Perennials and ephemerals

The big birthday is weeks in the past.  The helium balloon can hold up only three feet of its string, dust has collected on the cards, and the last quarter of saved cake came out of the freezer last night.  Time to quit observance of this passage and just accept that I am that age now.  After the sturdy bottle of amber Jura is depleted, the only memento of this great number-rolling will be this year's birthday perennials.

The lot above is from Greenhaven, and ultimately Heritage Perennials Inc. Clockwise from the top and ending at the center:

Serbian Bellflower (Campanula poscharskyana): forms a fairly fast-spreading patch, bearing loads of starry lavender-blue flowers in late spring.  Ideal for edging or as a ground cover.  ~Jeepers Creepers.  Why another Campanula, when there are two others already?  This one sells itself as ground cover, something in great demand for the rock garden and boulevard.  It's still blooming in mid-July.

Rock Rose (Helianthemum 'Henfield Brilliant'): single red-orange flowers over a mound of silvery-grey foliage.Drought tolerant once established.  Needs very good drainage.  Excellent for growing in the rock garden.  ~Heritage Perennials.

This one might be at risk.  Not finding a perfect site in the rock garden, I placed it at the base of a huge tree where is will have good sun exposure except at midday.  Main concern is drainage, which is never great in our clay soil.  Also, ant activity is increasing at the site.

Ice Plant (Delosperma 'Jewel of Desert Moon Stone'): forms a low carpet of succulent, green leaves bearing loads of starry flowers with petals that are pure white surrounding a yellow centre.  Will bloom for months.  Great choice for the rock garden.  ~Heritage Perennials

Perhaps not a great choice for my rock garden, or my gardening skill.  Seems I may have killed it already.  It's rated for Zones 4-9, which Lethbridge is not, but sometimes we get away with it.  But it did have hot, dry weather for it's time here.  Too much watering?  Too little drainage?  It was the priciest pot in my Greenhaven cart.

Golden Bird's-foot (Lotus corniculatus 'Plenus'):  tough little mat-forming plant, this becomes smothered by small golden-yellow flowers in early summer.  Good as a lawn substitute or between flagstones.  Thrives in poor, dry soil.  ~Jeepers Creepers

Arctic Campion (Lychnis alpina):  forms a low, tufted mound of narrow, grassy leaves, bearing clusters of timy bright-pink flowers in late spring.  ~Heritage Perennials

This one is still alive, but may not have great prospects, given its preference for sandy, gravelly soil.  Don't know what I was thinking that day, other than "I don't have one of these yet".  

Oregon Stonecrop (Sedum oreganum): forms a low spreading mat of succulent green leaves, like a tiny Jade Plant, turning red in hot, dry weather.  Yellow starry flowers appear in summer.  ~Heritage Perennials

Again, why another stonecrop?  It's an especially cute form of the genus, and a creeping type.  The garden needs ground cover more than anything.   Plus, it turns red, maybe.

There were also four new plants from ALCLA, a native plant society - Shooting Star (Dodecatheon conjugens), Showy Locoweed (Oxytropis splendens), Alpine Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis alpestris), and Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum).  Shooting Star may not survive the summer and the other three are far from photogenic at this point.  It feels bad to lose a Zone 4 plant, but nothing like failing to provide the necessities of life to a native species.

On the brighter side, we still have ten out of ten from last year:

alpine wall cress

carpet bugle

evening primrose

kinnikinnik

labrador violet

peach-leaf bellflower

red pussy toes

purple rock cress

wineleaf cinquefoil

woolly speedwell

Leftovers

Gardening season Alberta is short; the first killer frost of one winter is never far enough behind the last killer frost of the previous winter.  That said, gardening season does sometimes go on longer than some of us would like.  Past the time when squash and tomato leaves have turned black and even the Swiss chard has had a few good scares, I am still at work, cleaning up my carefully cultivated out-of-control mess.  Pulling up roots, pushing stalks through the shredder, and watching the compost bin fill with next year's fodder can be satisfying, if not exactly fun, on a grey and windy November weekend.  More importantly, it is a kindness to my future self, the one who will have ready garden beds the following April, when the weather is finally conducive to sowing.

The fall of 2013 didn't unfold as well as it could have in this respect.  We were distracted by interior issues, namely the deconstruction and reconstruction of our kitchen.  A family health crisis took me out of town on the all-important Thanksgiving weekend in October and held my attention for the ensuing weeks.  Winter came early.  By the time my interest in garden work returned, the ground was frozen.  Whatever was in it - parsnips, sun chokes, vine supports, tomato roots, leeks - was going to stay until spring thaw.  It was a bit of a relief; I didn't feel like digging in the dirt in November.  At some point I did make the modest effort to poke garlic cloves into the soil, though I see now that I failed to secure a good layer of mulch to cover them.

Through the winter I've been well aware of the general mayhem of the the garden beds.  Even a thick layer of snow couldn't hide much of it.  Tomato cages, cutworm collars, pea fences, random stalks, and plants that kept trying until the bitter end are all eyesores.  Now that the snow has retreated, if temporarily, much of the landscape looks sadly neglected.  I hope it doesn't depress the neighbours........














.........This post was begun and abandoned two or three weeks ago.  Since then, a dramatic thaw has allowed me to unearth a few parsnips (now baking in the oven) and Barry has shredded a huge pile of woody matter.  In the course of a perfunctory clean-up, I found living leaves - Swiss chard, sage, thyme, onion - and suggested they not get too excited about spring just yet.  Sure enough, we now have a blanket of pure white snow and -17C on the weather station.  The pendulum will swing yet again.  Our seed order arrived two days ago; the activation process begins this weekend.  So much to look forward to.