2024 Virtual Garden Tour - welcome!

Well the rain stopped long enough for me to water the greenhouse and hothouse so I decided to see what was happening in my gardens. It appears that many plants are making up for the lack of flowers with an abundance of growth. But those that will be flowering should be doing so soon.....

IMG 2563 - the tiny flowers of Hamilton's spindletree.
IMG 2572 - an assortment of succulents.
IMG 2577 - if anyone likes LARGE dramatic leaves, I highly recommend this one; Chinese ornamental rhubarb.
IMG 2580 - I don't think I've ever notice the red veins before but perhaps that's because I can't normally look down on this rough-leaf hydrangea (they are leggy and can reach heights of up to 3M).
IMG 2597 - the buds of this mountain laurel will soon be opening.
IMG 2606 - this crossvine really didn't like this past winter but is making up for it now.
IMG 2609 - the native salal is very popular with the bees right now.
IMG 2610 - evergreen spindletree in flower.
IMG 2616 - white blackberry known as 'Polar Berry'; I had to move it last fall but I think it likes its new home.
IMG 2623 - the contrasting colors on the leaves of' 'Red Umbrellas' meadowsweet.

 

Here is my Filipendula 'Red Umbrellas'. I can't find my label, but I took several photos of it and named the photos at the end of June, 2020, so I assume I purchased it then when it had a few flowers open. So I got to see what the flowers looked like and that the flower stalks were around half a meter tall. Since then I have only seen leaves, on stalks maybe not quite as tall as here, and no flowers. Fortunately, I think these are the prettiest leaves ever and they're just high enough that I can see some of them from inside peeking over the bench.

 

I'm putting this on my wish list. The leaves are gorgeous!

 

My notes say that it likes a slightly moist soil. It could have a moister soil if it didn't right away sop up every bit of water I give it. What a thirsty plant. Or else it's a fast grower and is so thirsty because the roots filled up its generous pot so quickly, and that's why the leaves are so short and it doesn't flower. It's not getting a bigger pot, and not getting a different location, so it will do what it does and I'll have to appreciate that. It doesn't seem pot bound though.

 

Check out Gardenworks in their pond section.

 

My notes say "moist shade" so mine was planted in the bog area of my greenhouse by the fishpond (why use a greenhouse only some of the year when you can grow tender perennial plants year round in a frost-free area...not that meadowsweet is frost tender). It seems to like this and should be flowering later this year, I'll post some photos when it does.

 

Our Peony 'Bowl of Beauty' is now in full bloom and I was marveling at how the bees looked to be almost diving into the bowl of stamens for a swim, quite fascinating. They looked to be almost frenzied which unfortunately is impossible to capture and convey. Fun to watch though..


Nearby a small stand of Iris siberica is flowering for the first time this year -transplanted from a pot into this location last year- and they're making a nice showing. A couple of other Iris are not far behind. One's a hybrid called 'Double Standard' and that'll be another couple of days from making its appearance.

 

Today I just couldn't help but be captured by the raindrops on the leaves and flowers...

 

I love raindrop photos, but I didn't see any rain today on the west side of Vancouver. For people not from here, Richmond, BC is the neighbouring city south, just across the Fraser River from Vancouver. I was at a heritage houses tour, so happy not to be wearing a wet raincoat dripping onto people's nice hardwood floors and carpets.

 

Thank you to everyone who worked diligently to restore my distraction from doing garden chores :)
@Daniel Mosquin

Much appreciated and I certainly missed this kind garden community

photos - my recent wanderings

1. the special twisted cherry at ferry terminal - @wcutler the head scout of blossoms knows more detail as does @Willard

2. Lollipop asiatic pink & white Lily I grow in container and thread through an arbutus (madrone ) native self grown tree (it volunteered)

3. seasonal decor for upcoming July 1 and our family July 4

4. and a silly nature cartoon I relate to in more ways than one (yet despite their fitness, they can reach over and decapitate my Lily plants !)

wishing everyone a peaceful kind extended wkd CDN & USA

 

I need to own up — we’ve had cold then hot etc - my red geraniums arrived in North America aboard a ship (aka they are fake)

i have tried so many years to save salvage rescue real perlagoniums and it is a no go in this climate and my capacity

So I have fake red geraniums :)

 

Thank you for getting the forum up and running again!

Things seem to be growing rapidly now, like making up for lost time....

IMG 2673 - cobra lily 'Green Dragon'
IMG 2683 - color changing rose 'Ringo'
IMG 2737 - mountain laurel 'Kaleidoscope'
IMG 2782 - clematis 'Taiga'
IMG 2784 - giant butterbur aka Fuki (FYI, the dragon statue is 1M tall)
IMG 2800 - evergreen honeysuckle 'Candy Swirl' (this was a salvaged "rescue" plant and it is now healthy enough to flower, which really surprised me)
IMG 2824 - I lost my large rice paper tree this past winter but then I discovered about half a dozen shoots had come up....the tallest is currently about 30cm.
IMG 2799 - a rose by any other name....

Wendy, the last two images are for you,
IMG 2808 & 20811 - meadow sweet 'Red Umbrellas'

 

I was going to reply as soon as I saw the Filipendula photos, before even seeing that they were for me. @Margot was interested in these as well. I am certainly once again not going to see flowers on mine, and they're so pretty (good photos too), but I'm happy with my plant shape and leaves.
Nice about the Tetrapanax coming back!
And clever to have the statue next to the Petasites.

 

Hello @Pieter

I think a few weeks ago - you posted about a new Hosta you’d created

has it been named yet?

I can’t recall if I’ve already asked you about this topic

Are we allowed to vote for a sport name for your new Hosta ?

I vote for « UBC loop » which some people here may know and it has several twists literally

I invest much time at the transit place (and thank transit for such a great spot)

There is “Route 68” that twists around the UBC campus & takes people past Nitobe and ubc botanical garden from same ubc loop - kind of sounds like Route 66 — one of my fav road trips in AZ

Of all names - i just was gifted a Hosta called

Wu La La

We shall see how the deer like it - they sure like Empress Wu

so many fun ideas!

 

I wrote my first ever polka tune last week and called it Beach Avenue because that's where I was when it came to me and I started singing it.

 

It appears RINGO is a registered trademark used to sell 'ChewBullseye'. In other words, the patented cultivar is 'ChewBullseye' and not 'Ringo':

"Ringo® Rosa x 'ChewBullseye' USPP 28,394, Can 6,142"

https://www.provenwinners.com/plants/rosa/ringo-rose-rosa-x

 

Don't you hate it when you get misinformation....I bought it through Veseys in 2022
https://www.veseys.com/ca/ringo-rose-58425.html

 

Yes. And don't you you love it that we have Ron B here checking up on what we post and setting us straight?!

 

But notice they do not have Ringo in single quotes. If who worked on the page was asked they might say they presented it that way because of it being a trademark. On another subject the pre-planting section has so many bad directives I don't want to take the time to go through it.

 

GS, I think that was a sport I discovered in one of my 'Striptease' and no, I haven't come up with a name for it as yet but I do have a name for an OP seedling I found with one of my 'Katherine Lewis'. It's a yellow one and it'll be called "Sunny Kate". I'll have to find some pictures...
Talking about pictures, this is a prostrate Alstroemeria which I thought I'd lost in the January deep-freeze., glad to see it back!

This I believe to be Lilium davidii var. unicolor, it came to me from our Chinese neighbours who grow it as a food lily.

 

One of my neighbours shared some Costco bagged lily bulbs with me earlier this year. It's dark! Unfortunately hers didn't come up - or she forgot where she planted them....
We have a drift of stonecrop at the bottom edge of one of our front beds, it's just a carpet of bloom!
Last year I sowed some Rudbeckia hirta 'Cherry Brandy' seeds and where I'd put them as plugs there was only one coming up again this spring. But it's certainly making up for the loss of the others. I'll have a ton more seeds to work with next year by the looks of it. I didn't hold out much hope for this returning at all this spring as it seems it's not terribly reliable as a perennial. The January deep-freeze certainly had no effect on it.

 

This heat is really helping my gardens....things I thought lost for this year are growing with a vengeance now.

IMG 2917 - calabash aka birdhouse gourd, one of many unusual plants I decided to try this year
IMG 2954 - perennial lobelia is doing well
IMG 2973 - blue bean tree aka dead man's fingers is producing this year so I'll finally have a chance to taste
IMG 2995 - tiny flowers of the ivy gourd aka scarlet vine
IMG 3003 - bomarea vine is starting to flower
IMG 3006 - pocketbook flowers are appearing (they are about the size of the finger nail on my pinkie)
IMG 3012 - sometimes you can really good deals if you know where to look.....I paid a whole dollar for this canna when Real Canadian's garden center closed for the season a couple of weeks ago (now I just have to put a name to it)

 

It's nice to see us back online!!!!
Here's a few recent shots from our little slice of Steveston....
One of the more pleasant surprises this years has to be Rudbeckia hirta 'Cherry Brandy'. The first flowers showed up around July 4th and there's more and more of them seemingly every day, with none of them flagging or showing signs of going to the seed-setting phase. Talk about long-flowered! And talking about seeds, looks as if I'll have plenty to work with for next year!
Here we have Lilium 'Black Beauty', love to see it back year after year.
We grow a few cucumbers for pickling and of course they require dill...here you go!
There is a nice stand of Oriental Hybrid lilies in one of our raised planters and we welcome their scent wafting about the yard this time of year!

 

Here is my latest acquisition - from Canadian Tire of all places.

Illicium x 'Woodland Ruby', which is a new Anise Tree that is a cross between Illicium floridanum and Illicium mexicanum.
All my research says it should grow here but should be protected from winds.

 

Pretty. Anise-scented leaves would not appeal to me, but seems like it has a long flowering season.