Welcome to my Corner of the Garden!

I'm so excited to start this blog. I've meant to, for a very long time, then usually don't have time or whatever, or I think "Nobody's gonna read it" even though I know people read what I say in all my online garden groups.

Or, I type a long comment in one of my local groups about something like Scarlet Lily Beetles, because most people here get blindsided by them, then I don't have time to come here and write something decent.

Well, no more! I'm going to start keeping my answers & comments to put here. It will be much easier for me to include pictures of what the heck I'm talking about, rather than trying to add them to a facebook post & ending up with 12 separate comments to something because I've tried to put pictures (which blows up everyone's notifications, which is annoying).

As I post things, you might see that I'm doing something totally different than you do, and if you have a system that works, GREAT... I'd love to hear about your garden & your techniques, too!

So, now that I'm here and you're here, pull up a chair pour a glass of wine, or a coffee or crack a beer and relax ... and enjoy!

Before I go I'll take you on a quick tour of some of my gardens....please note, I am updating this post in  November 2017, so I have loads more pictures I've added from the 2017 growing season.

I adore this clematis -- it looks almost metallic, like pewter or something like that. The foliage is also very different from my other clematises, it's more feathery or ferny, for lack of a better word. I have absolutely no idea which one this is.... it might be a Vancouver Sea Breeze, but I'm not sure. I kept the tags from all the clematises I planted but I only wrote "north fence" on the backs.

An absolutely enormous begonia -- I bought a bag of 3 tubers at WalMart back in early April (I have a thing about orange & red on one bloom, or yellow & pink, so I just had to try these out!). I had never just bought begonia tubers before, and like my gladiolas, I wanted to start small; I'll learn on the cheap ones then once I have more confidence I will buy some pricey ones.

Some lilies I bought on clearance last year for $3 per pot of 4 (I bought 3 pots -- I thought they would all be sunshine yellow, but, I'm thrilled with these! These look identical to a  Mango Tango, which are usually about $5 per bulb, so I got a steal of a deal! I separated them all (there was over 200 baby bulblets in the pots, too!) and planted the main bulbs and a few of the biggest babies, and so far have 7 that flowered in this colour.

This begonia (and the one below) was given to me at a garden centre last year -- it was unsellable, broken & dried up. I gave it a good haircut & watering, and it came back beautifully. I overwintered this one in my grow room (I didn't have the heart to force it into dormancy), and it is absolutely enormous this year.
It's a "Million Kisses" Begonia -- "Amour"

This little one had already gone dormant when it was given to me. I love the colours on this one! I clearly need to get more shepherd hooks to put hanging pots on for all these begonias -- either that or tall planters!
This one is also a "Million Kisses" Begonia --"Honeymoon".

Proven Winners Invincibelle Spirit Hydrangea

A Mystery Lily -- These were mixed in with other named varieties I'd gotten in the huge bags at Costco. It's stunning, and the freckles almost look like gel icing dotted on them.

This clematis is blooming more this year than ever before -- I love it!

This little oddball just started blooming last week -- I think that a Kaveri Lily cross-pollinated with one of the others, and this is what came of it (I let my bulb-flowers set seed if they want to).

 A wonky little violas that is a self-hybridized self-sow. I started with a random solid purple one several years ago, now they're all over my yard.... most are more purple but this one was so odd-looking I had to get a picture!

A Yarrow I got last year on clearance for $1. I don't usually like yarrow but I really liked the red!

 My "north fence" flowerbed. This one I have put thousands of hours into (it started out just lawn many years ago). It "morphs" from being flat with one shrub to just a riot of colour. It changes about every month as things fade back then new things bloom.

 Gladiola.... these were originally from Dollar Tree. I'm quite impressed with the blooms!

 Another from Dollar Tree "Plum Tart" I think this was called.

 I've searched around online, and apparently this one is called Vista. I ADORE blue flowers, so m quite taken by this!

I have no idea why I have this one... there were no others like it. But it's probably my favourite out of all of them!

I'm now confident in my ability to not kill gladiolas, so I'm planning to add some other colours to my collection, but this was another one that was very unusual. I couldn't find it online so I had no name for it so I called it "Raspberry Vista" just to be able to have something to remember it with.

 A friend gave me some of her little Sweet Williams that were self-sowing everywhere -- this one is another oddball self-hybridize, because she's never seen anything like it in her yard, yet here it is. I love the colour, and I"m hoping it gets bigger & spreads more next year!

 A gorgeous Salmon Geranium I got on clearance at WalMart for 90¢ each. I'm hoping to overwinter these. I just LOVE the colour if this one!

 Proven Winner Little Lime Hydrangea -- I got this one last year, very late in the year, when big box garden centres were trying to get rid of things... it looked mostly dead, several of the branches had been broken. It was regularly priced $24.99, I got it for $10 (they wouldn't go lower because of the PW brand) I had to give it a haircut, and kinda graft the broken branches back together with velcro tape & splints... It really should NOT have been strong enough to bloom yet this year, but it bloomed very nicely! Even on the branches that were grafted back onto it! The blooms start out light green, as you can see in the background, then start turning pink later in the summer

 My original clump of lilies. When I planted these ones I wasn't great at saving the tags or bulb bags so I have no clue what they were supposed to be to begin with. I suspect they were probably something not quite as orange, but reverted. I have dug one clump of these out to give away, and moved others around. It's weird because some are a darker reddish orange & are outward-facing, and others are pure orange with little freckles (but they're not Tiger Lilies) and they are upward-facing.

 Blue Flax volunteer.
I LOVE blue flowers, and I love that these just boom and bloom and bloom all summer long!

This is one of several freckled pink lilies -- I never bought plain pink freckled lilies, so they used to be something else and reverted, grr. Still, they'r lovely and provide an interesting pop of colour.

This is one of my first day lilies, The blooms are just little guys, but it just chugs away on its own, despite being in mostly-shade and semi-ignored.

So that just some of the flowers I have growing in summer, ther are many more, but I don't want to put too
many up on one post!
THANK YOU FOR READING THIS -- if you know the names of any of those gladiolas, I'd love to know.
I look forward to hearing from you!