2024 Virtual Garden Tour - welcome!

I have a fair number of fragrant-flowered hostas, mostly cultivars that have Hosta plantaginea in their background. The majority of these have very pale-coloured petals except for this variety: 'Nightlife'. It's very hard to try and capture subtle shades of colour and a comparison of this picture and ones I shot a couple of years ago are essentially indistinguishable but my gut feeling is that they're somewhat darker in colour than last year, same goes for a couple of others: 'Fragrant Bouquet' and 'Guacamole', they too seem somewhat richer in their shades of mauve than what I'm used to seeing.
Lilium lancifolium is such a welcome sight every year. There's a nice stand of them under our bay window in the front which never fails to get positive reactions from neighbours and passers-by.
A couple of years ago I got some Echinacea seeds referred to as Dwarf Paradiso. I was pleasantly surprised to see flowers on most of the seedlings the first year and quickly realized I had assorted colours, the expected purple but also white and a lovely shade of orange. I kept back some small pots and lost those all over winter but fortunately I'd given some of those to my neighbour and hers survived quite nicely and she kindly shared a couple of those with me. This time I planted them out in one of our raised planters and while they took well, they sure behave differently, one's in bloom and the other hasn't shown any signs of scape development but its leaves are easily twice the size of its sibling, if not more. It'll be interesting to see if I'll still get any flowers on that one this year but the size of the leaves is certainly not something you'd expect from a cultivar with "dwarf' in its name...

 

I had to post photos of this.

99% of my plants are perennials with a few inexpensive annuals thrown in to add some color, but when I saw this at Home Depot I couldn't resist. As it is a zone 9, I'll try overwintering with this one.

Siam Tulip - Curcuma alismatiffolia
Not a tulip at all but a relative of turmeric. Absolutely no information about the plant other than a sign for "curcuma planter" and it also says "see tag for planting information"....of course there are no tags in any of the pots. Employees I spoke to knew nothing about the plant but were calling it turmeric.

 

I see it described as a houseplant, but it should be dormant in the winter even so. One page said poisonous to dogs and cats.

 

Its recommended to keep in a cool dry place with minimal water for the winter.

 

I've mentioned Karl Gercens before, of Longwood Botanical Garden outside Philadelphia. He's featuring Curcuma 'Siam Splash' this month: Facebook. A commenter mentioned not being able to get her over-wintered ones to flower (she didn't say where she lives). The reply was that they like heat and humidity.

 

Thanks, I'll have to keep that in mind.
As there are many in the pot, I was going to try them in several places next year; my greenhouse - which is humid because of the fishpond; my hothouse - which gets hot; and my covered garden - which gets HOT (as in 35C +) and I can add the humidity .

 

Some little updates for a new month in our Pacific NW of this continent North America

sometimes I feel quite clever by calling it the north eastern Pacific Ocean -_ then it’s like tripping over my own twisted up garden rope and string!
Nothing too brilliant to report

I think May was hot so my Rhodos expired quickly

then Asiatic lilies (my fav and first to flower is Lollipop)

later come oriental (a motley mix of Casablanca and Stargazer)

then the one I’ve had the longest and still lives and loves its large container and basically no plant husbandry — is it midnight magic ?
Not much scent to human though fauna enjoy the offering

speaking of which - we do have a deer family with little Bambi spots who have been volunteering to prune my Hostas and lilies

that’s ok -

I think they are counsellors - suggesting
1. I have too many plants
2 I am attached to too many plants
3. I should not buy so many plants
:)

plus they keep raccoons and coyotes away

that said I saw an impressive gorgeous sleek black bear on our street near the beach today - it’s normal so I am not worried

meanwhile - in other news - a few photos for our tour today Sept 01, 2024

our August Vancouver BC seemed cold so my usual containers have less fullness perhaps ? That’s ok - it means safer wildfire maybe?

Photos below show Empress Wu and WuLaLa Hosta having been groomed by our deer family - the perfect leaf is empress Wu and it is approx 18 inch from stem base to point

wulala Hosta is this year gift to myself so deer have sample to make sure it was a good idea (ideer?!)

and my fav color combo (annual flowers that do not last our hiver /winter )

i like lots of green and no watering so I amp it up with odd colours incl coleus

and blue sky vine maple (Acer circinatum) native to our cascade and coast Mtn range )

First aster the flower of Sept birthdays

oh - and one of my garden retreat spots with bouquet from $ tree shop - work for me :)

enjoy!