Virtual garden tour 2023 - better late than never edition? :)

Inspired by @Margot and @Acerholic and @wcutler (photo tours of cherry blossoms and recent roses) AND other lovely contributors way back 3 leafing out human years ago — that era of March 2020

I am post a few pix of July 2023

please join in if you have a moment

it’s fun to see your garden photos and news

coast nr Vanc BC and Okanagan (cherries!)

 

Some more pix

usually I am a failure at impatiens (mold off) tho I scored a 6 pack this spring that seems healthy and happy

I don’t usually like hot tropical but I have one Hosta with gold tones that I keep separate from my fav Hosta colors (stained glass and Midwest magic)

so gold Hosta (ben vernooy some people spell it?) gets a special corner of hot tropical with impatiens (and my old French salmon mousse mold since this is my ocean garden and I would rather watch vintage Julia Child tv making it :)
https://www.gardenia.net/plant/hosta-ben-vernooij

the hen & chicks display is in a beautiful container found on side of road (some people put used items at their driveway and scavenger opportunists do a u-turn to pick something up!)

the ninja turtle? Leonardo first generation when he still had fierce good looks circa 1980s

he was in a load of delivered soil ! So he deserves a little spot !

 

Totally agree Georgia," better late than never "
So here are a few in my garden, non maples.. of course.

Hydrangea paniculata 'Great Star'



Cedrus atlantica ' Glauca Pendula'


Hydrangea 'Runaway Bride'



Hosta 'Revelution'


Hosta 'Orange Marmalade'



Hackonechloa macra ' Albovariegata'


Hosta 'First Frost'


Larix kaempferi 'Stiff Weeper'

 

I've been rather pre-occupied with a carpenter ant infestation in my shed over the past couple of weeks or so and haven't paid much if any attention to the garden, never mind to e-mails and forums. Cleaned up the damage and getting back to the garden and stuff.

Here are a few samples of what's been going on in my suburban lot. July is one of my favourite months because we get this blaze of scent and colour of the oriental hybrid lilies. This here is a variety called 'Yelloween' and it grows tall (5-6ft) and usually has lots of flowers. I've seen it with over 30 and never fails to impress the passers-by (frontyard).

While we both have a penchant for the fragrant lilies, they're far from the only ones. Another one to make an annual show of colour in our frontyard is the ubiquitous tiger lily. Justa couple of days ago we ended up harvesting the bulbils to be shared, some will be planted, to majority will end up as food. Our Chinese neighbour told us friends of her use them in soup and a quick internet search showed that in Taiwan for instance both the bulbs and the flowers are used as food, so bulbils should be quite edible, although both her husband and her daughter suggested she should eat it first. Anyway, she's got quite the load to work with.
Couldn't find a picture I'd shot this year (too focused on the ant issue I suppose) so I found this one from August 14/2022 and that ended up pointing out that this year they finished flowering quite a bit earlier than last year. They are all done now, otherwise we wouldn't have harvested bulbils. Anyone for climate change?

Talking about edible lilies, this one came from our neighbours a couple of years ago and near as I can figure this is Lilium davidii var unicolor. They now grow this as an edible crop.
I have a focus on Hostas, some might call it an obsession with over 100 varieties in the garden. and I have an affinity for Hosta flowers. There's such an interesting variety of shapes and colours that they add an additional dimension to my endeavours for me. Who doesn't like this lovely showing of flowers on a mini-hosta called 'Lemon Lime'.



The SW corner of our backyard has a cedar hedge that provides nice shade for a bunch of pots with predominantly blue hostas, most of which are H. 'Halcyon' derivatives.
Better post and do a follow-up later, duty calls...

 

Some recent Aug 2023

various hostas —- embellished by spider webs and rain drops

the white hydrangea = blushing bride

an eager Golden Gate rhododendron

some broken bits of annual coleus I put in a vase and it rooted so fast!

Old photo from July 2023 — a photo of a Lily that is in a huge container and for support I used bits of arbutus branch (madrone south of 49th here) —- I think Lily is « black beauty » name —- highly recommend for our coast garden climate near Vanc BC

 

Hello Pieter

How does one do this? flowers in the salad or is it the roots peeled? interesting...double pleasure from one flower?
cheers

 

Good morning autumn cyclamen near coastal Vancouver

yes they’ve been out in bloom for a few weeks already

that’s a vine maple trunk in photo too

shade / rich tho well drained soil / I rarely water them or feed them

Bulbs (corms?) originally from one of those typical (tempting!!) packages at the nursery

 

Most edible lily bulbs which can be purchased in a market are mostly imported from mainland China. Many Asian cultures use the lily bulb, especially Lilium lancifolium, in traditional cuisine to this day. Thus the recipes are often Oriental in nature. Cooked Lily bulbs resemble turnips in flavor, crunchy, sweet, and starchy in texture, often used as a substitute for potatoes. Some say that the taste of the bulb also takes on a mild chestnut flavor, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. They are often used in stir fries, boiled in soups and stews, and even baked.

 

Those likely are Cyclamen hederifolium, we've had 2 forms for I don't know how long (pink and white) and for the first time last year I noticed some seedlings nearby which I promptly collected and transplanted to other areas of the yard just a couple of days ago.

 

Peaceful Thanksgiving Sunday
Our family in Moncton says it’s POURING rain

and in greater Vancouver area it’s a sunny brisk day

a photo of impatiens and vine maple with a French copper mould I no longer cook with but to me it’s garden art honouring our salmon heading upstream

sunrise Sunday

and a local gardener came by and « embellished » Empress Wu Hosta leaves then helpfully nibbled leaves off green bin garden prunings

—— related to CHERRY blossom threads —
The photos at ferry terminal Langdale are of an interesting Korean cherry sourced from a nursery near Victoria BC. An employee voluntarily tends to the pretty flower beds and trees and décorâtes with whimsical garden art they create - we are grateful for the cheer and cherries. See Sunshine Coast VCBF thread for pix of these trees in délicate spring bloom — and explanation of unique spiral twig branches @Willard , @wcutler

 

Prunus incisa is from Japan and not Korea. Unless P. incisa 'Kojo-no-mai' has been imported directly to Canada presumably the variety at the terminal is this (below). Of course, it is also possible the Carlton Plants introduction is a renaming of 'Kojo-no-mai' for North American sales.

Product Detail - Bailey Portal (baileynurseries.com)

 

Sunshine, leaves, asters and a bee

is this a honey bee? (Photo)

the asters are terrific plants for me - yes they spread, and that good with me.

minimal water except for rain
Grow in hot sun part of day then a lot of shade near ocean greater Vancouver BC

no fertilizer
no pests
Survive snow and subzero (ie below freezing point)
Late season colour and cheer
Nature seems to like them — except deer! So far, no nibbles.

and they don’t grow too tall and are easy to tidy up in spring

yes I recommend asters — tho interesting - I never saw any on display this late summer early autumn like one usually does at supermarket or plant nursery - a crop failure? I wonder. The plant store owner said asters were on the shipper list but never arrived. Curious, that.

photos below

foxglove (digitalis) leaves cradle a native acer circinatum (vine Maple) Leaf

vintage Tonka truck (1960s metal made in North America ) with Orange Ice sedum

Sea urchin sedum

bee with acer circinatum leaves and asters

the cyclamen with acer circinatum and sweet woodruff (another dependable plant here - minimal water and pest free etc)

enjoy the tour :)

 

The insect is a fly.

 

That’s really interesting - thank you @Ron B

hover fly

apparently beneficial aphid control
2 wings vs wasp w 4 wings

clever camouflage pattern to maybe look like wasp ?
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/beneficial/hover-flies-in-gardens.htm

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hover_fly

 

Gorgeous photo!

 

Bees and flies have different heads.

 

Thanks, Ron. I've looked at 10 internet pages now, read about the differences, then looked at the photos and do not see what they have described, except for the bit about flies' having very short antennae. It reminds me of junior high school when I failed biology because I drew what I saw on my dissected frog (why are there two "s" in "dissected"?) instead of what everyone else did, which was to reproduce what the textbook showed.

 

Bees have different eyes.

 

I was doing some cleanup yesterday and came across a number of related hostas that still looked fabulous.
Pieter

 

Do you have names for these healthy hostas?

I am particularly drawn to the bright green at bottom of your group photo.

 

I am extending the garden tour today to a place many of us know - Horseshoe Bay (West Vancouver city) BC Ferries passenger terminal

fully accessible by Translink blue bus 257 from downtown Vanc

@wcutler @Willard
a comparison of cherry blossoms APRIL 03/23
And pretty fall foliage getting ready for winter rest OCTOBER 17/23

i can’t recall name of these nice trees (ÉDIT: @wcutler says these are Akebono cherry trees … how they survive the summer droughts & winter salt sea winds and salty snow piled around them - i don’t know. Bravo trees!)

the sculpture is a representation of our orca whales (not to scale!) who swim by often - what a treat

 

'Akebono' cherries. Thanks, Georgia.

 

a wee explanation of the two x S because I am curious :)
Latin of course (one of my fav classes back in the school days)

some etymology re: your post about entomology :)

 

Ah, thanks, Georgia - to cut apart, not cut in two.

 

The one @ the very bottom is 'Ben Vernooij'. Like most hostas, the colour they show is a reflection of the amount of direct light they receive. There's a good example of that in the picture: the one @ the very top is 'Remember Me' as is the one to the left of 'Ben Vernooij'. The one @ the top received no direct sun to speak of and it's a bit of a challenge to see the variegation (it's green medio on blue) whereas the other one received a fair bit of direct sun and therefor you see the variegation much more clearly. 'Ben Vernooij' with a bit more direct sun shows a more creamy variegation. Here's a solo picture of that same plant:

All of these are descendant from 'Halcyon' in one way or another. They're all fairly late to break in the spring but will be one of the last ones to go into senescence. 'Ben Vernooij' is a polyploid out of 'First Frost' which is out of 'Halcyon'.

Now, to name them all: the three in the center are 'Firn Line' and 'Blue Ivory' and I challenge anyone to be able to tell the difference. 'Blue Ivory' comes out of 'Halcyon' and 'Firn Line' comes out of 'First Frost' which comes out of 'Halcyon'. 'Firn Line' is actually a misnomer that occurred as a registration error, it was intended the be 'Firm Line' and once the name has been registered there's no changing it. The one @ sort of the 4 o'clock position is 'First Frost' and the one directly opposite is 'Remember Me'. The one at the top left is 'Sleeping Beauty' which is another 'Halcyon' sport.