Insect bites

A bee keeper was telling us last night that when he works amongst his bees, he works dirty. This to say that most soaps have a fragrance that attract bees (sounds reasonable doesn't it - the bees think flowers and pollen). So it would make sense that most pollinators would be attracted to scents from soaps and perfumes. That being the case, I guess that it would make sense not to be wearing perfume when you go out to sit in the garden.

I know that mosquitos are more attracted to individuals who eat bananas regularly than those who don't.

Being careful about wearing fragrances from perfumes or soaps in the garden might be a sensible thing this year given the population of yellow jackets this year. For some reason, the population is up considerably and they are building nests everywhere.

Clematis 'Summer Snow'"

I saw an interesting Clematis last night that was described as Summer Snow. From the pictures found on the Net this morning, I believe the Clematis in question is the Clematis Paul Farges 'Summer Snow'.

The site that I found the information on is an American site and they indicate that it is hardy to Zone 5 to 9. That means that Summer Snow should be hardy to Zone 5b in our area. The listing suggests that it should do well in part shade to full sun, moist but well drained alkaline or neutral soil and in a South or West facing location.

The one that we saw last night was in a somewhat sheltered location and is flowering now - the beginning of August. It had spent flowers on it which indicates that it has been blooming for some time. The listing gives indicates that it blooms July through September.

If you like the small flowered Clematis that bloom prolificly, this might be one to consider.

Agapanthus

I had seen some ads about Summer blooming bulbs and decided I'd like to try some. The Agapanthus columba (African blue lily) was described as a pretty impressive plant that produced 7" globes atop 27" stems but the thing that really attracted me was that they were featured in containers alone or with other plants.

I bought some and potted them up 2 years ago but nothing really happened that first year. I overwintered them in our unheated garage in the containers last winter and brought them out again this Spring. They immediately put on a growth spurt and today are over 3' with 7" to 9" balls on top. The flowers are quite attractive with "florets with light blue centres and violet-blue edges" (just like the catalogue said).

This year, I had them in containers by themselves. Perhaps next year, I'll add other plants to the container. If I add other plants to the container, I'll have to ensure that the Agapanthus is centred so that the container will look OK from any side as the container needs to be rotated to prevent the plant from leaning. I'm always a little reticent to mess with something that I thought was pretty good as it was, but perhaps I'll try it with one of the 3 containers.

I add a granulated slow release fertilizer twice a year and water when needed. Haven't needed to water much this year. I think overwintering in the garage is pretty critical as the Agapanthus is a tender perennial. I water plants in the garage a few times over the winter to ensure that they don't dry out.

Adenophora confusa

Confused? I don't think I am anymore.

Back in 96, I purchased a plant called Adenophora confusa from a catalogue service in the US. It was described as a plant that only a Botanist could distinguish from a Campanula. The catalogue described the flowers as "drooping and in racemes and the plants are even more durable and long lived than Bellflowers." The flowers are as the catalogue describes an excellent blue with no enemies on the colour chart. It goes on to say that it flowers in July and August and once established it does not like to be moved.

It has been in the garden ever since and began to spread, even into the lawn. I thought it would be easy to control given it didn't like to be moved but I discovered when I started to dig it up that it had tuber like roots and lots of them. I have been digging out for the last several years and I thought I might have succeeded last year.

Surprise, it is still there. At about the time that I started digging it up, I decided to check a book on weeds and I discovered a weed listed as Campanula rapunculoides (creeping bellflower). The description in the weed book is almost identical to the description in the US catalogue. The weed book goes on to describe the root system as "white creeping and the rhizome is thick and somewhat tuber-like making the plant somewhat difficult to eradicate." Hmmm sounds like my adenophora.

Still not convinced, I decided to check my copy of the Botanical Garden vol II by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix. Now I'm quite sure that my adenophora is truely a campanula. But it is so pretty, do I really want to get rid of all of it. Maybe I'll just keep a little clump of it - if I can keep it little ... It really is a great blue after all.

Plant material

Some of us are plant people - people who see an attractive plant that really catches our eye and we simply must have one or several. We don't know where we are going to put it but we simply must have it. And there are others that are more concerned with design, structure,or maintenance not that it is one or the other (plants or structure).

I was talking to someone on the tour and mentioned a majestic weeping Purple Beech near the front entrance to the house and the individual hadn't seen it. And then there was a gentleman that asked me about a plant at another garden that was nestled amongst the hostas - I hadn't seen it. Finally, it wasn't until we were well into sitting one of the gardens that I noticed a particularly attractive Tricolour Beech. We obviously look at gardens with different eyes.

It is always fun to tour gardens with someone else as it provides an opportunity to see more and to share while doing it. We can share with the home owner too as they too have problems or questions.

While the home owners were not having a problem with a bed or some plants, they were having problems with minx who were eating the koi in the pond. I was able to suggest that they try laying some weeping tile along the bottom of the pond to give the fish a place to hide. They told me that they leave the green algae in one part of the pond as food for the koi. I had known that koi fed on the roots of plants but never thought that algae might help to save some of the plants from the koi. This is what I meant by sharing.

Several people asked about a variegated willow on one of the properties, asking about height, spread and whether it could be pruned. It is always neat to see how a particular plant behaves in a particular setting and to think how it might perform in our own garden.

I love garden tours because I am a visual learner and always go home with some new ideas.

Design

I think that you can look at a good design and see what the purpose of a garden is and this is one of the questions that a good designer asks at the beginning of the interview with the home owner - "How are you going to use the yard? What activities do you want to provide for?" I think that you could look at each of the four gardens we saw last night and see what they were designed for. When I returned to one of the properties after the tour last night, a group of grandchildren were playing ball on the large lawn in the back yard. Play area was obviously important for this family.

The amount of 'play space, entertaining space, ...' and the style of space are really critical to the design. Several of the gardens incorporated the concept of 'rooms' into the garden. This is where the garden is seen as an extension of the house and actually incorporates design characteristics of the house into the garden.

I would have said in the past and particularly after the tour that a formal or somewhat formal garden works best on a large property and we saw some somewhat formal gardens Tuesday night but after the tour I watched a short gardening design program where they put quite a formal garden in a small property. So my perspective has changed.

Regardless of preconceived notions or garden preferences, I think we can learn something from every garden we visit.

Perspective

All of the gardens that we saw last night were on quite large properties. The trees incorporated in all of the gardens are really quite large, yet looked perfect in these gardens. They fit right in and didn't look oversized as they might on some of the smaller properties around our cities. It is unlikely they will ever be too large for the property. One house had a large weeping Purple Beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Purpurea-Pendula') that while large for some gardens will always look just perfect for this property.

There was a property not far from where I live in the Forest Hills area that had at least a half dozen large evergreens. I'm sure that when they were planted, they fit in quite well and didn't overpower the house but as time went on they became far too large for the space they occupied.

When choosing a tree for for our house or garden, we need to pay close attention to the size the tree will eventually become and the length of time it will take to reach that size. There are many dwarf, and weeping varieties of some of these very large trees that will look just right on many of our sub-urban properties.

Another perspective to keep in mind is that we all create gardens for ourselves. The garden that we create for ourself may not be everyone's cup of tea, but we like it otherwise we most likely would have created something else. We all have a favourite style but that doesn't mean that we can't learn from someone else. I invariably borrow ideas from many of the gardens I visit, my style or not.

So I was reminded last night to keep things in perspective.