6 2009-05-16T23:57:15-04:00 false 7.58 pm Feathered mackerel clouds and chilly walking down to the Farmer's Market, swallows flying low, rain forecast, magnolias having their day or two of glory, dandelions everywhere and grass a rich deep green. It was a bit warmer by the time I got back so I thought I would potter around the garden. Mostly deadheading the flowering bulbs that were over, the Jet Fire daffodils, some of the first species tulips and some yellow Dutch tulips, also plants that I don't want to seed all over the garden like the white Pasque Flowers. I would like the purple Pasque Flower to spread itself around a bit more. I discovered a lone Anemone Blanda on the opposite side of the garden behind the Berberis Rosy Glow, and the original patch of Labrador Violets seems to have died out but its progeny are all over the garden which is fine with me. I am not sure how tulips move around but two Red Parrots have turned up in the Road bed. The Red Parrots bulbs are rather old at this point and the flowers are small and less feathery. Ditto the yellow and red Gregiis. As the first of the Fall bulb catalogues arrived this week, I will maybe remember what I need to replace or augment. The Honky Tonk tulips and Little Princess tulips are now in bloom - it seemed as though they opened as I watched. Definately a fine month for tulips. I could plant spring bulbs along the west edge of East 2. I also did a bit more winter pruning taking out the dead branches of the pyracantha, the Rosa Sunrise which already has white fly, a small amount of die back on the Rose Emily Carr and rather more than I first thought on R. Generous Gardener. I think the latter is quite exposed and also that I may not have buried the root stock deeply enough when I removed the box and built the wall up. I tipped the remains of some container soil over the root stock and then some rather sandy soil from a flower pot. I need to build up that wall a bit higher and put some rocks to keep the soil in place. Despite the amount of pruning I have done on some of the roses, they all look in good shape with lots of new leaf sprouts, the only one looking a bit sparse is Alchemyst but that Shade bed is often slow to warm up and Alta which may have suffered the same fate as The Generous Garden in not being buried deep enough however there are some strong sprouts coming from the base. I hoicked a few flowering dandelions and maple saplings out, and removed some of the sticks laid across the beds to keep cats off - there are enough shoots now to discourage felines. Then I decided to sit in the garden for lunch and a neighbour came to chat and I offered to help her retrieve her lawnmower from a friend - it is a commercial one and very heavy. When we had loaded the mower (and it was heavy) into her stationwagon, she said, "Where next?" so we went to Rona's the only place other than the Farmer's Market which has anything in the way of plants on offer. We detoured to see a magnificent magnolia solid with blooms. Rona was rather a disappointment with a very poor selection, although I did get some plants: Erigeron aka Cutleaf Alpine Fleabane which I think I may plant around Rosa The Generous Gardener; a deep velvety red Auricula; Orange Siberian Wallflower; some Portulaca 'Sundial Scarlet', and Irish Saxifrage which I have never seen before. The perennials are all 'Rock Stars'. The assistants looked as though they were high school students and were wondering why they had been so busy, "Just like Mother's Day last weekend" well, duh, Victoria weekend is the traditional planting weekend wherever you live in Canada - well maybe not Whitehorse or Yellow Knife or Iculet. Our ride continued south along the Columbia River which is surprisingly low for the time of year, and to William's Lake, then up along a dirt road to Echo Lake where people were camping and fishing and we had a nice walk around the lake. The skunk cabbage are beginning to flower, such a spectacular bloom, and it was quiet and grey and raining gently but none of this really has to do with gardening except that we passed lots of rocks and stopped at a pile to get some for my garden. Photos: Tulip Angelique; Tulip Honky Tonk with Grape Hyacinths; Tulip Little Princess; the afternoon's haul. 8 true 57844 false false false Entry 2009-05-15T20:00:00-04:00 DMY 60783 Public 2009-05-22T12:52:16-04:00 1175 Overcast 14 C