Lingering Colors of November; Orchids in Sunroom

We are celebrating a lovely snow-free fall thus far.  The garden is cleaned up, though the marigolds still glow from the raised beds.  Tiny blades of fall-planted garlic are poking through the soil where the dog hasn't disturbed them with bone-burying activities.  Some of the cool-weather-loving flowers like violas and primulas are having a fall revival.  It is nice to see their colors as a preview of spring.

Lewisia (below) is one of my favourite small perennials for rock gardens.  I tried growing it in the bark-mulched covered garden beds, but it did poorly there.  Lewisia requires VERY good drainage.  The bark mulch makes it too soggy for its liking. This one lives in sandy soil amid boulders surrounding the playhouse.  It occasionally gets some hose spray or a tip of a watering can once a week in summer.  Really, it is very hardy.  I think if it were really water-starved, it would go more dormant in the heat of summer and revive in the fall, like this one has done.  If they are happy, they will seed themselves around a little.  I did grow a few of mine from seed this year, but germination requires periods with pots in the refrigerator. 

Lewisia cotyledon.  This was planted this spring and has been blooming much of the growing season.

I have been gradually filling in the crevices between rocks with various colors of Sempervivum (partly to displace the dreaded black widow spiders). These are great little succulents, extremely hardy, and creep slowly to occupy their places.  I see that the local garden places sold flats of them which you could plant as a block, though I think most people would separate them out and spread them around.  A bright ceramic pot full of these and the non-hardy (but larger and more dramatic) Echeveria looks stunning.  My mother copied me in making some succulent pots of her own this summer, filled with these pretty little rosettes. 

Sempervivum (hens and chicks) put on their best colors in the cool weather of fall

One of the irises has been reblooming in October and November.  Great!

 This lovely yellow daisy-type flower belongs to a very drought-tolerant plant I put near the road this spring.  It survives only onrain, and lives in gravelly soil.  Unfortunately, I have no idea what it is.  I have googled some of the local xeriscape databases, but still have no idea.  If anyone can help me out, I would be grateful.  

Unknown drought hardy plant

My favourite garden hangout at present is inside with the indoor collection.  On the left shelf are the orchids with the pinky LED grow lights.  On the right are various perennials, succulents, and cuttings of garden pelargoniums and stonecrops.  The two big hanging grassy plants are Cymbidiums (orchids).  I keep this room at 12-25 degrees C.  The Dendrobium nobile (orchids) are starting their little flower buds, triggered by the change in temperature.  I don't fertilize them now and I water them less in the fall. 

Flower spike starting on Cymbidium

This empty tray is seeded with spinach.  I might want a snack while I'm out there.

 What is your garden happy place? 

Seedlings for Spring

How is spring in your neighbourhood?  It is looking nice here, but we really need to be gifted with some moisture from the sky.  The forestry departments are already doing their "preventative burns" and the ground is dry.

Spring in the "rock garden"

Red Tailed Hawk in Summerland, BC

As of last weekend, it suddenly felt more like spring here.  The temperatures have risen into light-jacket-weather and the spring bulbs are starting to come up.  There is a population of 4 or 5 red tail hawks in our neighbourhood, which is probably beneficial to the orchards and terrifying to the mice.  They enjoy perching in the beetle-killed pine trees and soaring high in the sky above our house.

Seedlings in the sunroom

I have been planting seeds obtained from far and wide.  Many are drought-tolerant perennials, including several native plants that thrive in the hot and dry Okanagan summers.  I like the unique seeds of the Canadian company Gardens North, but have also purchased online from Germany and California and the local hardware stores. 

In the quest to attract butterflies and help "save the monarchs", I plan to grow a few varieties of milkweed.  I germinated and planted some orange-flowered Asclepias tuberosa last summer (haven't yet flowered), and have seedlings of Asclepia curassavica (the tropical milkweed) and  yellow-flowered Asclepias tuberosa growing in the sunroom.  The tropical milkweed likely will not survive the winter as a perennial, but will likely set seed an an annual, so the species may persist in our yard (and hopefully not take over).  The native Showy milkweed, Asclepias speciosa, is growing wild on scrubby slopes across the street from our house,

Plants in the sunroom

confirming its ease in colonizing our area.  Interestingly, Asclepias speciosa is also on the BC noxious weeds list, though this likely related to it being poisonous to grazing livestock.

My sunroom is getting filled with plants and the vegetables aren't even started yet!  I hold out hope that the hardy perennials can move outside in a few weeks and that will make room for MORE SEEDLINGS!  As you can see, I have supplemental LED grow lights (more on these on my LED page) that lengthen the day and provide some bloom-promoting red spectrum light to the orchids.  I am searching out new shapes and types of inexpensive LED grow lights and finding that

First crocus leaves

this field is quite new and mostly caters to the growers of "medicinal plants" that I am not particularly interested in.

The crocus leaves have been poking out of the ground for 5 days now.  I can't wait to see flowers!  I planted these bulbs last fall, the first bulbs in this newly-established landscaping.  The flowers will look sparse this year, but I will look forward to clusters of spring color in years to come.

Our pet dog, a husky-malamute cross, is enjoying the increased human outdoor activity.  She's following us around the yard and exchanging dog-greetings with the neighbor dogs.  We are fortunate that she doesn't have much interest in digging up our plants.  She only digs occasionally in wild areas, and likely only to follow a burrowing rodent.

Kona, the husky-malamute