agave bracteosa
To say May is a busy time of year for nursery workers is an understatement. From production to shipping to garden centers and beyond, there isn’t enough time in the day when you deal with this many plants. Overtime seasons hit a bit early this season and I suspect it to last a bit later as well, I feel like I’m running a marathon. Sore backs, stiff necks, a heavy coffee addiction and the days burn up as fast as I can face them. I’ve never been busier what with the nursery taking every spare moment I have, then watering & caring for my greenhouse and of course the backyard jungle. The work of a plant geek is never done and while I’ve been too busy for words, I felt it pertinent to give you all a quick update.
May walk-around.
The tropical border May 2012
My Cardiocrinum giganteum is absolutely giant and growing at an incredible rate. It’s probably well over 8 feet tall now and starting to bud. Won’t this be interesting.
It takes anywhere from 5-9 years for a Cardiocrinum giganteum bulbs to reach flowering maturity. Sadly after blooming this giant lily will perish in hopes of creating seed. In time it’s offsets will replace the mother plant and the cycle will continue.
I planted my Echium pininana out and have been enjoying all the dramatic spring growth.
A Meconopsis Himalayan blue poppy is currently flowering. What a stunning display of multicolored blue frilly incredibleness.
For the 3rd season in a row this hardy Dianthus hybrid blooms right on schedule. Above a Disporum sessile settles into it’s new pot ready to unravel it’s secrets.
Speaking of right on schedule, these Candelabra primula never cease to amaze.
The minute flowers of Corokia ‘Little Prince’ are a nice accent to a plant that often looks like it’s dead, even when it’s thriving. Corokia make excellent potted specimens and fits in well with the other garden obscurities.
Chives aren’t just for culinary uses, they also welcome in spring with cheery pink/purple pillow tufts. Hardy and pest resistant, I’ve been growing this patch of chives for nearly 4 years now. After blooming they sometimes looks ratty and unkempt, cut them back and they’ll flush out good as new.
When I first started this garden, the beds were nothing but tall grass, daisies and weeds. After clearing them up, I uncovered a struggling peony. Many years later it returns the favor by producing these melon sized scarlet blooms. Incredible.
Mahonia x media really is a great plant. Now that the flowers have faded, the berries are developing, and also a flush of new foliage. Surely a plant that offers year round interest.
Amongst a Tetrapanax a Allium giganteum creeps it’s way up into the canopy. I keep waiting for it to open, but it continues to grow taller. I’m excited to see the result.
Darmera peltata & Gunnera manicata begin to wake up for the season.
A unassuming Tellima grandiflora blooms with little expectation of being noticed. Upon a macro photograph the true intricacy of it’s flowers is seen. For shape and design these are some of my favorite, but you’d be hard pressed to see it without really taking a close look. Easily grown from seed I let the pods develop last year and sowed some with great success. I now have over 40 and I’ve also been finding the odd one poking up in the garden self sown as well.
Drimia maritima amongst the spring madness. Everything is so lush right now.
The amazing speckled leaves of a Heuchera ‘Midnight Rose’. From Mid April on the heucheras have been waking up and flushing out new foliage.
It’s easy to be jealous of Heuchera ‘Green Spice’ artistic skills. Wow!
Pole beans and scarlet runners ready to be transplanted out into the garden.
The unusual bloom spike of aPhytolacca americana. Beautiful and unusual this isn’t even half of what makes this a cool plant to grow. Stay tuned for more weirdness.
Agave bovicornuta & Agave bracteosa were easy to harden off, and are now enjoying the sunniest spot in the back garden.
The frog has a new hairdo this year, sitting next to Agave stricta ‘Nana’.
An echeveria art-piece I did has a little visitor.
An enemy to most gardeners, snails get a pass in my garden due to their intriguing good looks. Respectfully he didn’t eat any of the echeverias and I let him be on his way. I’m sure with all the plants I have a couple snails won’t do much damage.
A new addition from Fraser Thimble Farms, Syneilesis aconitifolia, a welcome obscurity to the garden.
More plant hoarding: Enkianthus cernuus rubens .
Thanks for visiting, we’ll talk soon when things aren’t as busy.
A notice to all plant geeks in Victoria, the Victoria Cactus and Succulent Society is having it’s yearly spring sale at Hillside Mall this weekend. Be sure to show them your support and check out their incredible selection of rare and strange succulents & cacti. Check out their website for more information.
If you are on the Monday-Friday work week, I think you would agree with me when I say Sunday is one of the best days of the week. There’s something calming about the last day of week. After the hustle and bustle of the work week, a regular Friday celebration and Saturday’s “appointments’, my Sundays are often free for leisure. Today I packed up the car with sandwiches and coffee and hit the road for a nice long drive. We drove up the coast of Vancouver Island and “accidentally” found ourselves doing the complete Pacific Marine Circle Route. I love driving in British Columbia, you’re always only a stone’s throw away from some of the lushest old growth forests in the world. It was a rainy afternoon but we made the best of it, we stopped at a couple beaches and collected beach rocks for the garden. Afterwords we went straight through Port Renfrew, over to Lake Cowichan and back home to Victoria. The forests were lush and covered in moss and throughout the drive we’d hit patches of fog so thick you could barely see in front of you. Driving up through these coastal forests you’re quickly reminded that we live in a temperate rain-forest, the flora is almost tropical in it’s abundance and vigor. Sadly no photos due to a forgotten memory card, you never notice until it too late.
Coming home I found myself toying around with my indoor collection and it seemed as good a time as any to do some documenting. The plant’s are looking remarkably well and it seemed selfish not to share their beauty with my fellow plant geeks. The majority of the succulents and cacti are loving their artificial home, the grow light helps them forget that they’re living in a cement basement. Still I can’t wait till it’s warm enough for them to go outside, they look better under natural daylight.
At a glance.
I acquired this Mitrophyllum grande in September at the Victoria Cactus and Succulent Society sale. Winter growing, it’s texture is reminiscent of hardened gelatin, it’s a strange specimen indeed.
Agave bracteosa is enjoying the glow of the grow light. I love it’s unusual twisted tips, I’m excited to grow this on to a large specimen size.
I’m still new to growing mesembs and this is the survivor of the two conophytums I acquired earlier in 2011. Much like lithops they require practically no water at all in the winter, over caring for these plants will surely lead to failure. I haven’t watered this one in over a month and I suspect it’ll be a while yet before it gets a drink. Besides overwatering, mesembs also seem sensitive to light changes, and I lost one due to a grow light failure. Keep things consistent.
One of the Pseudolithos migiurtinus I received earlier this month. While it’d be easy to omit my failure it’s larger mate died a week after planting. One afternoon I noticed it looked a bit spotted in color and as I poked it to see how it was doing, my finger went right through it. Rot had set in. I’ve read these can be difficult to cultivate but I had hoped to keep it alive a bit longer then a week. While this might have been a watering mistake I’m going to blame it on shipping stress and leave it at that. So far this one looks healthy enough, let’s hope for the best.
The cuttings I ordered from Paul Shirley Succulents have almost all taken root, this Huernia zebrina is showing strong new growth.
My Monadenium ritchiei doesn’t seem to notice it’s living indoors, it’s currently in the midst of a second wave of new leaves.
I love this cactus! Astrophytum asterias otherwise known as a sand dollar cactus is living artwork.
The Dudleya attenuata I received in late December is recovering from it’s shipping stress and is looking better everyday. This one is thought to be between 50-100 years old.
A Lophophora williamsii that has been in the family for at least 10 years was looking pretty miserable when I first got my hands on it. After a season outdoors in the greenhouse and a long winter under the grow light, it’s looking quite happy now. Known to be extremely slow growing, it’s interesting to watch it progress. It’s definitely plumped up since I first got it, and a closer inspection shows some new offsets forming from the rear. I enjoy growing plants with magical properties even though I have no intention in dabbling in such things. It adds to the story and lore, it’s fascinating to grow plants that have such history connected to their cultivation.
Pilea peperomioides otherwise known as a Chinese dollar plant is an unusual addition to one’s indoor collection. While it may have had it’s time in the spotlight I’ve never seen one of these for sale in or around Victoria. The plant itself holds an interesting story about it’s cultivation and is known to have been passed around Europe for it’s ease of propagation. Every once in a while a new offset pokes up which makes it a very easy plant to give away to friends. I let them collect every year until fall then separate them from the mother. This season I have 5 extras if any of you plant nerds would be interested? To read the whole story on Pilea peperomioides click here, it’s a good read.
Did I mention I love Pseudolithos Migiurtinus. “Please don’t die”
I bought 16 ornithogalum longibracteatum seedlings almost a year ago and only now are they really starting to thrive. This one in particular seemed to outshine the rest and has put out a dense tangle of lush foliage. Striving for natural light it threw out a flower stalk that is almost a metre long (seeking the small window in the basement). At the tip a complex inflorescence of delicate white flowers formed.
The flower stalk has been forming since mid November. It’s been flowering for a while now and looks like it still has a long while to go.
Winter blooms keep a gardener alive in the barren wasteland that is winter.
Another specimen I’ve yet to share with you is this unusual Tradescantia noid. It shares similarities to the common house plant, wondering jew. it’s leaves are uniquely spotted and so far it’s almost always in flower.
It’s flowers are a welcome reminder of a more tropical existence. What an amazing design, the color is calming and I enjoy it’s strange stigmas.
Let’s take a closer look…. Fascinating!
Last but not least, my latest plant hoarding. While driving down the highway homeward bound I couldn’t resist the urge to stop into Dinters just outside of Duncan. Being early in the season there wasn’t a whole lot going on, still they had an interesting assortment of indoors. A few pots in particular grabbed my eye, this yellow barrel cactus, Echinocactus grusonii is nearly the size of a small watermelon. For my readers in the south I’m sure you come across this kind of thing regularly, but let me tell you, you don’t see large cacti for sale up here in Canada. Whatever I ended up paying for it, it seemed a bargain for such an old, large specimen. I placed the keys near it for perspective. This will add an exotic look to the garden next summer.
Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your Monday.
