My Foggy Fundy Garden

We're into yet another session of fog here in beautiful upper Scotts Bay. Honestly, this has been the summer of much fog, and while it doesn't bother me at one level, it does get tiresome not seeing the moon at night. Rumour has it that tonight or last night is the full moon, but I haven't seen the moon since last weekend. It's stinkin' hot in the Valley, and not exactly cool up here.


But the fog, even when not real cooling, does bring moisture to things and makes a nice artistic look for many plants, like the pink clustered bellflower at the top of this post.


"The fog comes in on little cat feet" wrote the poet Carl Sandburg. Well, here it's more the size of cougar feet, the way it slams in off the bay.


The hot temperatures that we're having when the fog is gone and the sun is out? They make things bloom and go past quickly. It's been fun to see what is new in bloom each day, but also amazing at how quickly some things are fading. The poppies started bursting in the past couple of days, while the lupines are fading.


I think I've mentioned in the past that things grow really large up here, sometimes. This year everything is of brobdingangian proportions. Submitted for your approval, this tiny white clematis bloom. That's a luncheon plate I put beside it for some sense of scale. I've never seen a clematis flower this big. We usually have lots and lots of blooms but not monsters!


Our honeysuckles are coming on nicely, too. This is Graham Thomas, one I bought from Bunchberry nurseries several years ago. Lovely plant, and makes the hummingbirds quite happy too.


And this is Mandarin, which was bred by Dr. Wilf Nichols, formerly of the University of British Columbia, but now at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he tends to the awesome botanical garden.


This is Clematis recta purpurea, which has really purple foliage up til it blooms. I love the clouds of tiny white flowers, somewhat like Sweet Autumn. And the cranesbill is 'Red Admiral'. I'm liking it a lot, because it's quite tall and has that great colour, whereas most of the brilliant coloured ones are much lower to the ground.


Flowering alliums make me happy. This blue jewel is Allium caeruleum, and it's been making babies so I have more of them this year. I notice 'Hair' is starting to flower too, but I didn't take its photo just yet.



I wish I could remember the name of this lily! It doesn't get tall, and it doesn't multiply very fast, but the colours are just great, especially when festooned with fog.


And my favourite of the annual poppies, the deep wine ones. They're just totally awesome.


And this is a gratuitous shoutout to my alma mater, the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, where the school colours are blue and gold. I didn't PLAN this planting to work out, but it's definitely blue and gold: Yellow loosestrife, blue monkshood, yellow foxgloves and blue clustered bellflower. Aggies for the win!

Maybe the sun will come out tomorrow properly and we'll see the garden by a different light. Today it's dreamy and water coloured.

A Walk Through Baldwin Nurseries

There are very few people who can get me up and going when I'm sick. Especially if it means getting in the car on a hot day and going for a drive to another county.

Good thing that Robert Baldwin is a buddy of mine as well as a nursery operator. He called several days ago when I was really in the yuckies, and I hadn't called him back. I was working in my office this morning when the phone rang, and I felt guilty because I hadn't returned his call. So naturally, I answered. And feeling guilty because I hadn't been down to visit in at least a month, I put on some sunblock, drank some gingerale, and told LSS I was off to photograph Rob's nursery again.

Longsuffering spouse just grinned. He knew I'd come home with more plants.


I've said before that Baldwins is one of my favourite nurseries, but friendship aside, if you've ever been there, you know why. The plants are just SO healthy and well cared for. And profuse. Lots and lots and lots of healthy, well-grown shrubs, trees and perennials. In the past couple of years Rob has, like many of us, become concerned over pollinators, and he's brought in a lot of pollinator-friendly perennials as a result.

We spent quite a bit of time with our noses in the buddleia, and then spied three or four hummingbird moths. I then spent the next twenty minutes almost standing on my head to get a few good photos of these unusual, graceful creatures.

Then it was time to walk around the nursery and resist temptation to bring every plant home with me.


The Karl Foerster feather reed grass is blooming marvelously right now, and the flowers are a lovely rosey-green. Watching them en mass is especially appealing, as they move just like an ocean wave.


Of course, when we arrived in the greenhouse where Rob's coneflower collection is, I was a goner for good. Of all perennials, these are definite favourites. And they do well for me, which makes me even happier to add half a dozen new ones to my collection.


Little Giant is one of the more compact cones, but has a rich colour to its flowers, which grow on strong stems.


I didn't have success with the Meadowbrite coneflowers several years ago, but I blame that on a nursery bringing in tissue cultured plants which weren't grown on properly. These cones came in as tissue culture babies, but have been grown on properly by Rob over the past several months. This is Mango Meadowbrite...


And this is Orange Meadowbrite, the first of the coloured cones I saw, back at Canada Blooms a few years ago.


Big Sky Twilight is one of the deepest-red-rose of the true 'purple coneflowers', and its richly coloured centre cone is pretty handsome too. Some of the cones are fragrant, but with as many in the car as I had, I didn't stop to check them all out--yet!

This IS fragrant. I know it's not going to be to everyone's tastes, but I've been wanting Coconut Lime, and the first one I got died--it was a bit of a spleeny plant when I purchased it, and the nursery I purchased it from is a reputable one that I frequent a lot, so I simply got a different plant and carried on. This new one I got from Rob is very vigourous and I just have to decide where to plant it.


I had read about 'Hope' and forgotten about its story til Rob reminded me. I went to the Terra Nova website, and sure enough, here's the story:

Calm, fragrant, soft pink flowers of great size, fragrance, and substance adorn this long blooming perennial. It is dedicated to the breast cancer survivors and the memories of those who have succumbed to breast cancer. Terra Nova will make a donation of $.25 for each plant sold, to the Oregon & SW Washington affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to help further the search for a cure for Breast Cancer.

I'm going to be putting this echinacea in my memory garden for Marilyn, my former mother in law, and though it's called 'Hope' I've nicknamed it 'Living on a Prayer' coneflower. Let's hope there IS a cure someday soon--for all kinds of cancer.

That's my thought for today!

A Walk through my Garden

Where does the time go??? Well, it disappears when you're sick AGAIN with diverticu-frakkin-itis and have to spend time in bed. Yuck. I'm cranky about this but also know I'm facing surgery in the not-too-distant future as a result of too many sessions of this in recent months. And as a result of being sick, I'm once again behind in my reading, behind in my work, behind in posting...ever try to write on a laptop when you're flat in bed? Not recommended.

However, I did get some nice photos today, when I did go out and walk around the yard for a little while. Despite my neglecting it, the garden is galloping along quite nicely without me. Everything is profusely, profoundly lush, which works well at shading out some of the weeds. And some of my interesting and less common plants are blooming. Like the yellow digitalis, which aren't as tall as their common relatives, but are striking nevertheless.


Valerian grows free-range in our yard, both in gardens and in wild areas. At the moment, it is crazily in bloom, and looks like a pale version of Verbena bonariensis--and is equally beloved by butterflies.


One of my favourite peonies is just opening: 'Primavera' is white with gorgeous yellow centre.


This is a common, oldfashioned peony, possibly 'Rubra Plena'; it was here when we came, and continues to flower joyously every early July. The blue corydalis behind it adds an equally fine fragrance to the air, so walking to our door is always pleasant.

One of the nicest and most stalwart roses we have is 'Robusta', a single, dark red shrub rose that flowers until frost. It gets a few aphids on it, but I occasionally hose it off and that handles them sufficiently.


Alliums are just so cool! This is 'Star of Persia' (Allium christophii), a real stunner. The only problem is that it's not as tall as I thought it was, and where everything is having a robust growing season, it's behind some plants. I don't want to try moving them, so I may just prune other things so the stars will show up better.


The swallowtails are around, and it was fun to finally have camera in hand when I saw one in an easy-to-access spot. These are among my favourite butterflies, next to my beloved monarhs, of course.

Blue-star is one of those under-used perennials, and I just love it. I did get my hands on another variety this year, with slightly bluer, wider-petalled flowers; it's not planted yet because i have to find out how tall it grows and then make a spot in the jungle for it to grow and bloom properly!


Ah, my gas plant. A slow growing perennial but such a beautiful thing. Fragrance like lemon in the evening especially, and wonderful seedheads when it finishes its bloom. This is a plant that you have to determine the right spot for, then plant it and leave it! Because it hates being moved, and will pout and die if you try such tactics.


I've long had a love for sea hollies, and this Eryngium alpinum is a particular favourite. I'm hoping it will seed itself the way E. planum does, because I now have LOTS of the latter, in wonderful swathes of blue later in the summer.


Nishiki willow is a favourite plant for its graceful shape and of course the dappled colours of its foliage. I pruned ours this year to give it a bit better shape, and it's really taking off.


Another plant for the butterflies--orange butterfly-weed (Asclepias tuberosa). I have yellow variant here somewhere too, but it's not flowering yet. I hope that doesn't mean I weeded it in a fit of absent-mindedness. It seems to me it's a bit later, though, so I won't worry about it yet.

Well, I've been up long enough now...more tomorrow or Sunday, depending on how I feel. If I've not been by and left a comment lately...you know why. "I'm getting better", though, in the words of Monty Python..."I'm not dead YET!"

Three Cheers for our American Neighbours (whoops, NeighBORS!)

Three cheers for the Red...

White...

and Blue!

Happy 4th of July to all my garden blogging buddies flung across the United States of America. It's interesting living next door to a country as diverse, as similar, and yet as different as yours is to mine. In the last year, I've learned a LOT more about the US, because of 'talking' with garden bloggers scattered from Maine to Texas, from Lousiana to California, from Arizona to the Heartland. I've learned I need to win the lottery because there are a LOT of places I'd love to visit in the great country next door, and I have you to thank for enriching my education and my perceptions.

Here's hoping you all celebrate a fabulous day today, and that the coming year brings new hope and joy for your country. With love from us lot up here in Canada...EH?

Garden Bloggers Muse Day...of other muses

A little different post for this Garden Bloggers Muse Day, brought to us by the ever-talented and muse-inspired Carolyn of Sweet Home and Garden Chicago.

Let's see...who is responsible for this current unbearable lightness of being in my mind? Erato? Terpsichore? Polyhymnia? I'm not sure, though I have a theory which Muse has woken me up.

A long time ago, one of my cousins gave me an old guitar. I taught myself to play it. Not well, but adequate enough for college dorm parties, Scouting fireside singalongs, the occasional solo in church and so on. I bought myself a Yamaha guitar and passed the old one along to someone else who still has it as far as I know. I'm lefthanded, but I learned righthanded like most people. I dragged my Yamaha acoustic all over the place, through myriad moves, to many changes in my life, and always managed to find time to play it a little most days.

Then life got way, way way busy, and different. The guitar sat in my closet, ignored and unplayed. For weeks or months on end. Seven years ago, when I sold the car I had at the time to a young couple down the road, I gave the young woman my guitar, as she was learning to play and I just knew it was the right thing to do. I don't know if she still has it or not, but I'm sure if she doesn't, she's passed the old fellow along too.

A couple of months ago, I started feeling like I needed a challenge, something that would pull me out of the routine of work, work, work, work. The garden gives me tremendous pleasure, of course, but its sometimes a 'to-do' as opposed to a pleasure, and I feel guilty when I don't have an hour or two to spend in it. Guilt is not good. Guilt stifles creativity. Yoga has become a great pleasure, and something I can do for only a few moments if that's all I have for time. But it still wasn't exactly what I wanted.

Then it came to me, like a crashing crescendo. I wanted to start playing guitar again. Just for me. Just in this office, or out in the back yard. And take lessons. Call it an exercise in right-brain stimulation. Call it something that doesn't need a reason other than I want to do it.


Meet my new friend, Skittles. (I believe in naming guitars. They've got their own personalities, after all.) A Seagull S6 acoustic, made in Quebec. He sang to me in the music store on my third trip in to reconnoiter the possibility of buying a guitar after all these years. Well, to be precise, I had narrowed down the choice to two: a mid-range and decent Epiphone, and this guitar. I turned my back on them and asked the salesman to play exactly the same thing on both guitars, and not tell me which was which. He did, and I said, "The first one." And he told me I had good ears.

I took it home and played Cowboy Junkies Misguided Angel (one of the best. songs. ever.) for the first time in years. Then for good measure I learned to play Collective Soul's The World I Know that afternoon. Some of you will know exactly why that was the first song I had to learn. Followed by U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. I'll pass on trying Within Temptation's Ice Queen, much as I love it, though.

What I didn't have was good callouses. Or long fingers. The callouses are coming, and I WILL learn a few bar chords this time no matter what. I start taking lessons next week. This is a pure self-indulgent thing to do, because like I said, this is just for me and to give my brain something else to think about. You can practice a guitar for ten or fifteen minutes at a time at any time of day or night and not feel guilty.

And sitting out in the garden, surrounded by the scent of roses and the hum of bees, practicing guitar? It's good for all aspects of this gardener's soul.

Happy Birthday to My Country...

How'd we get here again already? It's Canada Day, formerly known as Dominion Day...which is what this rose was called by the man I bought it from a few years ago for the huge sum of 5 bucks. I recognized it as being a R. pimpernellifolia species, but beyond that wasn't sure what it was. He called it Dominion Dy because the buds are red and white striped, and because in his garden near Annapolis, it always begins blooming on Canada Day. As you can see, it's right on schedule--I went out a little while ago and found it beginning its floral fireworks.


Let's continue with the red and white theme a bit, shall we? Here is 'Robusta', a fantastically tough and floriferous performer in my garden. Yeah, there's an aphid or two lurking around. I don't fight aphids. The ladybugs do that.


This old rugosa is Souvenir du Philomen Cochet, a favourite of mine for its quartered blooms, even though it invariably browns on its edges and turns to soggy kleenexs in the fog.


The highbush cranberry (Vaccinium trilobum) is having a spectacular bloom this year. And the foxgloves are just coming on, the oriental poppies (though scarlet rather than red) are still doing their thing, and we have a wee nod to our southern neighbours here with the red white and blue motif.


Okay, this isn't as red as it really is, but it's the best I could do. The Canada columbines are doing very well this year, and make the hummingbirds really happy, too. Of all the columbines that festoon our place, this is the one I hope spreads itself like crazy (at the moment we have one good clump, established last year) because it's a native and it's just so beautiful.


Sweet woodruff (Gallium odoratum) is a dandy groundcover, sweetly scented and great for shady areas. I let it run where it wants under the spruce trees, and once I get the mess under the birch trees under control, I'll be transplanting some of it to keep the hostas company.


Our double fernleaf peony is finished flowering (the big wind on the weekend sort of discouraged it) but its foliage will continue to delight for the rest of the season.


Well, this is a strange looking flower, isn't it? Hmmmmm. I took this photo of the Canadian Coast Guard science ship Hudson three years ago during one of my trips, and it's one of three CCG ships that I have framed and hanging on my office wall. I look up at those photos daily and think about how much I love my country, the water that surrounds it, and what I do for a living, telling stories and learning from others. It's about time I dug out my CCG passport and went with them on an adventure, too. We'll see what the year brings.


Whooops, there goes our neighbour with his horse, on their way to the big parade in beautiful downtown Scotts Bay...guess it's time to put on my red tshirt and white shorts and go down and take photos for that!

Happy Canada Day, all...travel safely, enjoy your loved ones, and celebrate that we live in the best country in the world, and have the bestest neighbours, too!