The long weekend in May is traditionally the time to plant your garden, so check out our

Come early for best selection!

Because of the cool, damp spring weather, some plants were not ready for the sale but they are ready now. Availability changes throughout the year, so please come by often to check out our Plant Sale Area.

This year we have two amazing volunteers to add to the incredible group that have Life Memberships. These two wonderful people were honoured at our recent Annual General Meeting 

 

The first amazing volunteer is Bev Tandberg - most of you know her as "Beverage Bev" or "Little Bev". Bev has been serving our volunteers for 25 years, prior to that she was a grade 2 teacher at James Bay Elementary. She remembers how the gardens and buildings have changed through the years. When she started volunteering in hospitality we did not even have a dishwasher. She remembers there being around 30 volunteers on Wednesday when she started. We now have approximately 80!        

It's funny how a bed can look fabulous season after season and then suddenly tip over into a completely different state. This was the case with our small heather bed at the south-west corner of the Winter Garden.

 

This bed garnered great praise from visitors who loved the variety of heathers, the fact that there were always some in bloom, the richness of the colours, and the different styles. But this past winter the bed began to look overgrown and scraggly - as is the custom with heather gardens.

 

We tried to remedy the situation by thinning it out - but, alas, it just looked like a bed with big gaps. Several weeks ago, our small collaborative team agreed the only solution was to rip out all the old heathers and start afresh. As we stood pondering how to approach this project, Linda materialized with none other than David Wilson, owner of The Heather Farm. David was at the HCP to teach students about heather gardens. How serendipitous! Within seconds we had skillfully abdicated our responsibility for this project and turned it over to Linda and David as a project for students.

We returned the next week to find our lovely little bed planted with 30 young heather plants - a terrific mix of Ericas and Callunas that will ensure this bed continues to be a focal point for visitors, volunteers, and garden enthusiasts.

Please check it out now, and return often to watch it grow and develop. We are most appreciative of the efforts of David and the student team who renovated this bed for us.

 

Our second renovation project took place a little further along in the same bed. This large bed that runs alongside the road, and therefore is highly visible, has been a challenge. It varies between too wet or too dry, depending on the season, and has no natural features to give it 'bones'.

 

We knew we wanted to make changes, but wondered just how to go about it. Linda suggested we create a berm - and with that, a berm was born! That sounds easy - it was in fact a bit of a hard slog. A design was kindly provided by Em McCormick, part- time assistant gardener at HCP. The area was staked out. All plants were removed from the future berm garden and either potted up or moved elsewhere in the garden. Then the rocks arrived and heavy lifting was done by Giles, students, and some of our team - particularly the sole male in our group, Paul. Giles trucked in lovely soil and the raised bed began to take shape. We were the lucky recipients of some plants donated by Novus Plants.

 

The entire project was completed in just over a month and is ready to be admired. Please come down and see the ' Berm Bed' featuring 5 Cedrus deodara 'Feelin' Blue; 2 Ilex crenata 'Drops of Gold'; 1 Ribes sanguineum "Variegata'; 1 Pittosporum tenuifolium "Nutty's Leprechaun'; and 3 Iris siberica 'Caesar's Brother'. The new feature adds interest to this area both in terms of hard and soft landscapes.

 

Susan Reece

DPWG Volunteer

May 2018

What a wonderful time of the year in the Gardens. Everything is sprouting, blossom is bursting out on all sorts of ornamental bushes and trees and the increasingly warm weather is bringing the season onward.
There are too many plants to mention but each time I walk through the gardens there is something different that catches my eye.

Now is the time to visit the Rhododendron Garden; it has been  looking spectacular these last few weeks and different varieties continue to open and reveal their startling range of colours. Some of the paler coloured varieties have been impressing me this year, especially R. 'King George' and R. 'Crete', but a species whose name tells us it is originally from Yunnan province in China, R. yunnanense, has given me special pleasure; the flowers, white with a pale yellow heart, are quite small yet plentiful, giving the plant a rather different style from many of the more familiar large-flowered varieties.

White blossom can also be seen in the Fuschia Garden where there is an attractive young specimen of the snowdrop tree, Halesia carolina 'Wedding Bells'. And at the lower corner of the Hardy Plant Garden there is a well-grown Pyrus salicifolia 'Pendula', the weeping pear. I had confused this tree with one I am more familiar with, the Russian Olive, Elaeagnus angustifolia, which also has long thin silvery leaves, but this weeping pear has white blossom  similar to other apples and pears whereas the russian olive actually has smaller yellow flowers.

In this recent welcome spell of sunshine I have remarked also the range of purple flowers in the Hardy beds and the almost matching dark foliage of some shrubs . The large heads of early Alliums, the late spikes of purple bugle (Ajuga) and the last flowers of Bergenia cordifolia reflect some of the dark tints of neighbouring Physocarpus 'Diabolo', Sambucus nigra porphyrophylla 'Gerda' and the newly budding Japanese smoke tree, Cotinus coggyria.

Tea Cup Fairy Gardens 

We will begin with an enchanted walk through the Gardens for inspiration to create your own take home Tea Cup Fairy Garden. This is a chance to work with a variety of materials including clay, moss and twigs. Please plan to bring along your own cup (cup and saucer) to use. There are so many styles, colours and materials of cup (cups and saucers) that bringing your own will allow you to create a very individualized garden. Parents/guardians are welcome to stay and participate (and required to stay with children under 6 years). This activity appeals to many adults and they enjoy participating too! If you want to create a garden as you attend with a child, please bring along your own cup. There is an additional fee of $5 to cover the cost of your plant material.

Date:

June 16 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 pm

Junior Master Gardeners KID'S GARDEN CLUB

 

Once a month we meet for seasonal gardening activities in our very own JMG Garden Plot! Our growing season starts early, and there is always lots to do!! When the weather is not quite ideal, we can work indoors to start seeds, learn to propagate plants, plan our home gardens, build trellising, and lots more. When the weather cooperates, we spend every minute creating garden beds, amending soil, mulching, planting, weeding, staking, and watering! These are great skills to get your garden enthusiast growing their own food at home. There are lots of take homes, from seeds to plants and harvests whenever available. Please pre-register at 250-479-6162 

 

Club Dates: 

9:45 am - 11:45 am (Saturday's 2018 - Feb 3, Mar 3, Apr 7, May 5, Jun 2, SUMMER BREAK, Sept 8, Oct 6, Nov 3, Dec 1)
Cost: $10/2 hr session 
Ages: All ages welcome! Children under 5 need to be with a supervising/participating adult