A Spider, and Other Pink and White Things

The kids first spotted something strange on this plant: a white spider with pink stripes.  I had never seen anything like it, but this Golden Crab Spider is not really uncommon.  It is named "Golden" because it likes to be around goldenrod, which grows in the ditches around here.  Articles about crab spiders indicated that they are ambush hunters, hiding out in flowers until other unsuspecting insects wander by.  This is interesting, because when we found it, the spider was directly below a butterfly.  I don't know how it would have managed to eat something that large.  When bothered, the spider clung to a stem and stuck its appendages out at an odd angle, looking a bit like some kind of flower.

Golden Crab Spider on a Bergenia leaf

My tulips are really creating color in the flower beds, with the bulk of the tulips (most are late varieties) blooming now.  I see a few stragglers that should be dug up and disposed of, as they are getting too old and small.  It is interesting that certain colors of the same type of tulip are longer-lived than others.  My dark pink "Florissa" tulips are the most successful I've ever had.  Several other tulips lived their tulip lives and were tossed out while Florissa continues to make respectable blooms for several years.

Double late tulip "Angelique" with a sea of forget-me-nots in the background.

Dicentra spectabilis "Alba", the white version of Bleeding Heart, a hardy shade perennial that blooms in early June.  The plant mostly dies back after blooming.

Raised bed with tulips

White "Wildhof" Triumph tulips in the center raised bed, among growing lilies.  There are direct-seeded cosmos growing in and around these tulips, which I hope to hide the dying tulip foliage.

Blossoms of a wild Viburnum trilobum, often called highbush cranberry.  It is one of the edible berries of the north.  The leaves are distinguished by their three points (as in the name TRI-lobum).

Linum perenne, the perennial flax.  I started these from seed last year and they are now flowering for the first time.  It is a pretty, delicate-looking hardy blue-flowering perennial.  Chives adorn the background in this flowerbed.

The blackflies are zooming around looking for blood these days.  Bug spray is an essential gardening tool now.  I planted my pepper and tomato plants out in containers yesterday, as it looks like the weather should be warm enough for them now.  I robin nesting under the deck harassed me through the whole process.  I can see the edges of the nest just a few inches under the deck boards, but can't quite see those pretty blue eggs.  Soon we'll hear the little chirps, I'm sure.

Accidental Garden Additions

Last fall's bulb plantings included some bulbs that sneaked into their packages as illegal aliens, riding along with some ordinary tulips and Chionodoxa. I also know that squirrels didn't add these bulbs, unless the squirrels went to a garden center and came back with some lovely parrot tulips (I have never purchased parrot tulips). These showy tulips don't blend well with their surroundings, so they were snipped and put in a vase to be admired inside the house!
Parrot tulips growing among my Giant Beauty tulips:

The second non-invited garden bloom is this six-petaled white flower growing amid a clump of chionodoxa. From some internet searching, I suspect this is Ornithogalum umbellatum, the Star of Bethlehem.

I can't figure out where it came from, since neither Botanus nor Veseys have this bulb in their fall catalogs (my usual sources of bulbs). Also, we are in zone 1b and O. umbellatum is variously listed as being hardy to zone 4-9, and possibly zone 3 if heavily mulched. This plant is growing in my sloped rock garden in full sun. During the winter, the only protection it would have received would be the dead dry leaves of perennials and snow. Besides the unlikely climate, this plant only survived because I've had less time to weed the flowerbeds this year.

Are there any other cold climate gardeners out there with Star of Bethlehem in their gardens? How unusual is this anyhow?

More Mid-June Tulips

I see that my so-called "May-flowering tulips" are nicely blooming now in mid-June. They have been opening quickly over the last few days, with lots of sun and heat over extremely long days. Our frosts of the last two weeks have been replaced by cries for air-conditioning.

Two unwelcome new arrivals in the area include forest fires and carpenter ants. The forest fires are an annual summer reality here, though the giant ants all over the yard (also reported by many other people in town) are a bit of an anomaly. I wonder what they are doing? I've heard that a few people are having their cabins invaded (and eaten) by these little beasties.

According to the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department website, these our our current daylight numbers:

    Begin civil twilight      03:22             
    Sunrise                   04:21              
    Sun transit               13:02             
    Sunset                    21:44             
    End civil twilight        22:42

Here is a little tour of some of my tulips as of this morning:
Lily-flowered tulip "Claudia" looks so elegant:

I attempted to solve the problem of unsightly ground at the bottom of my tulip pictures by planting an "underlayer" of shorter flowers around the tulips. I started these blue and pink-flowered forget-me-nots last year, and I'm sure they will seed themselves and spread around my raised beds from now on! They are planted in front of "Florissa" single late dark pink tulips.

I was inspired to do this after seeing the amazing display at Butchart gardens in Victoria, BC last spring. They often underplanted their tulips with forget-me-nots or pansies.
Here is "Jackpot" Triumph tulip, planted 2008:

Blue forget-me-nots, white double late tulip "Mount Tacoma", "Claudia" lily-flowered tulip, and others:

These Primula saxatilis are very easy to grow. I got these seed from another local gardener. They were started last year and are currently putting on a nice show with various shades of pale violet flowers. They get afternoon shade and an average amount of water. They also apparently seed themselves, though mine have yet to do that.

Starting Tulip Season in the North

Yes, it is June 13 and tulip season has begun! Wow, better late than never. Resident- lawnmower-man spent a great deal of time mowing the large lawn this afternoon, so I can take pictures again without fearing the unsightly grass. Of course, if he would just let me replace the lawn with a mass of shrubs, perennials, trees, and a fortune in bark mulch, we'd not have this problem of mowing. Alas, that will never happen, says he.
Lily-flowered "Claudia" tulip, planted fall 2008:

Tulips: at the back is purple Triumph tulip "Negrita" (planted 2007), yellow and white "Calgary Flame" and in the foreground, "Blue Diamond" Double Late (planted 2007 and also smaller this year).

This next picture demonstrates why you cannot grow fancy modern tulips year after year without replacing them. This purple and white "Zurel" Triumph tulip was planted in 2007 and this year only one of the plants has produced a flower (which is puny and unimpressive).

The rest of the Triumph tulips that are 2+ years old are also showing miniaturized flowers. I'll be digging these up and replacing them with new bulbs this fall. Generally, I would say that the Single Late tulips seem to last a few years longer than the Triumph tulips.
Two colors of Pulsatilla vulgaris in the sloped rock garden:

Yet another experiment on zone-stretching: Anemone blanda "Blue Star" made it through the winter! I planted this bulb last fall in the center raised bed. It is labelled as zone 4 or 5 on plant websites, though it seems to be hardy here.

Big Bulb Planting Day

I think that bulb-planting week should be a provincial, if not national, holiday. I would even be willing to have it as an unpaid holiday. Just so long as I could always get the first week of October off of work to plant tulips and daffodils, I would be pleased. Instead, I crammed most of my bulb planting into this morning. At least the weather was beautiful. In the end, I concluded that I should have planted more bulbs, though I suppose there is some limit to the money I would spend on those papery little imports.

Raised bed in fall colors extravaganza:

This year's order from Botanus was large enough that they threw in a free DVD entitled "Passion - a documentary on the Dutch Bulb Sector". That sounds like one to watch on a romantic evening by the fireplace with RLM! I started watching it this afternoon, but the musical soundtrack was too emotionally intense for both the dog and the littlest gardener, so I had to turn it off.

Scabiosa caucasica "House's Hybrids": a purple bloom from the mix. This flower is always reliable for giving me nice October flowers.


Here is my new planting of Muscari armeniacum, the common blue grape hyacinth. I've read that planting them as "rivers" gives a nice effect. My river is narrow, but meanders gracefully through part of the raised bed.

Otherwise, I've planted various types of tulips including Single Lates, Double Lates, Fosteriana, Giant Beauty, Lily-flowered, and Triumph tulips. I'm also trying Allium atropurpureum this year, to add to A. "Gladiator" and A. Purple Sensation which did well this summer. I also planted a total of 100 yellow daffodils around the raised beds and I look forward to seeing those next spring. I boldly planted Anemone blanda, with the knowledge that it may well not survive the winter here. I'm living on the edge...the edge of my hardiness zone.

Alliums for the North

I am happy to see that my first experiment with large-flowered alliums has been a success! The garden catalogs list these particular bulbs as hardy to zones 4 to 9, but again, we are saved by heavy snow-cover (we are zone 1b).

Here is Allium "Purple Sensation", which is shorter and deeper purple than Allium "Gladiator" (which is not in full bloom yet).



Here is the list of ornamental Alliums in the Botanus (from BC) catalog. I put the ones I would consider growing here in boldface:

• Allium "Purple Sensation" (A. aflatunense) -- 32", zone 4-9
• Allium Fireworks Mix -- 18", zone 4-9, yellow, purple, and white flowers
• Allium "Globemaster" -- 32", zone 6-10, not likely to be hardy
  
• Allium atropurpureum -- dark wine-red, 24", zone 4-10
• Allium azureum -- 24", light purple, zone 4-10
  
• Allium bulgaricum -- zone 6-10, not likely to be hardy
• Allium cristophii -- 36", zone 5-8, probably not hardy
  
• Allium giganteum -- 40", zone 6-10, not likely to be hardy
• Allium "Hair" -- too weird for my tastes
  
• Allium karataviense "Ivory Queen" - 4", white flowers on broad leaves, zone 5-9, probably not hardy
• Allium moly luteum -- 10", zone 3-9, yellow flowers, naturalizing (spreads)
  
• Allium "Mount Everest" -- 32", zone 4-9, large white ball-shaped flowers
  
• Allium neapolitanum -- 10", zone 6-10, not likely to be hardy
  
• Allium ostrowskianum -- 10", pink flowers, zone 4-9
• Allium schubertii -- 16", zone 4-10, unique purple flowers
• Allium sphaerocephalon -- 24", zone 4-10, small egg-shaped deep wine-red flowers, naturalizing (spreads)

"Skagit Valley" Tulip, the latest-blooming tulip in my yard:

I've got Subarctic Cherries!

Who says you can't grow cherries in subarctic Canada? My "Carmine Jewel" tart cherries (the cherry PR people think "tart" sounds better than "sour") finally bloomed for the first time since they were planted.

We planted four of these trees three years ago and trained them to grow a single main stem with a nice ball of branches on top. This tree gets the most sun and it has the most blooms on it. I hope it will be pollinated by the other cherry-related trees in the yard. I want some nice cherries to eat this summer!

The many forest fires in northern Saskatchewan are still burning and we've had several days of poor visibility in town due to moderate smoke in the air. There's no danger for our town, but bush camps and cabins are at risk of fires. Here's one of the water-bomber planes that flies frequently over our house. Its base is at the La Ronge airport.

Tulips. Yes, we still have them!

A nice clump of wild orchids in the forest behind our property.

This blue flower is Clematis macropetala, a hardy clematis I started from seed. It is growing up a cedar shrub which had a dead spot on one side. The clematis quite likes this location, since its roots are shaded by the shrub.

Close-up of the Clematis macropetala "Markham's Blue". I think that most of the fancy clematis types are not hardy here. I don't prune this clematis at all, but I may need to soon, just prevent it from getting too large. It's begun to reach its tentacles beyond the cedar, leaving vines waving about in the air.

Wild Orchids and Friends

The wild lady slipper orchids (Cypripedium acaule) are blooming right now. If you live in town, get out in the boreal forest and take a look!

The "Blue Diamond" Double Late Tulips have gotten more beautiful with age. I guess they only start to look good once they fully open.

Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) is now blooming in its shady bed:

A visit to BB's garden resulted in these pretty pictures of plants I don't have but would like, such as this Gentiana acaulis:

Happily, a seedling from this Aquilegia glandulosa got in my car and came home with me!

Dodacatheon pulchellum is also in bloom in my friend's garden. All the plants in her yard are not coddled or protected from winter in any way, so this plant must be quite hardy.

"Tres Chic" Lily flowered tulips, BB's favourite large-flowered tulip type.

A beautiful Lewisia cotyledon at BB's yard. Oh so beautiful and mouthwatering!

Kona got a great walk yesterday. Sniffing the grass, marking the grass, and generally running amok brought tongue-dangling joy to the big girl! Poor girl couldn't catch a muskrat if dinner depended on it though...

A Day Without Rain, Again

It was a beautiful, sunny hot day again today. You could still see the garden at 10:00 pm, as it was still somewhat light outside. I love that I can garden until the late news comes on TV. Someday, we'll have to get some rain up here though. I heard on the news that one of the far northern communities in this province (Uranium City) was evacuated because of fires. Besides fires, rain would keep down the horrendous amounts of dust blowing off the dirt road that goes past our house.
The double flowered tulip "Blue Diamond" finally stay open all day:

In the next few days I'll be getting pictures of the wild orchids that grow behind our property. Cypripedium acaulis, the pink lady slipper, grows wild on granite slabs in filtered light all around the La Ronge area.
Wavy lines of the rock wall containing my collection of perennials:

More pictures of the "cup-shaped flowers", as a passerby called them today. What are they teaching in schools these days anyhow? Ha! Maybe I need to make my flower labels bigger just for educational value.

I dug up some tulips that stopped blooming this year, with plans to replace them in fall. I wonder if there's some trick to doing this, as it's easy to miss a bulb, especially when digging among other established plants and shrub roots!

Everything but the Dandelions

Here are some shots from this evening, cleverly trying to avoid the untidy lawn full of dandelions. It's very embarassing, but the lawn shall have a haircut tomorrow. RLM has promised.

The rose bush is just starting to grow some foliage. I'd call that a bit tardy!

Otherwise, the air is a bit smoky here, though not enough to smoke out the bugs. I flew over northeast Saskatchewan today, noticing at least three fires. Back at the airport, I also noticed that several water bombers were missing from their regular parking spots. There was a moderate sized fire with a large grey mushroom cloud rising from it northwest of La Ronge. It's the season of fire again.

Tulips in the large raised bed:

The summer of 2006 brought fires that forced evacuation of people with respiratory disease. Rather non-reassuringly, we were told that as critical health care workers, we wouldn't be allowed to leave until the hospital was burning down (or something to that effect). I envisioned us paddling away from the ashes of town in a canoe. While I don't think it would ever come to that, I have the feeling that I'd be taking the family dog and leaving town far before that point.

Seed heads of Pulsatilla vulgaris (pasque flower):

At least the fires can kill off the plague of spruce beetles. Yeah, those BC people used to think that their pine beetles would be killed off by cold winters. Our winters are brutal, yet the forest-destroying spruce beetle marches on.

Seedlings of something growing around my potted tomato.

I threw some compost in here, so it could be anything we ate in the past six months. I'll tempted to grow one and find out what mystery plant we have here. I'm guessing a cucumber.

"Tumbling Tom" cherry tomato looking fabulous and sporting some nice little tomatoes:

"Skagit Valley" Tulip Again

This is a celebration of the ebbing days of the tulip in 2007: here is my latest blooming tulip, named after the tulip-growing valley in Washington state, USA. "Skagit Valley" is a beautiful bicolor tulip. I don't see it in my catalogs this year, but it is similar to one named "Shirley" in the Botanus catalog. Speaking of catalogs, I am going to order some fall bulbs in the next few days. Some of the catalogs have these limited time offers, and I plan to take advantage of them. I usually order fall bulbs from Veseys and Botanus.

I get the Breck's catalog but I don't like that they often omit Latin names or category names (ie. botanical tulips, single late tulips, etc.). Instead, they have some fanciful names and I sometimes wonder if their marketing department just makes these up. For example, they have a fantastic picture of the "Ice Stick Tulip", but nowhere do they tell you that it's a Kaufmanniana Hybrid -- a division XII tulip which will naturalize and is known to be extremely long-lived. I suppose this is like the stereotypical woman buying a car joke:

Salesperson: "What kind of care are you looking for ma'am?"
Woman: "I'd like a red car."

Well, I'd certainly never let resident-lawnmower-man buy my tulips...