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!

 

Well goodness me - I think we’re tilting :)

and our first big rain

it surprises me we had minimal fire smoke compared to other years

tho of course we think of our friends , wildlife, many decades of memories and workplaces in Jasper Natl Park - what brave responders

and here near Vanc BC ocean we have

fresh rain (spawning salmon)
Esk maple
Blushing Bride hydrangea (starts out lime white green)

oh - an elderly rugosa rose

and beloved Hostas
I think
Midwest Magic
Stained Glass

maybe Hosta Guacamole (well who wouldn’t buy that! )

my feral purple asters are looking wonderful - highly recommend this old version for easy care and no water added

—— I bought tête a tête daffodils

I need garden coach to remind me to plant in to pots asap :)

hope all is well for everyone and their patch of Earth garden

 

Looking around the yard over the past week I was taken by how much was still in bloom. I was particularly impressed by the high numbers of bees around a Helenium I have as a first year plant ( in a pot in the ground), the plant was just alive with them and my wife took it upon herself to go around and pet a couple of them while they were busy doing their thing on a flower!

The prostate Alstroemeria is in bloom again.
Hosta kikutii is in bloom although if you look closely you'll see signs of the plant going into senescence, don't think I'll see the seeds mature on it this year, it's late to flowering this year for some reason. And the same goes for Hosta clausa var. normalis, it's typically in bloom late June/early July, the plant this scape is on is starting to fall back as well.


This is an interesting pair of seed pods on a Hosta I call "Green Revolution". It's an all-green sport out of H. 'Revolution' and that one has a habit of throwing a fair number of pods that are mostly white and the seeds in those pods almost invariably sprout into fatal whites: no chlorophyl in them so they typically don't make it past the 2-leaf stage. Not sure I'm interested in sprouting the seeds in this white pod -haven't got the room- but I'm tempted. The plant it's on is all-green and you may well ask is it white or is it already maturing to which I'd say "don't think so, it's the younger of the two pods, the lower one would mature first and the scape is still very much alive". Next spring will tell. Perhaps.

 

Isn’t this amazing

Are your plants generally southern exposure

do you have garden birds (I think we all have smarty pants crows - and smarty cheekier blue jays!)

Today i managed to restore a small garden bird that hit window - our avian expert friend at ubc said to carefully pick it up (I use paper towel) and put in a box w air holes

keep it dark and safe from dogs and cats and kids

sure enough it recovered from concussion an hour later and flew away - hope it’s okay to tell the story !

— new topic - is your alstromeria plant a spreading plant — I ended up with the orange one that explodes seeds - darn it :)

 

My backyard has a western exposure, the front predominantly eastern but there's a bed on the north side of the front yard that gets full sun until about 3 or 4pm depending on time of year.
Plenty of birds around, including a few hummingbirds that must have a nearby nest, they have a favorite branch in a neighbor's tree. They're fond of the flowers on our Weigelas, Monarda, Fuchsia, Crocosmia and Hostas. There's also various wrens, house finches, nuthatch, flickers, a few ravens and plenty of crows and starlings.
While my Alstroemeria has spread some over the years it's been a slow and steady one, never found it growing very far from where it was originally planted.

 

@Pieter - yours must be a very beautiful garden!

Do you use the Merlin Bird ID app that identifies birds in your vicinity whether you actually see them or not? It's been a revelation for us because we've been alerted to far more species than we've seen in person. As for their sounds, I'm hopeless at telling them apart. I've recorded about 60 so far including some types I'd never heard of before.

Birds definitely enhance the garden experience!

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/20...in Bird ID app,the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

 

Well, what can I say. We certainly get plenty of compliments through the course of the year which we gratefully acknowledge. There's an elderly Chinese lady who lives around the corner from us, speaks naught but Mandarin, and whenever we see her for her stroll she conveys she much appreciates our front garden and frequently gets me to stand in front of something that particularly strikes her eye so she can take a picture with her phone! Bless her!

Yes indeed, a garden isn't the same without the sight and sound of our avian friends! Thanks for the heads-up about the Merlin app!

 

I remember the hummingbirds at coast by saying to myself

1 Anna’s = All year annual
2. Rufous = return

in Okanagan we have a diff one and I can’t recall name right now

I certainly hear many white breasted nut hatch right now in coastal Doug Fir trees
“Veeep veeep veep veep veep”
5 times
Some people call sound like an old toy tin whistle

again - Okanagan = red breasted nuthatch w same song

 

Well, it's time to eat crow. I looked at these pods again today and noticed the TOP pod had started to crack, exposing the seeds within. Strange that the top pod matures first, but there you go. As said, ain't saving the seed... not now for sure..... in hind sight the pod likely was green all along, just like the other...oh well....

 

So many nuthatch birds this year
I am outside right now
And they are busy !

 

I posted the first picture of this Echinacea earlier in this thread in the middle of August. Well. it just doesn't know when to quit! It's sibling planted beside it has substantially larger leaves, like easily twice the size of this one and it has finally started to put up scapes and buds. As long as the weather stays mild I should see it in flower as well and hopefully it'll prove to be a white flower...

 

It was an absolutely delightful day for gardening today, crisp, sunny and not a hint of a breeze, a good day to do some clean-up. Most of my hostas look like this...

...but I was pleasantly surprised to see Hosta 'Sleeping Beauty' looking as good as it did...
Yes, it's in a sheltered area but nonetheless, it doesn't know from quitting..
I couldn't believe that there was still a Western Bleeding Heart in bloom...
This Helleborus 'Mahogany Snow' has always been a very early bloomer for us, typically by mid-December it's in full bloom. It had a bit of a set back with last January's freeze but I'm seeing three buds on it already and as long as there isn't another deep freeze it should be keeping it's usual schedule.
There's already some spring bulbs poking their heads up, not planted deep enough I suspect...

 

I found a lot of plants are really screwed up this year due to the weird spring weather we had - they are either late or not showing at all.....even my giant calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica 'White Giant') is just now starting to sprout.
But one plant seems unfazed by the weather, my Guernsey Lily (Nerine bowdenii 'edelweiss'), which flowers in the Fall.

 

Snapdragons are still in bloom in most of the yard and they are quite the sight for sore eyes on a dreary day like today.

Chrysanthemums are in full glory this time of year of course.
This Dicentra formosa just isn't giving up..
Echinacea 'Dwarf Paradiso' still has plenty of flowers but there's evidence a-plenty that they're slowly falling into senescence. I have an Echinacea 'Double Decker' -which isn't double decking much these days but that's another story- and they set seed a long time ago now and the pods that were left on them have pretty all been cleaned off by the birds, which why I left them on in the first place.


And one of our rosemary bushes is sporting new flowers..... which I've seen happen other years in November.

 

I was raking leaves the other day and saw something "pretty" on the ground. When I looked closer I realized they were seed pods from my glory bower - Clerodendrum trichotomum 'Golden Glory'. This is the first time this shrub has produced seeds so I looked closely and discovered one still on the branch.

The funny thing is that they look and feel plastic - thick, gaudy colors and shiny surface (my camera actually could not focus on it until I placed my gloved hand behind it). And they are small, maybe 2.5 cm across.

 

The Parks Board has planted a few of these near me, one in Barclay Square and a few in Stanley Park. The calyces are very showy, as there are usually a lot of them, but you have look more closely to notice the sometimes-turquoise or darker pearl-like fruits.
I didn't know there were cultivars. Do 'Golden Glory' leaves turn yellow before dropping? I don't remember the leaves on my local ones.

 

The new leaves are a bright golden-yellow when they emerge and as the season progresses they change to lighter shades of green - but still lighter than the normal C. trichotomum.
Besides 'Golden Glory', there is another cultivar called 'Carnival' which has variegated leaves (I haven't been able to find that one yet).

 

You may recall I mentioned spring bulbs popping up already in some areas. Turns out we're not the only ones to have noticed. The resident rodent population has clued in as well -likely rats, seeing as the damage inflicted is nocturnal- and they certainly have a penchant the crocus and I think there' also developing a taste for Iris reticulata, which really chokes me.... So far they've left Iris tuberosa alone and they can't be bothered with some Galanthus that are darned near on the surface. Hesitant to put out snap traps as there are a couple of neighbourhood cats that are infrequent visitors to this area, too infrequent I'd say...AAGGGGRRR!!