Category Archives: gardens with wildlife

living around wildlife

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, urban deer

Winter Blooming Evergreen Clematis

02/20/2019 svseekins 1 Comment

It starts as early as January, with just a single bloom and a few buds.

traveller's joy, vine, Armand clematis, winter blooming evergreen clematis armandii snowflake garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Such promise!
The darkening days of autumn are over.
The solstice has passed.
Winter is inching toward a brighter spring. 🙂 It’s an excellent time to celebrate evergreen Clematis in the Pacific Northwest.

Clematis armandi has a tough evergreen leaf that our local deer ignore – even in winter when grazing choices are limited.

This clematis is poisonous to people, so maybe that extends to ungulates, too? The vine likes to be at the top of whatever it’s climbing, so there’s little left within reach of deer’s attention anyway. The show is up in the air.

The foaming white flowers that cover the weeping vines through February & March certainly catch my attention.

It’s a choice vine to situate so that you see it from your winter vantage points inside the home. Wouldn’t it make a lovely focal point while sipping your morning brew? This particular behemoth hides a 6-foot tall chain-link fence dividing a block of offices from a parking lot. It’s a good thing that the fence is sturdy.

Evergreen Clematis’ clinging tendrils can find purchase in small cracks of walls & even shingles. That’s why it’s most often welcome climbing pergolas & fences rather than homes.

By mid-May, the winter show will be over. It’ll be time to give the heavy climber a proper pruning before it overwhelms the world. Until then, I’m just enjoying the view.

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bulbs, drought tolerant, garden visits, months 01-03: winter, urban deer

Snowdrop Variations

01/24/2019 svseekins 1 Comment

Each January, I’m on the lookout for the first blooms of the New Year.

galanthus, snowdrops, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Here, on southern Vancouver Island, it’s the snowdrops that take centre stage. Our urban deer leave them alone, so there are patches of the winter blooms all around Victoria.

Our garden club was treated to tours of 2 members’ winter gardens. Carol & Jennifer introduced us to some of the many varieties of Galanthus… Who knew there was more than one kind of snowdrop?

galanthus elwesii snowdrops, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

I start looking more closely at the pure white helicopter blades with their protected cockpit. Analyzing means kneeling down in the wet grass, camera in hand.

Low & behold, one clump of blooms has double green markings on each of the outer petals. (The inner trumpet is quite green, too.)

Hello, Galanthus elwesii 🙂

Farther along the path is another clump – – this one with wee green tips on the outer petals.

Another G. elwesii variety.

galanthus elwesii poculiformis snowdrops, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

And then, there’s a patch with the standard white outer petals – – but there are 6 instead of the usual 3.

I’m pretty sure these are called Galanthus elwessi poculiformis.

galanthus st annes snowdrops, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

My favourite way to ID plants is via plant labels – which are great as long as they don’t go missing – – crows like to claim them as booty.

This label clearly states that this particular snowdrop is Galanthus St. Anne’s. From a distance, it appears a typical snowdrop, with white outer petals & a small upside-down heart on the inner trumpet…

But here’s the reason I don’t mind getting dirty from kneeling on the grass:
Check out the inner petals!
This is how botanists are born, & become addicted to looking at plants soooooo closely.

galanthus nivalis bagpuize virginia snowdrops, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Peaking inside some more blooms, I find another delicate flower with an even more ruffled trumpet. For such a tiny flower, this snowdrop has a ridiculously large name: Galanthus nivalis bagpuize virginia.
How’s that for a mouthful?

galanthus plicatus wendy's gold snowdrops, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Protected from the others, is a pot of snowdrops with yellow markings. This is the first one I’ve noticed with a yellow ovary above the dangling flower. It’s Galanthus plicatus ‘Wendy’s Gold’.
Quite a treasure.

galanthus elwesii barnes snowdrops, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

In the collection, I spied a clump of snowdrops that were already going to seed! Although most snowdrops in Victoria bloom through the winter months, some snowdrops start crazy early in the fall. Carol’s G. elwesii ‘Barnes’ begins blooming in November!

(It’s reported that G. reginae-olgae is a September bloomer & G. elwesii ‘Potter’s Prelude’ blooms through Halloween.)