Category Archives: months 10-12: fall

October thru December

bulbs, drought tolerant, months 01-03: winter, months 04-06: spring, months 10-12: fall, perrennials

Cyclamen Seedpods

06/30/2019 svseekins 1 Comment

What does Southern Vancouver Island have in common with Turkey on the Mediterranean?
Hardy Cyclamen.

hardy cyclamen, persian violet, , ivy-leaved cyclamen or sowbread, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Cyclamen hederifolium is native to Turkey, and that climate is quite like ours.
Would you’ve guessed?
So it kinda makes sense:
What prospers there…
prospers here.

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

Hardy Cyclamen likes our dry summer. It goes dormant. Later, the cooling temperatures & returning rain of September triggers the awakening. One morning flowers are popping out of the ground & dancing in the dappled shade. What a lovely surprise. Flowers in autumn!
(Plus, what a bonus – a pretty plant that doesn’t need me dragging around a garden hose… AND one that’s happy in those tough-to-garden spots under trees!)

After pollinators do their thing, the flower stems curl into tight coils, pulling the seed pods to the ground. Leaves emerge, protecting the pods from our winter wind & rain. How tidy is that? I never feel the urge to deadhead. (Extra bonus – decorative foliage that stays green through our long, glum winter. And IF we get snow & severe cold, the cyclamen survives to -28C a colder winter than we’re likely to get.)

While so much of the garden is going nuts through spring, Cyclamen hederifolium is wrapping up its display. The leaves die back, revealing the maturing seed pods. A matt of balls on coil springs remind me where the plant is preparing for sleep. Doesn’t it look GROOVY?

Ants think it’s pretty groovy, too. The seeds are coated with a sweet film. Ants gather them & take them home to feed the masses.
Win – Win – Win.
Ants get a treat.
The seed is sown.
And the gardener has a new no-fuss plant.

What an ingenious system for naturalizing through the garden … and beyond.

Barely noticeable little seedlings sprout in lawns & woodland parks alike. Eventually, the tiny corms can grow to the size of dinner plates.
Welcome or not.

hardy cyclamen coum, eastern cyclamen C. coum garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

I grow a few varieties of Hardy Cyclamen. Over 10 years, I’ve noticed a couple baby plants growing near their parents. I’m particularly fond of the February bloomer Cyclamen coum.

C. coum is a timid seeder in comparison with the C. hederifolium. The fall bloomer out-competes the winter bloomer. I’m very careful to keep each cyclamen variety in its own bed.

Believe it or not — C. hederifolium is on the District of Saanich’s Invasive Plants list! It naturalizes that well around here. It must out-compete more than just the C. coum.

I have to admit to still holding a torch for these funky plants.
Does it count in my favour that I’ve dug some cyclamen invaders out of a couple wild parklands?
They’ve been planted in spots they’re not likely to escape without notice…

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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.

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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.

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