My Weekly Fav!

Over the last months I have enjoyed danger garden's weekly posts about her favourite plants in the garden this week, and so I have decided to borrow one from her playbook. Who knows, maybe we can start a garden bloggers weekly fav's!

So for this week, I have to share a plant that is very special to me... sedum palmeri. I purchased this plant two years ago and have been thrilled with its performance in the garden. It reminds me of a thick clump of echeveria. And it is a rock-solid performer here in the PNW.

One of the best features in my opinion is the beautiful blue/green foliage.

In the springtime gorgeous yellow flowers emerge and really add a burst of colour to the garden. I have two big clumps going. One in full-sun and the other part-sun. The part-sun patch has been the most vigorous of the two. I don't know if that is just coincidence or if other people have found the same thing. But that has been my experience so far.

I love the way it looks against other plants like black mondo grass. This patch is slowly creeping towards the mondo grass.

Xera plants has this to say about it: "A wonderful evergreen Sedum that is an excellent garden performer in the PNW. This form was found at 10,000' elevation in Mexico and has been reliably hardy down to 0 °F. Lovely gray/blue rosettes at the end of trailing stems. Yellow flowers in late winter. Full sun to light shade in well drained soil. Performs with or without water in summer. Cut back in spring to tighten up the new rosette. 10" x 10". Great container plant." (http://plantlust.com/plants/sedum-palmeri/)

What's your favourite this week?!

Nursery Hopping - Phoenix Perennials

One of my favourite things to do is nursery hop - the act of nursery hopping. For a plant nerd, this is one of the most exciting things to do. And visits to Phoenix Perennials are always very exciting ... especially when you have plants from Cistus Nursery waiting to be picked up! I can't even say how grateful I am to the Phoenix Perennials crew for arranging a group import from Cistus!

Before picking up my plants, I decided to do a little perusing... One of the first things that caught my eye was this frantoio olive! I was struck with plant lust (no I didn't buy it ... and I'm already regretting it). But check out how beautiful it is!

 I can just see this in amongst all my yuccas and agave.

But my problem was that I could see almost all of these plants in my garden... How to choose?!

good things always come in these green pots!

When I stumbled upon this, I'm sure I gasped. With the knowledge that I've already killed one, I was able to put it down, but I might just have to go back and get it.

Citrus anyone? This is one of the best selections of citrus trees I have seen in and amongst Vancouver.

Lots of danger too!

Another plant I've been lusting after is this variegated agapanthus! It reminds me so much of my yucca 'bright star'

My plant radar was going on overload. Does this ever happen to anyone else? You get so excited that you feel overwhelmed. Where to even begin?!

So I'm sure you are all wondering, what did I actually get? There's no way I was going home empty handed. But this plant lust purchase came right out of left field. It actually happened when I pulled into the parking lot. The very first thing that caught my eye was the last thing I thought I couldn't live without .... russelia equisetiformis!

Here it is at home in my garden! I still haven't decided if I'm going to plant this not at all hardy plant or if I'm going to get a nice pot for it. But it certainly belongs!

And don't worry, I can't forget about my Cistus plants... meet my new yucca margaritaville.

And my two nolina 'la siberica!'

The best part of it all was the sun shining and temperatures soaring to 90F. All in all I'd give it the EPIC seal of approval.

April Foliage Follow-up!!!

April foliage follow-up!!! (That deserves at least three exclamation marks). I love this time of year. Everything feels like a frenzy. Garden centres change by the day, people are re-united with the great outdoors. And while it's still in relatively short supply, I get to soak up the sunshine!

The schefflera is starting to flush new growth. It's one of those plants that makes me grin from ear to ear

Similarly fatsia japonica invokes feelings of warmth and joy! So lush and tropical and sooo hardy!

Yucca gloriosa shines in the glow of this april foliage follow-up. This plant is severely under used in the PNW in my opinion. It's one of those happy go lucky plants with no care no mess and no fuss.

Another plant on the sharp side of things is this opuntia... I backed my bum into it the other day - ouch!

It's neighbour yucca rostrata looks much gentler but don't let appearances deceive you.

Most know of my love for purple cordylines, and this year two have made it into the ground - so far.

I had to step back for this one... the bed needs some definite cleaning up... not quite photo ready.

When choosing plants to smile for the camera on foliage follow-up days, it usually comes down to who is glowing in the sunshine. Like this graceful bamboo. (I like to pretend the camellia in the background is a bougainvillea and that I'm somewhere in SoCal or the Mediterranean)

In the spirit of pretending to be in the mediterranean I sit under the glowing fronds of a favourite palm, close my eyes and let the sunshine warm my cheeks.

And while some of the plants require sunshine to glow, sedum angelina pops up against black mondo grass.

And this is something I have been dying to share... the first illuminated banana leaf of the year!!!!

I hope you all have an amazing foliage follow-up day!!!! Check out Pam's blog digging for more foliage frenzic happiness!

Bloom Day!!!

It's April bloom day!! Can you believe that we are passed the spring threshold and legitimately into spring! Worth celebrating! So jump up and down, do a little happy dance - twist and shout. Now we had a bit of a soggy last week so I'm afraid my bloom day updates are coming from my deck today. Somewhat of a April bloom day micro lens kind of feel.

Lavender 'Otto Quast' is a new to me lavender that I mixed into one of the patio pots this year.

One of my favourite blooms in the entire garden right now must be coming from this Lewisia hybrid. It makes me think so much of summer with the vibrant pinks.

Euphorbia 'Tiny Tim' continues to amaze... I love the two little flowers that come out of the centre.

And on the subject of Euphorbia more vibrant greens!

Lastly, something I shared a couple weeks ago that has been growing on me is this Lithodora 'Grace Ward.' I appreciate the rosemary like qualities of this plant.

Well that's it for my micro-bloom day April bloom day from the balcony. I hope you all have a wonderful Monday. To see more blooms head on over to May Dreams blog

A visit to the Islands - palm fix

I feel like this is some sort of confession of a palm tree lover, but I have moments where I need to "get my palm on." That is to say, in my opinion life is so much happier when surrounded by palm trees! It's as though my heart thrives in environments where palms flourish. In other words, it beets to the drum of the tropics!!! I come by this love of warmth quite naturally I can assure you. The summer loving hearts of this world can understand what I'm talking about. For that reason, Hawaii holds a special place in my heart. It seems to culminate happiness and joy!! So I was super stoked to get my palm on in Maui.

It might sound corny, but I feel like colours are much more vivid in Hawaii. There's something about the magical recipe of ample rainfall, tons of sunshine, and my very favourite, warmth.

And did I mention lush?

Forget cedar hedging, Hawaii does it right!!!

Part of getting my palm is summed up with the coconut palm. In many respects it's not the most beautiful (though wonderful), but it has a presence about it. I think it's the way it seems to stretch upward. And then there's the way it seems to shimmer in the right light. Ultimately the coconut evokes the tropics and thereby resonates with my heart.

But much more than warmth, palm trees, tropical vactions, etc, my visit to Maui felt like a breath of fresh air. It was one of those much needed suspended moments in time where you just hit pause. Where you can take time out and think clearly. See clearly.

And while suspended, the realization that the moment is fleeting makes things all the sweeter.

Because in the moments of clarity you realize you have to savour it.