June garden visit

I spent the most splendid day yesterday in the garden of Arie Vanspronsen and Lee Bolton. Their garden is a real collectors' garden containing alpines, hardy cacti, succulents, saxifragas, woodlands plants, trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials. The scree beds were built, and designed by Arie. He has also built a greenhouse which houses many cuttings of various hardy Cactus species, which will be planted in his new cactus bed scheduled to be built in July. Looking forward to returning to see the new cactus bed.

Troughs of cacti, succulents, and conifers

Scree bed built by Arie with many choice alpines-Soldanella, Lewisia, Leontopodium. and Pelargonium endlicherianum in background top right

Scree bed- Thymus, Buxus, Opuntia

Saxifraga sieberi

Buckiniczia cabulica a gorgeous statice from Afghanistan which is monocarpic



Sempervivum cultivars with Orostachys spinosus

Beautiful lace-cap Hydrangea

Cotinus- Smoke Bush

Echinocereus reichenbachii- hardy cactus species in the scree bed

Scree bed that Arie created. The greenhouse in the background.

Scree bed with a lovely Edraianthus graminifolius, Heterotheca jonesii, Campanula sp. 

Delosperma modderpoort- a gorgoeus cultivar from Holland, which I am coveting

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Bouquet of Clematis 'Roguchi', and C. 'Princess Diana'

Campanula punctata

Summer Flowering South African Bulbs

Summer has arrived, and with it a great deal of rain. The rains are over for now, and the sun is shining gloriously. More rain, however is yet to come. We had a very cold, and wet Spring, and as a result the summer-growing South African bulbs were late to sprout. I thought I would share the wealth of some of the Summer-Rainfall region bulbs from South Africa's Eastern Cape province.

Apodilirion macowanii

Ammocharis coranica

Scadoxus puniceus

 

Cyrtanthus macowanii

 

Cyrtanthus epiphyticus

Watsonia confusa

 

Moraea alpina

Rhodohypoxsis baurii

Galtonia viridiflora

 

G. viridiflora

 

Eucomis grimshawii

Colchicum striatum ( formerly Androcymbium striatum)

 

Crinum moorei

 

Gladiolus ochroleucus

 

Crinum campanulatum

Tropicals at Allan Gardens Conservatory

Pachypodium sp.

Passiflora sp.

 

Ginger relative

 

Convolvulus sp.

 

Strongylodon macrobotrys- Jade Vine 

Birding Foray

Eastern Kingbird

Tundra Swans with Cygnets

Killdeer

Tree Swallow family nesting in a Martin House

 

Tree Swallow

 

Black-crowned Night Heron sadly out of focus, and  he took off, so my opportunity was thwarted.

Yellow Warbler

Toronto Cactus and Succulent Show 2013

Well Sunday June 2nd saw an outstanding show put on by the Toronto and Succulent Club. I was blown away by the plethora of plants on display, as well as the abundance of sales plants by our members. The show was a hit, with more plants than I have seen in many years. The plant that captured Best in Show was the beautiful Fockea edulis, a beautiful( circa) 30 year old caudiciform grown by Ben Noguiera. Many thanks to all volunteers, and members for a stupendous show. Below are some of the beautiful plants both grown, and displayed by our members.

Fockea edulis- Best in Show

Astrophytum capricorne aureum

 

Rebutia krainziana

Salcorebutia menesessii

Aztekium ritteri

Operculicaria decaryii

 

Monanthes sp.

Echinocereus rigidissimus

 

Echinocereus fitchii

 

Pachypodium rosulatum flowers

Pachypodium rosulatum

Delosperma congestum