Category Archives: months 04-06: spring

April thru June

attracting birds, garden visits, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, months 10-12: fall, perrennials

In The Fuchsia Garden

09/26/2016 svseekins 2 Comments

hardy fuchsia at the Horticultural Centre of the Pacific, September , garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

One of my favorite places is the Horticultural Centre of the Pacific. A gardener’s garden. I learn something each visit.

MS - Hardy Fuchsia in bloom , garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

This time it’s putting a specific name to the hardy fuchsia growing in our own garden:
Fuchsia magellanica var. gracilis.

At least I’m pretty certain that’s what our hardy fuchsia is…

Walking through HCP’s Fuchsia garden boggles my mind. Apparently there are many more varieties of hardy fuchsia than I imagined.

There are tall hedging shrubs and shorter mid-border shrubs…

Others that are so small they’re classified as perennials instead of shrubs…

Most have flowers with red sepals and purple petals in the centers…

But others are pink… or white… or even orangey…

Most leaves are forest-green,
but others are lime-green,
or variegated-green. These really show up against a bit of shade.

There are so many species, sub species & hybrids!

Now that I look more closely, I’m thinking my garden’s hardy fuchsia might be a F. coccinea instead…
maybe?

Either way, I’m stoked to grow a plant that looks so exotic. Check out the variety of Fuchsia that are winter hardy for gardens in the Pacific Northwest (Canada & USA) :
The North West Fuchsia Society

Perhaps there’ll be a few varieties at HCP’s annual Fall Sale coming up on October 1.

FYI – these photos show only some of the hardy fuchsia varieties growing in the gardens at HCP

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attracting birds, drought tolerant, evergreens, garden visits, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, months 10-12: fall, perrennials, urban deer

Red Hot Pokers – Kniphofia

07/29/2016 svseekins 2 Comments

Red Hot Pokers are goofy plants.

Folks either love ’em or hate ‘en.

Me?
I love ’em.

Here’s why:

The ‘red hot’ blooms remind me of Halloween candy corn from when I was a kid.
photo by SVSeekins

Kniphofia grow happily on our rocky outcrop in very little soil…
with very little moisture…
So they’re super drought tolerant AND low maintenance, too. Win, win!

They’ve transplanted easily into partial-shade borders. I like plants that are easy to grow.
photo by SVSeekins

Hummingbirds & bees LOVE LOVE LOVE the blooms.

The deer – – not so much. Our local deer just ignore the Kniphofia 🙂

Red Hot Pokers, aka Torch Lilies, are pretty much evergreen in Victoria – – unless it snows.
In which case they immediately turn to slime…
Then come up fresh & green again when the weather calms down. That works just fine for me.

photo by SVSeekins

The Red Hots I’m most familiar with – – those with the graduated red + orange + yellow on one poker – – bloom in our garden in May.

Last July I saw some blooming in the Government House Gardens. I immediately searched out a few summer bloomers for our place.

These varieties, likely Knifophia uvaria ‘echo mango’ and ‘echo rojo’ are dwarf and have much narrower leaves. They’re designed to re-bloom throughout the growing season.

They also stayed green through the winter, although they looked a little more dried & messy compared to the May bloomers. Happily they bounced back in the spring sunshine. Now they’re blooming !

The deer have nibbled a couple tender flower spikes, but I’m hoping that’s just curiosity, and they’ll leave the dwarf plants alone from now on. Finger’s crossed.

To my amazement Abkhazi Garden had some Red Hot Pokers blooming near their front gate in December!
Who knew?

Isn’t that a Must Have?

Anyone know where I can source some of those??

lilac, red hot pokers, irs, lupin Lupinus, with the ceanothus just about to come into bloom too, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

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attracting birds, drought tolerant, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer

Surviving Drought With Rock Rose

07/28/2016 svseekins 2 Comments

In the heat of summer I’m more interested in camping than staying home to water the garden.

cistus, sunset rock rose, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Happily the spring extravaganza of bloom was mostly bulb, and being spring ephemerals, they’re content to dry up & hibernate until the rains come again. But I’m not content with a brown garden in July.

Rock Rose to the rescue.

Once established, Cistus ‘sunset’ has proven to be one tough-as-nails, evergreen shrub.
it’s fuzzy leaves make the most of any dew or moisture they find.
Our local deer find it unpalatable.
The butterflies & other pollinators gravitate to the energizing magenta flowers.
The honey fragrance of the blooms makes it a good choice to plant near a high-traffic area.

Those 5 reasons easily convinced me that Cistus is a keeper for our landscape.

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