My first bamboo.

My interest in gardening started in the summer of 2007.  We had just bought a house the previous fall and it was not landscaped.  In 2007 I planted a few shrubs in front of the house and a couple perennnials.  I mainly dreamt about my plans for the backyard in the summer of 2008.  I had always wanted a water feature and I had the intentions of building a pond.  That winter I bought some books on perennials and I was hooked.  I started noticing landscapes in a different way.  I noticed the colors, plants, textures, leaf sizes and shapes in a way I had never paid attention to before.

I was always on the lookout to identify plants I had seen in my books and I started looking for opportunities to visit gardens and parks.  In the summer of 2008 we visited the Island Preserve Company in New Glasgow PEI.  Adjacent to the restaurant and shop is the Garden of Hope, a 12 acre park with over 400 different plants.  When cruising through the trails a certain plant really caught my eye.  It was a short, shrubby plant in the heavy shade of spruce trees.  It looked like bamboo.  I searched the ground for some sort of identification but there was none.  So I searched the plant and I found a small tag.  I stole the tag. 

The tag said Fargesia murielae - el Summit Perennial Nursery.  This meant absolutely nothing to me at the time.  I did not recognize the genus or the nursery.  Weeks later I looked up the nursery online and found that it was in Mt. Uniake, Nova Scotia. 

In spring 2009 I planned a trip to el Summit perennial nursery.  When I arrived I noticed how different it was from any other nursery I had been to before.  It was just someone's house.  The owner Leo Smit met me in the driveway and toured me through his grounds.  There were small bunches of potted plants everywhere.  He seemed to know where things were but there was no signage.  You would be lost without his assistance.  I asked him about the bamboo and he found me a small 1 gallon specimen.  It looked pretty sad but I was not concerned.  I was so excited to find it that I really didn't pay much attention to his in ground specimen which I think was about 6 feet tall with a clump diameter of about 12 inches.

My invoice contained information about the plants I purchased that day but I really didn't pay much attention to it.  I went home, planted the bamboo and the obsession began.  I recently dug out that invoice.  It explains how he obtained the seed from Insigne Garden Design in 1999.  He had grown these plants from seed from a few plants that had flowered in Dartmouth in 1998, 1999.  The plants are expected to flower every 92 years.

Of course I did not take any pictures of the bamboo in the ground in 2009.  It didn't grow at all that summer.  I was quite concerned about it wintering in New Brunswick 4b.  Fargesia murielae is said to be hardy to zone 5.  The first winter I tried to protect it by placing a bale of hay near the plant and wrapping burlap around the hay and plant and attaching it to the fence behind it.  (It turns out this wasn't the best method.  It kept the insulation of the snowfall off the plant and really the bamboo was exposed to the coldest temperatures of the winter.)  The 2 pictures below show the plant in early Spring when temperatures were still below zero.  Notice the evergreen leaves are rolled to prevent dessication from cold winter winds.

Fargesia murielae (Spring 2010)

Fargesia murielae (Spring 2010)



Fargesia murielae (later that Spring)

 I was quite concerned when I saw the leaves rolled up but soon I read a book on bamboo that explained this was normal.  The book is called Hardy Bamboo by Paul Whittaker.  This book revealed that I had the potential to grow much larger running bamboo types on the East Coast and the obsession was intensified.
I ordered a bunch of different Phyllostachys species that summer and planted them.  This was their first winter and since our Spring has been so cold and wet, none of them have started shooting yet.  I can't wait to see if they upsized at all.

Speaking of upsizing.  The Fargesia murielae sent up 3 shoots in late summer of 2010.  A couple of them were taller than the rest and they did well over the winter.  I bent the culms down, covered the plant in plastic and the snow did the rest. 


Fargesia murielae (Summer 2010)



Fargesia murielae (Spring 2011 - notice the new branches forming from last year's shoots)

When I move, I will be bringing this plant with me.  I'm sure the transplant will slow down it's upsizing again but this was the first.  I also look forward to visiting the specimen at Island Preserve Company this summer and making notes about a more mature plant. 

My father in law and I have big bamboo plans for this summer in PEI.  If things go right, we may have the most complete collection of bamboo in all the East Coast of Canada.  I can't wait to write that Blog.

April 30th - It's Looking A Lot More Like Spring

I always start to wonder in April what my garden looked like the previous year at the same time.  I plan on documenting the growth every Sunday until June and that way I can look back next Spring to compare.

One of the first signs of Spring in my yard is the blooming of the marsh marigold (Caltha palustris).  I have two varieties.  The yellow variety is a native plant.  I dug up this plant a few years ago along a highway in Prince Edward Island.  The plants add so much color early in the year when things are so drab.  Especially against the dark backdrop of the pond water.

Caltha palustris

 The second marsh marigold I acquired was Caltha palustris 'alba'.  I found it at a small perennial nursery outside of Halifax.  I owe a lot to the El Summit perennial nursery because that is the location of my first ever bamboo purchase.  The 'alba' variety is shorter and has white flowers.  These plants are both bog plants but I just keep mine in pots and sit them in the pond. 

Caltha palustris 'alba'

I planted a few Primula in a wet spot in the yard last year.  They were planted really late and were in quite sad shape at the time of planting.  I was surprised to see a few of them flowering this Spring.  I thought I would have had to wait another year.  



Primula denticulata

Check out the flowering native maples.  How beautiful.  What a shame this is the first year I noticed them.  It's funny how we often spend time and money to source unique beautiful plants that have a characteristic that only lasts a short time (magnolia, japanese maples etc...) and we don't notice the native plants around us. (or ID them)



Acer sp.

  This is my first bamboo Fargesia murielae.  I bought it May 3rd 2009.  The culms shoot really late in the summer and the branching occurs in the second season.  The branching is beginning  now.

 

Fargesia murielae


A quick shot just showing the height of the various perennials.  

Fargesia rufa is finally shooting.  This is the earliest of all the bamboo to shoot.  I planted it late last summer and I don't expect much of an upsize this year.  However, there are two shoots that are equal to the existing shoots diameter.  I check on them every morning before work.



Fargesia rufa




Fargesia rufa shoots

  The lungwort also blooms really early.  It provides a lot of color at a time when things are so drab.

Pulmonaria sp.  'Mrs. Moon'

 The Northern Golden Forsythia always puts on a good show.   I think they are outgrowing this spot and I plan on digging them up this summer and moving them to PEI.

Forsythia

Last weekend I was trimming the ornamental grasses and I found this nest.  I thought because I disturbed the site the mother may abandon the nest.  I never see the bird around so I am unable to ID the eggs yet.  I took a close up of the eggs so if you know anything about bird eggs and could ID them, post it in the comments.

Pretty sweet set up