Category Archives: garden plant lists

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attracting birds, drought tolerant, evergreens, months 07-09: summer, natives, perrennials, urban deer

Changing Attitudes About Yarrow

08/02/2016 svseekins Leave a comment

yarrow, Achillea millefolium — photo by SVSeekins

As a kid I thought wild yarrow was a boring flower. Its helicopter-landing-pad flowers might be interesting to butterflies & other pollinators, but I couldn’t get past the bland white petals.

Little did I know, but there are varieties beyond our native wildflower. Just a block or so away from our current garden, a neighbour grows a striking stand of yellow yarrow (probably Achillea ‘moonshine’ in a very sunny, & dry border.

yarrow achilea moonshine garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Now that I care for my own garden, I can appreciate a plant that rarely needs water or attention.

It rocks that our local deer left it alone when I added it to our landscape.

It was an additional bonus that, after cutting back the flowering stems in autumn, a ferny mound of foliage remained evergreen.

yarrow achillea millefolium pomegranate garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

More recently I saw a red-flowering yarrow (likely Achillea pomegranate). I’m not sure why I’d assumed our native yarrow was the only variety, but I’m delighted it isn’t.

There’s a place for this one in our garden, too. Even though the West Coast is a rain forest, very little of that rain falls in July or August. Tough ornamentals are treasures.

It’s good to note that if regularly irrigated, yarrow is a vigorous spreader. The easiest way to keep it in a manageable clump is to reduce irrigation. Easy-peasy. I can do that 🙂

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attracting birds, drought tolerant, months 07-09: summer, months 10-12: fall

Hardy Fuchsia – A Delight In July

08/01/2016 svseekins Leave a comment

With all my attention spent getting seasonal color through winter & early spring, I kinda forgot about summer color.

Ooops.

Thank goodness for Hardy Fuchsia.

KC gifted me with a lovely little shrub before she moved from Sooke. She hoped it would do better in town, as on her acreage the deer over-trimmed it.

Happily the city deer in our neighborhood have other tastes. Who knows why? That’s just the way it is.

I divided her little shrub into several pieces, and started them in different locations around the garden. They all survived. Cool.

Deer resistant – mostly (?)
Shade tolerant – yup
Drought tolerant – that too.
And Hummingbirds love it.

Hardy Fuchsia has become a workhorse in this garden.

Leaves bud out in April.
By May it’s starting to flower.
It’s full steam ahead in July, and performs well all summer.
Here on the coast, it feeds the hummingbirds well into the fall.

What could be better?
Thank you very much KC.

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attracting birds, drought tolerant, evergreens, garden chores, months 07-09: summer, perrennials, urban deer

Lychnis Seed Saving

07/31/2016 svseekins Leave a comment

If the leaf is grey & fuzzy, the deer usually turn up their noses.

spring lychnis lychnis coronaria, rose campion, edging the bed — photo by SVSeekins

Maybe they don’t like fuzz, just like I don’t like to eat the felted skin on a peach. More likely it’s because fuzz is common on drought tolerant plants. And drought tolerant plants are often dry & unpalatable. Deer aren’t stupid.

lychnis coronaria, rose campion, bloom garden Victoria BC — photo by SVSeekins

It is my good fortune that Rose Campion, aka Lychnis coronaria, is so deer resistant. They ignore the upright stems and the hot pink flowers, too.

Lychnis are tough plants. Left on their own, they’ll self seed willy-nilly. That’s not a bad thing while I’m waiting for other perennials and shrubs to mature. Because Lychnis is very easy to grow & transplant, they’ve become one of my go-to fillers (along with foxglove & snapdragons).

lychnis coronaria, rose campion, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

I grow them as a mini-hedge in hopes of keeping deer out of sections of the garden.

They’re also super-handy in areas with very little soil, or little moisture, where little else will survive 🙂
These Lychnis might not grow as tall as the ones that are irrigated, but they’re just as delightful.

Lychnis, rose campion seed collecting — photo by SVSeekins

Sometimes I leave the spent stems standing through autumn. The birds like the seeds.

Other times I’ll cut them back to enjoy the tidy grey mound of the plant on it’s own. That way I also get to set aside some of the seed for myself; to sow in the spring wherever I want it to grow.

lychnis coronaria, rose campion, seed in a paper bag — photo by SVSeekins

Lychnis seed is very simple to collect.

Turn the finished flower stem upside down into a paper bag.
If the seed is ready, it’ll spill right into the bag.
If the stems are still green, put the bag away, out of the elements, so the seed can continue to mature.
Once it’s all really dry, while still inside the bag, shake the stems well.
Ta-da! Seed collected.

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