Some of the house and deck plants in April

The four photos above are the Cattleya Intermedia (orlata x aquinii).  This survived the Ant Invasion  and bloomed.  It is the first time this one has bloomed for me.  I had little black ants in the plants in March, about the time the Coronavirus pandemic was starting.  So trying to get rid of the ants added another layer of disinfecting the kitchen and my room.  I threw out several orchids and African violets.  I have 19 Orchids, 2 Cactus, and just one big African Violet left.  The mini violets are gone and so the decorative little pots sit on the bottom shelf.  I am now using only two shelves of the light garden.  This is fine, as I expect I won't be taking the light garden when I downsize in a few years. I haven't seen any ants for the last week or so.  I  think I may have won the ant war, at last.

 Some of the deck plants as at the 26th of April. A few years ago I decided  I was going to have a butterfly garden on the deck. The big white pot has a survived and has a couple of nice plants in it, including a small verbascum that might migrate to the newly made little rockery area at the front.  The pink pots had been an arrangement in the moss garden.  They, too are going to be emptied, cleaned and the pots given away.  The smaller white pot has parsley and will stay.  The green pot has basil put into it every year now.  The little pots are cuttings that I had started for the VIRAGS plant show and sale.  Due to the pandemic this show and sale was, of course, cancelled.  Any surviving plants will go out into the garden.  The milkweed project has not gone very well, so I may have some room for plants, around the garden beds.

 This the special primula auricola that will move out of its deck pot eventually.  It is surviving and growing in the moss in its pot.  I am thinking of moving it and its moss to the West Coast planter in the front little rockery area.  There is a lewisia in this pot also.  I think it will go into the back little rockery with the other lewisias.  It needs sharp drainage and more sun, and no moss.

 A closer look at the little pots.  Not a great collection. 

 This large white pot has four or five of the saxifragias from Rex Murfitt's garden, via the VIRAGS show and sale of 2018 and 2019.  I spent some time searching for the names and care of these plants and so have a list of the Saxifragias.  The list of the names of the plants is not a totally comprehensive list.  The pot has a tufa rock, and other smaller pieces of rock.  The plants have grown like crazy and will need to be divided.  There are 2 of them in bloom now with the tall white  sprays of blossoms. 

This is another of the big white pots with two saxifragia growing nicely out of the tufa rock.  I dug out a couple of tiny holes in the tufa and planted this "lilac time" in one, and the other hole has a tiny piece of the saxifragia that was in the cement pot (from Butchart Gardens in ages past) that I got from Rex Murfitt's home when he went into the retirement home..  From my research of saxifragias:
Saxifragia  in Butchart Gardens cement pot from R. M. Home:
        Gerard Manley Hopkins'   clone burseriana
        Certainly one of the better burseriana's, selected by H.L.Foster 1972.  
        Close to the typical var. but more dense and compact growing.  Like most 
        burseriana's best in a very well drained soil because in our climate 
        burseriana's suffer from too much moisture in autumn and winter.  Splendid 
        of course in tufastone and in a through.  Slower growth and rooting.
        - I have a piece of this one in the big tufa rock with the Lilac Time
        - bloomed early Spring 2020 with large white flowers close to the foliage.
          The foliage looks rather like pine needles.
There is another smaller white pot with a globe flower in it.  It sits beside the deck tub and now has quite a few buds that will turn into huge golden flowers.  I think this is a pot for keeping on the deck.

Over the past few days I have started the clean up of the back garden rooms.  The lily of the valley shrub and the big fern by the old compost bin were both cleaned up and cut back.  The sweet cicely has been cut down and sprayed with a bit of herbicide.  I shall dig it all out when I get time.  I have taken down one half of the sumacs and still have 2 more to take down.  The sprouts from the pin oak that was taken down a few years ago have become quite tall.  I reduced these sprouts to two taller ones and cut off all the branches below the roof line of the garage.  The rhodo back there is finally looking really good with its leaf mold mulch and more attention to watering as well as some rhodo food.  The rhodos by the back step are going to get some of this good treatment too.  I have to dig out the hellebores and move them, probably to the back of the woodland area. The woodland still needs more work.... maybe next year.  I have about 9 hours logged  so far, in the clean up of the moss garden around the primulas, the rhodos and the stepping stones up to stepping stones that lead into the pond area, and the adjoining fig tree bed.  I find I have 2 little roses that are going to be moved.  They are not getting enough sun and are never seen due to the taller plants surrounding them.  There is a species peony that is doing very well and a maltese cross lychnis  growing in that bed as well as self seeding dames rocket, columbines, foxgloves.  I try to keep the weedy michaelmas daisies to a minimum, and am going take out all of the perennial bachelor buttons that just take over any place they seed themselves.   There a couple of other smaller plants at the edges of the stepping stones.  I have lost the names of them and will have to do a search for them someday.  On the other side of the mossy stepping stones the epimediums are spreading like crazy.  I will need to move the lovely primula amethyst.  I may just keep a pink pot to plant part of it into.  Lots of work to do on this area as the stepping stones from the old sidewalk to the pond area are overgrown with clover and grass.