Garden Glimpses : Mid April

Work and life has been overwhelming lately, but I have managed to take a few more photos, along with many hours of pulling weeds. So here I am, 10 days later, posting them. Enjoy!

I wish I had taken a few photos last week when the two cherry trees were in full bloom - it was quite glorious! This slightly out of focus shot, taken 10 days ago, shows the buds starting into bloom. I hope this indicates a good year for the cherries. The Lapin cherry had about a dozen fruits last year, of which the birds ate most. The Rainier cherry was planted later, and didn't fruit last year. So I am excited at the prospect of its first year of fruit!

The missouri currant (Ribes Odoratum) bushes are loaded with flowers this year, whereas they had only a couple strings of flowers last year. Again, I hope this indicates lots of this sour little berry will soon be on its way, and one day I will have enough to make current juice. My original plant was a sucker dug up from my great aunt's garden in the Okanagan, and every time I have trimmed the plant, I have stuck the trimmings in the ground, so have propagated a number of bushes now (not to mention that they sucker very vigorously also).

This handsome plant has been identified as Petasites Frigidus, thanks to the helpful plant experts on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. I spotted it from some forest roads near Hope, BC, and it seemed to be growing near water in a number of occasions. So I dug up a small plant or two from the roadside, and gave them a new home in the wet and shady hillside area of my garden. That was only last summer! This spring, more than a dozen flower stalks emerged, followed by those wonderful leaves (reminds me of a small gunnera - the petasites leaf is about the size of my hand). I think it will soon be taking over that hillside. I'm already offering some to my neighbour, for growing beside his pond.

My daughter, who has not shown much interest in gardening (my son is much more interested), has recently become interested in building structures for fairies in the garden, such as this twig & leaf shelter in her "fairy garden". She even expressed, at a recent plant sale, that she wanted to pick up some plants for her "fairy garden". So we bought her a Stella D'Oro daylily, and also a small shrub (I've forgotten the name at the moment).