Hover Dish from Pot Inc.

Many of you have seen the amazing collection of Hover Dish planters from Pot Inc. They were featured this year at the small space showcase at the Northwest Flower and Garden show and have been popping up at some of the best nurseries around. My friend and designer Todd Holloway has done an incredible job with these awesome hanging planters.

With many thanks to Todd, I received an awesome Flango Hover Dish in my favourite iceberg colour. And as I always do right when I get any new container, I went plant shopping of course! So I set out to Western Independent Greenhouses to get some sweet succulents to fill out my hover dish!

I already had the blue elf aloe kicking around and had been planning on featuring it in a succulent pot. Here is my hover just after planting. I left it out in the hot sunshine that we had last week to let things settle into place before hanging it.

Yesterday was the big day to hang the hover! I'm thrilled with how it turned out!

 And with the pouring rain and cooler weather that we're having today, it certainly brightens my day - and our patio! Now I want more hovers!

UBC Botanical Garden and West End

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of visiting the UBC Botanical Gardens. I didn't have my camera with me (I know, thats a crime), so the iphone has to do. There were some really great things to share! No day at the UBC Botanical Gardens is complete without a visit to the beach - that's where my day started. This is a view I'll never get tired of. With blue skies, sunshine, and a view of the San Juan and Gulf Islands, it takes my breath away. (Disclaimer: in warm weather there are naked people everywhere)

It's a short but tiring hike up the hillside to the gardens. I stopped for "photos" - In all actuality I had to catch my breath!

The gardens are filled with so many gems. I could go on and on, but I'll save some for my return visit (this time I'll bring the good camera). Here are a couple of my favourites from the garden ...

 Here's where things got really interesting! These yucca schottii are absolutely stunning. There are actually three here (one in behind). It makes me feel like I'm somewhere in the southwest. I need one of these. or two. or three.

The legendary UBC agave parryi look perfect! Heck, mine don't even look this nice in August.

The gardens really transport you. Here, I'm lying under a sea of eucalyptus trees.

This stunner is eucalyptus coccifera. These were for sale last year at a local nursery. If I'd seen this tree before then I certainly would have bought one! WOW!

I forgot which variety of manzanita this was, but it's a fine example of a drought tolerant garden alternative. I'm determined to get some manzanita when I'm done reclaiming the rest of the ivy jungle portion of the yard.

On the way out of UBC I had to snap one last picture! 

This sculpture along English Bay summed up my facial expression after visiting the UBC Botanical Gardens.

Truth be told the day felt like a vacation. This last picture of a eucalyptus (gunnii?) in the downtown West end really sums up the feeling. With all the eucalyptus, spiky plants, and palms it felt reminiscent of SoCal and I LOVED IT!

May 1st y'all!

It has been a while. The trees are blooming, the garden is alive and in full swing, and its 91F! We wait all year for this ... and it's finally here. I couldn't be more ecstatic. So with that marks the beginning of a season of garden visits, nursery hopping, plant purchasing, and of course palm mayhem.

speaking of palms, its the also the magical time of the year when the trachycarpus start blooming. The men of the species bloom first, followed by the females.

Camelia are almost done but this one is always late. I know what you're thinking, it IS a lot of pink.

This is my favourite pink flower of them all in the garden ... lewisia NOID.

I wish I could say that with all this sunshine and warmth the hesperaloes are flowering ... but second to that would be the fact that I purchased this flowering hesperaloe parviflora 'yellow' the other day at the nursery. I hope my other ones decide to flower as well. Would they have their blooms starting already?

Opuntia are starting to send out new growth. This one is undoubtably happy about this heat wave.

And to kick off the gardening season I purchased this nice aloe polyphylla. It was a bargain and I had a gift certificate!

There are few plants as cool.

And I love how it glows in the afternoon sunlight!

That's all for now. I'm glad to be back in the garden. But it's time to fire up the BBQ! Enjoy the sunshine!

Post Freeze Update

As many of you are aware, just over a week ago, much of the PNW saw the coldest temperatures in years. The cold lasted for roughly one week with several days below freezing. These events certainly test the limits of many plants in the garden - mine particularly. Temperatures in my neighbourhood dropped near 12F for a few brief hours. Luckily, that very night clouds rolled in and temperatures rose significantly. But I thought it was about time to do a post cold follow-up.

While things are looking a bit sad in the yard, I thought I soften the ugly winter state of the yard with this wreath at the front door. I took a fair amount of eucalyptus, olive branches, rosemary and things from the yard plus some extra touches.

And onto the plants. Usually my first concern when we get any significant cold is the palms. Specifically, any new"ish" ones. This sabal minor seems to have shrugged off the cold without any care. I can already tell that I've found a new favourite plant in this palm.

Echeveria gluaca are looking surprisingly good considering how long the cold lasted. This plant has been around for about three years now. I love it! If you are looking for a somewhat hardy tropical looking succulent for the PNW, I would definitely recommend it.

I put this side table over my agave ovatifolia frosty blue but I don't think it was necessary considering the cold was for the most part dry. I did throw some evergreen branches around it to try and give it a bit of insulation. It seems to be doing well.

Trachycarpus wagnerianus is a garden rockstar and looks great! This is the best palm in my opinion for the PNW. Mine is small and has proven to be much slower than t. fortunei.

And the nearby trachycarpus fortunei are looking great as well. You can see a strand of christmas lights if you look closely. I turned them on in order to provide some protection to the central growing spears of the palm in case temperatures went lower than forecasted.

I did protect this chamaerops humilis. As you can see there are some christmas lights going up towards the central growing spears and the top half of the palm was bundled up tight with burlap in order to protect the fronds a bit from dry wind. I don't think it was necessary but I've grown so attached to how full this palm is. It currently stands about 6.5 feet tall and wide.

I have no idea how this olive tree will handle the cold. If you remember it was ripped out of the ground and left dry and completely bare root. It was then planted late in the autumn and had already had some tip die back. The foliage seems really healthy but time will tell.

As per usual, all the yuccas look great. This banana split yucca has since taken on some pink tones. They tend to do this with colder weather.

Sabal palmetto doesn't seem to mind the cold either. The browning on the one frond tips was actually from the summer.

Here's where things start looking less pretty... this tuscan blue rosemary took some damage. It will recover just fine but it looks a little scrappy.

Same goes for this ground cover rosemary.

The worse of all is my schefflera yuan shan. It didn't rebound like it usually does from cold? It was already looking a little bit sad in the fall and I'm wondering if something more is going on. On the other hand, I already have seen signs of new growth.

 
Just a couple feet away this schefflera brevipedunclata is looking happy.

On a happier note, as per normal, fatsia japonica takes the cold weather in stride. I don't think anything phases this plant.

My butia was protected with burlap and a tarp. I have an emotional connection to this palm and will not risk the cold weather.

Opuntia (no i.d.) looks great. It froze solid but doesn't seem to care.

The big surprise is this phormium. It had some burlap around it but I thought it was for sure dead. When I pulled the burlap away it looked pretty good!

These trachycarpus and yucca rostrata don't really mind the cold.

And my first year with loquats in the ground seems to be a successful - so far. I think they are much hardier than people think.

These echeveria - that I was too lazy to lift in the fall - seem to be okay after the cold. This is certainly a surprise. They look like sempervivums, this is probably a stupid question, but do they hybridize together?

Dyckia grape jelly looks okay. I think it will pull through. I hope.

And another happy surprise is this nolina la siberica. It looks great! I'm always somewhat skeptical of hardiness ratings until I've put them to the test. Seeing as this was planted last spring from a small 4inch pot, it is doing really well given the cold we just experienced.

There you have it. The garden seems to be doing pretty good all things considered!