In the Spring Garden

This trillium and the easter lillies or fawn lillies are in bloom in the woodland garden.  These are both indigenous plants.  The woodland is very much in need of renovation.  It would be a good idea to clean up the area around these plants before they are gone to dormancy.  The blue bells, thistles and lemon balm are taking over.

The gentan is one of the good rock plants along the edge of the garage garden bed.  The primulas are along in front of the rhodos in the back garden.  There are more primulas and I have close up shots of some of them.  I hope to eventually have an annual garden album on my web page.

The marsh marigold is looking good on the pond.  The water hawthorn is in bloom too.  Yesterday I restarted the water fall.  The water level has stayed nicely up.  We have not had rain today.  That slow leak must have somehow healed itself.  I have no other explanation.  There is clay around the pond.  Perhaps the clay is fully saturated and blocks the tiny hole in the liner.   I have seen quite a few small black fish in the pond.  I understand that baby goldfish take about 2 years to turn colors.   I am going to have quite a lot of gold fish in there next year.

These are anemones and hyacinths that are in the bed by the garage.  These are across the old sidewalk from the gentian.  Very colorful mix and making a nice show right now.  The end of this bed needs cleaning up also.

This red pasque flower is in the front garden by the bamboo.  There is another purple one in the area.  I am slowly getting the weedy flowers out of this area.  The iberis along the front of the border are filling out.  I seem to have got rid of the violets.  There are still a lot of dandilions coming up all over the garden.  I need to be vigilant in getting rid of them.  I should like ti get a rabbiting spade to use to dig them out. 

On Saturday we took the new old Model T on its first run.  McMorran's is closing... after all these years.  It  has a big place in the history of Victoria.  There were many old cars out, and many other people.  The McMorrans started the place as an icecream stand, and so we had hot dogs and icecream for lunch.   Too bad it was such a cold day!  The car ran beautifully.
Today I walked back from the lab where I had to go for blood tests.  I brought home a couple of fuschia cuttings, a marguerite, a parsley and some seeds.  Maybe I will get out to plant them later in the week.
Last nite I finished reading Whitley Streiber's Critical Mass.  Now I need a book to read and want to pick up another Strieber book or two.  So, tomorrow I will go down to Monroe's or Chapters and spend a few enjoyable hours browsing books.

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.

The Japanese Garden Area

This flower is actually only about 3/4 of an inch across. It is a little bog gentian that I keep in a pot on the deck. The pot sits tightly in another pot to hold the water in. It sits beside the tub water feature on the deck.
This is two kinds of saxifragia. I think the big leaf is another saxifragia, but when I bought it, it had no tag. They are all evergreeen. They are all growing and spreading nicely this year.
Over the last few days I have been weeding in the Japanese Garden area. I cleaned up the primula bed and added more compost to it. Then I began weeding along the front of the deck towards the little Japanese garden area. I have been pulling out violets and dandilions. The Canadensis Sanguinaria plot is expanding. The leaves are gorgeous. Mine is a double pure white blooms. I fed it some compost also. Then cleaned up the rhodo that hangs over this plant with long branches. Next to the rhodo behind the primulas is a big patch of hellebores and a very floriferous little white azalea. On the other side of the rhodo I have a minature blue spruce. This little shrub is very well behaved and always looks good. Next to the spruce is a Harry Lauder's Walking Stick. This shrub is not growing fast either so still fits in its alotted space. Next to this one, I have some small bamboo in a big paint bucket buried in the ground. This bamboo has not escaped to travel around. It is only about 3 feet high and looks a bit ratty right now. Maybe it is time to replace it. Behind and towards the pond I have a tri-colored lily of the valley shrub. Its rather lovely. I prune it judiciously to keep it in its space. Next to this shrub going back towards the deck I have a little red split leaved Japanese maple. The treasure of this garden area. Next to it is a mountain laurel that is also well behaved. Then still going towards the deck I have a bit of open area where I spent quite a lot of time removing violets carefully so as not to disturb any moss that was growing here. I want this area to be mossy. The mountain laurel is planted on a bit of a hill to try to keep its roots a bit drier. This little mound is covered with the most luscious moss. Beside the little red maple there is a rock that has some good moss on it also. Continuing along the deck front across from the mountain laurel is a dry stream made with pea gravel. The little dry stream has the Japanese lantern sitting in it. Across the dry stream is a little cedar and a baby boxwood. I keep these two clipped so that they do not touch each other. Next to the boxwood is the cement blocks for the path around the pond, another rhodo, more primulas, delphiniums, and a clematis at the corner of the deck before the cedar hedging between our properties. Across the stone path from the lily of the vally shrub is the big yellow plum tree. This trees branches form a canopy of the pond and Japanese area tying them together as one garden room.
I have more violets and weeds to cleam up at the end of the dry stream in front of the deck, then I can finish putting down the new pea gravel along the path and the dry stream. It is coming along. The saxifragia along the pond edge is slowing growing over the rocks. I need more of the little campanula that is growning further along the edge of the pond. At the corner of the pond between the pond and the cement walk and across the walk from the little boxwood, I have a minature lebanon cedar. I am pruning it to stretch out over the pond, but keep it pruned to its alotted space also. Its amazing how well these plants do when pruned regularly. I must get the rhodos some food, and more compost for the edging plants. I am going to try to keep the area moist so that the moss grows, and I must keep it weeded. Letting the violets get out of hand just causes way too much work.