New Year’s Day dinner was memorable this year. A friend and her son had put together a spectacular beef Wellington, accompanied by roasted yams, green and white asparagus, and mashed rutabaga.
The distinctive and delightful taste of the rutabaga caused me to regret not growing this root vegetable in recent years. That is why, with the arrival of the Seed Savers Exchange (seedsavers.org) catalogue, I gravitated toward ‘Joan,’ a rutabaga described as having dense, crunchy flesh with a delicate, sweet flavour.
Certain gardeners will be interested to know also that Joan has displayed “good field resistance to clubroot,” a parasitic micro-organism in the soil that causes swollen, distorted root growth and stunted or dead plants.
Crispus and clubroot. A new listing in the 2015 West Coast Seeds catalogue (westcoastseeds.com) is Crispus, a clubroot-resistant Brussels sprouts variety. Salt Spring Islander, entomologist, and esteemed gardening authority Linda Gilkeson says, “A few local gardeners with infected soil tried [Crispus] last season with excellent results.” On its website, but not in the printed catalogue, Chiltern Seeds lists a clubroot-resistant cauliflower called Clapton. (chilternseeds.co.uk.)
Clubroot is becoming a widespread problem, but even infected soils can produce cabbage family vegetables (brassicas, cole crops). Try to give each vegetable growing spot a rest of five to seven years between these crops. Lime heavily before planting, and plant early varieties as early as possible. Infections are less severe in cool soil.
Winter. At mid-February, we still could have some real winter weather, though by the latter part of the month the worst of winter is usually over.
It’s been an unusual season. Daffodils in some gardens began flowering in January. Sheets of snow crocuses were in full bloom at the sunny end of my back garden just after mid-January. According to my minimum-maximum thermometer readings, there have been only a few periods, each one lasting three or four days, of mildly sub-zero temperatures. I’m thinking this may be the year to try some extra-early seedings.
Winter flowers. A few days before Christmas, as I walked through the cool entryway into my local supermarket, I noticed a container of long-stemmed white chrysanthemums for sale. I bought a bundle of three stems.
At home, I set some glossy camellia foliage and a few fern fronds in a vase and inserted the white flowers. The arrangement stayed in fine condition all through Christmas and New Year’s, and added a festive atmosphere to the dining room during Christmas dinner.
The garden’s Himalayan sweet box (Sarcococca humilis) shrubs inspired another winter bouquet. The plants have produced such a profusion of tiny white, feathery flowers this winter that the entire back garden has been filled with perfume.
This time, I found an inexpensive bundled pair of imposing white snapdragon stems and added them to sprays of the sweet box. The display graced the dining room at a pot luck gathering, and now it perfumes my office.
I’ve been enjoying small winter garden bouquets too, some made to give away. A neighbour was enchanted with winter iris (Iris unguicularis) flowers set in short sprays of sweet box. Another arrangement, made in a broad, white coffee cup, combined sweet box, Viturnum tinus flowerbud clusters, winter iris and Beaconsfield pansy.
Look around and you may well find in your own surroundings a few promising stems or sprigs for creating a Valentine’s Day tribute to a cherished person in your life.
On this Valentine’s Day, here’s a useful thought, courtesy of the French novelist Marcel Proust, that is appropriate on this day of love and esteem:
“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
GARDEN EVENTS
Rose meeting. The Mid Island Rose Society meets Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Heritage Church next to Costin Hall in Lantzville. Brian Blood will present on Italian gardens.
Hardy plant meeting. The Victoria Hardy Plant Group meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Knox Presbyterian Church, 2964 Richmond Rd. It’s the group’s annual Hardy Picture Show with pictures of members’ gardens and gardens viewed from their travels.
