I was Born at a Castle.

I was found in the woods.

I am blushing

I can be spicy and sweet.

or I can be a bit prickly looking

Tall, Narrow and prickly Sometimes.

Most of the time you will not pay attention to me

Except NOW!

Pretty in Pink

Can you tell who I am…..I need HELP!

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Her Real Name is Erica, But, You Can Call Her Heath(er)

Victoria has a reputation of being thought of as being the most ‘English’ of North American cities, therefore,  you would expect to find the most ‘English’ of all plants commonly planted here. It is true that Erica carnea or Winter Heath(Heaths have needle like foliage and Heathers have scales) is planted here, it’s not very common and good Heather gardens are hard to find at all. The best one which I know of is the Heather garden at Glendale Gardens in Saanich. This garden covers the range of species which are commonly called Heather including other Ericas,  Calluna and Daboecia.

Heathers at Glendale Garden

Erica carnea is the most adaptable of all the heaths.  This type of Heath originally comes from southeastern France and grows east toward Switzerland  and southern Germany to Austria then south to Yugoslavia.  It is found in mountainous areas which is why it is more cold hardy than other Heaths (zone 4-8).

Erica carnea varieties are low growing shrubs that are no more than 8in.(20cm) tall with a spread of 22in.(55cm) at the most.  They have a fine texture being that they have fine needle-like foliage and delicate racemes of tiny colorful bell shaped blossoms.

Flower and foliage fo Erica carnea Isobel

Erica carnea blooms in the darkest, coldest months of winter and is often seen happily poking up through a blanket of snow in full flower. Since it was introduced into Britain in 1763 there have been over 100 cultivars  selected with flowers ranging in color from white through to strong red purples as well as those with unusual foliage colors.  The most commonly seen cultivars in Victoria are ‘Springwood White’ and ‘Springwood Pink’ which is light pink, ‘King George’ that is mid pink and ‘Vivellii’ which has a rich pink flowers.

E.c. 'Springwood White' the purest of the Whites

The needle-like foliage also can be selected for its color effects. It normally is a fine mid to dark green hue, but varieties such as ‘Aurea’  have a lime yellow color in the summer that turns a more golden tone as the weather cools. E.c. Bell’s Extra Special  is similar and has reddish blossoms.

E.c Bell's Extra Special foliage color.

Heaths are long lasting plants which look best in a bed completely devoted to heathers species. A few smaller conifers and bulbs such as daffodils are suitable to add. Careful selection can create an ever change display of color both in foliage and flowers throughout the year.

Dazzling color display with a dwarf conifer in the background.

These are low maintenance plants which can be lightly pruned soon after blooming. It also will grow in a wider range of soil types and does not need an exclusively acidic site. They do not tolerate drought as they are shallow rooted therefore adding some peat for moisture retention is a good idea.  Also plant them so their foliage rests on the soil.  They require full sun for the best  growth.  For best impact plant in groups of 5 in a single type, a bed can be made up of several groupings like this. Mass plantings are very common as well. Single plants can be used with great effect in rock gardens.

The Links of the Week

Glendale Gardens in Saanich is where all the pictures here come from.

http://www.hcp.bc.ca/index.php

To learn more about Heath and Heathers go to  The Heather Society

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/heather/

Royal Horticultural Society page on Erica carnea.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/WhatsOn/gardens/harlowcarr/archive/harlowcarrpomfeb.asp

Until we meet again  next Sunday at this time…..

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Her or Him?

I am called a ‘She’,  I am called a ‘He’.

Golden What?

Prickly….Maybe?

I am in many colors, both in my flowers and foliage.

I'm blushing!

I am so Shy, so, What am I?

P.S. check the bottom of the Jelena post, there is a new picture from yesterday.

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A Cornucopia of Colorful Berries

A plant species I mostly find boring is Cotoneaster. They are one of the most commonly overused group of plants seen as groundcovers, hedges and often in utility mass plantings. Some Cotoneasters are beautiful in their own right. The Willowleaf cotoneaster (Cotoneaster salicifolius var. floccosus) is such a plant that is stunning in the correct setting. In Victoria this location would be at Government House.

Looking down from the top of the Ballroom Terrace Garden

The most fantastic view from the building is out the of the ballroom overlooking a steep slope called the Ballroom Terrace Garden.

Most of the year these Willowleaf Cotoneasters are merely a green backdrop which other more delicate plantings are the highlights. It is true that these Conoteasters have masses of cream 5 petal flowers in May-June, but no one is likely to notice with the abundance of other plants at their peak of show.

The Cotoneaster on left acts as a backdrop to the Erysimium 'Bowles Mauve'.

It is later when the garden goes dormant and the days are gray that a person sees these plants in their glory, in full fruit with their glossy roughly textured dark green willow-shaped leaves undamaged by the worst of winter weather.

January 16 2009 after a deep winter freeze and heavy winds.

The only damage is a slight wine tinge to the leaves and deepening of the berry color which is typical for this plant.

.

Typical berry color from late October 2006

Indeed the berries are the glory of this shrub and set it apart from others at this time of the year. The berries are dense and seem to stay firmly on the bush. After the storms I saw little evidence of many on the ground. Branches of this small tree would make an attractive addition to decorate inside I think.

Brightly berried Willowleaf Cotoneasters glow in the winter murkiness.

it is unfortunate the place you are likely to see this plant is in an apartment complex where it often is dwarfed by the building and never pruned to show what a lovely form it can have. As you can see it forms a small multi trunk tree or shrub which grows to no more than 4 M. (12ft.) which would be on the tall side, and a spread of up to 3M (10ft). Willowleaf Cotoneaster has an arching habit of growth.

Cotoneasters are unfussy plants to grow, they prefer well drain, loose soil. They are their best in full sun so they can produce the best crops of flowers and berries later. It has a fairly rapid rate of growth at 60 to 90cm(12-18in.) per year and is easily pruned to keep it in shape and size. It grows in plant zones 6 though 8 and tolerates low temperature of -20c(-4F).

a beautifully pruned stems of a Willowleaf Cotoneaster

A  steep slope is an excellent use of this type of plant.  Another site might be along the edge of a of shrub border or where an area is more natural or in a mixed shrub border where the berries will shine in the winter months. Cotoneasters are often used in mass plantings which when maintained properly are effective.

I would suggest choosing carefully when getting one of these plants as they vary in quantity of berries, some have fewer. It might be a good idea to buy in the fall when you will see what kind of crop is produced. If you want to grow one for yourself I would suggest taking a cutting from a bush you know produces lots of berries. Softwood cuttings are taken in during the first flush of growth or slightly later on non blooming wood.

Links for this Week:

Cotoneaster salicifolius, this is a simple site with straight forward information.

http://yardener.com/YardenersPlantHelper/LandscapePlantFiles/FilesAboutShrubs/ShrubFiles/Cotoneaster/WillowleafCotoneaster

Taking cutting, a how to site which is easy to understand.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8702.html

Government House, scroll down  for a description of  the ‘ Terrace Gardens’

http://www.ltgov.bc.ca/gardens/individual-gardens.htm

Until we meet again next week.

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Green,Red,Round and Elliptical

I am RED

I am RED,ROUND and MANY

I am ROUND.

single Red

Scarlet? Crimson? Salmon?

—————————————————————————————–

I am GREEN and ELLIPTICAL

Elliptical

WHAT AM I?

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The Green Giants of Hellebores.

One place I like to on a regular basis is Government House in Victoria. Yes it really is related to the Government, as the Lieutenant Governor of B.C. lives there. The nice thing for gardeners and plant fanatics is that it has extensively planted beds that hold a vast collection of plants. I nipped into to town to see what was coming up in the beds and what looked the best. I always take the same route through the garden when I leave my car. First the path through the towering Camellias which meanders down to the Fountain Pond which was frozen, the ducks looked somewhat out of place walking on the ice. The pond leads to the long Rockland Border that is full of perennials and shrubs.

Government House Driveway

This is where I was coming to check out a favorite planting scheme and the star plant of this week: Helleborus argutifolius or Corsican Hellebore.

Favorite Plant combination Along Rockland Border.

I have been lucky to had a grown this plant for a number of years and was not crazy about it at first. I didn’t appreciate the subtle pale apple green shading of the flowers or the dark green coarsely textured and toothed leaves.The flowers may not be that big but are make up for it by being in clusters and they turn up as they age. The foliage is almost indestructible and looks attractive all year.

The WOW Effect.

That wasn’t until I saw some perfectly grown plants in full sun that I said “WOW” to myself.

The problem is most of the time these plants are treated like other Hellebores and people assume they need to be in a shaded location. They need sun to be their best.This should not come as a shock when you consider that they are called Corsican Hellebores, named after one of the two (Sardinia is the other) islands they are native to. These islands are located in the Mediterranean Sea about 28 miles off the Italian coast. The climate of the islands is hot and dry in the summers with an average of 11 hours of sun during the day, and mild in the winter with a glorious 7 hours of sun time. Temperatures never get near the freezing (0C or 32F) mark even in the coldest weather.  Corsican Hellebores are somewhat tender and are rated at zone 7 to 9 (-10C being the lowest temperature tolerated).

Flowers Opening on January 5, 2009

To grow their best these plants need full sun here in Victoria as well as sufficient moisture in our annual summer droughts. Any rich soil will do, even that which is a little alkaline does not seem to bother it. The one thing they don’t like is the combination of cold and damp which is what the winters are here, so careful placement is important if one wants a long lived plant. Fortunately if Corsiican Hellebores are fairly happy they will self sow and regenerate on the same spot or close to it. Be careful where you place them.Being that they are from the Ranunculus family, you know they will hate to have their roots disturbed in any way.

In Their Glory, Late January 2007.

And the last question, Why call them the “giants of the hellebores”? This is becuase the grow up to 6ft (180cm) heigh in their antureal habitat. Don’t worry that is not likely, the pictured examples are in the comfortable range of 2-3ft (60-90cm) so easily blend into the garden, preferably near the middle or the back.

Some Useful Links:

all you ever need to know about Corsican Hellebores is here:

http://www.grahamrice.com/hellebore/species/argutifolius/index.html

The islands of Corsica and Sardinia:

http://www.usd.edu/~clehmann/pir/SardCorsica/geography.htm

Government House, Victoria, British Columbia. Canada:

http://www.ltgov.bc.ca/gardens/individual-gardens.htm

I bid you adieu until next week.

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My next plant…

It will be green. It is blooming now. It’s blossoms are  pale green.

Puzzle

 

 

Where am I?

I will post on Sunday with all new jammed packed dispatch from Vancouver Island. 

What am I?

All will be revealed, all will be told, all will be known…..

on SUNDAY

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The Plant Collection at St. Ann’s Academy

Bonus, bonus, bonus or should I say Extra!

This entry is an article which I write as a regular series for “Sequoia” the Newsletter for http://www.friendsofstannsacademy.com/default.htm , a group who advocates for the importance, spiritual, social, and cultural heritage of St. Ann’s Academy in Victoria British  Columbia, Canada. I have spent several years as volunteering at this 61/2 acre site which is between the Famous Empress Hotle and the equally famous Beaconhill Park

Main Entrance to St Ann's Academy

To learn more about St. Ann’s Academy check here.  http://www.stannsacademy.com/

Now on the main feature.

This is the story of how St. Ann’s Academy came to have the oldest Sequoias in Victoria and maybe in B.C.

Celia and Anna McQuade graduated into the order of Sisters of Saint Ann from Saint Ann’s Academy. They were the first students to do so. To commemorate this, their parents Mr and Mrs. Peter McQuade brought two small Sequoia seedlings up from California and had them planted at the school. These trees have grown into the two large trees on both sides of the formal entrance to St Ann’s Academy. These massive trees are Sequioadendron giganteum or commonly called Giant or Sierra Redwood. These specimens being planted in the 1870s are some of the earliest known specimens in Canada.

One of the Sequoias found at St. Ann's Academy in Victoria

Giant or Sierra Redwood trees are some of the largest living objects found on the earth. In terms of volume they are larger than any other type of tree. This is due to their enormous trunk diameter and vast height. The largest tree known is called ‘General Sherman’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Sherman_(tree)) and has a circumference of 106ft and is over 2000 years old. Some trunks are wide enough to drive a car through (average measuring to 40ft). In height they are also mammoth in size, with the largest being measured at 275 ft but most averaging 150 to 200ft.

The oldest of these trees is known to be at least 3220 years old. Counting the number of rings determines the age of a tree accurately and it also can helps to show the conditions the tree lived through, with thicker rings being the years of stronger growth. These trees are only found in a small area on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California and are rare.

One of the things you should do if you have a chance to get close to one of these giants is feel the bark. It’s spongy! The reddish brown fibrous bark can be 2 ft thick and provides important protection for the tree from forest fires and bug infestations. The bark is also is used for horticultural purposes.

Sequoia Cones

You have may noticed whenever you are at St Ann’s Academy visiting that there are lots of cones under these trees and near by, do not be alarmed, some trees have as many as 11000 cones at different stages of development on the tree. On average one of these big fellows will produce 1500 new cones a year.

Since their discovery Giant Sequoias have been a popular specimen tree planted in parks and other large properties. To grow this tree you will have to have a large space as you now know. They prefer well-drained sandy loam and adequate moisture during the dry growing season especially when they are young. Also when young they naturally are protected from the sun by other trees in the area, so full sun is not advised until the tree matures somewhat.

Attractive Sequoia Foliage

There are several well-known cultivars:

‘Pendula’ (old name Pendulum) that has extremely drooping branches on a very narrow tree which can be trained into uses such as hanging over an arbor or fence

‘Glaucum’(old name Glauca) which has attractive blue green coloring.

There appears to be many more that are likely to come onto the market soon.

To learn more about these trees check these links:

All you could want to know about these trees:

<!– @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } A:link { color: #0000ff } –>   http://users.telenet.be/sequoiadendron/en/giantsequoia.html

Look for new cultivars coming your way:

http://users.telenet.be/sequoiadendron/en/cultivars.html

When in Victoria Visit Beaconhill Park: http://www.beaconhillpark.ca/

One of Victoria’s’ most famous landmarks. http://www.fairmont.com/empress/

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Jelena Witch Hazel

For this first entry I had to do some legwork, as I don’t normally take that many pictures of plants in the dead of winter here. At this time it is more difficult to get around because we have had an uncharacteristically large dump of snow which began the week before Christmas. The roads are still icy and there are piles of snow along the sides, fortunately it is melting fast and will be gone soon.

I decided to check out one of my favorite plant places to see if anything would catch my eye and pen. Lo and behold There glowing next to the path was a Hamamelis x intermedia Jelena.

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Jelena’,  January 2008

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Jelena’ is sometimes misnamed as ‘Copper Beauty’ and is a coppery orange yellow bloom and rich burnished to orange to plum fall foliage.

This year the colors seems to have intensified the petal colouring and caused it to be a more reddish tone.

Winter cold effects the flower coloring.

More normal coloring for Jelena Witch Hazel.

‘Jenela’ is a cross between the two Asian species: mollis that is Chinese and japonica f. purpurescens tfrom whic it gets its reddish colour. Both of these plants natural hybridise in the wild were their paths meet.

It originated at Kalmthout Arboretum near Antwerp, Belgium in about 1935. The name Jelena comes from the gardener Jelena de Belder, who with her husband Robert worked there. Hamamelis x intermedia Diane was named after their daughter.This a blog post about theHamamelis festival at  Kalmthout Arboretum:http://thegardenwanderer.blogspot.com/2009/02/kalmthout-arboretum-hamamelis-festival.html The fragrance is just one of the surprises, it is an unusual citrus spicy blend . It will draw you to this plant on a warm day in January when this plant is glowing with blossoms in the garden. The spidery flowers withstand winters worst weather and are not damaged at all.
An added bonus is the interesting seed capsules which remain on the tree over winter.

Hamamelis make excellent specimens and are in focus during their winter season of bloom. Later with wonderful fall foliage coloring take the stage. They are also at home in a woodland setting where they can fade into the background when not in bloom.They grow into low widespread single or multi-stemmed shrubs therefore siting is important. To show their best they like full sun on their branches and moist well drained soil for their roots.

January 20 2009, after its warmed up.

Hardiness rating is zone 4 about -25C, so it will grow in most of Canada and U.S.A.

Check out these sites:
For Hamamelis in general:
http://www.witchhazelnursery.com/
How to grow and more
http://landscaping.suite101.com/article.cfm/hamamelis___best_landscape_sites

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Why I created this Blog

I decided I should write more regularly about my love of plants and to this end I have decided to post every week on a plant that is at it’s best and most noticeable at this particular moment. How, you ask will I be able to do this with any accuracy? I have been photographing the local gardens and parks on a very regular basis for the last 3 years and have amassed a large collection of images that will help me.

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