Vancouver Island Rock and Alpine Plant show and sale

This Silene was the star of the show yesterday.  I have one growing in my garden.  Beaver Creek Nurseries had quite a few of them on sale, but by the time I had gone through the Club plant sale room, all the Silenes were gone.  All their tufa rocks were sold also.   This silene is propagated by root cuttings or by seed.

I have purchased two Plieones and have been studying the care and growing of these plants... I have killed far too many of them, but intend to have these two survive.  I will plant them in pots in the right orchid mix and keep them moist during spring, summer and autumn, but dry totally in winter.  Do not let them freeze.  People here in Victoria have been known to grow them outside.  So, if mine survive and become more numerous, I shall try a few in the front little rockery in leaf mold, and some soil.  Here is a good web site on Plieones

A cute show of a gentiana.  She did not really grow it in this spot, but stuck the little plant in the rock.  I have a lovely Gentian (forget the variety) that is expanding slowly and blooms regularly every Spring for a long period of time with lovely big trumpets.    I also have a tiny tiny one that is a bog gentiana and it blooms every year also.  I have tried others, but these are the ones that survive.  I will eventually try more of these again, too.  I really like the blue

A Japanese flowering quince bonsai.  Its lovely, but I don't think I can do bonsai...  I am away from home too much and they need almost daily care.  I have a tiny willow that is a natural bonsai growing in a larger clay pot with its big rock and moss.  When I was away last July, it was really hot here, and this little plant dried out.  Thank heavens it survives though.  With a few little dried branches it is looking authentically bonsai!  It has never quite been ready for showing ... I am never ready, either.  I really must try a few plants in the show, one year!  I have 2 tiny evergreens  to try in large pots.  I will be adding other small alpines to the pots.  I also have a new Daphne that is going to get to a 5 ft x 5 ft size, that will be in its own pot

 Some of the small mounding plants in the show.  I have a couple from last year that survived the hot  July, as did my precious small Daphne.  This year I have  bought a few more small ones.. 2 drabas, to fill in the little rockery at the back by the vegetable garden - this is where my lewisias are growing and doing fairly well.. along with a few others, that I cannot recall the names.  I expanded this area just last year, so it has had this time to settle.  It should be good to put a couple of the small ones into now.  I have pea gravel for top dressing.  This might be too big for some of the tiny plants.  I have my large tufa rock that I got last year, in this little rockery.  I could hollow out a spot or two for a couple of the small plants... maybe... maybe next year.

 This is an example of a plant growing in the tufa rock.    It looked really good on display.  I might need to get one of my little plants established in my big tufa rock.    This year, all the tufa rock was gone before I got out of the local plant sale room and back to the commercial sales.


I got 18 plants at the show and sale with an outlay of about $100.  So, I am carefully reading up on the care of the plants.  I think I will keep the Pleiones in pots for now.  The new Daphne is eventually going to be 5 ft x 5 ft..  It, too will go into a smaller pot, so as not to be "over potted".  The most expensive plant by far was a tiny Hosta at $12  I will be putting it in the little shade area near the Harry Lauders Walking Stick shrub.  .. more plans, of course but will do as much of it as soon as I can, so that they can get established somewhat before we are traveling again.


We went for a nice drive about this afternoon in the rain.   We had a stop at the Brentwood Bay nursery on Benvenuto.  They have a terrific selection of plants.  I found a wall flower, another anemone - blue one, another drumstick primula, and a blue poppy.  I am determined to get one of these difficult plants established.

I have to check Trio gravel mart for prices on crushed rock and bark chip for the renovation of the woodland path.  I hope to renovate the whole woodland this year, but the way things are shaping up, I may be lucky to get my rock plants settled in.

I have been having a terrible day on my computer but a fine day otherwise.  The dinner turned out fine, despite my neglect.  I had to clear the cache in my Firefox so I could see my hotmail messages.  Very frustrating, considering this is suppose to be a faster loading Firefox, new additon.  Bother!  I do wish they would stop mucking about with something that works.  My old Windows 98 was faster than this windows I have now.