Dicentra Disbanded, Welcome Lamprocapnos spectabilis.

We I was very small going even a few house from home was a big adventure, I never knew what I would come across. I would walk up the lane with the big fences, past the garage at the corner and the decide which direction to turn. I would walk to the next block and [...]

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This Queen Has A Very Red Face!

Some plants we see are boring because we see them so much in garden, others take us by surprise and we ask ourselves if it’s real. Other plants remind us of other plants but their form or flower is not quite right to be that plant. Many plants that are related bear similar flowers or [...]

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Flowers So Beautiful You Could Wear Them as Earrings.

This September has been extraordinarily wet, in fact we have set a record for the most rain for this month every and still almost week to go. Most plants are loving it as the long summer drought is over early and this is guaranteed to save some of their lives. Some plants think it is [...]

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Semi-Cactus, Collarette and Decorative Dahlias.

The muted colors of the autumn season will soon be upon us, the plants are beginning to look tired from the long hot summer. The end of the season brings on a slow decline. It is harvest time, the moon is big and the crops are high and full of ripeness. Certain plants remind me of this [...]

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Joy in the Late Summer Garden

Here we are in the last week of August, many of us and our children are getting ready to go back to school. The garden often is neglect now because we are busy with othr things occupying our time. late summer is a time of changing palettes in the garden, from the spring and early summer colors [...]

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On the Tropaeolum Trail.

When I was small we would go for walks with our mother in the neighborhood and stop and look at the gardens, some were interesting others where more playful and some just a plain messy. You could tell the ones who liked kids by the plants they often chose, fun ones like squashes, scarlet runner beans, and [...]

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I Wonder if Alexander ‘The Great’ Liked These?

I always like it when I find a plant which is versatile, can be used in many ways and has an unusual or desire color…what more could a plant lover want? I also like to find beautiful plants which can  live in a wide range of climates, be they very cold or very hot. So plants [...]

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Climbing and Vining with the Jackman Family.

I do not know when I first met this plant as I feel like I have known it all my life. Where I grew up it is on the coldest edge of its temperature tolerance. I know I have seen it many places here in it’s many forms and colors. I think i like the very first [...]

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Hot Pinks for the Hottest Week of the Year.

We often came down at this time of the year to visit our grandparents near White Rock. We went to the beach for days, played on the old farm equipment and eating cherries which we picked from the fruit trees. My grandmother loved her garden and especially the flowers she received from friends, I remember her telling [...]

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Lacecap or Mophead, I Can’t Make Up My Mind!

There are many plants that seem almost mythical when you grow up in a very cold climate. Some plants are spices you want to grow like Ginger while others have fantastic forms or leaves like Caladiums and some have intense or unusual colors like sky blue flowers. One plant which definately seemed to be a unreal to [...]

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