Tag Archives: Victoria

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.)

The final mystery of my tour is a variety with green stripes on the outer petals. The label was there but washed out.

Perhaps it has a name like ‘Greenish,’
or ‘Green Tear’??
Any other guesses?

Only a galanthophile can be sure. 🙂

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attracting birds, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, natives, perrennials, urban deer

A Place for Fireweed

11/30/2018 svseekins Leave a comment

Fireweed, bombweed, rosebay willowherb, Chamerion angustifolium, great willow herb, wickup, Epilobium angustifolium, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Even as a child, I thought fireweed was one of the prettiest flowers going. Each tiny bloom in a spire of blooms is beautiful on its own – together, they’re just gorgeous. In any kid’s wildflower bouquet, fireweed is the showpiece.

I admired the large swaths of purple along Alberta’s ditches, meadows & forest edges.

Now, living on the West Coast, they delight me along hiking trails & even shorelines. In fact, I’ve seen them growing pretty much everywhere in BC, except in the arid Okanagan.

When I found some growing in the gravel of a parking lot, I figured they had to be tough enough to grow in our yard.
(I ‘rescued’ a few.)

It turns out that deer enjoy the young shoots. The fireweed flourished, planted at the base of a new tree that we’d caged to protect from deer too.

Aside from the beauty factor, there are a few other reasons I grow this perennial in our garden:

The blooms start low in the tier & gradually open further and further up as the summer progresses, providing color over a long stretch.
Bees & butterflies love fireweed– as do hummingbirds…. honey producers, tea & jelly makers…. herbalists…
photo by SVSeekins
Even when it’s ‘gone to seed’ it’s decorative. The fluffy seedheads carry the seasonal interest well into the fall with a funky Halloween vibe.
photo by SVSeekins
AND fireweed isn’t a super-thirsty plant. Yes, it wants some water, and can even go crazy in a moist setting. But it does just fine through our long dry summers without anything more than what it gets when I’m dragging around the hose. No fuss.

Nature is a great gardener.
What was there to admire after fires wiped out Yellowstone?
Or after Mt. St. Helens erupted?
Or even after London was bombed in WWII?
Fireweed.

Nature is beautiful & tenacious. Celebrate fireweed. There will always be a place for Chamerion angustifolium in our garden.

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months 04-06: spring, natives, perrennials

Vancouver Groundcone – Boschniakia hookeri

06/04/2018 svseekins 1 Comment

It was high on my list to search for when we went camping with friends near Tofino in mid-May. On the very first day, a young friend spotted one & brought it to my attention. Score!

Vancouver groundcone, poque, corn cob, Boschniakia hookeri or Boschniakia strobilacea, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

It’s included in a list of ‘oddballs’ in my favorite field guide (Pojar & MacKinnon’s, Plants Of The Pacific Northwest Coast.) Who needs space aliens when we have mysteries like this on earth? Is it a flower? Mushroom? Fungi?

It’s called a Vancouver groundcone, & I can see why. The shape is so similar to a spruce cone standing upright. Another name is Poque – an anglicized version of an indigenous word.

The unusual coloring indicates the groundcone lacks chlorophyll, & that means it can’t produce its own sugars. For food, it depends on others. It’s a parasitic plant, that taps nutrients from a salal and sometimes kinnikinnick.

Both salal & kinnikinnick are common on our coastlines, so you’d think there’d be plenty of groundcones. Perhaps there are more around, but I just haven’t been looking for them before?

Boschniakia hookeri grows in the moist (summer dry) coastal lowlands from Haida Gwaii in Central Coastal BC to Northern California. This is the first time I’ve ever seen any. Go figure. Perhaps because they don’t need sunshine, they’re more common in shade, and more difficult to see?

Aside from the yellow specimens I saw, Poque is found in a variety of colors from light yellow to brown to red or purple. I suspect the yellow contrasts more with its environment, so is slightly easier to spot. Once young WC showed me a few he’d spotted, I was able to find a few myself.

Now that I’ve checked this plant off my list, next up are more oddballs: Indian Pipe & Pinesaps. Wish me luck!

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