Garden Glimpses : Mid-July 2009

A couple of blogs I've visited recently are celebrating anniversaries... Which got me to looking back to when I started, which was 19 Jan 2006. So yesterday was half way to my 5 year anniversary. I guess that's some sort of half-anniversary...

When I first started this blog, I had all sorts of ambitions of providing plant information, tips, maybe even plant advice.... But it seems that visitors have appreciated my garden photos more than any witty or intelligent information which I had hoped to provide.

One of my favourite "series" has become my Garden Glimpses, where I post photos of my garden at specific times in the year. It is fun to go back and compare year over year, so I had created (mostly for myself, but feel free to check it out in the left margin of my blog) a keyword "garden glimpses".

So here goes for another (as always, click the photo for a slightly larger view)...

I love this handsome daylily Kwanzo / Kwanso I received from my father-in-law. It has a large triple bloom, and spreads somewhat aggressively (sending out fans some 6" or 12" from the mother plant), so is great for filling an area and for sharing:

Here it is again, in front of shaggy red Monarda:

I don't know if I have the name of this maroon daylily, but I like the colour:

I was surprised to see this Campanula glomerata "alba" finally blooming this year, but long after its purple counterparts had faded away. I had bought and planted it last year, and thought I lost it over the winter, and the Euonymus alatus (Burning bush) had grown over it (wow, that is a fast-growing shrub!!), so that the bloom ended up poking out from under the bush upside-down:

This borage plant sprouted up between the crocosmia I dug & replanted earlier this year, perhaps delivered by birds, or the seed was in the soil (although I haven't grown it for some while). The star-shaped flower is edible (just pull off the hard dark bit), and pretty as a garnish for potato salads or fruit salads or even cakes... So I left it there, just in case (wishful thinking on my part). I was trying to catch the bee in flight, which I did:

I planted this young Buddleia davidii (Butterfly bush) to block some of the view of my lower neighbour's house. I was amazed at how strong and vigourous it grew this year. These are the green flower spikes, before they bloom purple. A dragonfly landing on the bush had prompted me to pull out the camera, but sadly he didn't wait for the photo:

Garden Glimpses : Mid June 2008

June is a wonderful time of year, since the many blossoms are a-buzz with many fuzzy bumblebees. They are busy on the chives:

...and the Physocarpus opulifolius "diablo" (Diablo ninebark):

...and the Spanish lavender (Lavendula stoechas):

...and the Geraniums (this first one is "Victor Reiter"):


...and the raspberries:

The butterflies are now flitting about the garden also, like this cabbage butterfly, enjoying the osteospermum flowers:

Everywhere, there is the hope for summer fruit, such as these strawberries:

...apples (on the espalier tree):

...and pears (Bartlett pears, in this case):

The campanula glomerata is in full bloom, and looking beautiful this year (even if the long stems have flopped over again - each year I tell myself I need to do something to support them, maybe next year I will finally take action):

(As always, click any photo for a slightly larger view.)

More Garden Glimpses : Late May 2008

One of the many rewards of gardening is the continual surprises. Such as this daylily, which came along with a small masterwort plant (gift from the garden of a friend of my mother-in-law), and which bloomed for the first time this year. I'm glad I resisted the urge to pull it out last year, when it showed up as a few blades of what looked almost like grass.

Then there is this gorgeous tri-colour honeysuckle, which is full of blooms this year. I received it as a tiny shoot in a plant trade about 2 years ago, and had no idea what colour to expect. What a lovely surprise to see this wonderful mix of pink, white and yellow!

Of course, not all surprises are welcome ones. I try not to even think about the Carex pendula which has seeded itself all over my entire upper garden and down the hillside. It is coming up by the thousands, and if I don't find them in the first year, they get pretty hard to pull the second year, and pretty hopeless for me after that. I received a tiny shoot in a plant trade one year, gave it what turned out to be an ideal spot in the moist side of my garden, and it grew to a monster with a base maybe 4' wide within 2 or 3 years. At that point, it had flowered, but seemed to only have a few offspring. However, I began to fear the size and growth of this thing, and being not very impressed by its looks, I asked a neighbour help me remove it last year (over-filling a wheelbarrow to haul it away to add beside his pond). It seems that right after that, the ground exploded with seedlings, and I've been pulling and shovelling ever since, with no sign yet of any hope of completely removing it from my garden. I'm afraid to ask him yet if he's noticed any seedlings. I can only hope it is not so successful in his garden!

Speaking of unpleasant surprises, I opened the barbeque last week, to get it ready for the BBQ season, and found this weird ball of garden clippings inside:

My first thought was that someone had played a joke on us, cramming that in there. But when my husband went to clean it out, and found the BBQ full of droppings, we realized that a mouse had made a nest there during the winter. Good thing I didn't open it until Spring! What a creepy thought, those little guys scampering up & down the barbeque without our noticing.

Anyhow, back to some more pleasant images. I can never seem to get enough of this Cornus canadensis (Bunchberry). I hope it will survive and thrive in my garden:

I can't help adding another photo of my white tree peony:

I also can't get enough of this Campanula glomerata, so here goes with another photo:

I don't know the name of this orange flower, but the yellow version of it grows wild in the neighbourhood ditches and lakeside parks (and along my East fence, near the ravine).

My son painted this birdhouse last year (the rainbow colours was his idea), when he was 6 years old. We finally set it up outside. I was ecstatic to find a chickadee checking it out within a couple of days (probably looking to find out if it was a feeder).

The espalier apple tree is bearing small fruits now, so I thinned out each clump, from the 3 or 4 fruits...

...down to 1 fruit each (in some cases, I've left 2, to see which one will be stronger).

This lupine is a cheery pink colour. I have a few of them in the garden, but wish I had a few more. I should plant some of the seeds I gathered in previous years:

Garden Glimpses : Late May 2008

Here goes for a few garden glimpses... As always, click the photo for a larger view.
I saw my first hummingbird a few days ago, and it was checking out the Weigela, which is fully in bloom:

This year the Genista pilosa (creeping broom) "Vancouver Gold" is spectacular, completely covered in bright yellow (shown here with a seedling of my treasured Geranium "Victor Reiter" peeking through):

I found this bumblebee sleeping on a geranium flower, so I was able to sneak in a bit closer than usual for a photo:

This one was not so sleepy, but I still managed (after a few tries) to catch a reasonable shot of him also:

The ants on my peonies bring back fond memories of my childhood, watching the ants on my mom's peonies:

This Menyanthes trifoliata (Bog bean) is a delightful addition to my garden, in a very wet spot in my garden (at a junction of two underground drain pipes). I pulled a small piece of it from Bunsen Lake during a canoeing trip last summer, and happily it not only survived the winter (dropping its leaves so it looked like a small green twig), but is flowering this Spring:

I love the foliage of the Petasites frigidus, so much so that I have allowed it to take over an increasingly larger area of the hillside on the moist and shady side of our garden:

And of course, who could not love the foliage of the Stachys byzantina (Lamb's ear)? All the kids who come to the garden are delighted by these leaves (or at least I'm always delighted to pick a few leaves to share with them).

I'm always delighted by my espalier fruit trees, and I will need to thin out the fruit to let it ripen fully, but in the meantime I am pleased to see so many tiny fruits, here on the asian pear:

...and here on the apple:


This tree peony flower is so delicate. I had 5 flowers this year.

I love how this little Japanese maple cascades gently down the concrete wall.

I am pleased to finally receive flowers for the first time on my Cornus canadensis (Bunchberry):

This is also the first time my lilac tree is in bloom (since I bought it in bloom, some 2 or 3 years ago now), and it is not only a pretty double flower, but also wonderfully fragrant:

This Sempervivum (Hen and Chicks) is nestled (almost smothered) by the Sedum growing around it, forming a richly textured ground cover. The small seedling in the top left is a Masterwort:

What pleasing texture and colour on these epimedium leaves (with again more Geranium "Victor Reiter" peeking from behind - this time a green variant; about half the offspring seem to come up with the burgundy foliage, and half with just green, but the flowers are always the same purple).

When the Campanula glomerata is in full bloom, it is stunning. So far I have this one "teaser" bloom, and the remainder is in bud:

Garden Glimpses : Late May 2007

I'm almost too tired, but here goes with another set of pics from my garden...

This Campanula Glomerata is thriving in my garden, forming a good size patch. I am so pleased with it that I picked up a small white ("Alba") one today. I hope it will be as successful as this purple one. The flowers in the background are my purple Osteospermum, closed since it was an overcast evening.

This delightful white iris is from my friend Irene. It looks almost angelic.

I think chives make a great ornamental, so I have a patch in my flower garden as well as my herb garden. I love to see the big bumblebees on the flowers. [Speaking of which, I was stung by a bee tonight, on the back of my neck, as I was bending to weed under the espalier trees. I heard the high-pitched buzzing (like a bee stuck in a small place), and then the sting. So I danced around, banging at my neck, and flapping my shirt, so it would fall out of my collar or armholes (sleeveless shirt). I never did see the bee, and it only hurt for maybe 20 minutes, leaving a small red spot on my neck.] So the poor bee certainly got the worst of the encounter!

I also like parsley as an ornamental. I've included both chives and parsley in the two planters I created this year.

I like the range of textures and colours in this foliage in the border along the back (southeast) corner of our property. From the front: red currant, underplanted with runaway euphorbia "Fens Ruby", Stachys byzantina (lamb's ear), purple sage, more lamb's ear, with blueberry bushes pushing up through, lilac standard, clump of crocosmia, and then fading out but almost visible: snowberry standard, butterfly bush, Monarda Didyma, missouri currant, and to the very right, the edge of my Lapin Cherry tree.

The red currant bushes (I am happy to have two of them, one having recovered from many years of being badly chewed, the second, thanks to my Plant Swap friends). Both are showing lots of promise for berries this year. On the other hand, the missouri currant, which was blooming so extensively a month ago, has pretty much failed to form berries, with many of the previously-flowering branches withering (perhaps too much heat lately, I should have watered them sooner?).

The Lapin Cherry is also showing promise of some more cherries this year, if the birds leave us any. Also, the Rainier Cherry has a few berries for the first time this year. I love the anticipation of the fruit trees, each year looking forward to, and dreaming of a larger crop than last year (or in my case, my first tastes).