After an early winter arrival I am in the rush now to tuck in safely my sleeping beauties. The garage serves as a ‘winter storage/garden’. In what I call sleeping beauties I include various species done from seeds that have one thing in common: that they are ‘sleeping’ in their first season, totally or partially. […]
(DOD meaning: Dead on delivery) I don’t know precisely if the DOD term was coined by the renowned Prof. Norman Deno but surely he reminded me of it while reading a delightful Bulletin of the American Rock Garden Society from 1991. DOD refers to the fact that seeds that require to be kept moist after […]
Beauty is found in almost any maple tree, even if we are to consider only their colourful fall display. The Beast shows its ugly head especially in the case of trifoliate maples and is called parthenocarpy. As a remainder, this means production of seedless fruits (without the fertilization of ovules). A really undesirable trait, especially […]
Celebration of the Thanksgiving Day and autumn’ brilliant colours with a portrait of a native, aromatic tree. Sassafras albidum – sassafras (Fam.Lauraceae) it is a medium size tree, 15-20 m tall, with an interesting branching (candelabra-like) that can be found in the wild in southern Ontario (Canada) and widespread in the States. What I think […]
The rainy weather of this year has surely pleased all the baneberries (Actaea species). Their fruits are not indicated to be consumed for lunch!!! being poisonous, but they are so attractive. Let’s call them local gourmet foods for the soul and eyes! All Actaea species make for superb specimens in part-shade to shaded locations of […]
Update: ID as Aconitum variegatum subsp. paniculatum All Aconitum species are wearing cool hats but this one in particular with the hood on one side looks very chic. Growing Aconitum from seeds that are not properly identified is quite a pain, but worth the trouble. All monkshoods are equally beautiful and deadly, with spikes of […]
My kitchen has become a small scale operation – thinking fruit pies, jams and jellies? Caulophyllum thalictroides seeds Caulophyllum thalictroides (Blue cohosh) blue seeds will easily pass for blueberries but unfortunately are poisonous if ingested in large quantities. That’s very improbable to happen though because what seems like a big berry is actually a single […]
Update: since I wrote this post in 2014! we now have the plants grown from wild collected seeds in the Carpathian Mts. (2 different accessions) flowering well and rewarding us with seeds. Nothing is more satisfying than to see plants grown from few seeds found by chance growing well in the garden. This species is […]
I think some are imagining that trying to open a business of selling wild collected seeds is a breeze – happily wandering in fields and mountains and grabbing here and there whatever comes under your eyes. Well, very far away from the truth. For example, who would think about stumbling into a massasauga rattlesnake (the only […]
Little plants series III A few years ago I bought a silver leaf Salvia daghestanica for my dry and sunny mini- rockery. It did quite well, but this spring was obviously in distress. Decided to nurture it until its final breath, I planted it by itself in a small pot. But it has resurrected and […]
Happy Canada Day! This year we had a real Carnivorous feast in advance to the Canada Day Celebration, heading out towards the Bruce Peninsula just at the right time to see in flower, among others, the butterwort – Pinguicula vulgaris. This small vegetal carnivore will trap and digest insects with the help of its sticky, […]
People in Europe call this member of the bellflower family (Campanulaceae) after many names: devil’s claws (Germany), Oxford Rampion (England), Raponzolo (Italy), and so on. We could definitely give it many other common names; I like to think of it as Rapunzel’s flower. Phyteuma is strictly a European genus with quite a few species, not […]
My apologies to anyone who tried to post a comment in the past couple of weeks – my new anti-spam ‘ware’ needed readjustments. In the same idea of great little plants, this dwarf canadian primrose would have looked very well in my shade container with the Soldanellas and Haberlea rhodopensis. Primula mistassinica Primula mistassinica, the […]
Plants that did make sense to have in my small garden A dwarf, big flowered blue columbine: Aquilegia discolor, most probably a cross (from Seedex as A. saximontana) Aquilegia discolor cross True that if we would grow only ‘reasonable’ plants, our gardens would lack all spontaneity and wonder. But because I can now easily enjoy […]
Uvularia grandiflora – Large-flowered bellwort, Merry-bells Spring is a busy time when it comes to wildflowers – lots of species start flowering almost at the same time, especially when the springtime gets condensed in a couple of months. While I try no to discriminate, some will be overlooked for now and I will highlight just […]
Trilix (Latin) = having a triple thread If nothing else about wildflowers, one image can still thrill anyone – the white carpeting of the woodland floor when Trillium grandiflorum is flowering; in southern Ontario sometime from late April to May. Unfortunately, our car committed suicide, so I took this picture close to home in a […]
