Tag Archives: low maintenance

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, 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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