Happy New Year from Bloomingwriter and Bloominganswers

Here it is only the third day of 2012 and I've already managed to pull a bit of a post together! I learned some years ago not to make resolutions, so that I don't have to feel guilty about not keeping them. Instead, I do the best I can. As Master Yoda would say, "Do, or do not--there is no try." He had a point, didn't he, and not just his ears.

Mostly I wanted to take the time to say thank you to all those who have already signed up at bloominganswers. It's still very much a work in progress, with some facets that are confusing to me when I'm working behind the scenes to make things as easy to navigate as possible. I'm delighted that we have members from the United States and the UK as well as from across Canada--this is a site for any gardener, whether indoor or out, whether in the tropics or in the tundra.

It's been nearly six years since I started writing this blog, so actually it's entering its seventh year of posts. Much has changed during that time, especially in terms of my personal, physical abilities. Yesterday, since we were having yet another overly-mild day, I finally got the last of my bulbs planted, a task that would have normally been done by mid-late November, when I was laid up after my knee surgery. But bulbs are tenacious, and they were in good shape when I plopped them into the soggy ground, and they will mostly all bloom come spring. I remind myself that I'm also tenacious, and that others have far more serious ailments than I do, so I need to be grateful and carry on.

It's important to me to thank my readers, both online and in the publications I work with, and those who have bought my books. Also I thank everyone who comes out to the presentations and workshops I do from time to time. One of the greatest joys about gardening is the sense of community it fosters, and the sharing that goes on between gardeners, between friends across the miles.

I have several potential projects in the works along with the new website, and so I shan't promise to blog every couple of days, or even every week. Nor will I promise to get to everyone's blog as quickly as I used to. There are so many now, which is exciting because it's great to see the passions for planting and how people do things differently. There are also so many other social media demands on our time, from Facebook to Twitter to Google+ (whatever that latter is--I don't know yet) and it can become overwhelming. I remind everyone that we garden for pleasure, and that reading and participating in garden sites ought to be for fun too. No stresses, please--we have enough of those in the other parts of our lives.

So here's to 2012, and more garden adventures, wherever you are, whatever you plant. For me, I'm hoping winter will arrive soon, to cover up the wet yucky yard, and to bring on the snow buntings!

Heartfelt thanks to EVERYONE who came out (well, almost)

I'm back! Amazingly, after the assorted cold, wet weather we had in May and June, I didn't expect we'd have three fantastic days for our Open Garden event. But we did! The sun shone, it was warm (and at times, downright HOT) from  the time we started on Friday until the last car left late Sunday afternoon.

There was plenty to see, from the drifts of perennials like 'Lola' astrantia,

The roses all popped on cue, providing colour and fragrance (this photo was taken in the fog on Monday evening!).

Catching up, with an Invitation

It's been quite a while since I posted here, but I think the reasoning is pretty obvious to most fellow gardeners. June in Nova Scotia has been almost as cranky as May was, weather-speaking, and we have to garden when the sun shines, so to speak. Since I decided to increase the size of some of my beds this year, it's meant a lot of extra work, often during less than pleasant gardening weather--either too cold, too hot, or too wet!

As many of my readers know, I've felt a bit like Hank Williams lately..."I've been everywhere"...while on my book promotion tour and the garden club speaking circuit. I'd like to extend yet another bouquet of thanks and appreciation to all those who have come out to the various events, bought books, swapped stories, and been just the fantastic gardening buddies that you all are. It's been a hectic, rewarding spring and I'm honoured by all your support and friendship.

Now it's my turn to give back, or in this case, pay it forward.

My friend Captain Dick Steele passed away in March of 2010, to the sorrow of many, many friends and fellow plant aficionados. Captain Steele was fondly known as Mr. Rhododendron for his passion for these handsome landscape plants, and he spent many years breeding hardy varieties for our climate. Dick was a founding member of the Atlantic Rhododendron & Horticultural Society, and there has been a scholarship endowment set up in his name at my alma mater, the Nova Scotia Agricultural College.

Being a self-employed writer and sorta-photographer, I'm not exactly what you'd call well off. However, I do have a rather large and rambunctious garden, which is ever-expanding because I test so many plants here. I have no idea just exactly how many plants we have in the numerous beds around the property--I should count them but it might scare me! Especially as there are about 50 still waiting to be planted. And that doesn't include the annuals in containers.

So what I'm doing to help raise awareness and funds for the Captain Steele Endowment is holding an Open Garden weekend at our property on July 1, 2, & 3, 11 am-5 pm daily. Admission will be by free-will donation, with all proceeds going to the Endowment fund. I'll have some milkweed plants to give away courtesy of my friend Rob Baldwin's nursery, some of my own plants for a free-will donation, and some books for sale, too.
Yes, that's a puddle from the monsoon we had last night and this morning. Gardening here can be entertaining...

I've stressed before: our property is not the perfect sort of display you'll see at a public garden, or at someone's property that has landscapers designing and/or maintaining it. We do everything here ourselves, and as I noted above, I test a lot of things here to see how they'll do, including plants from Proven Winners, from local nurseries such as Baldwin's and Bunchberry Nurseries. But it's a happy, lush garden, with a lot of focus on pollinator-friendly plants, handsome foliage plants, winter interest, native plants...something for pretty much everyone.

The weather here in Scotts Bay can be highly capricious. Today, for example, we had a bombastic thunderstorm roll through with heavy rain and a bit of hail; then it partially cleared, was sunny in the front yard while more moody clouds rolled up the Bay of Fundy. So while it might be hot and sunny in Halifax--or down in Canning, or two miles up the road--during the July 1st weekend, we're never sure what it might be like here, so please bring foul weather gear if coming to visit that weekend.

For a few more details, including how to get here, please check out the dedicated page here on our Open Garden weekend. I'll relink to it if I do more posts before July 1st, but given the pile of work still needing doing here...there might not be another post til after that! So if you're interested in seeing what it's like to garden on the Bay of Fundy, and contribute to a great cause...we'll look forward to seeing you!

Catching up with some great catches

Well, I'm baaaccckkk! Vast improvements in the weather coupled with a need for a bit of a break have kept me in the gardens and away from the blog, but today is cool and showery, a great day to do a little catching up. I've been roaming around the province, doing book events plus of course checking out nurseries; I haven't been to all my favourites yet this year, but have certainly visited those in the Valley and part of the south shore. With the book-travel winding up soon, there will be more time for just relaxing travel to gardens and nurseries.

Before I go on about some of the great plants blooming here, a couple of interesting housekeeping tidbits for those who visit Facebook and nursery websites:

Baldwin's Nurseries now has a Facebook page, and I hope people will visit and 'Like' it.
Glad Gardens has a new website as well as a Facebook page. I think these pages on Facebook are extremely useful for keeping people current quickly.
The Friends of the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens are holding their Native Plant sale tomorrow from 9 am til noon at the gardens. The gardens are at Acadia University in Wolfville. Baldwin's Nurseries, Bunchberry Nurseries and I will all be there, and the Friends are selling a host of native species great for home gardening.

Here, there, and back again

The merry month of May has been not so merry if you're a nursery operator or a gardener here in Nova Scotia, because the weather has been, to say the least, terrible. Rain, fog, drizzle, repeat as necessary, very little sunshine to speak of, and chilly temperatures have meant that a lot of people haven't been able or willing to work in their gardens.

For this gardener and writer, however, it has been hectic, regardless of the weather. I've put a lot of miles on my car, and brought home a lot of plants from assorted nurseries, doing my part to improve the provincial economy. I've been giving talks and signing books at assorted locales, and visiting gardens whenever I have a chance. This garden outside of Annapolis Royal features a wonder selection of conifers and flowering shrubs and trees, with some bulbs and perennials interspersed for added colour.

Poison Plants, Pollinators, Perennials: It's Time for Saltscapes Expo

One of the regular signs of spring in Nova Scotia is the annual Saltscapes East Coast Expo, a celebration of the best of Atlantic Canada. For those who have never been to this event, it's not your average trade or home show. If you know Saltscapes magazine, imagine that the magazine comes to life at Exhibition Park for three days each spring. There's awesome food, terrific entertainment from around the region, exquisite and unique retail, lots of presentations.

This year I will have my own gardening area, set up near the Honda Power Equipment Garden Booth. Look for the brilliant blue bench (painted by LSS) and the colourful plants and containers I'll have there. The great thing about having my own area for presentations is that there will be time and space in which to talk with gardeners after the presentations, without having to rush off the stage for the next presenter. There's nothing we gardeners like better than to talk about plants and planting.

Actual Blooms for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day! Imagine that.

It has to be spring now, because I took my studded winter tires off the car on Thursday afternoon. No more snow allowed until November, now. I mean it. It's time for spring, because look, I has blooms, serious blooms, just in time for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day. I'm so excited to be able to participate in outdoor blooms that I'm actually posting before Carol even has the link up for this month. Whoo hoo!

Okay, calming down now a little bit, but still leading off with the prize, the jewel, the most delightful beauty in the garden next to those naughty blue poppies...Helleborus 'Golden Sunrise'. Knowing our spring weather as I do, my hellebores are still protected by some evergreen limbs because of the excessive cold winds we're having, but a couple of warm days and warm rain prompted these to peek out long enough for me to snap a photo last evening just before dark.

From Corylus to Crocus, March goes out like a Lamb

After nearly a week of galeforce, chilly winds blasting down on us, the last day of March came ambling along like a sweet, fluffy lamb; warm, and soft. The crocuses just leapt into action immediate, popping up like colourful dots all over the garden.

Interview with the Author: Christy Ann Conlin of 'Heave' and 'Dead Time'

One of the coolest things about the writing life is how so many of us make friends with other writers. They may be in other disciplines, fiction versus non-fiction; they may be starting out or experienced, neighbours nearby or friends never met face-to-face; they may be friends we’ve known for years or people we’ve gotten to know recently, through one circumstance or another.

Christy Ann Conlin is one of those fellow writers and friends. I’ve known ABOUT her for years, ever since she burst onto the scene with her brilliant and unique novel, Heave, which was a national bestseller. I didn’t actually get to KNOW her until last fall, when we found ourselves mutual friends of a friend through yes, the social chaos of Facebook. Ironically, we both live on the North Mountain, she closer to Berwick, (my mother’s hometown), and I, hanging off the hill overlooking Cape Split. So we’re neighbours, if busy ones! I’m not a fiction writer, but I am an ardent fan of reading fiction, especially good fiction, and Heave grips you, shakes you like a boat tossed out here on the wild Fundy waters, and leaves you trembling and spent when you finish its pages. It wasn’t surprising that it was in the top 40 finalists for the 2011 Canada Reads on CBC radio, and that ignited a whole new spray of attention for the book.

The Very Historic Gardens...A Nova Scotia Must-see

While western and southerly parts of North America are beginning to relax into their anticipation of spring's arrival, SOME of us are still getting bludgeoned with winter weather. As we shoulder yet another winter storm of snow-rain-sleet-snail-whatever out of the sky, I thought we could use an escape from it all. So let's go to one of the most beautiful places in Nova Scotia: Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens.

The Gardens were established 30 years ago on a 17 acre parcel of land overlooking the tidal Annapolis River, adjoining an area first settled in 1605 by the French explorer Sieur de Mons and cartographer Samuel de Champlain. The community originally named Port Royal was variously occupied by the French and the British for over a century until the latter finally took it for the last time and renamed the settlement Annapolis Royal in honour of then-monarch Queen Anne. 

The official "I wrote a book and it's in stores now" post

As many people who hang around with me on Facebook, Twitter, or in real life know, last year one of my projects was to write a book for Nimbus Publishing of Halifax. That book, Plants for Atlantic Gardens, is in stores now throughout the region, including independent local stores like The Box of Delights in Wolfville, on Amazon.ca, and will be in the US in a couple of months time. Hopefully, it will inspire you enough that you'll want to buy it. But you could also win a book...keep reading for the details.

A Little Midwinter Miscellany

Most of the time, I don't mind winter. I really don't. It's an important part of life in much of North America, and it's crucial for both the garden and the gardener. It's a time for plants to rest, and gardeners to look back at what we have done in the past, and look ahead at what we plan for the future. It's a good season for catching up on our reading.

However...the past two weeks have been a bit much, and this week in particular has been so over the top as to be absurd. We are not just blanketed in snow: we are quilted, duveted, down-comfortered and Arctic-sleepingbagged with the stuff. It's not just a few inches deep--it's a few FEET deep. As in this drift, which is well over four feet tall and extends across the back of the garden.

Introducing...my first paphiopedilum orchid bloom

Patience is a virtue when it comes to dealing with certain plants. I present to you, Paphiopedilum 'Limerick x Hillsvale x Cherokee', a splendid young ladyslipper orchid that I purchased last March during the annual orchid show and sale held by the Orchid Society of Nova Scotia at Acadia University's Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens.

The orchid fancier who sold the plant to me told me it would take a year or so for it to get around to flowering. I was quite all right with that--having more than enough plants in the house, there is always something blooming here.

Coaxing Spring with Flowering Twigs

Welcome to winter in Nova Scotia, part the 83rd. After some lovely snowfalls and brisk cold...it's pouring rain outside. Yuck. In desperation to cheer us all up, I suggest that when it stops raining (or whatever it's doing where you live,) we all go outside and cut some twigs off flowering shrubs and bring them indoors to force. Wouldn't it be nice to have a couple sprigs of Chaenomeles (quince) flowering indoors in February?

Bouncing over book news and other Friday Fun

Writing a book is kind of like planting a tree, or maybe more like doing winter-sowing; you put in a bunch of work, then there's a lull, while you're busy doing other things, and then suddenly it's spring and the seedlings are germinating or the tree is leafing out.

That's where I'm at right now. Last year, I worked for months on the manuscript for my second book, Plants for Atlantic Gardens, and it was a huge effort made easier by having wise fellow gardening and writing friends who I could turn to. Then there was a lull while my fabulous editor did his magic, then another flurry of work for me, then another lull. Well, those lulls were occupied by other things like other work obligations, so really, the time flew past.

Canada Reads...The Birth House!

Welcome to 2011, everyone! I hope you've had a great New Year's and Christmas holiday and are settling back into the regular routines of your week.

As I mentioned in my last post, there are going to be a few changes to Bloomingwriter in the coming weeks, especially as the end of this month will mark 5 years of me bathering on here. One of the changes I have been sort-of implementing of late is the publishing of book reviews and author interviews. Although these will mostly be of books pertaining to gardening, botany, and such, I also plan to drop in the occasional review of a favourite fiction book, and a talk with its author.

CBC Radio has a program on each winter called Canada Reads, where five 'celebrity judges' debate the merits of five recent works of Canadian fiction. The show will run in early February, but there's been a lot of hype and chatter in recent weeks and days. This year marks ten years of the show, and the books were selected from works published in the past ten years. To my great delight, one of the books in the top five is The Birth House, by Scotts Bay resident Ami McKay! This is one of my favourite novels of all time, and not just because it's by a writer who is a friend and is set in my community. It simply reads like a dream. Chapters/Indigo included it as one of their best books of the decade, and it's been published in numerous other countries, including the USA, Great Britain, Germany and the Netherlands.

Skywatch Friday: The Garden of the mind's eye

Once again, we've come to the end of a year of gardens, writing, plants that came and went, and of course, Skywatch Fridays. This is the first snowy Skywatch for me since last winter, but I can pretty much guarantee it won't be the last one. 2011 looms ahead in a few hours, and although I plan a retrospective or two, they're not for today. Today, I celebrate the return of the sun and the garden of the mind's eye.

Gisela of Guildwood Gardens quoted a phrase from another writer to me last year that I've kept in my notebook of wonderful thoughts. I had been lamenting the lack of sunlight as winter began, and was creating my own sunlight with collections of golden flowers.

Everyone loves a garden centre sale...

Is there anything better than a sale at a beloved garden centre? Especially when the sale is 50 % off EVERYTHING, from pots to plants, from ornaments to bird feeders...
That's the case right now til closing on New Year's Eve at Den Haan's Garden World in Middleton, here in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley. Oh, boy...since I had been given some money as a birthday present, I knew I would have to go treat myself. And I did!

Winter-themed Plants for a White New Year...

I trust that everyone has had a wonderful Christmas, although many of us have been plagued by weather challenges. Here, the Green Christmas gave way on Boxing Day night to an onslaught of weather, including freezing rain, rain, snow, and much wind, assorted power outages and other adventures. Today, the weather continues, blasting us with a few of those 'flurries where winds blow onshore'. But that's fine with me as I have not been outside for two days, content to read, write, nap and otherwise wind down from the chaos of Christmas.


When we were still snow-less in Scotts Bay, I got to thinking about various plants that have snow-related cultivar or common names, thinking that would make for an amusing post. Some of the plants that I have in my garden include Hemerocallis 'Roses in Snow.'

Green flowers for a Green Christmas

After the recent spate of storms, including a rainstorm last night that kept us from watching the lunar eclipse live (but we saw it via the joys of the Interwebs), we are pretty much expecting a green Christmas here in Scotts Bay (and probably all of Nova Scotia). I'm okay with that, because it makes travel easier, and to me, Christmas spirit doesn't have to do with snow, but with family and friends.

Back in March as part of my coping-with-Farch techniques, I purchased my first paphiopedilum orchid, this green-flowered beauty that goes by the name of Paphiopedilum 'Limerick x Greenvale x Cherokee'. As a slightly early birthday present, 'Limerick' has presented me with a flower stalk and bud; I'm intensely excited about this, and decided a post celebrating green flowers would be just the thing.

I've always been besotted with green flowers, which seem to be a very polarizing flower colour; people either love them for their exotic beauty or dislike them because they're not some other colour, like hot pink or blazing scarlet or perfect blue. Well, I love all those colours too, but greens just resonate with me. I have several green flowered phalaenopsis (nameless but lovely).

Many flowers start out green and change to other colours as they mature, including the eryngiums that I grow. The striking bracts surrounding the central flower stalk of Eryngium 'Miss Wilmott's Ghost' are a particular favourite.

'Limelight' hydrangea is a stellar performer in my garden, producing huge, coneshaped clusters of flowers in the palest of green shades.

Others are also besotted with green flowers, as this book 'Green Flowers' by Alison Hoblyn demonstrates. I have this book and enjoy looking through it especially in the dead of winter. Naturally, it's from the good people at Timber Press.

There are green-flowered native plants to charm us, including the delightful Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)...

And more exotic choices such as the green-flowered hellebores.

I love Bells of Ireland for their faint minty fragrance as well as the complex beauty of their flowering stalks. As with many green flowers, the showy part of the 'flower' is actually a modified leaf called a bract.

In this case of Echinacea 'Green Envy', however, both the central cone and petals are delicious green. This was one of my must-have plants when it first was released and continues to be a favourite, long-blooming allstar in my garden.

I was able to acquire echinacea 'Green Jewel' this past summer, and it has also been a jewel of a performer, producing flowers until a hard frost sent it to napping.

I love nicotiana of any colour; this one isn't as fragrant as some of the species and other hybrids, but it was a great performer in containers this past summer. I'm not certain, but I think this is N. alata 'Lime Green.'

Many of the euphorbias boast acid-green flowers, (sort of the colour of Mountain Dew), which are especially attractive when planted near something dark. In the case of Euphorbia charachias 'Fens Ruby', the plant's foliage supplies the dark colour as a fabulous contrast to the flowers.

At least a couple of times during the winter, I indulge in some cut flowers, and HAVE to include green blossoms in the mix. Sometimes they're dyed, but other times they include Bells of Ireland or green chrysanthemums like these.

I look forward to the spring blooms of snowdrops with their happy green accents, but also love to see the lesser-planted but equally charming summer snowflake (Leucojum), which sort of resemble a snowdrop on steroids.

And despite the myriad of tulip colours that we can enjoy, some of my favourites are naturally the viridifloras, or green-flowered cultivars, like 'Spring Green'. They look cool and fresh alongside newly emerging hostas.

Are you a fan of green flowers? What are your favourites?