Hi all fellow Canucks!!

Hi there, well I just joined Dave's garden, so thought I'd introduce myself. It's the beginning of January and I'm already itching to get back at it in the yard!! Hopefully the rest of winter will speed by.

I live in Calgary Canada.....zone 3b...but I have no problems growing zone 4 plants and even have a zone 5er which has hung around for 3 years now. I started gardening about 6 years ago.....just started dabbling when I moved into my house and found myself quickly addicted!! I find gardening to be very relaxing...hard work-but enjoyable and so rewarding. It's kind of like a meditation, I'm in my own world, my own thoughts with my own ideas on how to "create" your own unique master piece or just have fun doing it. Yes I do all the "work" myself, with no help from my partner or anyone. I truly prefer it that way. It's me time. To me it's art and science rolled into one big ball which I find can be quite challenging.

Some of my favourite features in my yard is my pond with a running stream down the back yard. My yard naturally slopes so it works quite well. When I built the pond, of course I didn't think of everything, so had a lot of problems with overflowing and cleaning. So came up with an overflow idea which just kept running to the back of the yard. Works well now with a waterfall feature and recycling pump at the end of the stream. However, I'd tear down the pond in a second if I couldn't have my plants!! I love my plants...some of my favourites are Daylilies;lilies;roses;hostas;and a horde of others. I tried dahlia's this year..had great success and am now totally addicted. So have great plans for the spring!! One thing I do too much of is rearranging. I'm always moving plants from one site to another...can't stop myself...but am becoming more controlled. Gardening is learning from your mistakes...makes it interesting. I also put in an arbour this year, planted 2 clematis with sweet peas..looked good, but will be much nicer when the clematis' mature.

Ok a little bit about myself....born and raised on a farm in southern Manitoba..moved to Winnipeg and then to Calgary....16 years ago. I love Calgary, but Manitoba will always be home to me. I travel a lot...my second favourite thing to do besides garden. Through travelling, I've learned how truly fortunate we are to live in Canada...we have so much here and don't really realize. I'm a very proud Canuck..and find it so rewarding to meet people from different countries and how well we are recieved just for being Canadian. Anyways I look forward to being part of this forum and getting to know some of you.

Oh this is a picture of my pond...after the first snow fall last year.

Later all.

Aaaaaaaaaaah another ponder! :D Welcome to Dave's Garden and the Canadian trading forum....a big welcoming wave from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Pam

Well howdy there CoolBreeze. It's so nice to meet you. You sound like such a refreshing happy type person, just the kind we need during the "January doldrums". And I must admit, I am one of the worst offenders! I am a transplanted Albertan (Edmonton area) but now living and loving B.C. Southern Interior to be exact. I fondly refer to BC as God's Country, but you'll get used to my bragging about the many attributes of BC, and just roll your eyes and cluck in disgust as the other prairie members here do! All in good fun, I hope! LOL.

Your water feature sounds wonderful. I too am a pond fanatic and have 4 waterlilies sleeping in my beer fridge in the basement, to prove it. I am also a big fan of Dahlias. We may have to do some trading in the future. But, just wait until we get you going on Brugmansias!!

We have a Round-Up planned for April 1-5 in Victoria coming up. Do think of joining those of us that are attending. We are gonna have a ball!

Oh, and don't' worry about getting to know just some of us! I guarantee you'll meet all of us very soon!

Donna :D

Welcome, CoolBreeze. I finally joined yesterday. Everyone is very friendly here. I'm hoping to make lots of new plant trading friends.

OldFlowerGirl, I just got into the Brugs last year. I started a number of seeds, but they didn't Y for me. I also got a couple of brugs from the Muttart Conservatory in Edmonton that I did get to flower.
:) Donna

I just got into them myself, PerennialGirl. We have a lot of experts not only our Canadian Forum but lots in the Bruhmansia's and Friends forum. Hope you have checked that out. Liz, form NorthVancouver, and Jeanne from Vancouver Island, even our Pam from Moose Jaw, are all well versed in Brugmansia Growing. You'll get lots of great tips from all of them. I hope you'll post some pictures of the Brugs that you got to flower. I haven't had that pleasure yet. Next summer, Whoo Hoo!!

I do have a few posted on my webshots:
http://community.webshots.com/user/gardeningperennialgirl

Welcome Coolbreeze, I bet you'll enjoy it here. Good people, lots of knowledge, and of course some fun.

Linda in Victoria

Hi Coolbreeze, a big wave from "down" east. I'm new here too, but it looks like we're gonna have a real good time (and maybe a little fun). Your picture reminds me of my visit to Calgary (Ardrie) this past August, wild weather you guys have, but oh so beautiful.

Joanne in NB

Well, Have You started 2005 off right! Welcome and Enjoy. I know you will, we have a good time here.

Hi CoolBreeze, welcome to DG and the Canadian forum! You picked a great web community; there's lots to learn here and lots of folks more than happy to trade gardening tips, commiserate/gloat about the weather, etc. We're looking forward to seeing some more pics of your pond & stream!

Where in s. Manitoba is the farm where you grew up? My mom lives in Wawanesa, and I was there over XMas....very blizzard-y this year! I'm a native Saskatonian, temporarly transplanted down east...relatives all over the west including Calgary. Hope to see you at our first-ever Canadian Round-Up, if you can make it, in Victoria, 1-5 Apr.

Welcome & Happy New Year!
Shannon, waving hi from Gatineau, QC

Hi CoolBreeze & a hearty welcome from Northern Ontario. DG & the Canadian forum are a great bunch of people.

Another welcome from Vancouver Island Coolbreeze. I'm fairly new here and have found everyone to be very welcoming and kind. I'm sure you'll find that too.

Sandy

Hello and welcome to you Coolbreeze.

Hello Coolbreeze, and welcome from Ontario
Christine.

Welcome CoolBreeze. Glad to find another person with a garden full of plants on wheels. At least that is what my friends say.

Like the look of your pond.

Lilies. Oh yes. Anyone who gorws lilies is for me. Do you have a lily Soc. in Calgary or only the one in Edmonton -ARLS -
Inanda

Hi, Coolbreeze I'm an Alaskan, but these nice Canadians let me visit on their forum sometimes! I'm a USDA zone 3 here, but my summers are not very hot and our winters seldom below 20 or 30F. Still, we can probably grow many of the same perennials.

Hey,...........coolbreeze.......welcome, welcome! Elaine

Hi.cool breeze.
I used to live in peace river AB,500km north of Edmonton.

Welcome from Nanaimo, vancouver island

Yumiko

whoopee another albertan - welcome!! bouganvillea??? (cause you're texax north right LOL)

Hi back to everyone...very nice welcome and I am looking forward to being a part of this website. I will post some more summer pix, seems though most of them have my family or friends in the pictures, but have some on the hard drive some where.

Shannon, the small town my family was from is Manitou....close to Morden. Our farm was about a mile/1.5 kil. from town. Unfortunately, everyone has left or passed on. I still have a cousin in Morden, but thats all, and many relatives and friends in Winnipeg. I went to my aunts funeral - 2 years ago - and went by to see the old farm house and of course it was torn down....oh well, will always have the memories.

Thanks again to all for the welcome.....I'm off tothe the dahlia forum for a couple of questions.
Oh and I do have a question for this forum...when I post a comment/question in another forum, do we generally repost it in the Canadian one as well??

Bye for now

Only if you want to, CoolBreeze.

Did you see my post about the new 2005 Dahlia Catalog from Ferncliff Gardens? Its the tread called Garden Catalogs in our forum here.

I started some Unwin's Dwarf dahlia from seed last spring, so I'm eager to see if the rhysomes winter over OK in my basement. Do any of you grown Dahlia from seed?

I never have Weezi, but I did store some Dwarf Dahlias(Dahliettas) too with my other dahlias. I hope they make it ok, they really were lovely last summer. Mine are stored in an unheated outside shed, so I have my finger crossed tightly! (:+(

I've always had to dig my dahlias in the fall. I thought a Zone 6 would allow you to leave them in the ground... not so? The dahlias were easy to grow from seed. They sprouted well and grew nicely under lights. By late summer of the first year, many had started to bloom. If transplanted to larger pots in a timely manner, they develop tubers that should winter over. It's my first year doing this, so we shall see.

I'm in zone 6a, Weezi, and am told not to leave dalilahs in the ground over the winter here or they'll die. I'm going to try them this year for the first time; depending on the price of them, I just may leave them in the ground to "test the waters". I'm told they're quite expensive though, so unless I hate them (yeah, right), I'll be digging them up next fall to overwinter in my garage.

That's what I heard too, Christine. I have heard you have to be a minimum of zone 8 before you can attempt to leave them in the ground. It might not be such a bad idea, Christine, especially if you have a lot of tubers (I traded a lot mine this fall) or ones you don't like (I can't imagine) you could try leaving them to see what happens. But even on a day like today which is the coldest day we've had so far at -11, I can't see why they wouldn't keep in the ground like lillies and other stuff. But apparently Dahlia tubers rot in the ground if it's too cold. I would bet that it is warmer underground today here than it is in my backyard shed! 'Course, I don't know if they'll survive in there this winter either...it's a crap shoot!

You're right Donna, it really is a crap shoot! If the weather's right....if we don't get infested with bugs.....if the soil ph is correct..... So I guess, "if the shed/garage doesn't get too cold" fits right in there too .... lol.

Most people here in zone 8 dig up their dahlias in the fall. There's a lady just up the road from me that has most of her garden planted with dahlias. She's actually known as the dahlia lady. Any how, she always digs hers up and overwinters them in the crawlspace of her house. However, she gave a really nice one with huge blooms to my next door neighbour a couple of years ago. The neighbour left it in the ground last winter and this summer it had blooms towering over our fence and my head. It's a gamble though even in zone 8. Sometimes we get hit with a stretch of really cold temperatures so most people just don't take the chance.

Well, I went out tonight to the bring in my dahlias and cannas from our storage shed, and I am afraid they are kaput! I heard the temp was going to drop to -12 and with no heat and a couple days that consistantly cold, I knew I'd better move them. I don't have a place cool enough to keep them as our basement is fully develped, and even though we have the heat registers closed down there, being as it is insulated, it still doesn't get cold enough for bulb storage. So, I am going to stick them under my stairs in a little storage space, but I think it's too late already. The buckets I have the peat moss covered bulbs in were "brittle hard". Ah well, looks like Ferncliff Gardens and McFaydens' is going to get more of my business than I first thought. :-(

Gee, that's too bad Donna. You never know though, they might not be a total write-off.

Again, Sandy, I have my fingers crossed. We shall see in March or so. You live and learn. I will have to figure out how to get even a little bit of heat in that shed...without burning it down, for next winter.

Oooo, I'm glad you told us about this Donna, I'm giong to have to rethink planting daliahs, as I have nowhere that's cold enough without being too cold to overwinter them. Its the frozen garage or the house, I have no inbetween as my whole house is finished. I don't suppose a refrigerator would work, assuming I could take up that much space in mine ....

You know, Christine, I never thought of that. I have an old "beer" fridge in the basement and that is were my water lillies are stored right now. I don't see why you couldn't put dahlias and cannas in there as well, other than as you said, the space required. That is a viable option, I think. It would be cool, but not freezing. Damnaton, why didn't I think of that sooner. Now all I have to do is convince my DH to quit drinking beer...what do you think my chances are?

Get him to switch to red wine ... way better for his heart ... and your flowers ... lol.

Thanks Donna. Let me know if it works for you, if it does, I'll buy a small fridge for next year. The expense we go to for our flowers ... sigh.