Category Archives: evergreens

evergreens, months 01-03: winter, perrennials, urban deer

Flower Count – day 2 – bergenia

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In some ways I should like bergenia more than I do.   It has good traits that usually rank high in my books.

bergenia - pig squeak
photo by SVSeekins

Evergreen
Winter flowering
Drought tolerant
Low maintenance
Inexpensive
Hardy to zone 4
Shade tolerant

I do celebrate the blooms when they arrive.

This year I realised that the deer celebrate those blooms, too.   Hmmmm.  No wonder the bloom time seemed so short. Deer don’t seem to snack on the fleshy leafs, so the patches survive.

bergenia - elephant ears
photo by SVSeekins

Elephant ears is a common name for this plant.   Kinda makes sense because of the large, rounded plant material.

Pig Squeak is another nick name.  Apparently it makes a noise when rubbing the turgid leafs, but I’ve never noticed.

In other gardens I’ve been impressed with a occasional lovely display of colourful foliage, or strikingly large blooms.  Perhaps those were other cultivars than the one in our yard.

In mid-summer the patches look kind of ratty, and I don’t really care for that.  C doesn’t like them much either, so we don’t pay them much attention.

I reckon bergenia does a fair job as a ground cover in really tough spots of the yard.  For now they’re safe.  There are higher priority areas around the garden.    That is until I somehow find some horticultural treasure that would suit that space better.

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© SVSeekins and Garden Variety Life, 2012.

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Flower Count

attracting birds, evergreens, months 10-12: fall, urban deer

Strawberry Tree vs Urban Deer

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arbutus unedo flower in autumn, strawberry tree, garden Victoria BC
photo by SVSeekins
  • They’re evergreen – that’s a big plus in my book.
  • They have pretty little flower clumps – a 2nd season for interest.  That’s another plus.
arbutus unedo berry in autumnstrawberry tree, garden Victoria BC
photo by SVSeekins
  •  They even have edible fruit!  Well, it’s not tasty, but it is edible.  And dangling strawberry-like fruit hanging from a shrub is funky – a 3rd season of interest.

That’s 3 plus signs!  They seemed a perfect choice for my shrub border.

  • They’d give the yard some privacy from the street.
  • They wouldn’t be too tall to interfere with utility lines overhead.

I had to have one! Okay, 3 – because they’re so cool.

arbutus unedo protected from deer
photo by SVSeekins

For the bushes to survive & grow to any height, I resorted to protecting them with stucco wire.  It’s worked well.  Instead of being deer pruned, knee height, struggling little bushes, they’ve grown over my head in just a couple of years.

I think they’re kind of pretty. And the dangling strawberries are definitely funky. But the ‘protective custody’ sort of ruins the ‘nature at its finest’ vibe.

arbutus unedo - no protective cage
photo by SVSeekins

I removed the wire protection from the 3rd tree this summer. An experiment.

Strawberry Tree vs. Urban Deer.

Blooms only on the top section.

Fullness trimmed out of the lower section.

My guess is that the deer can only reach so high while they’re helping out with the pruning.

Now the experiment continues with crossed fingers.  Hopefully, the deer will leave some of the lower branches through the winter.  Otherwise, this strawberry tree might end up being shaped a little less like a shrub, and a little more like a tree.

There’s a word for that, isn’t there?  A standard?

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© SVSeekins and Garden Variety Life, 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to SVSeekins and Garden Variety Life with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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attracting birds, evergreens, months 10-12: fall

Cotoneaster – great color in october

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cotoneaster seasonal color
photo by SVSeekins

In summer the Cotoneaster flowers are inconsequential, but in fall the berries really shine.

Identifying the 5 foot tall shrub that was on the property when I arrived had me stumped.  Recently KC told me it is a Cotoneaster.  I’m familiar with the short  groundcover. There are several samples of that around the yard.  CM doesn’t like them because fall leaves get caught up in them, and they’re not friendly to rakes.  But this shrub is a much taller relative. Who knew?

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© SVSeekins and Garden Variety Life, 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to SVSeekins and Garden Variety Life with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.