OT - A Winter's Walk In The Garden
I have been doing a lot of work this winter on planning the first phase of our five year plan to expand and develop the rose collection at the Summerland Ornamental Gardens here in the South Okanagan of British Columbia. I have almost 200 roses ordered for planting in phase one of this project this spring and summer.
But right now it is winter. Not extreme cold like in the East, but still winter, snow on the ground highs near +2 C lows around -5 C. So right around the freezing mark.
Today, I went for a walk around this 15 acre winter garden. As the saying goes, at more than 100 years old, this garden has good bones. Of course, I had it all to myself! Who walks in the garden in winter? I took quite a few images to try to capture the ambience of the garden. But as is often the case, the images don't quite capture the peace and feel of the Gardens. Still, it was a beautiful peaceful afternoon in the winter garden. Here are a few images for your vicarious enjoyment.
Happy February! Cheers, Rick
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Comments (8)Joe, I am totally humbled. I have never seen so much beautiful photography in one album as this. You have amazing talent. The pictures are ALL awesome yet totally different to each other. I am wondering if some are actually taken of pictures. I am just too mind boggled to take it in that you were able to take pictures of these amazing scenes! I know one thing for sure is that you work your camera completely manually which totally blows my mind also. Anyway as you can tell I am awe struck. Thank you so much for sharing. They really are fabulous. Pauline - Vancouver Island...See MoreOT: Anyone thinking about oil prices this winter?
Comments (14)Thought I'd include these two items we recently published in a newsletter for a CT science academy (I like the second one best -- I have visions of popcorn filling their basement!): "Going Underground. Oil prices were still comparatively low when George and Heidi Fellner planned their new home in East Haddam more than five years ago. Fellner brought something unique to the designÂan environmental sensitivity. They chose a geothermal heating system, a system that is more attractive by the day in a time of soaring energy prices. Fellner chose one that involved sinking two wells 300 feet deep and installing a polyethylene pipe filled with an antifreeze solution. In winter, that liquid is heated by the earthÂs warmth and circulated to a heat-exchanger in the homeÂs basement that converts that heat energy to hot air, which is blown through the house, just as in a conventional forced-air system. In summer, the process is essentially reversed, with hot air taken from the home and essentially dumped underground. Fellner calculated that the average monthly cost to heat and cool his 3,240-square-foot home, including the electricity necessary to run his system, was $70 a month, while a conventional oil-fired system would cost an average of $142 a month." and the even neater item: "Corny But Not Crazy. It sounds crazy, heating your house with kernels of corn. But the Petersons of Washington, Connecticut, who bought a corn-burning furnace nine years ago, get the last laugh. "People thought we were weirdÂup until it started getting cold this past year," said Todd Peterson. The system is analogous to a coal-fired system, only cleaner. The Petersons buy 6 tons of corn kernels from a farm in Salisbury in the fall and dump it into a basement storage bin 8 feet by 10 feet. About once a week, a hopper connected to the furnace is filled with corn kernels, which are automatically fed into the firebox. Even in the coldest weeks of winter, the hopper needs to be filled only once every seven days. "We love it. ItÂs great," John Peterson said. "We started it last October, and it ran all winter. We burned just short of six tons of corn. Cost: $620. We still have some left." "Food" for thought! ;)...See More(OT) What REALLY interferes with garden cleanup
Comments (11)The bugs are pretty lively here, and what I read in the news suggests they need all the friendly places they can find. Bees, bumblebees, hoverflies and other insects have been busy on the sarcococca and other flowering plants in the garden. I read to leave some plant litter, let some wild plants grow--many are attractive. Lord knows I have no difficulty following these instructions, as I like a wildish garden anyway, thinking it both the prettiest and the healthiest. And no -cides! Kitasei, good luck. We've been watering some, too. I'm hoping our lack of winter rains will be compensated for by spring precipitation, as we've had at times in the past few years. Sheila, my heavier pruning likely has to do with my climbers being twelve and fifteen years old and having accumulated a lot of aged wood, as I don't prune them all yearly: not enough time. A year ago I looked at 'Crepuscule' and realized that it was horribly overgrown and in need of drastic cutting back of old wood, but I couldn't remove all the old canes because there wouldn't be any rose left. I cut back 'Noella Nabonnand' very hard once, and it sulked for two or three years after that. So I learned a lesson. In the case of 'Crepuscule' I cut back a good portion of the oldest wood a year ago, but left enough so the rose wouldn't sulk; this time around I'm getting much of the rest of the most damaged growth, as there are now enough young canes to replace them. At least, I hope so. I hope to have a good, rejuvenated rose this year. 'Jaune Desprez' also needs heavy pruning, which I've been working on. Perma, good to meet another Houseman enthusiast, and thanks for the quote. Do you grow any of the native Florida violets? None are fragrant that I know of, unfornately, but there are some lovely ones. I remember some beautiful ones we had growing on the north side of my childhood home for a while: very pale, almost white, with a purple flush, long stems, spade-shaped light green leaves. There was also a light violet one with deeply cut leaves, uncommon. Those were the prettiest of several varieties growing wild locally, this in north Florida....See MoreOT - Winter Lingers, Yet Spring Is Near - Musings from Summerland
Comments (2)I'm currently I TX so we never see true winters but when I used to live up north, I found it to be the mos beautiful of the seasons, the stark bare beauty, like nature wiped out all the distractions so you can focus...not Grey or depressing but clean and a fresh slate..I did not garden then, no means and access and I wonder how that would have changed me...See More
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4 years ago
Rosylady (PNW zone 8)
4 years agorideauroselad OkanaganBC6a
4 years agoYes ladies, British Columbia is a beautiful and diverse Province. The huge old trees in the Gardens are indeed one of their strengths and a delight.
I actually love the winter Ingrid, Many of my neighbors and my in-laws all head south to sunnier climes to evade it. But I enjoy it, skiing, walking and yes even some winter ocean kayaking on the coast in the peace, calm and general solitude of our winters. Although as with many of you, I am spending a lot of time planning and ordering roses for the work of spring.
The cones are on a bough of one of the huge old Colorado Blue Spruce trees that line the parking area next to the main lawn. There is a group of them interspersed in other plantings between the parking area and the main lawn and they are huge, blue and shaggy.
The rose on the pergola is an old Darlow's Enigma, of which there are two in the Gardens, one in the Friendship Plaza and another on the fence at the entrance way to the Gardens.
Here are a couple of images of her from last June. She shares her pergola with a large old Trumpet Vine as well as some wildlife who shall remain anonymous . They both need a bit of pruning and tidying, but it will be a big job and I will have to find a day or two to spend on them this summer hopefully.
We are a bit lacking on climbing roses with only three in the 15 acres by my count. I am planning to remedy that this coming spring with a few more structures draped in Canadian bred climbers such as Roberta Bondar, Felix Leclerc, Isabella Skinner ( aka Victorian Memory ) and a few others.
I do not know the whole history of the gardens, particularly with respect to the overall design. The original foundation work began in 1916, there was some major landscape work done beginning in 1926 to complement the, then new. Superintendent's House. So I suspect the various rooms and plantings in the gardens are an aggregation of the work of numerous different designers over many decades. I just hope the rose gardens we are adding will fit in well and do justice to the incredible design work done before.
Cheers, Rick
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9