Fern Fables: Sword and Maidenhair

Our storybook sword-ferns are waking up in woodland-gardens on the north shore (here, bordering the steps to Daphne's grotto garden). Whoever still thinks that ferns are unassuming creatures trembling in dark corners has never looked a sword fern in the fiddlehead(s).

Sword ferns/Polystichum munitum can perch on precipices, border bedrock...

... or sink into the mellow dappled light of an understorey--and clearly draw a circle of personal space with their arching fronds.

Mine. All mine.

Maidenhair ferns/Adiantum pedatum are not as stalwart, but they are obviously happy in the pics below--basking in evening light, but shaded during the day, with an overstorey of rhododendrons and mature evergreens. These may be, in fact, the happiest maidenhairs I've ever seen (in Jim & Rojeanne's garden).

An illumination of unfurling fern fronds...

...

Something storybook about ferns...

Sunshine therapy

Such a beautiful day, I had to post my pics right away, lest the "rainy day blues" taint my blog for too long! I think many many people were finding excuses to be outside basking today. Sunshine therapy, so good.

Here's Leopard's Bane/Doronicum orientale--a little stunted this year with the cold, but still high enough to crest the Hosta 'Krossa Regal.'

Doronicum is the earliest yellow daisy and prefers light shade--it leaps out in spring then goes dormant soon after blooming. Apparently, it also discourages leopards, which can be convenient.

Seems like English bluebells are in a lot of shots these days. Kind of like those blokes that jump into other people's pictures...

An evening view, below, of all things green and growing in Jim & Rojeanne's Old Apple Tree garden. [Check out the circle of sky, mirroring the pathway. I did not plan that. O, the wonders of photography.]

One of the green-and-growing things is this patch of rose whips, snipped from the mother rose in Sue and Hugh's garden and sunk in the soil last fall. I set up a quick wigwam so they wouldn't get lost over the winter...and excavated them from amongst the English bluebells (funny that) to see how they're getting along...

And look! They're setting buds already! Now that's a rose.


Here's the old momma rose--pic from last year--a single crimson red with a name that may have disappeared in the halls of time. However, the point being: if you see a rose you love, ask for a whip and stick it in the ground (preferably in fall). Et Voila.

This pic (below) is the Mexican Mock Orange/Choisya ternata, which is almost as perfect as it can get this year. Usually, choisyas suffer somewhat over the winter and die back a bit, but this sea-level garden is a choisya-friendly micro-climate. I have to cut the stair-side back hard right after it blooms or it would engulf the stairs by midsummer. If you prune promptly, the plant will set new growth and an even bloom for the next year.

Bella bella.

Gumboots are Sexy

So shiny.

I was feeling a little blue (couldn't be the constant downpours, drizzle, sheets of rain, mud, green slime, wads of wet gloves in cold puddles at the bottom of saddle-bags, etc. could it??) when I schlepped into a Starbucks in my muddy buddies. The barista filled up my thermos and gave me a lop-sided grin. "On the house!"

"But why?" I gaped. My brain went through exactly this sequence: "Do I look needy?Does my garden gear make me look like a hobo?? Is he even allowed to do that?...Why is he smiling like that?..."

I'm so going to write a rainy day blues song about baristas.

More Plants of the Week...

1. Flowering crab-apples.



Isn't this a little beauty--in Anne & Peter's garden. It's either Malus 'Magenta' or Malus 'Brandywine.' I'll check with them when I see them next and do a little post-posting edit.

Flowering crabs seem to come in a wider variety of colours--from whites and pale pinks to deep magentas and reds--than our regular blossomy fruit trees. I also learned last year, at a Forest-Food Garden (Permaculture) workshop with Richard Walker, that crabs can cross-pollinate with any apple tree, so that's an added bonus.

We're a little challenged on the North Shore with scabby/rainy weather diseases on fruit trees, so have to be selective with varieties. (Whatever local nurseries carry is your best bet.) Some of the best-producing fruit trees I've witnessed over here are the Asian apple-pears and a round golden plum (we think it's a 'Golden Gage' instead of a 'Green Gage' plum) that is straight out of a Greek myth, like you turn into a frolicking little god when you eat it. So good. Buuut I've never seen the tree for sale in nurseries because it's fallen out of fashion due to the fact that the fruit is soo bursting with juicy goodness that it is impossible to pack for shipping. So ironic. I'm getting off topic.


2. Hostas. Welcome back, faithful foliage friends. We love you. Here, 'Francee' with a quince-petal smooch.


3.English bluebells (Endymion non-scriptus). Love 'em or hate 'em, they're here. Apparently, there's an inspiring scene in the movie Howard's End that will convert the most embittered blue-bell vanquisher. Curiously, the species is non-scriptus, which is latin for "not worth writing about." Funny that. Nice blue tho.





4. Tree paeonies (Paeonia suffruticosa). They do really well in big pots, and unfailingly produce opulent buds and opulent blooms that make you feel like you should take them out on the town.

Let's go dancing.

Oldie-But-Goodie Reel Mower for Reel Men/Women

Mower on the left is a modern re-make of the mower on the right: at least fifty years old, recently back in service after a roller-replacement (but not sharpened), and about as heavy as six bags of cement. Guess which one works best?

Hands down, the antique version. Is it the extra weight? I'm not a reel mower expert, as I mow exactly one postage-stamp lawn (have we had this discussion before...). So I'm thinking that the handle could be more ergonomic, but hey, if you can start on the downhill to get the thing going, this is a one-pass-and-yer-done reason to go back in time.