the Flower Count in Victoria

the crocuses are looking very good in the front garden strip along the street.  This is the area I call my crocus field.  These photos are from merely a week ago.  Since then there has been many more added to the crocus field.  It was glorious today when the sun was shining.  As soon as the sun is gone they all close up.  More photos soon, before they disappear.  I have an outside boarder of grape hyacinths that I planted last Fall.  They are up but not blooming yet.  The crocuses are multiplying throughout the front garden area in front of the cedar hedge.  The dark purple ones are along the top of the front garden, by the grass path.  I fed them bone meal last Fall and the flowers are spectacular, this year.

This is a photo of the cyclamen on the back garden by the old garage.  The flowers and leaves just glow in the Spring light.  These leaves are popping up all over the garden.  I will watch them to see if they are cyclamen.  I wonder if ants carry the seeds around.  This plant is a bulb, so I do not know how it might otherwise spread to different areas, except by insect transport.  I sure hope all the leaves I see growing produce equally lovely bunches of cyclamen as this original one.

the camillia trees are in flower.  This is a shot of the one by the back stairs up to the deck.    All of the above photos are from a week ago.  In just one short week, there are many more blooms out.  I did not count them for our Victoria Flower Count, that is happening over this past week end.  It has been a very warm winter.  I am sure we will have record breaking counts of blooms. 

On Saturday I was to the Orchid show and sale.   I have brought home 5 new little treasures, and lightened my bank account by $85.   I will have to wait a few years for most of them to bloom, too.  I got a couple of little cattalayas, another lady slipper,   I shall need to list them in my garden journal... or at least in the plant lists.  I do not seem to have time to start and keep up a garden journal... unless I change a few of my priorities of the use of my time.   

Today, I was out for a few minutes looking at the garden.  I think the bulbs are going to be fantastic this year.  Many of them are up and in buds so it won't be long until the Daffodils and early tulips are in bloom.  Some of the hellebores are blooming, the winter jasmine, and a few primulas are open. 

Inside, I repotted the orange trees.on the 22nd of Feb... almost 2 weeks ago.  I am watching them closely, to see if they survive.  They get misted heavily in the morning.   I have 4 big pots and  3 small ones.  One of the small ones contains a double tree... which should be a good candidate for producing fruit.   I should get it into a larger pot.  In the light garden the 2 ladyslippers... Andean Fire and the yellow Concolor  are in bloom, as well as a couple of the phalenopsis, and the African violets.  I have an air plant that will be blooming... a rarity.  I will need to repot the orchids soon. 

We are making good progress on the renovation of the suite.  Pictures later, perhaps.  The place smells so much better with the old stinking carpet gone and the walls with fresh paint.  Finished my income tax return, too.  So, I feel like the pressing matters have been  lightened to ease  my too busy schedule.  I should like to get some stuff done on my old web page, too. 

Gardening in November

These photos are from the 18 of November.  The pin oak at the back is brilliantly red, the sweet gum tree in the front has its leaves in multiple Autumn colors.  The English oak in the back is very yellow. Now, a week later half of the leaves are gone from these trees.  We have had two storms go through with high winds and lots of rain.  The day between the storms I raked leaves off the perennials and paths, unto the grass path where I ran over them with the lawn mower.  I put this leaf mulch on the vegetable garden.  Today, I spread some 20 - 20 - 20 fertilizer over the leaf mulch to help it decay and to provide some good fertile tilth to the vegetable garden. 

The small green leaves are cyclamen coum, I believe.  I do not recall planting a cyclamen in this spot.  It is behind the water tub, so is not easy to find.  This is an area where I weeded and added woodland mulch earlier.  This plant is a bulb, so somehow it survived.  It must be a volunteer from some of the other cyclamen plants I have growing around the garden.  This is a very good plant with evergreen leaves. Mine bloom twice a year... early spring and late fall.    Also, in this area, I put in some other bulbs earlier this Fall, and I see them poking up above the mulch now.  I hope they survive the winter.  I wonder if the heat reflection from the sun on the black water tub is causing them to think its time to start growing.

While skimming leaves off the pond, I found a few dead gold fish.  I had the pump turned off because it was plugging up its filter constantly.  Also, because I had read that it is not good for the fish to have the water cooling at the bottom of the pond where they spend the winter.  Well, I guess that rule applies to clean ponds.  I have not cleaned mine out for two years, so I guess next spring will be the time to do it.  I will probably need to restock the gold fish.  I cleaned the filter and have the pump running again to try to aerate the water.  It was really rather upsetting to see the dead fish.  I will have to pay more attention to keeping part of the surface water open so that the water can absorb more oxygen. 

Sunday will be the Grey Cup CFL football game.  Our B. C. Lions team is sure to win, as they are the best team in the country. 

Gung Hay Fat Choy

A couple of days ago it was Chinese New Year.  Happy New Year!  The year of the rabbit is upon us!  The above photo is a cement rabbit in my garden.  All of the photos are from Feb. 15 last year.  I have not been able to find the time to get out and shoot just yet.  But, the first crocuses are up; the hellebores are starting, and the snowdrops are in bloom, too.  The best little cyclamen along the old cement path by the garage as above is blooming beautifully too.  The magnolia has buds and the first few camillias are open.  I really need to get out and clean up the perennials and prune the roses.  We have had warm weather and some rain.  We are so fortunate compared to all the 'weather' other countries, even other parts of our country, are experiencing. 

The Vancouver Island Rock and Alpine gardening group are holding a Study weekend at Sidney, on Feb. 25, 26 and 27.  There are workshops, talks, open gardens, and more.  If you wish to attend please see the registration form here:  
This looks like it is going to be very interesting. 
I have been so busy lately, it seems.  I am trying to learn the settings on my new camera.  Trying to keep up with Megashot, but am falling terribly behind.  Our membership is growing, there are photoshop classes, questions in the forums, and so much to do.  I have not had time to even look at the critique forum.  ah well... it will all be there tomorrow.  Cyrus is making videos of the Megashot / Facebook challenges, and the Megashot Contests and putting them up on You Tube.  He has 39 of them done, including the help for getting started for  new accounts.  This link should get you to his You Tube account with all the videos listed. Enjoy.
There has been some good eating around our house lately, as well.  I make soup every second day, or so.  I am making interesting and good meals for our dinner.  I have also been reading a few of Phillipa Gregory's books on the time of Henry the VIII.  Nasty times in England.  And there are equally nasty times in Egypt and northern Africa, right now too.... much like the political troubles in Iran.  There seems to be a huge power struggle happening in the Muslim world right now. 

January Flowers

This little cyclamen is in full bloom on the little rockery by the path next to the garage. It is the best little plant - grows from a corm. I have the red polyanthus (primula) in bloom also.

I played with the helicopter rides (see the link to the right) My highest scare tonite was 426. I do not feel like doing any photoshop or Flickr stuff today. It was too cool to go outside, although the sun was shining. I really should get out and prune the roses and anything else that needs it.. and lots of things do need to be clipped back.

Flower Petal Art

Eileen called today. What a wonderful treat to hear from her. They are going to be in PoCo end of Nov. and might just get over to the Island. Would be great to see them. After hearing from her I read my email from Irene. Her dearest friend has recently had some very invasive surgery. Hope you heal quickly Vicki!

Tomorrow we go look at the newer camper van with a view to upgrading. Now that we have the Passat we do not seem to need the Van for running about to fetch things so often. So, the slightly wider van should be better for camping. It looked good when we saw it last week end.

Flickr has some real characters and interesting groups. So many groups of interest. Cyrus is working like mad to get his site up and running. Its gonna be one fabulous mega photo upload site, with endless up to date features. Its quite exciting to watch this site being conceived and built.

January Cyclamen

The sun was out for a couple of hours today. This Cyclamen is blooming despite the snow, deluges and winds we have suffered. I raked the leaves off the grass and over seeded with some grass seed I had meant to seed last Fall, but just did not get the right day for it. I did not put down a layer of sand/soil. I just threw it down and hope some of it will grow. I transplanted 3 boxwood sticks into the area of the border that is bare, by Parmar's side. They should root and fill in that spot in no time.