Category Archives: garden seasons

joy in every season

garden visits, months 04-06: spring, natives, perrennials

Wild Yellow Violets

04/12/2019 svseekins 1 Comment

It is on a spring walk through Goldstream Park that we spot wild yellow violets.

So tiny!
But so precious!
(It’s very rare for me to catch sight of this native wildflower.)

It was SM who spotted them. Once we saw the first one, we noticed a few more further along the trail.

These are Viola glabella, AKA yellow wood violet, stream violet, pioneer violet, or smooth yellow violet.

They enjoy the moist woodlands of the Pacific Northwest & are even found along Asia’s Pacific Northeast.
🙂
I wonder how many more names they have there?

Last year I finally saw the endangered yellow montane violet (Viola praemorsa) at Playfair Park. It has fuzzy leaves & prefers Garry oak meadows. This trailside violet is definitely not it.

viola glabella, stream violet, pioneer violet, yellow wood violet, smooth yellow violet, wild yellow violets, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

There’s another similar yellow violet, Viola pubescens, but it’s native to the eastern side of our continent. It’s definitely not this one either.

I first encountered yellow wood violets in a municipal campground in Washington State. Perhaps that patch was more mature, or further into it’s growing season because it was a larger clump.

Maybe it was bigger because it had a bit more sunshine? (Our walk at Goldstream Park was through lots of tall trees.)

I can easily imagine wanting some yellow wood violets in our own (dry) woodland garden if we weren’t tending a meadow of the western dog violet (Viola adunca).

Another friend (PS) has yellow wood violets in her irrigated woodland garden. They’re doing well & are slowly spreading between the other perennials. The challenge is sharing ground with the more persistent & dry tolerant western dog violet. They look so similar that it’s only when a dog violet blooms (purple) that PS digs it out, giving the yellow violets priority. It’s a longterm strategy. I have my fingers crossed for her.

On second thought, maybe I could find an isolated, shady spot in our yard where there are no dog violets & enough moisture…

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bulbs, garden visits, months 01-03: winter, months 04-06: spring, urban deer

Daffodil Meadow

03/17/2019 svseekins 1 Comment

Years ago, I lived beside Beacon Hill Park’s daffodil meadow. It was the first I’d ever seen. Spring magic.

Narcissus Daffodil, jonquil, daffadowndilly, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by BE Hansen

The happy yellow blooms delight me. Plus, I like the little trumpets that protect the flower’s naughty bits from the early rains.
Clever, eh? 🙂

The deer-resistant Narcissus is easy to grow in Victoria. Many varieties are even cold tolerant to zone 3, surviving -40 degrees C! We don’t get anywhere near that cold here. Actually, as our winters gradually become milder, we’re encountering daffodil woes similar to England’s.

Many of the daffs that show up in your local grocery store’s flower stand originate in Victoria. Famous for producing the largest crop of daffodils in Canada, Vantreights took an early lead in making the daffodil the Flower of Hope for the Canadian Cancer Society.

At one point, Vantreights farmed on a leased parcel of land that is now The Horticultural Centre of the Pacific: one of my favourite gardens. Today the HCP enjoys a residual daffodil meadow sloping down to the lake.

daffodils Narcissus at Camosun College garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Vantreights farmed in Gordon Head before that land became a residential subdivision. I’ve even heard that our street, on the southern slope of Mt. Tolmie, hosted a farm that grew the bulbs, too.

There are some tricks to growing a spring-flowering meadow. Although daffodils bloom before the grasses start to grow strongly, their leaves are still busy collecting energy for next year’s flowers when C has the uncontrollable urge to dust off the lawnmower. Zip, there goes the meadow!

The park’s staff at Beacon Hill let the meadow grow naturally all through May before mowing. By then, the ephemeral bulbs have ripened & receded into dormancy.

Shorter growing spring bulbs, like crocus, stand half a chance in our lawn, but not daffodils. Ditto for snowdrops, tulips & camas. These I’ll leave to naturalize in our beds & borders instead.

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Here are some other meadow faves:

evergreens, months 01-03: winter, months 04-06: spring, natives, perrennials

Prince’s Pine

02/28/2019 svseekins 2 Comments

Typically I curse steep switchbacks. They are exhausting!

blooming evergreen prince's pine, sub-shrub, Chimaphila umbellata, occidentalis , pipsissewa, umbellate wintergreen,, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Now, I have reason to appreciate them. One trail in Strathcona Park is so steep that the inside slope is only an arm’s reach away. I have close-up views of the tiny plants that don’t usually catch my attention. I stop, puffing for a few moments, taking in the forest’s carpet of mysteries.

At first, the evergreen plant, Prince’s pine, escapes my notice.

But then, my eyes spy the wildflower buds – such a delicate pink!

Further along the path, I find specimens in full bloom. And some already setting seed — in early June. 🙂

The tiny, waxy-looking blossoms are such a contrast to the deep woodland duff of the understory. Enchanting. (There must be faeries nearby.)

I delight in the flowers while mourning that Chimaphila umbellata is probably not suited to our own garden. (Yes, our garden is well-drained, but it’s shaded by Garry oak– not conifers.)

Back at the campsite, the mini-shrub is confirmed by Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast (my wild plant Bible). Woo Hoo — one more native plant in my repertoire.

It’s not until a wintery February morning, while attending Seedy Saturday that I meet Andy McKinnon, co-author of my treasured plant ID book. He teaches me this science word for today.

Mixotrophic.

Prince’s pine is mixotrophic. It has a friendly relationship with the fungus in the ground.

Like many plants, through photosynthesis, Prince’s pine produces sugars (its food). It shares those sugars with fungi. The fungi, in return, offer up access to nutrients from the soil.
Friendly, eh?
But wait – there’s more…

Prince’s pine & this fungi take their relationship a step further.

The fungi in the soil also connect to another plant (other than the Prince’s pine). Through this threesome, the Prince’s pine can get sugars from this other plant. Neighbours helping neighbours in times of need…. all through a fungi trade route.
(That’s Mixotrophic)

Isn’t Nature amazing?

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