David's Day

2011-03-01T06:57:00.000-08:00

This is the Welsh flag which is raised over my front door on St. David's Day and to greet Welsh visitors on other times of the year.
Looking for other Welsh related pictures in my files, I can only find these pictures of the Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

The Great Glasshouse is the largest single span glasshouse in the world and was designed by Norman Foster. It houses a collection of plants from areas of the world that have climates similar to the Mediterranean.

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

2011-02-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

Last weekend at 'Get a Jump on Spring', an annual event at the Toronto Botanical Gardens, I was able to purchase some used books at extraordinarily reasonable prices.
On top of that I was offered a 'freeby' with my purchase, choosing from a pile of old gardening magazines and other ephemera. My eye fell on this pamphlet from the Edinburgh Botanic Garden published in 1964 and with this lovely cover, typical of the graphic design and illustration of that time.

The Most!

2011-02-26T08:58:00.000-08:00

The anticipation of Spring hangs me up. The most!

Narcissus asturiensis

2011-02-20T08:18:00.000-08:00

I've had these lovely little bulbous plants for several years, but I've never been able to grow them successfully. The problem was that I tried to grow them in the ground and inevitably their diminutive scale was lost in the bigger landscape and tiny flowers, so close to the ground, would be splashed with mud after rain. This summer I dug them up by mistake and I decided then and there that they should be potted up and grown on in the greenhouse. Only three bulbs survived this and only two bloomed, but what an exciting occasion this has been in the greenhouse in the middle of February.

The Narcissus a few days ago, just about to open.

This picture will give you some idea of the scale of these plants.

In the next day or two I will be sure to pollinate these flowers and hope to collect seed later in the Spring.

Elderly Lady Gardener

2011-02-09T05:36:00.000-08:00

A photograph by John Dillwyn Llewelyn from the Swansea Museum Library.

John Dillwyn Llewelyn

2011-02-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

John Dillwyn Llewelyn was a photography pioneer and a botanist. It is therefore not surprising then, that many of his photographic subjects were plants and flowers. He also photographed the Gower coast and other landscapes in Swansea, South Wales, including his estate Penllergaer.
This is all very familiar to me as I was born in Swansea and spent the first 21 years of my life there. As children we used to play in Penllagaer woods which was at that time overgrown and neglected and considered a dangerous place by our parents, which made it an even more irresistible a place to explore.

John Dillwyn Llewelyn. This and the following pictures are in the Collection of the Swansea Museum Library.

Foxgloves and Ferns. For this post I've chosen to show cut flowers arranged in vases, but there are many other plants shown growing in situ in his garden and in the wild.

Chrysanthemums.

Waterlilies.

Anenomes.

Roses in a Portland Vase.

Dahlias.

Ledeboria socialis

2011-01-30T13:41:00.000-08:00

Ledebouria socialis is a plant I've enjoyed for many years. It started as a gift of a couple of bulbs from my friend Jan Sugerman, and as it flourished it was divided and given to other plant lovers among my friends.
A few years ago I tried to winter over my original plant in my cool greenhouse,only to find it one morning completely frozen and without hope of survival. Fortunately I was able to get some bulbs from one of the recipients of the earlier divisions, and so the same plant still gives me great pleasure but now wintered over in a warmer part of my house.
Although my plant has a lengthy personal history, it is only recently that I've taken the trouble to research its origins. I was interested to find that the genus Ledebouria is found mostly in South Africa (that I should have guessed) and that there are many other species and even cultivars. Now I am madly keen to acquire more, I've found mention of ten species and one cultivar, if anyone knows of a ( legal) source of these plants in Canada please let me know.

Ledebouria socialis makes an attractive container plant with its patterned leaves and delicate flowers.

Ledebouria flowers showing its similarity to Scilla and other Hyacinthaceae relatives.

Winter Green

2011-01-28T19:02:00.000-08:00

The days are getting longer, it's true, but we are still in the throes of a chilly spell typical of this time of year. So I was surprised to see this morning in a white and grey landscape this cheerful spot of green. This virtual garden, a survivor of last years Spring, Summer and Fall and a reminder of things to come in 2011.

A utility pole decorated with the images of the growing season.

A sunflower waiting for the return of the Sun.

I'm glad to see that the insects have not been ignored in this depiction of the natural world.

Agave Hedgehogs

2011-01-18T17:55:00.001-08:00

We tend to think of Agave as the broad leaf beauties with multiple spikes that attain almost architectural presence in our garden landscape and containers. But there are many species with slightly different structures that are made up of long tubular leaves ending in a single spike.
I am fond of this group (perhaps to make up for the pet hedgehog denied me in my childhood), they are charming as single specimens in pots , but also I think would be very attractive grown in small groups. Certainly this little group of three different species look most harmonious on my kitchen windowsill.

Agave stricta 'Nana'. I've just read that the common name for this species is actually the Hedgehog Agave. This is the diminutive form of Agave stricta, I'm particularly proud of this as I grew it from seed.

Agave geminiflora. In some pictures I've seen of this species, the leaves have filaments, but this seems to only appear on older plants. I also noticed that plants produce a trunk as they mature, and since I've just replanted this specimen lower in the pot to cover this up, I wonder if I've made a mistake?

Agave X leopoldii is a garden hybrid of A. filifera and A. schidigera, which explains the abundance of filaments that it inherits from both parents. This is a rescue plant from the horticultural killing fields of Home Depot. I was lucky enough to get it before it was allowed to decay along with the rest of "the product" on the shelves of the Houseplant Dept.

Winter Garden

2011-01-13T08:47:00.000-08:00

Last Summer I built some shelves to stage my collection of Agave, I was very pleased with the results and the plants thrived in the bright light on the third floor deck where they got maximum light, unobstructed by the shade of trees and other buildings.
Looking out now it's hard to remember those long warm days, as the Agaves are moved indoors, under lights or in a bright window, and shelves are now covered in 20 cm of snow. Three horizontal bands of snow have replaced the Agave collection and in their own way have a stark, if somewhat minimalist beauty, however I'm glad to be indoors in this weather and happy to observe this from the warmth of the house.

Inside, looking out at the third floor deck.

The same view in the Summer, with the doors wide open

The Agave in their Winter resting place.

The larger Agaves sit in the window, while the smaller plants are wintered over under lights.

The same point of view in the Summer, when the doors are permanentlt left open.

Happiness ( in January) is a Cool Greenhouse

2011-01-03T17:00:00.001-08:00

Forget the warm gun, in January, happiness is a cool greenhouse. At around 5C the climate in my greenhouse is pleasant and perfect for many plants that like the short days and cool spring-like weather. Right now I have Narcissus romieuxii in bloom as well as Amaryllis 'Evergreen'. In the warmth of the house the life of these flowers can be so fleeting, but in this cool environment, both last for weeks.
The weather outside is frightful but the greenhouse is so delightful.... let it snow!

A single flower of Narcissus romieuxii.

A pot of Narcissus romieuxii, I'm happy to see that these bulbs have bulked up from last year and have produced twice as many flowers.

Amaryllis 'Evergreen'.

Travel - The Diamond Botanical Gardens, St. Lucia

2010-12-19T11:15:00.001-08:00

Travel- St Lucia

2010-12-08T06:21:00.000-08:00

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.

Boots

2010-12-06T15:40:00.000-08:00

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's boots. They looked very severe and probably took quite a bit of time to break in, but the photographer certainly saw them as an image worth preserving.

Vita Sackville -West's Boots photograph by Edwin Smith.

I've given up on gardening shoes with cleats, after finding myself several inches taller from the accumulated mud and gravel stuck to the bottom of the soles. For that reason own favourite is a pair of Geox that are easy to slip on and off and with a reasonably flat soles that don't collect debris on the bottoms.

My own well worn boots.

Travel -Very Important Mosses

2010-12-01T09:06:00.001-08:00

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".