Did you hear the collective sighs of relief and delight with the arrival of long unfamiliar warmth around mid-month? Suddenly, almost every gardener I met was asking: “Have you planted your peas yet?”
Roberta, my contact at the Nanaimo Horticultural Society, wrote: “ Isn’t it lovely to have the warmth back again? My semi-frozen hellebores sat still, with fat buds doing nothing, for a month. Now they’re all out and lots of other things are blooming, too. We stopped at Dinter Nursery today on our way to Victoria and were amazed to find the parking lot full. Gardeners obviously have the sap flowing again, too.”
All through February and early March I’d been concerned about plants I’d bought at my local Seedy Saturday event. One was a Lenten rose (Helleborus hybridus) that, though tucked into a well sheltered corner of the carport, had completely collapsed. As the weather gradually warmed, I was surprised to see the thick flower stems resume their upright stature. Even more miraculously, the flowers retained their original beauty despite the long period of freezing weather.
The dazzling Seedy Saturday display of hellebores had been an irresistible magnet for gardeners enthralled by the loveliness and colour range of the blossoms. Many people at the crowded event were carrying around purchased hellebores and I noticed how fast the display racks were emptying as I chose one with semi-double flowers, each ivory white petal edged in lilac.
I was attracted also to a long table holding cacti and other succulents. Among the sempervivums (houseleek), I spotted one with exceptionally beautiful colouring. The central, substantial rosette in the pot had bright green, fleshy leaves tipped in orange. The rosette’s outer leaves were a dusky pinkish-purple. Numerous baby rosettes were proceeding from the parent.
The variety is ‘Gold Nugget.’ I snapped it up. I’m fond of sempervivums in shallow, bow-shaped clay pots for prominent places in the sun.
Peter’s onions. In an early March column, I answered a question about Egyptian “walking” onions.
A reader wanted information on the plants and where to find them. These odd, fascinating onions are perennial plants that bear miniature onion bulbs, called bulblets, bulbils, or topsets, at the top of leaf stalks. Peter White, who gardens in North Saanich, wrote in response to the column.
“I liked your article on the Egyptian walking onions (interesting name I haven’t heard before). I think they are the same as tree onions, which I have been growing for 35 years from one plant given to me by a fellow gardener. Our plants produce bulblets at the top and fall over to produce new plants for the following year. The bulblets are delicious to eat, as are the green shoots. We have also harvested four-centimetre-wide base bulbs from established plants in the late fall.”
Peter’s note reminded me to place an order for these easy, multi-use onions with Richters Herbs (richters.com). I like the idea of storing some of the fall-harvested bulblets to plant every few weeks from late winter through early fall as a simple way of producing green onions close to year round.
GARDEN EVENTS
Gordon Head meeting. Gordon Head Garden Club will meet on Monday at 7 p.m. in Gordon Head United Church, 4201 Tyndall Ave. in Saanich. Pamela Fox from SilverRillBerry, a farm on the Saanich Peninsula, will speak about growing currants, gooseberries, jostaberries and cherries. Visitors are welcome at no charge.
Abkhazi Garden volunteering. Abkhazi Garden, 1964 Fairfield Rd. in Victoria, is seeking volunteers for gardening and greeting visitors for three hours a week. Plant knowledge is not essential, but enthusiasm for beautiful gardens is an asset. Contact [email protected] or 250-479-8053.
VHS meeting. The Victoria Horticultural Society will meet on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Garth Homer Centre, 813 Darwin Ave. Leanne Mueller, president of the Pender Island Garden Club, will present ways of dealing with the deer that visit our gardens in “You're Smarter than the Average Deer.” The pre-meeting workshop at 6:30 will feature Susanne Osmond speaking about tools that gardeners would love to have in their collections. Drop-in fee $5, refundable with purchase of membership.
Garden sharing. The Victoria Horticultural Society is resuming its Garden Sharing Program. People who do not have a place for gardening and others who have space to share in their yards are invited to register with the program at [email protected].
