A Sense of Place

Many succulents have bloomed for me this year, perhaps this is not so remarkable in more temperate climates, but here in Montréal these plants have to be wintered over indoors and live a life with considerable human intervention. This I believe might discourage their normal flowering cycle. So for whatever reason, this has been a bumper year for flowers on plants that I grow mainly for their foliage. The most recent to bloom is  Crassula rupestris sap. marnieriana, it has curiously beautiful foliage that forms chains of compact succulent leaves that take on the apperience of a bucket of worms as they snake out of their pot.

For a person visiting San Francisco from "The Great White North", one is struck not only the weather but also by the plant life that flourishes in this ideal mediterranean climate. I've just returned from a week in this lovely city, and again I was impressed by the quality, variety and creativity of gardening that I found there. In this post I am paying particular attention to the gardens I found in the front gardens which often  overflowed onto the sidewalks and boulevards. Many of the plants that I saw there are the same that I grow outdoors and have to move indoors from November to April. And since the San Francisco plants are grown in the ground they are huge compared to my container grown collection.

For whatever reason, many of my plants (incl. Agave, Dyckia and Aloe) have bloomed this year, Most impressive is Agave stricta echinoides, which I grew from seed. I'm assuming that this is the end of the road for this plant as it is monocarpic, but happy to have experienced its complete lifespan over the last decade or so.

It is so satisfying to liberate plants from the imprisonment of an uncaring Big Box store. This I did last Fall when I found three Agave desmettiana, a mature plant with two large offsets crammed into a two gallon pot. I managed to winter them over under lights in my basement and was further satisfied last week when on a mild day I was able to take them out onto the balcony where, with a little surgery, I was able to separate them and give them their own root space in new pots. I can't wait for the warmer weather when I can get them out of doors.  Agave desmettiana 'Variegata' and two offspring, crammed into a 2 gallon pot. Divided and repotted.

Another favourite and very forgiving plant, Euphorbia bupleurifolia has sprung back to life after months of winter dormancy and general neglect. Again I wonder what I've done to deserve this sudden display of foliage and flowers, when I've shown it so little attention over the long winter hiatus. E. bupleurifolia is a  caudiform with dramatic form and texture.                                          To add to the display, lovely green flowers.

This time last year I was a in the throes of moving house and home from Toronto to Montréal and had no time for my usual late winter activity of planting seed. This year I'm making an attempt to get back into the habit and have uncovered some seed of some of the many annuals that were such a delight on my trip to South Africa in 2013. They include Nemesia cheiranthus, Nemesia barbata, Felicia australis, and Dorotheanthus bellidiformis. Packages from Silverhill Seed in Cape Town. Nemesia cheiranthus with complex structure and lovely colour. Felicia australis, a simple flower but en masse is a sheet of vivid blue Dorotheanthus bellidiformus, a seed mix endless variety of colours. Nemesia barbata has flowers with intense colour from magenta to dark purple to black.

After moving from Toronto to Montréal last year, many of my plants have not been given the most tender of care. In fact, they've often been ignored completely and in particular the few pots of Cyclamen that I managed to move have had a tough Summer sitting outside in all sorts of weather and at the mercy of slugs and snails.  I'm not sure what I've done to deserve this, however, as  most of them have survived to bloom indoor this Winter.  Some of them have out on an impressive display of both foliage and bloom that I am resolved to give them better treatment this year, a dry, shaded place to wait out their dormancy and repotting in July before they come back into growth.  

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...