Beautiful Late Season Gentian

My one Gentiana septemfida is bigger and better this year and its blooms are so beautiful. If you don't have this hardy perennial, you should definitely get one. It is a nice lush green compact plant with large bell shaped flowers of the deepest true blue.




Here's a lesson I should be learning, but refuse to acknowledge: Primula denticulata does not appreciate our climate. It really does need a moist location and spends most of it life in a wilted state under the ash tree in my yard. Two out of the three drumstick primulas are quilt wilty (the fourth plant here being a hosta). I suppose not everything I admire in Victoria, BC will grow here. So unfortunate.


Center raised bed, with annual pink Lavatera "Silver Cup" in the center.

I am still mulling over my fall bulb purchases, waiting for the catalogs to have their "last minute" discounts as the big season approaches. I think I'll order mostly from Botanus in BC, but when I find my Veseys catalog again, I'll be picking a few from there too. I know that one or both of these catalogs five a discount if you quote the code printed on the catalog, so hopefully Veseys sends me another one.

I can never have enough tulips! Of course, the wallet will tire of shelling out for tulips before I will ever have too many. Thankfully RLM is also of the opinion that the potential resale value of the house increases with the beauty of the landscaping. What I good thing I have going here...

Self-Watering Garden

My vision for a self-watering indoor garden with capillary mats has been realized. I am going to wait a while longer to declare it a complete success. I have two shelves that are watering my plants from the bottom, rather than me needing to water the pots individually with a watering can. This is a benefit to the plants, which usually appreciate bottom-watering.

Self-watering indoor garden: arrows indicate flow of water.
There is a reservoir on each shelf, with a capillary mat "wick" from the reservoir (the green boxes) to the adjacent tray, and another wick between each tray. Each tray has a capillary mat lining its bottom, which conducts the water through the holes in the pots, where the potting mix sucks up water and delivers it to the plant roots. I had to wet all the fabric mats to start the capillary action, and the trays have stayed moist for the past week. I add several litres of water to each reservoir per day, so the water must be going somewhere!

Capillary mat between reservoir and tray:

My edible indoor garden. There are spicy purple greens, cilantro, basil, and watercress as well as romaine, butterhead, green leaf and red oakleaf lettuces. My "Micro Tom" and "Red Robin" miniature tomatoes were just sown today. I can't wait to see my tiny, genetically-freakish tomatoes.

Lastly, I sowed a large number of Primula denticulata (Drumstick primula) seeds and got only three plants. I have tried these seeds before and only produced one plant from my efforts. They take an exceptionally long time to germinate and seem to grow very slowly. I am hoping to have nice robust plants by spring. Primula denticulata and Primula auricula are hardy to zone 2, thus are good selections for our climate. Has anybody else had experience growing drumstick primulas from seed?