Visited Lilypon in Moose Jaw this week. Good name. 3 ponds, full of water lilies and other goodies, all with diff. water plants.
Real WOW for me were her brugs and hoyas. Brugs, brugs and more brugs. Have never seen so many in one garden before. Trees in pots outside front door, groups of trees (no other description possible) in side garden, a brug walk dividing perennial garden from pond and veggies (have to mention tomatoes were picked - yum). Learnt so much about brugs from Pam. What causes trees vs bushes - how to increase, etc. etc. Interested but not hooked. Pam has been growing brugs for over ten years, giving lectures etc. Awesome.
My main thought about Pams garden is the labour of carrying all those HUGE pots to basement for the winter. I mean, Linda has to carry all hers up into her greenhouse which I don't think needs to be heated for them in Victoria. Different story for M J .
Cannot stop thinking about Pam and her hoyas. So many diff. ones, large, small, EVERYWHERE inside and outside. Oh my. And then --- Plumies. All in diff. stages of growth, all diff. colours. Am sure her lovely pre WW1 house must resemble a jungle in winter.
Pam and family really need to move to Vancouver Island, to join the other brug fanatics there. In Victoria brugs -(prob Grimaldi) are used in many public gardens, even saw a grouping in a traffic circle. Almost went off the road the first time I saw that!!!
Other jottings about trip. Lovely to have lunch with Linda and Cheryl - gracious hosts for Cdn. RU in April. Their brugs are in full bloom. Quite spectacular and overwhelming with perfume.
All through the mountains and in Alberta, lilium philidephicum and other wonderful wild flowers along sides of the roads. Almost went off the road when I saw first area of lilies, with more red colour than grass. Didn't see any canadense though.
Sad to see so many for sale signs on farms & ranches. Signs for B&Bs, scrapbooking weekends, farm stays, many innovative ways to stay on the farm. Also hectare after hectare of unseeded land. Very interesting wind farms, with huge huge windmills. Many acres of crops, with oil pump(s) moving lazily in the middle, or an enclosure in the middle of a field with gas pipes. In some areas, planted field after field totally flooded with rotting brown crops. The rain, on top of the BSE crisis is a disaster.
Stayed at one motel (tired of camping) where gas field crews have rooms and suites booked by the year. Signs on lobby doors asking you to take off muddy boots before entering. First time I've ever seen a hotel with young people wearing work clothes but with sparkling white work socks or slippers in lobby, dining area, computer area etc. Parking lot full of really muddy trucks with 4-wheelers. Free breakfast provided - from 4.00AM--- Interesting watching interaction between the crews and tourists in the public areas. This hotel (a Ramada) has daily 24 hour laundry pickup for crew clothing (very muddy overalls etc). Also has Wi-Fi. You can just use your computer anywhere in the hotel if you have the correct card (?) in your computer.
All in all, most interesting cross-country trip and now - attack those weeds and gear up for NALS (North American Lily Society Convention) held here July 13/17th.
Inanda
Moose Jaw visit/cross country musings
So glad you're home safe and sound, inanda. Lilypon, we want to see pictures. Lots of pictures. You've been holding out. At least put some up in your jounal.
LOL.......well thank you Ginny for such a lovely write-up! Ü Ginny is being very kind......I also have a lovely growth of Hell's Bells (Ladies Bells) and will be attacking them this weekend. I'll be looking for the 3-Way today echoes. We've dug down to China to try to eradicate them ......... didn't work! :( Seems you get 20 new ones for every one that was removed (a downside to living in an older house....some of the nasties had many years to get established).
It was sooooooooooo wonderful to see Ginny and visit with her. An amazing women who crossed almost 1/2 of our country in record breaking time. It brought a big smile to my face when I saw the VW van sitting outside the house. I wish my land lubbing lillies were in bloom so Ginny could have ID them for me again (I should have used a pencil to mark those darn labels).
My brug trees (size of trees but they are below the Y cuttings so really are large bushes) take a while to recover from the basement Brenda (they are starting to fill out well)......some of the young ones have buds now so I'll take a pictures when they open. Ginny is right about the plants......DH gets very cross at me when it's time to bring them in. Mind you he also loved them, as much as me, during the summer when they were putting on a show. Grumbling loudly seems to ease the stress for him (not me) when we are racing against OLD MAN F*R*O*S*T.
With all my new babies, from the RoundUp, etc., we are going to have lots and lots of additional oxygen in the house this winter. ;) We are already eyeing how we can prepare the upstairs windows for some of the smaller plants.
Ginny also came bearing gifts..........wonderful green stuff! I've always wanted to grow a Bay plant and she also brought a Hebe (new to me). I did some research in the PlantFiles and now know what it is. THANK YOU Ginny!
This message was edited Jul 8, 2005 8:41 AM
wow....ginny, you must be quite a woman to make that trip! i am envious of you and know you must have had a wonderful time. was so much fun reading the description of lilypons gardens, plants and house. i can't wait to see that myself. tell us more about your trip when you have time and have fun on this next adventure.
connie
Must also say *thank you* to PanamonCreel (Milan) for the wonderful map he made for Ginny so that she could find my house. Ü
It was soooooo nice to have a fellow DG'er here weeds! There is something so special about having a fellow obsessed plant nut come visit! Ü
It's going to be really interesting to see *how much* your nanners have grown by the time they have to come in. ;)
Remember there is a spare bedroom here......Dennis the Menace has really grabbed my attention and I'm not living in one of his projected paths. :S You could see my garden, and your babies, in person and be far, far, far, away from him!!!
thank you!
You know I mean it........I'm going to be going NUTS if your area looses power and you can't check in!!
I did write a pmail to Milan this AM. Lilypon.
Weeds, this is 3rd trip of the year. -So far - So many adventures. Meeting DGers(& their gardens) is def. one of the highlights of year so far.
Inanda
I feel so bad for the farmers Ginny......where did you see the most rain sitting on the fields?
I haven't sent him a thank-you yet.......just thought I'd get mine in here quickly. I'm glad you thought of it. :)
Ginny
Good to have up back in The Peg,
Lovely picture of you and the VW.
sounds like you had a lovely trip.
Pam please do send,
pictures of you water gardens..
If I am ever out your way, would love to stop by.. for a garden tour..
well back outside
too much to do,,
Here's some pics Wilma (from two years ago)......many of mine were divided last year so I don't know how many will bloom this summer.
You'll be more than welcome but I'll say the same thing I said to Lynn.......wait till next year by then we will have Mom and Dad moved back in, the farm they are selling will have been emptied, and life, and my garden, should be more organized.
one from this year
The top and the one below were actual pics I sent to weeds and she scanned them and sent back to me.
soooooo, that's how you got your handle???//lol
Boy oh boy,
I'm honoured then Pam. I LOVED your garden tour. Thank you for the tour. Just sorry I didn't have time to contact Joelle to meet her too. Seeing that she is on CZ as well as DG.
Your brugs and other tropicals are totally amazing. Not for me though. Can't look after them in the winter.
Oh well, another time. One of these years I'll get to Edmonton for the Lily shows. Want to visit Lynne at Valley K too. Oh those lilies.
Inanda
Yep it did seem fitting ;) Plus the fact that I finally got ahold of the elusive N. Lilypons (100 soft pink petals on that beauty).
My Cannas over winter well as did some of my other water plants so am hopeful that in mid to late July that there should be some well developed flowering plants out there,
This message was edited Jul 8, 2005 11:56 AM
echoes I checked around and Three Way (or 3Way) and Cygon have been pulled off the shelves and Government Inspectors had visited all the suppliers to make sure their orders had been followed.
Our choices are getting pretty limited now. :S
Ginny where did you see the rotting crops?
Lilypon, rotting fields were in SK on the SK/MB border and then all the way fro MB border to YWG. Forgot about abbreviations. YWG = Winnipeg.
Unseeded fields all ove AB and the other privinces as well, excepting BC.
Inanda