Ruminating On Germinating

Day 200: Spring usually finds me digging out the seed-starting trays in mid-March, ready to plant those "8-10 weeks before last frost" species, but this year, I had decided to grow flowers for drying again, and both packets suggested planting dates merely a month in advance of when I planned to set them out. I was surprised when three or four days later, all the Strawflowers had sprouted. As soon as their first true leaves have formed, I'll be pinching out all but one or two in each cell. Soon, I'll be moving the tray outside when morning temps allow, bringing it back in at night until at least mid-May. Then I'll leave the seedlings out for a few nights to harden off before planting them in the garden where they'll be joined by the Chinese Lanterns which have yet to germinate.

Gooseberry Flower

Day 199: Well, if you've ever backed into a gooseberry bush, you'll understand what I mean when I say that they're good at spurring you into action. However, in this case, it wasn't prickles but blossoms which got me into high gear; that, and some already developing fruit which reminded me that I still had last year's crop in the freezer, waiting to be turned into jam. I had enough for a single batch (seven half-pints), gooseberry jam being one of my favourites, and enough left over for a small pie. My bushes aren't large, and I keep them pruned back for ease of harvesting the fruit. Older canes are easy to identify by the sheer number of thorns they bear, and since the plant fruits best on 2-3 year old canes, the older ones should be cut out at the end of each growing season. Unless we have some kind of weather extreme (hot or cold), it looks like this year's crop will be good.

Parrot Time

Day 198: It's full-on Porch Parrot Time, and the trees are alive with the sound of chirping. Yes, the Evening Grosbeaks (Hesperiphona vespertinus) are back en masse. The males (left) have been around for a month or so, only joined by the females (right) in the last few days. I have only seen one or two Black-headed females in the mix, but no males as yet. It makes me curious about the division of household duties, why the males of one species would serve as scouts, but the females of another perform the same task. In any event, it's an exciting time. Pretty soon, there will be little baby Porch Parrots at the feeders, for me, one of the happiest times of the year.

Matchmaker To Akebia

Day 197: They had me worried! The white Akebia vine was blooming profusely, producing lots of pollen with nowhere to go. The purple vine...the bearer of fertile female flowers...wasn't doing so well. I'd pruned both back radically last fall when the trellis collapsed, and the purple one hadn't taken well to the haircut. It was only showing a few male flowers last week and, as you may recall, the cross must be made with pollen from the white vine's male flowers to the females of the purple. It doesn't work the other way around, as my experiments have shown. Last night, I discovered a few receptive female blooms, and dashed into the house to get my horticultural paintbrush. Okay, Akebia fruits are pretty strange and certainly not to everyone's taste, but they are secondary to the fun I get from cross-pollinating. That said, I vowed that this year, I wouldn't go overboard, limiting myself to no more than a dozen potential Akebia pods at full ripeness.

Ol' Blue Eyes Are Back

Day 196: Frank Sinatra might have sung it with a slight grammatical revision: Ol' Blue Eyes Are Back. Brunnera "Jack Frost" and Lithodora are center stage in my flower beds currently, the only blue I'm likely to see outdoors for at least the next week. And they are intense! While Brunnera resembles those pesky forget-me-nots I keep pulling, it does not have the same tendency to spread. The foliage of "Jack Frost" is particularly lovely, and even once the flowers have faded, it brightens the shady area at the end of my carport. Lithodora is a ground cover, evergreen foliage reminiscent of rosemary, and even in winter, it nearly always provides at least a few winks of its blue eyes. I love it when my garden is singing the blues!

Asarum Caudatum

Day 195: Putting aside the rarities as a category unto themselves, it would be hard for me to say which wildflower is my favourite. However, Asarum caudatum (Wild Ginger, unrelated to true ginger) is certainly close to the top of the list. It took me years to find it because I was looking for flowers held above the leaves, and had I not been hiking a trail which passed beneath a hillside where it was growing at eye level, I might never have thought to look beneath the foliage. Since that first discovery, I've realized that it's more common than I'd imagined. In fact, when I found it growing abundantly in the undeveloped lot next door, I lifted some carefully and transplanted it to my yard. Every year, my little colony has enlarged by a plant or two, and this year, is loaded with those mysterious long-tailed blooms which supply the "caudatum" portion of its Latin name.

Hearts And Flowers

Day 194: When I first moved here, I planted Asian Bleeding-heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis) in a bad location, bad because I often broke the fragile stems when doing yard work. Eventually, the plant succumbed, and when I replaced it, I put the new one in a less trafficked spot where it has done quite well for over a decade, keeping company with maidenhair fern and other shade-lovers. It thrives in moist soil, but it also tolerates the drier conditions late summer brings. Hummingbirds are drawn to it, as are bees and butterflies. "Spectabilis" means "showy," giving rise to another common name for the plant, Showy Bleeding-heart.