Monday, July 28, 2014

No construction update; a new Dayliy

The fiundation was starting to collapse - front door off its hinges... a few years ago
There's nothing new to report about the construction.  Things are proceeding 'behind the scenes' though.  We obtained a demolition permit to take down the old cottage that was on the property when we purchased it.  The real estate listing said "Two bedroom cottage in need of repair" and they weren't kidding!  It was quite pretty 10 years ago but time and collapsing floor joists have made it unusable.  Also, our architect will be bringing plans for the new house to city hall this week - with luck we should have our first permits within a week.  Excavation and demolition is penciled in to start the Tuesday after Simcoe Day.


















Here's another favourite Daylily just starting to bloom - a two toned one.  Plus another shot of that beautiful peach Daylily. 




Catherine Woodbury

I think, all in all, of the dozen or so varieties I have, my ultimate fave, the one I'd save if I had to move and could only take one with me, would be the elegant pink Catherine Woodbury.  It has a slight fragrance and is just so different from all the others.  I just read that it was registered in 1967 by someone named Childs.  Dave's Journal (http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/vbc/Joy/76561/) shows this Mr or Ms Childs producing registered cultivars from the 1950's through to the early 1980's.  How much fun he or she must have had!

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Lilacs

OK I know - I'm going backwards here.  The Lilacs finished blooming two months ago, right?  Right.  And wrong.  It's true the shrub most people call Lilac - Syrnga vulgaris sp. blooms in May, usually in the County around the long weekend (although this year a week or so later -my records show them starting to bloom on Partridge Hollow on May 26).  Another variety, Syrnga prestoniae, started a few weeks later and bloomed until July 1. 

The flowers of all Lilacs are in one shade or another of pink or purple, as well as white and sometimes two toned.  The difference between the two lie in the shape of the leaves and flower clusters.   You can tell the difference in these two photos - the regular common Lilac has dark green, sometimes glossy leaves and bold, vibrant, in your face (and nose!) colour and fragrance, while the Preston lilac (this one likely a James McFarlane variety) has a much more delicate perfume and and very subtle colour palette.  The leaves are paler green, almost fuzzy sometimes, and not quite as round as the S. vulgaris.

Syringa vulgaris

As far as origins go, Lilacs are native to the Balkans but quite easily naturalized throughout Europe and much of North America.  Preston Lilacs were hybridized right here in Canada, at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa in the 1920's.  They're more cold resistant and mildew resistant than other varieties, I find, and mine have never had a 'bad' flowering year compared to some years where I get very few blooms on the S. vulgaris.

Syringa prestoniae



The won't grow just anywhere - full sun is best (otherwise they'll get leggy and won't bloom as much) and they do like moist soil but not wet.  I made the mistake early on of planting a bunch of them all around the back end - where the limestone was particularly close to the surface, creating drainage problems in the spring and letting the thin layer of soil get powder dry in July and August.  Only three of an original eight bushes survive, and none of them are terrible happy.  The Preston Lilacs, on the other hand, one of them in particular, seemed to have been able to adapt, sending down roots far enough to survive the summer, and I also happened to plant them a little higher instead of level with the normal soil surface.

 I don't think I could ever get enough Lilac and plan to plant many more in the years to come.  Properly situated, of course.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Daylilies

I arrived in The County this weekend to discover The Mound awash in colour, as if a hand from the clouds had reached down and, with one swoosh of a giant brush, painted it with red, yellow, orange and pink.

It's time for the Daylilies.

On the Mound, when I see the Daylilies (Hemerocallis, various species and cultivars) next to the whites of Ox Eye Daisy and in combination with the purple Echinacea and the scarlet Monarda, I find the colours to be, from close up, sometimes cacophonous and sometimes harmonious.  It varies according to the time of day and the harshness of the light.  What I've been drinking.  Elsewhere in the garden there are smallish clumps of red and yellow flowers, burgundy tetraploids, quickly expanding piles of the double orange daylily a former neighbour in Toronto gave me.  I also have two sections of the more common organge 'ditch' daylily.  I know some people don't really like them, and relegate them truly to the ditch, but I appreciate the vibrancy they give the garden at the beginning of July, both in the back garden as well as along the curve of the driveway coming in from the road.

In any event, here are a few of the beauties.






 I have a lot of yellow-ish Daylilies, and several that are variations of yellow and red.  I started many from seed, pollinating a red flower anther with pollen from the stamen of this canary yellow one.
One of the hybrids


Catherine Woodbury  the only named Daylily I have.








One of my favourites - this peach colour.







And of course the common orange 'ditch' daylily.


Friday, July 18, 2014

Construction begins - and something new on The Mound

It's hard for me to believe, and I really won't believe it until I walk through a front door, but The Prince Edward Group (my husband's company) has started construction on the new homestead in The County.  Architectural technician Pegi Amos and excavator Paul Greer came over to stake out the foundation.  After much discussion about drainage, direction and septic fields, the four stakes were pounded into the ground (through the very few inches they could go before hitting stone) and voila!  Step One done!

If you look closely you may see the four stakes in the ground.  Looking from the road towards the back of the field.


Looking down towards the road.  That's the well right up front.

(Gaillardia x grandiflora)









A happy surprise this summer was the emergence and quite spectacular blooming of these Blanket Flowers (Gaillardia x grandiflora).  I harvested seeds from the Leslie Street spit (Tommy Thompson Park) a few years ago and threw them all over the Mound.  Hopefully they'll self seed a bit.  On the spit, where the 'soil' started life as concrete landfill, these flowers only grow to about six inches or so.  On the Mound they're reaching 18 inches -- I guess I can't complain anymore about how horrible the soil is here eh?

Monday, July 7, 2014

Finally...

A new apartment in Toronto, building a new home in The County, and, finally, a new computer.  I haven't been able to post anything for a while as my late lamented laptop, after 11 glorious years, finally bit the dust.  So here I am on my new HP, ready to share thoughts and images from the past few months and eagerly looking forward to chronicling the building of our new house in Prince Edward County, and the planning and planting of the gardens to surround it.

A reminder - here's the acreage (this past April) onto which the new home will arise: