One week till the garden tour, panic setting in!

Hubby with more plants standing next to Garden Tour ticket sellers

You can see the posters all over the Cowichan Valley!  Posters advertising Cowichan Family Life’s 16th Annual Cowichan Valley Garden Tour.  Billed as a Charitable Fundraiser, the poster says “The Garden Tour is self-guided through six unique and beautiful gardens located throughout our community”.

Yipes! Unique and Beautiful!  4 of the six gardens are owned by members of the Mill Bay Garden Club and as this year’s President, I am quite familiar with those gardens.  They are all spectacular and set a high, high standard.

With that in mind, the last week has involved 5 and 6 hour stretches in the garden every time I can step away from my day job for a few hours.  The ‘heavy-lifting’ weeding and pruning has been done for about a month.  But its been a rainy intervening month which has encouraged the weeds all over again.

Hubby and I have been back and forth to various garden centres and nurseries to find “just something” for that open space in that bed and end up coming home with so many new additions we are planting rather than preparing!  Here are some pictures of plots we hope will delight our visitors:

Siberian Iris 'Erna', lupins and Spirea 'goldmound'

I have lots AND LOTS of both Siberian and Bearded Iris.  I thought both would be finished blooming by June 6th, we had such mild early spring weather.  But, for the last two weeks the weather has been cooler with lots of rain so both bearded and Siberian iris have lots of buds and will be hopefully ready to go……………..Also ready to go, with just a little heat and sun this week are

White and Lavender 'Pacific Giant' Delphiniums just ready to bloom

Also ready, with lots of plants all along the long bed are……

Peonies! Ready to pop - hopefully later this week.

These are the good old-fashioned peonies, but I’m also hoping my new IToh Peony ‘Bartzella’ will also bust into bloom.  I have two others, but they aren’t as advanced as Bart.  Also,

Still lots of rhodos in bud or bloom - thank goodness!

Rhodos all over the place.  Some are still in bud and that bodes well for next Sunday, some are in bloom and should still look OK and, of course, some are finished and require deadheading and tidying up.  Of course they do.  About 40 of them.  Thank goodness for good gardening friends like Ali and Sandy who will come over on Wednesday afternoon and help with the deadheading.

Iris starting to come.....this one is 'Batik', I think

Iris are really my thing and I planted some fairly spectacular new tall bearded iris and tall intermediate bearded iris last August to show off for this garden tour.  I spent nearly 4 hours in the iris bed yesterday making sure that there wasn’t one weed, all brown foliage was removed, any spent blooms removed, etc. etc.  If I say I’m into something, I’m into something! In an apres garden tour blog I will share some pictures of the best iris performers.

Nearly ready to go

This is kind of a goofy picture at the pond.  See one of my new frogs?  He is rather large, but enjoys that stump.  I have a modest collection of garden frogs and they will all be on display on the tour.  Behind is some of that dreaded landscape material that I have allowed on the property just to cover the compost overflow to hide it for the tour.  We’ll put bark mulch on it and no one will ever know there are weeds and trimmings etc. underneath.  At least we hope they won’t know.  In the foreground is one of our most flashy new Japanese Maples ‘Ukigumo’.

Rodgersia - not too impressive just yet

Bought this one-leafed very juvenile Rodgersia on the rhodo tour trip at Hidden Acres.  It doesn’t look like much yet, but they spread fairly quickly and hopefully I’ll have a nice clump on it with many leaves along the little stream leading out of the pond.

Our entrance sign with a trio of rhodos in bloom

Ok, five more days (garden has to be ready for next Saturday, June 5 for the ‘pre-tour’ of the other garden owners, volunteers, press, Cowichan Family Life execs, etc.) to finish planting vegetables for eating, not for the tour, re-weed and tidy the driveway plots, stage all the containers on the various patios, porches, and the Parthenon, deadhead the rest of the rhodos, sweep and clean the various paths, patios, etc. etc. etc.  Probably time for one more blog and we’ll carry on after it with a post mortem, and new gardening topics.

Tickets for the tour are $15.00 and if you live on Vancouver Island or want to wander over from the Mainland, you can buy tickets at Buckerfield’s, Dinter’s Nursery, Marigold Nursery, 49th Parallel Grocery, Volume One Bookstore, Third Addition Gifts & Toys, Sandpiper Garden and Glass, Long Lake Nursery, Elk Lake Garden Centre, Cannor Nursery, Dig This – Broadmead, Market Square, Oak Bay, and through the Cowichan Family Life Association. If you are reading this from out of town and want tickets, please just ‘comment’ on this blog and I’ll respond and I can help you obtain tickets.

Warning – true Gardeners may drool when looking at these pictures

Garden Clubs offer many, many benefits to the gardener.  Apart from the monthly meetings, informative newsletters, and flower shows, many garden clubs organize bus tours.  I’ve had the pure privilege of being on many garden club bus tours.  Usually they are just one day, but occasionally they can be two or even three days.  They always include a combination of visits to gardens – both private and public – and visits to nurseries and/or garden centres, often ones off the beaten path of specialty nurseries where a complete frenzy of plant buying activity usually takes place.

I’ve just returned from a two day bus tour hosted by the Cowichan Valley Rhododendron Society that took an entire busload of us up Vancouver Island as far as Campbell River with stops in Courtenay, Comox and Nanaimo.  This was a sold out tour with a waiting list and it was this way because of the excellent program, the great arrangements, the great plant buying opportunities, and the good food.  That’s all it takes to make gardeners happy!  (Oh, we had a little wine with dinner last night and lunch today – that generally makes us happy too!)  Without further ado, and with emphasis on the plants, here are a few spectacualar plants we encountered on the tour.

Glorious Petasites (or ButterBur) at Filberg Gardens in Comox

Filberg is really known for its trees - this is a MetaSequoia glowing in the sun

An absolutely stunning tree peony

The peony and a few of the following pictures are from the Smith garden in Comox.  As often happens on garden club tours, private citizens can be coaxed into opening their gardens for rare visits and this was one.  The lovely couple are actually Mr. and Mrs. Smith, are absolutely charming and their garden was jaw-droppingly lovely.  The rhodos were at their best, but there were glorious plants of all descriptions everywhere.

Yikes! occasionally no tag. Does anyone recognize which one this beautiful rhodo is?

Hubby (who also happened to be tour organizer) with R. Polar Bear

I WANT one of these rhodos - name please!

The above glorious rhodo was on display at Hidden Acres Rhododendrons in Campbell River.  The owners, Paul & Lynn Wurz gave me the name but alas, its written on something I’ve yet to find!  Paul and Lynn represent all of the best of what specialty nurseries have to offer.  Huge, excellent, and specialty plant selection, honest and gracious customer service, lots of plant knowledge particularly when it comes to which plant will survive in what locale and conditions, and reasonable prices.  The group had a gardener’s ball here – I’m sure over 250 rhodos were bought (the bus storage was FULL), and enjoyed immensely touring their demonstration garden.  Here are a few more pictures to show you what I mean………..

Just one of many vistas in the huge demonstration garden at Hidden Acres

Mrs. Josephine Firth, one of the largest truss sizes in the Rhodo kingdom

One of the garden trails at the Kitty Coleman Gardens in Courtenay. 24 acres of natural woodland gardens

Acer 'Full Moon' at Outback Nurseries

One of our last stops was at the Outback Nursery in Courtenay, BC.  Without doubt they have the most extensive selection of Japanese Maples ANYWHERE.  Japanese maples compliment many plant groups, and certainly rhodos, and this nursery had every type.  I could not resist this ‘Full Moon’ which I will put at the north end of our pond to impressive our garden tour visitors on June 6th.

All in all, a grand few days.

Garden Tour only 26 sleeps away! Here’s today’s pictures

Coming up the driveway, the spirea are wonderful colours

Itoh Peony filled with buds on left, Daphne 'Briggs Moonlight' to the right

Miniature bearded iris already in bloom, Daphne 'Briggs Moonlight' behind

Faithful, wonderful Holly, the chocolate Lab

Best rhodo so far 'Yak Incense'

Top of the Aralia tree - this will cause comments on the tour!

The cranes came from Malaysia. Variegated box hedge just new but coming nicely.

BIG BUDS ready to burst on R. 'Horizon Monarch'

My new prized possession 'Impatiens omeiensis' gorgeous spreading groundcover from gardening friend Ali.

Every year this is our best rhodo, R. 'Pride and Joy'

Brought this groundcover back from Montreal. Its covered in buds...what is it?

Another view of the pond - very serene

Holly and Ivy checking out the Delmara Peltata (sp?) at the end of the pond. Should make quite a display by June

Many more pictures available, but before this file gets too big to send to anyone, I’ll leave it here for now.  Most of the basic weeding, trimming, pruning, and transplanting has been done with several new additions settling in.  Still some annuals to plant for colour, some vegetables and seeds to set, and our containers to take out of the greenhouse and position.  All within the next three weeks!

A reminder, we are pleased to be part of the Cowichan Family Life Organization’s fund raising Garden Tour to be held from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 6th.  Tickets are $15.00 with all proceeds going towards the programs for the needy operated by Cowichan Family Life.  Full details of the self-guided tour of six gardens at www.cowichanfamilylife.org

Never garden with a Corgi!

The Epitome of Determination

Take a look, a really good look at the above picture.  If that’s not full-out extension and determination, I’ve yet to see it.  And then take a good look at the following picture.  Its the same dog.  But you’d think the one in the first picture is ten feet high or would have to be to catch that ball.  And in the lower picture you see that she is not.  This illustrates, just a little, the determination of the Corgi.

Champion!

The fabulous, flying corgi is not my dog.  She is one of Wendy Wendt’s famous Low Rider corgis.  Wendy is a corgi breeder extraordinaire and I’ve had the pleasure of ‘meeting’ her and her WendtWorth Corgis www.wendtworthcorgis.com as we are members of the same Corgi Facebook Group and now ‘friends’.  The flying dog is Sian, pronounced like “sigh Anne”. Her registered name is Misty Ridges WendtWorth Honey Lark born Aug. 4, 2008.  She’s not even 2 years old!

A portion of my day is spent very happily keeping up with corgis, new litters, etc from around the world as I have Facebook ‘friends’ in Germany, Ireland, Norway, Spain, and all over the US and Canada.  Somewhere here is a message and testimony to the value of good social media networking!  What with gardening, corgis, and the Vancouver Canucks, I am not sure on how I keep my day job!

Back to Corgis and gardening.  Whether it is Sian, or my corgi, Ivy – trying to garden with a corgi can be, well, trying…………..   Let me illustrate.  You just ‘suit up’ for your time in the garden.  Knee pads on, scruffy clothes, gardening gloves, IPOD tuned to something rockin’ and you get down on your hands and knees to seriously attach those neverending weeds in your garden.  Within seconds, this is what you look down on:

Right in your line of vision

This is not a skill unique to Corgis. This uncanny ability to place the ball directly in front of you so you can not fail to see it and it is in an easy and convenient place to pick up and throw can be mastered by all dogs.  But, Corgis that live with gardeners are particularly adept at it.  Corgis are very, very intelligent and they want you to think that this whole ball-throwing thing is just part of your gardening routine.

IF you are foolish enough to pick up the ball – you deserve your fate.  Immediately the corgi adopts a stare with a level of concentration that is nearly scary.  Look at Sian and Ivy – who have never met – one lives in Ohio and one lives on Vancouver Island – yet both they have identical concentrated stare:

Sian waiting for the pitch

Ivy at three months just starting to perfect ‘the stare’.

Ivy today with that same intense 'throw the ball' stare

The choice of balls in immaterial.  Ivy has a little ‘jolly ball’  with a handle that she prefers if she is retrieving in water, but she’s equally happy with the most dirty, chewed, disgusting bent tennis ball of the planet.

If you are foolish enough to actually throw the ball, then consider that you have bought in to at least 10 throws.  After 10, during which time your gardening progress is slowed to a crawl, some Corgis will buy into your ‘OK, that’s enough’ command and lie down for a breather.  I swear they time the next move.  Nonchalantly they lie down like a perfect angel and wait just long enough for you to regain your rhythm and purpose in your gardening task.  In their minds they are waiting until your forget that you’ve ever told them to lie down.  Just when you’ve determined its a joy to garden with a corgi, PLOP, the ball re-enters your field of vision.

The next time, if you are blatantly foolish enough to pick up the ball yet again and throw it, you really deserve your own fate, and the fate of your plants.  What invariably happens during the throwing game is that you begin to get fed-up and tired and just fling the stupid ball without purpose or aim and……..sure enough……it lands directly on your most sensitive, valuable, and tender plant, breaking three precious stems.  And you can’t even blame the dog!

Don’t get me wrong.  I love corgis – once you’ve had one (like I did when I was growing up) you can’t do without one.  They are SMART, (Ivy is a Companion Dog (CD) that involves qualifying scores in three separate Obedience Shows.  Some dogs have to go to show after show to get the three qualifying scores.  Ivy qualified in the only 3 shows she ever attended and was high score dog in two of the shows), but that SMART can backfire as I swear they can think around you.  Corgis are courageous – after all they were bred to herd those big, ugly Highland steers – and they can be very loving.  Who can resist these WendtWorth corgis – this, I believe, is the whole family

A whole family of those ball playing maniacs

Is there a solution to gardening with a corgi?  A way to train them to never drop the ball in your line of vision if you are working in the garden?  If there is, please send me the instructions.  Better yet, don’t bother, Ivy is too far gone and the joy I can see she has outweighs the odd destroyed Itoh peony.  Besides, all that throwing keeps my arms toned.  Here’s another of Sian at her best………..

Excellent photographer as well!

A final, necessary comment.  Whereas this is a valentine to Corgis and their determination and obsessions, it would be wrong for me to write a dog blog without a nod to my beloved Chocolate Lab.  Holly (get it? Holly and Ivy) was here first, and she has tolerated Ivy and her constant torture with all the good nature inherent in every lab.  Ivy herds Holly, used to pull her tail, lies all over her, and tries to outdo her in every way.

Holly the chew toy

Here’s to Holly, and corgis everywhere.  They brighten up my life everyday.