Category Archives: months 04-06: spring

April thru June

garden plant lists, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, months 10-12: fall, natives, perrennials, urban deer

False Lily of the Valley

12/23/2018 svseekins 2 Comments

False Lily of the Valley is one of my favorite native groundcovers. Fabulous carpets of it grow along the trails to Botanical Beach + the Visitor Centre at Long Beach.

false lily of the valley, Maianthemum dilatatum, lily-of-the-valley, snakeberry, Maianthemum bifolium ssp. kamtschaticum, Maianthemum bifolium var. kamtschaticum, Maianthemum kamtschaticum, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

This summer, on a trip through Northern BC, I spotted a patch. ‘Turns out my untrained eye was fooled by Wild Lily of the Valley.

Good grief! Add in the ‘true’ Lily of the Valley & there are 3 plants to confuse! Let’s consider the similarities:

they’re all perennial…
spread by creeping rhizomes forming thick carpets…
display clusters of white flowers in spring…
long markings run the length of the leave from stem to tip…
live happily in moist, shady woods…

But consider differences:

False Lily of the Valley is a common coastal groundcover around the Pacific Rim.
1. The Wild cousin grows in Northeastern BC & across much of the boreal forest.
2. The original Lily of the Valley is unrelated– native to Europe, but introduced to gardens across North America.
  photo by SVSeekins
False Lily of the Valley, Maianthemum dilatatum, has wider leaves (dilatatum means wide). And heart-shaped.
1. The Wild cousin, Maianthemum canadense, is also heart-shaped, but slightly more oblong.
2. The European colonizer has oblong leaves – not heart-shaped at all.
  photo by SVSeekins
False Lily of the Valley has berries that start out pale with red speckles, but the speckles multiply until the berry is quite dark.
1. The Wild cousin reacts much the same way.
2. I’ve never noticed speckles on the European berry. It’s more of an orangey red.
  photo by SVSeekins
False Lily of the Valley is used for several purposes by Coastal First Nations, especially the berries.
1. The Interior First Nations haven’t mentioned eating the berries.
2. The European Lily of the Valley, Convallaria majalis, is poisonous — don’t eat any of it!

Typically I stay away from ‘poisonous’ plants, but this is an exception. Visiting deer haven’t eaten our Convallaria majalis, so I let it grow. I’d prefer to have the False Lily of the Valley in our garden, but because the locals eat it, I reckon the deer would too.

Bummer.

-30-

attracting birds, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, natives, perrennials, urban deer

A Place for Fireweed

11/30/2018 svseekins Leave a comment

Fireweed, bombweed, rosebay willowherb, Chamerion angustifolium, great willow herb, wickup, Epilobium angustifolium, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Even as a child, I thought fireweed was one of the prettiest flowers going. Each tiny bloom in a spire of blooms is beautiful on its own – together, they’re just gorgeous. In any kid’s wildflower bouquet, fireweed is the showpiece.

I admired the large swaths of purple along Alberta’s ditches, meadows & forest edges.

Now, living on the West Coast, they delight me along hiking trails & even shorelines. In fact, I’ve seen them growing pretty much everywhere in BC, except in the arid Okanagan.

When I found some growing in the gravel of a parking lot, I figured they had to be tough enough to grow in our yard.
(I ‘rescued’ a few.)

It turns out that deer enjoy the young shoots. The fireweed flourished, planted at the base of a new tree that we’d caged to protect from deer too.

Aside from the beauty factor, there are a few other reasons I grow this perennial in our garden:

The blooms start low in the tier & gradually open further and further up as the summer progresses, providing color over a long stretch.
Bees & butterflies love fireweed– as do hummingbirds…. honey producers, tea & jelly makers…. herbalists…
photo by SVSeekins
Even when it’s ‘gone to seed’ it’s decorative. The fluffy seedheads carry the seasonal interest well into the fall with a funky Halloween vibe.
photo by SVSeekins
AND fireweed isn’t a super-thirsty plant. Yes, it wants some water, and can even go crazy in a moist setting. But it does just fine through our long dry summers without anything more than what it gets when I’m dragging around the hose. No fuss.

Nature is a great gardener.
What was there to admire after fires wiped out Yellowstone?
Or after Mt. St. Helens erupted?
Or even after London was bombed in WWII?
Fireweed.

Nature is beautiful & tenacious. Celebrate fireweed. There will always be a place for Chamerion angustifolium in our garden.

-30-

attracting birds, months 01-03: winter, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, months 10-12: fall, natives, urban deer

Scary Berries – Red Osier Dogwood

10/31/2018 svseekins 4 Comments

Cornus sericea, Cornus. stolonifera, Swida sericea, red osier dogwood, red-osier dogwood berries, flowers, white berry, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Until recently I hadn’t seen the freaky eyeball berries of the Red Osier Dogwood even though I’d planted the shrub in our garden several years ago.

Cornus sericea, C. stolonifera, C. alba, C. occidentalis, Swida sericea, red osier dogwood, red-osier dogwood, red willow, red stem dogwood, red twig dogwood, red-rood, creek dogwood, western dogwood, American dogwood, white berries, white flowers, white berry, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

There are several reasons why I’d planted Cornus sericea in our garden:

It’s native to Canada & flourishes around BC, so I figured it would survive well & be low maintenance.
photo by SVSeekins

The flowers attract local pollinators.
The berries are a food source for many songbirds.
The dense vegetation provides wildlife shelter.
Red Osier Dogwood provides garden interest through all 4 seasons:
photo by SVSeekins

photo by SVSeekins

photo by SVSeekins

Flat-topped, white clumps of small flowers emerge in spring.
Those flowers morph into panicles of white berries in summer & persist well into winter.
The green leaves have the distinct parallel veins that make the shrub noticeable from other background shrubs in summer, but it’s the reds of fall foliage that’s even more eye-catching.
Red Osier Dogwood’s ornamental fame is based on the vibrant red bark of young stems – so decorative in winter when deciduous shrubs are bare & the world seems grey.

This is all true.
But there were 2 attributes I soon discovered for myself.

photo by SVSeekins

Red Osier Dogwoods survive drier sites but prefer lakesides & wet ditches. It’s happier with more moisture than our garden gets through long, dry summers.
Deer.
Deer enjoy the foliage & the flowers. Unfortunately, they’re too greedy to ever let the specimen in our garden prosper – much less ever go into berry.

I finally gave up & dug out the struggling shrub.

Now I enjoy sightings of Red Osier Dogwood in the wild – where the deer population is not as condensed.

At this time of year, when I’m out hiking, the freaky eyeball berries remind me the spooky season is upon us & trick-or-treaters will be coming to our door.

-30-