I was surprised, and more than a little pleased, when a young girl came to sit with me at my station on the Cowichan Family Life garden tour on Mother’s Day. She asked all sorts of questions: Did I have a favourite plant and flower? What did I enjoy most about gardening?
When her mother joined us, she showed me photos of her daughter that morning creating flower arrangements from their garden for her aunt and mother. Other photos showed her daughter making a charming painting of garden flowers.
The young girl clearly loved the family garden, and gardening. The encounter was enchanting, and one I’ll not soon forget.
Sunscald, transplants, and Heather’s onions. My friend Heather, who lives in Duncan and has a connection with the Cowichan Family Life Association and its services, came with me to the Genoa Bay Road garden where I met with gardeners. Afterward, we returned to her apartment building and toured her and her husband’s plots in a large, thriving community garden next door. On that lovely spring day it was a busy place with individuals and couples weeding, preparing plots, planting and chatting.
Heather wondered why some of their newly transplanted cucumbers had turned white. The damage was sunscald, a type of injury common with the onset of high temperatures and hot sunshine — conditions that we saw in the second week of May this year.
The centre, growing points and stems of the affected cucumber plants remained green, indicating that the plants would be all right, but it was a reminder to put off, when possible, transplanting during very hot weather. If it must be done, arrange some sort of temporary shading over the new transplants.
My friends’ cucumbers were set out as very tiny plants, which brought to mind another issue: What is the ideal stage of growth to transplant? I look for robust, compact plants that have yet to begin elongating. Very tiny, fragile looking plants, and overgrown ones with trailing stems, have more of a struggle settling in and growing well in garden plots and patio containers. I watch for the “just right” condition between these two stages of growth.
What caught my eye right away in one of Heather’s plots were several clumps of vibrantly healthy Egyptian onions — mild, perennial onions that develop bulblets atop slender leaves that bend over with the weight of the tiny bulbs, which then become “planted” to form another clump of onions. This self-planting trait has given the plants the name “walking onions.”
Heather dug up a clump for me to take home and install in my garden. With her plantings, she says, “I always have onions.” I nipped off a top portion of one succulent leaf to try. It was the sweetest onion I’d ever tasted.
GARDEN EVENTS
VHS meeting. The Victoria Horticultural Society will meet on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Garth Homer Centre, 813 Darwin Ave. Pam Erikson, daylily hybridizer and lecturer from Langley, will present The Evolution of a Daylily and Hosta Garden — a visual overview of the display garden Pam created with over 3,000 varieties of daylilies and 600 hosta varieties. At the pre-meeting, 6:30 workshop Pam will share her knowledge of daylily cultivation, division, pests, and more. Non-member drop-in fee of $10 is refundable with purchase of membership.
Picnic in the gardens. The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd. in Saanich, is extending its hours every second Wednesday starting next week and inviting families and friends to bring their own dinners for a picnic in the gardens while enjoying local musicians. Browse through the works of local arts vendors, visit a master gardener booth for answers to gardening questions, and check out sales of plants propagated from the gardens. Admission is by donation between 5 and 8 p.m. hcp.ca.
Abkhazi Garden volunteering. Abkhazi Garden, 1964 Fairfield Rd, is seeking volunteers for gardening and greeting visitors for three hours a week, on Monday and Tuesday mornings. Plant knowledge is not essential, but enthusiasm for beautiful gardens is an asset. Contact admin@conservancy.bc.ca or 250-479-8053.
Floral art. The Victoria Floral Artists Guild is presenting the highlight of its calendar year on Tuesday, June 11, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Garth Homer Centre, with award-winning Vancouver floral designer Brenna Quan, who will present the art of exploring materials and found objects in Explore, Experiment, Express. Non-member guest fee for this evening is $20. victoriafloralartists.ca.
