Quest for a "Sister Climate"

You know how some places have a "sister city"? My hometown had Ikeda, Japan as its sister city. Personally, I thought it was just a ploy to get more Japanese tourist dollars. Regardless, it is always interesting to find people with common interests, hobbies, or environments.

Garden bloggers are a peculiar type of person, but garden bloggers from cold northern climates are an even smaller group. I read the blog entitled "Cold Climate Gardening" regularly, but the collection of writers on that blog all live in the USA (and not Alaska). While they may have cold climates, few probably have severe winters like we do here. Then again, there are gardeners in the harsher climate of Yellowknife, NWT, but I haven't seen a garden blog from there yet. They could write about the polar bears trampling their gardens. (Believe it or not, we do occasionally have reindeer around here -- although in Canada we call them caribou).

Köppen Climate Map

Getting back to the point, there must be a "sister climate" somewhere in the world, as judged by an international climate map. I found the Köppen climate classification system, which identifies our climate as "Dfc"=Continental Subarctic or Boreal (Taiga). It is similar to that of northern Russia, northern Sweden, northern Finland, northern Norway, and Anchorage, Alaska. Actually, it includes much of Canada, excepting the west coast, the parts of the prairie provinces that grow stuff, and the southern bit of Ontario and Quebec.

Wanting to feel a kinship with somewhere a bit more foreign and exotic, I will claim Oulu, Finland as my "sister climate" city. I even found a garden blogger in Oulu on the Gardening blogs directory and guess what?!? All the plants on that website look eerily familiar. Quu in Finland, I don't know who you are or if you speak English, but I think we could be friends.

Ode to a View and a Shoe

The raised bed is coming alive with blue! The delphiniums and blue cornflowers are starting the show. The sea holly (Eryngium alpinum) was planted this spring but doesn't look like it will flower this year. Oh yes, and the blue irises: mine were bought as "Caesar's Brother", though they certainly look lighter in color than other siberian irises labelled as such.

I aimed to have predominantly white, blue/purple, and yellow in this bed but it seems that the colors have secluded themselves to seasons and I don't get to enjoy the colors simultaneously! Here is an opportunity for some head-scratching and redesigning for next year. First project: add more dianthus species, since they provide such bright colors and are blooming now when I have too many white flowers.

Here is a bright morning picture of my large raised bed. The clouds of white are the towering bells of Campanula persicifolia and pink is Dianthus gratianopolitanus "Firewitch". You can see Lac La Ronge through the trees near the left of the photo.

Isn't this an attractive garden ornament? Would you like one? I found this in the forest behind the house while walking the dog. It seems that runningshoe mesh makes a fabulous growth medium for mosses. One might even comment on the attractive combination of the rust-colored mossy bits and the robin's-egg-blue leather trim. I call this the La Ronge "Chia Sneaker".

Pink, White, and Blue in the Garden

Today's blooming of my Pulsatilla vulgaris "dissecta" was a suprise. Not just because this is a little late for Pasque flowers, but because it certainly isn't a "dissecta". I ordered two of this plant and obviously, this plant was mislabeled or the seed didn't come true. Anyhow, does anyone have a name for this lovely pink Pulsatilla? Otherwise, I now have white, two shades of purple, and red ones. This one is distinct from all the others and the company I bought it from doesn't even sell pink ones!

Mystery Pink Pulsatilla

I dug all the rest of the Siberian irises out of the bank of sedum this spring, thinking they'd get more water in the raised beds. Somehow I missed this one, a "Snow Queen" Siberian iris. It seems to be doing fine though. Ironically, most of the irises planted in the raised beds in fall 2005 have not bloomed!

I let my group of cornflowers spread seed last year and now I have this pretty blue haze of annual cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus) among the perennials. I notice that several little birds are starting the enjoy my forest of flowers too, because there is always some fluttering and rustling among the plants when I go out to the big raised bed. Come to think of it, that's probably why I also saw a cat slinking around there last night...
An update to the rest of you southern gardeners -- I am still waiting for my first daylilies! They have buds though, and I promise to send pictures. Karen in Ontario has the most amazing collection of daylilies - seventy of them! I'd definitely have to dig up the lawn to make room for that many daylilies...