Lovely Spring Bulbs

Primula denticulata

The crocuses are finished now, so my designated "rock garden" is now being colored by the early spring flowers, like this solitary drumstick primula (Primula denticulata).  I bought it last year as a fading specimen at the garden store and it seems to have done well over the winter and even flowered for me!  I fell in love with these after seeing masses of them at Victoria's Butchart Gardens.  There were amazing, and their "drumsticks" much taller than mine.  The hot dry Okanagan doesn't really seem like the most suitable climate for a primula, but bark mulch and part shade seems to help them withstand the summers. 

 Among the blue-flowering spring flowers, Chionodoxa planted in clusters look like sparkling gems.  I looked at my few this spring and have concluded that I need to order masses of them in the fall.  They are lovely and deserve more of a show. 

Chionodoxa

 The mini narcissus are looking lovely, though it seems only Tete-a-Tete has bloomed so far.  I am waiting for a few others.  These are a good bulb when rodents and deer are a problem, as they are not so attractive to animals, as they are poisonous to eat.  Blue Scilla is seen in the background. 

Narcissus Tete-a-Tete

I see that the Summerland Gardens are open for the season, but I have yet to visit this year.  I enjoyed the spring primulas there last year, mainly growing around the historic house.  I encourage anyone to visit.  It is a great place to admire the plants and the view of Trout Creek Canyon and the train trestle.

I plan to start my tomato seeds this week - including lots of varieties!  I can't wait to see all the colors.

Early Spring Flowers in the Okanagan

It's time to get excited about the garden and plans for the yard!  The snow crocuses and large flowering crocuses have looked great in our yard this past week.  They are complemented by the violas and dwarf irises.

As I took photos of my lovely snow crocuses, I accidentally directed our new puppy's attention to the little purple flowers and he granted me this lovely action shot of him eating the flowers.  He likes to be involved in the action.  If I pull weeds, he enthusiastically digs an adjacent hole in a show of solidarity.

Oreo the crocus-munching dog

The dog and family hiked up Giant's Head Mountain here in Summerland this week.  This is a view from one of the little trails that winds around the mountain.  I just kept telling myself that the snakes aren't out yet and the bears aren't eating berries yet.  If it comes down to it, the puppy is a Karelian bear dog and it would give him an exciting experience, but I'd rather not participate.

View from Giant's Head Mountain, looking northeast

There were several of the sagebrush buttercups blooming on the mountain, this one alongside a flower bulb that is just coming up.  I'm not sure what the bulb is, but surely want to find out.  The sagebrush buttercup, like the rest of the buttercup family, is poisonous.  This feature was known to local native groups, who used it as poison on their arrowheads when they were hunting.  I advised the kids not to touch it.  

 

 

The early dwarf irises are blooming in my yard -- my first time growing this kind in BC.  The blue are "Cantab" and the white...I am not sure about.  The label reads something that sounds like a French word I accidentally transcribed from the package that had nothing to do with the flower.  

 

Dendrobium Orchid Blooms

I love Dendrobiums, mostly because they are the orchid that I have finally figured out.  I can get them to bloom, or at least the Dendrobium nobile types.  Since moving to British Columbia, I have had better access to orchid vendors and have collected a couple more varieties of Dendrobium and am hoping for more success.

Essentially, these orchids needs regular water and orchid fertilizer all spring and summer, with very limited water and no fertilizer after October.  I put little signs on my orchids to remind myself of this.  "Don't water me".  It also helps to have the plants in a cooler location for a month in the fall season.  Mine are in a heated greenhouse, where temperatures drop to 14 degrees C (57 degrees F) at night.  I previously have had success placing them near a large and poorly-sealed window in an older house.  A bay window or sunroom might work for this purpose.  

Within a few months, small round buds appear along the length of the stems.  If you fertilize at this point, the buds grow into tiny plants, complete with roots, if you leave them long enough.  These are keikis and can sliced off the mother plant and be potted up as new plants.

Keiki on my Dendrobium

However, if you don't fertilize, these buds grow into flowers.  Once the flower buds appear, you can give the usual regular watering, so that they flower buds don't dry up and die (I have made that mistake before too).

Dendrobium nobile "Angel Smile" in bloom, February 23, 2016

I keep one plant (a smaller one that would not make a great deal of blooms anyhow) to make the keikis, thus generating around 3 to 4 new baby plants each year.  This lends itself to distributing new plants to any interested friends.

This orchid likes bright light and tolerates cool to quite warm temperatures in the greenhouse.  I give mine supplemental pinkish LED light in the greenhouse (which makes up for our short winter days).  However, I have grown these before in a bright sunny indoor spot too, so you don't need a greenhouse.  Generally, I think this orchid is quite easy to grow.  It is a pity they are not often sold at local garden stores. 

This website also has more detailed care instructions: http://www.akatsukaorchid.com/store/pg/29-Dendrobium-Nobile-Care.aspx

Winter Growing: LEDs, orchids, and tomatoes

Macintosh apple trees in the orchard

The apple orchard is sleeping for the winter, though we made a new sledding hill by removing around

half of the trees!  The Red Delicious apples are not really economically viable anymore and does anyone really like them, with all the better apple options around these days?  As a result, those old red apples were forcibly removed and will be replaced with Ambrosia apples in the spring.  

My greenhouse room, with orchids on the left rack

Otherwise, growing is still happening indoors, with vegetables and my collection of perennial seedlings, pelargonium cuttings, and orchids.  I tried the first tomato today (a Red Robin) and admit its flavour wasn't stellar - not really sweet and more acidic.  However, the texture of a fresh juicy tomato in winter was nice.  These were grown in Pro-mix soil-less mix, but recently were topped up with finished worm compost.  Maybe the compost will enrich the flavour over time?

My greenhouse room is kept between temperatures of 14-20 degrees, with the higher temperatures brought by sunny days shining on the windows.  Humidity averages 55%.  It feels lovely in there.  

Dendrobium nobile orchid with flower buds

The orchids seem to love it.  I have by trial and error figured out that some orchids resent the heat of summer or cool of winter -- particularly Oncidum "Twinkle".  That plant will stay indoors at human comfort temperatures year-round.  However, Dendrobium nobile, Cymbidiums, Catteleya, Miltonia/Miltoniopsis (not sure which it is), Phaelenopsis and a Paphiopedilum are doing well in there now.  The Phals are indoors in the summer, as they don't like getting up to 30+degrees C or getting sun-burned. 

In contrast to the tomatoes, I really loved the flavour of the "Piccolino" cucumber.  I got the seeds from West Coast Seeds.  This plant bears only female flowers that don't require pollination, so it is perfect greenhouse plant.  I have a few yellow spots on the leaves, but then it did dry out occasionally, so I potted it in a bigger pot full of worm compost.  It is good to go now. 

Ripening "Red Robin" cherry tomatoes in the greenhouse

Chicken brooder fixture with plant LED light

There is sunlight in the greenhouse, of course, but I supplement with LED lights.   I've got a variety which I've been trying.  The cheapest option for small areas are these bulbs with E27 bases (standard light base) that screw into a cheap clip-on fixture that you can buy at the hardware store (or a chick brooder lamp fixture).  I buy them on ebay, mostly from overseas.  They provide the pinky light that includes the spectrum that plants need to grow and flower.  As it is dark from 3-4 pm in winter, the lights lengthen the day greatly. 

Giant's Head Mountain - Summerland BC

Fairy Garden Renovations - New Concrete Patio!

Renovated Fairy Garden with New Concrete Patio

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, not only can you have a Pinterest obsession with fairy gardens and their accessories, but you can do DIY patio projects with concrete.  No, not your building supply concrete, but special fairy garden concrete.  My husband laughed.  Hey, who has the most beautiful fairy garden patio now?

Why did I need to renovate the patio?  Well, the patio furniture was unstable and kept falling over.  I would like to say the children were bothered by this, but that would be a lie.  I'll admit to needing to have an exceptional fairy garden patio that was not a fall-hazard to fairies or miniature polymer clay critters.

I find miniature gardening to be a very fun project.  Ours has stayed entirely indoors, though it probably could move outdoors.  Even being indoors, I've had problems with aphids on the violets, but I was more concerned about things blowing away or being carried off by animals.  Do you see that cute little potted geranium on the table?  It has a separate saucer underneath that could be blown away by a dog's breath. 

The kids had a great time deciding where everything should go in the garden, designating special functions to certain areas and placing polished stones as stepping stones.  I was told that we had too many bird-related accessories, so some of those went into temporarily storage until I am allowed to play with them again.

Many of the accessories came from ebay and other online sources.  I made the red toadstools myself with baked polymer clay (Fimo/Premo) and baked metal wires into their stems so that they could be staked easily in the dirt.  I also make the bird's nest with robin's eggs on a stump.  The pond is a clay pot saucer painted inside with blue acrylic pain and filled with blue flattened glass marbles.  There was a tremendous dispute over the frog needing to sit on a lily pad because "frogs don't float on water", but perhaps fairy garden frogs can defy gravity.

Instructions on Fairy Garden Concrete Patio:

 First, I got a bag of miniature garden concrete mix online.  I used the entire bag for this project.  I also got some sand from the yard as a base and used strips of cut-up black rubber mat for the edging.  I filled the edged area with 1/2" of sand and smoothed it with a spoon.  Then I added 1/2" of concrete mix and leveled that. I used part of a 12x12 panel of sliced pebble tile and pulled the pebbles off of the mesh to which they are glued (use gloves, don't find out the hard way like I did that the mesh is FIBERGLASS).  I leveled the mixes with a wood block and I placed the pebbles on the concrete mix and pushed them down until flush with the surface of the concrete mix.  Then, I brushed concrete mix off the surface of the rocks and into the spaces between them.  This doesn't clean it up entirely, but a few puffs of breath across the rocks cleans it up nicely.  I used a spray bottle of water to wet the concrete mix until there was some pooling of water.  I repeated spraying several times a day for 2 days and then let it dry. 

Brushed concrete mix off stones

Sprayed stones and mix to activate the concrete

The concrete is great!  It is hard and stable and the patio furniture is now stable.  Of course, it took only one day until the kids ask what they are going to do if they want to change it?  Ha!  After that investment, we are only going to buy fairies on sale!  I like the Cicely Mary Barker (28 June 1895 – 16 February 1973) fairy figures.  I adore the children's books and own some framed CMB fairy series prints.  They have the detail of botanical drawings and are beautiful.  I love how she mixes butterfly wings with flower petals and leaves for the fairy outfits and each fairy has a real plant as a theme, from snowdrops and violets to larch and hazelnut.  Did you know that she actually designed these costumes and dressed her sister's kindergarten students up to use a models for her art?  What a scene that would have been!

Surviving the Hot Spell

Allium giganteum blooming June 10

 I love seeing the big alliums, have admired them in garden blogs and in a few gardens.  You don't see them too often, and I don't suppose they are common potted plants at the garden center.  I planted these Allium giganteum bulbs last fall.  They add interesting architectural shapes to the garden, though transiently.  Different Alliums bloom at different times though, so having a variety can extend their blooming season.  Allium "Purple Sensation" bloomed about a month ago (is half as tall as these).  The already dying foliage on blooming alliums is quite noticeable -- this is normal and expected of the alliums.  Eventually, I should surround the alliums with another plant to disguise its foliage. 

We have had hot days this past week, up to 36 degrees C.  Consequently, garden work has been happening at dusk.  I suppose other people would be taking advantage of the beach right now, but our family will settle for running through the orchard sprinklers. 

Agastache aurantiaca

I have been raising perennial seedlings in my sunroom, mostly drought-tolerant ones such as this Agastache aurantiaca.  I purchased a variety of this perennial last year but it died over the winter, so I (more inexpensively) grew quite a few of them from seed and planted them as smaller plants and hope they are more successful.  They are making their first blooms now.  They are a hummingbird-attracting plant, which is great, because we are enjoying the little hummers zipping around the yard.

Strawberries in stock tank raised bed - netting added this week

 I covered the strawberries with netting this week, as the plants have small green berries on them now.  We haven't really had any problems with animals eating anything out of the garden, but I am proactively protecting them so that no animals start a new berry-habit.  In our last house, the squirrels simply lifting up the netting and run under it to raid nearly every berry.  Some squirrels may have met with bullets.

Praying mantis

One of the mini-gardeners discovered the first praying mantis of the year, clinging to the door jam.  It was removed to safety on a potted geranium and given a hearty welcome to our yard.  The kids know that praying mantises are insect royalty in our yard, especially since they KILL BLACK WIDOWS.  That alone makes them my favourite insect, aside from their intelligent alien appearance and rotating head.  

Hummingbirds!

Hummingbird at our feeder June 5, at sunset (light transmitting through red glass onto the bird)

 After a few days of rapidly-moving dark clouds dumping sudden bursts of rain and some smaller showers in between, we are anticipating a long warm dry spell here in the South Okanagan.  The tourists rejoice and children will want to be out of school.  Summerland's Action Festival will have great weather this weekend.

The weeds and the plants are racing to outgrow each other.  I have a mint plant that scared me with its quadrupled size in the last week.  The children are going to grow tired of virgin mojitos with Schwepps ginger ale.  I tried a mint ice cream recipe using fresh mint leaves a few years ago, but its texture was reminiscent of licking velour, so we quickly abandoned that.  Perhaps we used the wrong kind of mint?  This year, we have spearmint...a lot of it.  I do have the plant sunk in the ground within a large container, but it has escaped to the surrounding soil though it will ultimately be restrained by some nearby retaining walls. 

Thornless blackberry blossom, June 5

 My Blanc Double de Coubert rose is already done blooming, but I pulled a bunch of developing rosehips from it to try and get some more flowers.  That rose has a lovely scent, which is a big part of why I bought it, besides its low maintenance needs.  It had flowers for about two weeks.  I think the Red Meidiland shrub rose (pictured) is supposed to have a longer blooming season, but it doesn't have much scent.  The color really stands out though. 

Red Meidiland shrub rose, shaded in evenings and mulched well

 I love planting rock garden plants in crevices, which possibly appeals to my love of miniature things.  I have been stuffing a variety of Sedums and Sempervivums (hens and chicks), Thyme and little buns of Draba in these spots.  The thyme likes a bit more water and shade (they get the water that trickles through the earth from the underground drip-watering system).  The sempervivums are very hardy even in drier spots, and sedums seem at least moderately hardy.  I like the low-growing, carpet-like sedums at the tops of the rocks (Sedum album "Orange Ice" is in bloom right now), where they cascade over the edges.  Thyme blooms early in the summer, but the creeping green mats of thyme still look amazing the rest of the year.  Make sure though to get the lowest and densest varieties of thyme.  "Elfin" is great.  Wooly thyme has a fascinating textural effects.  The edible type thymes would not be suited for this kind of planting. 

Thyme (foreground) and sempervivum in crevice between granite boulders

The vegetable garden (in stock tanks) is growing enough lettuce to feed an army.  Will kids notice it in smoothies?