Late summer glories

Romneya coulteri in Rojeanne and Jim's garden.

My favourite round-about planting in the North Vancouver City--in a on-the-way-home shaft of late summer sunshine. Scoot n' shoot...

Hilling Dahlias

Steve Whysall wrote about dahlias in yesterday's Vancouver Sun. He went out to Ferncliff Gardens on McTaggart Street in Mission, where they breed dahlias and peonies. There's a dahlia-growing tip from the owners/gardeners, David and Sheila Jack, that is so great I'm writing it word for word here so I remember it for next year:

David "hills" plants as they grow in spring, pulling up soil around young stems the same way vegetable gardeners hill potato plants.

"When they are only about 12-inches high, we draw soil around them and firm it up by foot," says David. "We do it again when they are a little taller to create a hill that is five or six inches tall. We find this gives them all the support they need. If it turns out to be a dry summer, the hilling also acts as a mulch and helps retain moisture."

Imagine that.

I'm starting to like dahlias, so long as they are interspersed with other plants. Like roses, I feel like mass plantings of dahlias are too much of a good thing. Leads to obsessiveness, petal-counting, Fall Fairs, etc. Nevertheless, a fine specimen throwing out pom-poms and cheerleading all the way into deep autumn is a welcome sight.

The purple dahlias in the photo above were rescued from a staking accident in Janis' garden (thus the revelation re: the no-stake method). If they hadn't done a face-plant, I could have taken a pic of their deep purple against a mauve backdrop of Joe-Pye Weed/ Eupatorium purpureum. It was nice. The dahlia below was in the Hollyhock Centre garden on Cortes Island, and the bit of yellow at the base of the petals really made it sing. Dahli-a-la-laaa.

Plants in Pots 2010

Here's an installment for 2010 Plants in Pots: what I like this year, what always works, experiments, favourites, etc.


First of all, I've decided that begonias are the Supreme Beings of pot combos--there are so many lovely tuberous varieties coming out that fill out just so and are just so easy and you can store the tubers for the next year, when they come back bigger n' better. Below, this is your basic red tuberous begonia--but with a black leaf, which is rather random, and perfect for this black ceramic pot. It's combined with Red Baron grass (Imperata cylindrica 'Rubra') and Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummalaria 'Aurea') beside Rose's fish pond.





Below, there's a white and pink trailing begonia under the variegated foliage of a Hakuro-nishiki Willow (Salix integra 'Hakuro-nishiki') on Anne's deck. This trailing begonia is a particularly delicate, fluted variety that is similar to the bright coral 'Bonfire' begonia we liked last year. I'm not sure that these are tuberous begonias--you can pull up tuberous begonias at the end of the season and store the knobby tuber in peat moss in the garage/shed and plant out next year.





As for Hakuro-nishikis: they are so striking, with pink/white/green foliage that everyone wants them, but I have observed that they do better in the ground. Still nice in pots, but they tend to be fussy with inconsistent watering/confined roots and are constantly complaining; that is, randomly turning brown, so you tend to get white/pink/green/crispy brown variegation.



The red flowers in the other pot above are the standard annual Nicotiana--I haven't worked with them a lot because I seem to remember them being fussy, but they seem to like Anne's deck. I'm more mesmerized by the tall, fragrant, white variety called 'Only the Lonely' which came available again this year and I enthusiastically planted around various gardens...









(Me, looking enthusiastic--if not hyper--about this bench-full at Roswitha's, with white impatiens, about to bloom.) My verdict: very fun...if they make it. Their other name is Slug Salad, so any baby 'Only the Lonely's I planted in garden beds were chomped to the ground. The ones that survived were in containers/pots, where slugs had yet to launch expeditions. Below, a full-face view of this lush-looking Nicotiana crop on the elevated pool deck, with a backdrop of the forest garden.





Nicotiana, by the way, is the fancy name for tobacco--but this is of course the legal florist variety. The less legal varieties (I didn't know growing tobacco was illegal--but isn't that strange?? You think perhaps the corporate cigarette companies have something to do with that huh huh?) look something like this:



They look a little weedy, so I wouldn't recommend them for your flower gardens/pots. But they have other uses. (I'm not growing this, by the way. Don't recall where I took the picture.)



So onward: still referring to the pic on Anne's deck, another favourite for Plants in Pots 2010 is the common Hosta. Hostas are so effortless in pots (or anywhere) and again, are also safer from the Sluggish Hordes when planted up high. They provide little islands of lush greenish calm in pot combinations



One of my favourite combinations, in pots or in the ground, is hostas and hardy fuchsias. Below: a big blue Hosta sieboldiana with Fuchsia magellanica 'Riccartoni' in John and Margot's sitting area. They like the same conditions, and are both soooo hardy and will perform/bloom in shade (I mean the plants, not John and Margot, although some of that may indeed be true). I'm not a huge fan of annual fuchsias. I think because they are a little blowsy? Pink n' frilly? Brittle? Wedding cakish? Can't put my finger on it. I love the delicate yet hardy 'Ricarrtoni' though...

Canna lilies remain a pot-stunner: we left these canna rhizomes in their elevated cement planting beds at Rose's over the winter (a mild winter, yes) and they came back unscathed. Again, Red Baron grass is a showy companion, hiding some kind of mechanical box at the base of the cannas.

The cannas below were overwintered in Roswitha's furnace room, next to a big window. They nevertheless came out in spring, covered in bugs (aphids/spider mites etc.) so I chopped them down to the soil level, rinsed 'em hard, and let them re-emerge like so...


Echinacea--the white cone-flower above--also does well in pots, if you can wait for their from-now-on bloom. I like perennials in pots. Even though they don't pump out a season-long bloom like annuals, you can orchestrate the bloom-times so there is always something interesting going on. For example, the little hardy Gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides 'Kleims') in the smaller pot just finished its full and fragrant flush of bloom, just as the Echinacea took over. This also saves the cost of buying a shipload of annuals every year--at Roswitha's, we also save all our dahlia and begonia tubers and replant them. Further to the hardy gardenia, I do plant it in the ground and mulch it over the winter, because a pot is less protected and I don't want to tempt fate.

I've included the pic below of a Trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) in the Plants in Pots feature, because this specimen is being contained in a spot that is really too small for it...

It was planted in a cement bed about five feet below this ledge, and of course it wants to grow about 20 feet, or more. Last year, it started to be a problem and I (unimaginatively) just cut off the dense growth when it crept onto the patio above, sacrificing flowers. This year I (imaginatively) started rolling the shoots to the left and tying it to itself, somewhat like a fancy chignon hair-do...which looked funny until it continued to flush out and produced flowers.

Time for a swim. Actually, this photo is several weeks old. The summer is shifting, shifting, sadly. However, so many things are beautiful because they are fleeting. I'll try to get some more Plants in Pots 2010 pics before the season is through.

Epic Scoot

Safely returned from my Epic Scoot up the Old Island Highway to Campbell River, Quadra Island, Cortes Island, Powell River and the Sunshine Coast!! About 600 km on about $15 of gas.



Here's my RV (tent under seat and rest in saddlebags) in Union Bay next to Sea-Change Studio (amazing artists). Felt a little giddy (a lot giddy) rollin' down the highway like I'd just escaped from the circus. Actually, I renamed The Scoot: Baggins, after Bilbo in The Hobbit. We definitely got out of the glen on this trip.


Many many ferry rides. I love ferries, also known as The Poor Man's Cruise. Even better, I got to roll on and off with the Harleys. There's something fantastic about gunning yer scooter engine up and down the ramps with a rumbling horde: first on, first off.







A calculatedly placid shot, below. Nevertheless, I notice a jetstream in the cloud-blown sky. That was from the ferry returning to Quadra from Cortes.







My hobbit friends, on Quadra. Anyone who moves to the Gulf Islands ends up looking like something from J.R. Tolkien, given time. (When I started looking like Golem, I knew it was time to leave.) Ryan and Jessica are blogging their gardening adventures at From the Living Soil and Eating the Coast respectively, both on Wordpress. They are starting a seed company, and market-gardening and tending farm animals in exchange for inhabiting their little red house...

I will travel 600 km to hug a kid this cute.



We went to Rebecca's Spit, where I contemplated a career making jewellry from dead crabs. You laugh...






We relaxed on the beach.





Here, there was a disagreement over the pronunciation of "flotsam."

I scooted onward, to Cortes, where I immediately ran into a family I'd met on a previous ferry. The little girl thought I was rad because I was a girl on a motorbike(ish). I thought she was rad because she had four braids in her hair. We went for a swim. I carried on to the Babbling Buddha hostel. Beautiful setting:

I arrived just in time to join a meditative dance in the carpeted and tapestried dojo, led by a British yogi/teacher. She was beautiful and intense. There was one other guest, a man, who also participated. There was a repetitive-dance part, a Sufi-spinning part, and a meditation part, splayed face-down on the floor. I was like, okay, this is cool.

There was also a hyper-active kitten on the premises. During the repetitive-dance part, the kitten repeatedly attacked the man's leg, sometimes launching full-out assaults from across the room. Remarkably, the man didn't miss a step or scream in pain. I was glad the kitten had developed single-prey focus.

During the Sufi-spinning part, I discovered immediately that spinning requires some skill. You have to concentrate on grounding yourself, and blur your vision or you will throw up. I was doing quite well, although I wished there weren't so many posts in the room.

During the splayed-out-on-the-floor meditation part, I fell asleep completely and woke myself up when I made one of those weird sleep-talking-noises. I had no idea where I was for a moment, but was reassured to hear the man making another weird sleep-talking noise elsewhere in the room. I decided that, for someone with a tendency to fall asleep while trying to meditate, lying face-down on the floor was not a recommended position.


Cortes is the centre of the Gulf Islands mystical universe. Here's my contribution, on the beach at Smelt Bay. It's a mandala. I don't know a lot about mandalas, but I like them. I've wanted to make one for about six months. It's my holiday, and it's time to make a mandala!!

Hollyhock retreat centre is largely responsible for Cortes' reputation. Here is the garden at Hollyhock, named after "the spirit of the 'Holy Mallow' known through the ages for its healing and spiritual qualities' (says the packet of Hollyhock seeds I bought there). The garden is beeeaauutiful:

Below, there are red dahlias in the foreground and bright red and dark red hollyhocks (I got seeds for those) in the back.

Below: crocosmia in front of a canna lily leaf...

Here's a something I don't know what it is. A poppy-like mallow. A mallow-like poppy?

I met so many nice people throughout the trip--windows into so many different lives: the off-the-grid fisherman, the Spanish school teacher, the 60-year-anniversary couple who invited me in for Rooibos tea, the California couple who told me interesting stories about their part of the world, and shared my enthusiasm for solo travel.

Church for sale on the Sunshine Coast. Baggins, feelin blessed.

Mutant Lily Update

Lily gone mad.

In bud...

And in bloom...

Here's the Alice in Wonderland lily in bloom--apparently, a lily virus causes fasciation of the stem, so leaf and bud production goes berserk. First time I've seen a lily go this spectacularly berserk. I went berserk. Is that how you spell berserk? Bizerk.