It's almost lilac time

We have been experiencing the craziest spring that I can remember. We had some really warm weather for a week in early April and then the temperature plunged into the freezer. The lilacs that had looked so promising back then have so much dead wood. I wonder if they will recover. I'm going to wait a month and see, but I have a sinking feeling that this might be permanent damage. This is the first spring that anything like this has happened in the garden. I am blaming the April weather and the fact that we had to remove thirteen very large over-mature fir trees that were threatening to come down on our roof. The wind now comes off the river, and it seems like it never stops blowing.

A few of the hyacinthafloras are just starting to open. Excel is showing some color but is not promising its usual amazing show. This is one of my favorite lilacs. It is just so spectacular and it is one of the first to bloom in the garden. It is situated in a bit more of a sheltered spot than some of the others.

Below are pictures of it in full bloom in past years. I would definitely recommend this lilac for your collection. Its hard to surpass its loveliness.

Hulda Klager

Mr. Peabody in front of Hulda Klager

Mr. Peabody thinks he is just as beautiful as Hulda Klager! This Vulgaris lilac grows at the Culp Farm. It is a single, color class 7, Klager 1928. A very lovely dark purple lilac.
It has been growing here for many years.

Hulda Klager has been a great inspiration to us. We have visited the gardens many times over the years. If you are ever in Woodland, be sure to check it out. Go to http://www.lilacgardens.com/ to read the story and view pictures of the garden.

Owls

There is not much happening in the garden these days. The snow we received last week is finally melting and we are slogging through the mud again. I have spent a lot of time watching the hummingbird cam. Hope an egg hatches today. Last night I spent some time watching Molly the Barn Owl live and witnessed her partner McGee visit her in the nesting box. This a really cool cam and worth a look. This little Northern Saw-Whet Owl was perched in a tree by our bird feeder. There is a shadow of a branch on his face unfortunately. He didn't come back to give me another chance for a better picture. Check out Molly at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-owl-box/.

Baby Hummers

These baby hummers are in a nest in a branch just over our deck. Curtis Culp has been banding hummingbirds in the Robson Valley for over 10 years. We have hundreds of them that come to our feeders every season. Here is a great webcam of a nest in California that he sent. Take a look: www.phoebeallens.com
It will be a while before they show up here again.

Winter in March

In like a lion and out like a lamb? This morning it is winter again in the Robson Valley. I awoke this morning to about 6 inches of light fluffy snow covering everything. The Lilac Bercha hardly resembles the inviting space of a June day.

While I search for the appropriate photos of my first five lilacs (which somehow seem to have fled my computer!) I would like to show you a couple of pictures that were taken at the Experimental Farm in Prince George, BC. In June of 2007 we visited the farm and were given permission to take pictures and some cuttings of the lilacs that were growing there. We found several very attractive ones, but alas, not a label to be seen. We have not been able to discover any records that show what might have been planted there at one time. There was a beautiful specimen right beside the main office building. After wandering the grounds we came across a wonderful overgrown hedge. Hopefully in a few years we will have some of these flowering in our own collections.

My First Five Lilacs

May 1997 was the beginning of my lilac collection. For our anniversary, my husband and I were given 5 lilacs by our good friends Bonnie and Curtis. When trying to decide where these should be planted, the idea of a "lilac walk" came to mind. A bed approximately 80 feet long was prepared and the following lilacs were planted: 'Sensation', 'Grande Flora Alba', 'President Grevy', 'Belle de Nancy', and 'Miss Canada'.

All were bare rooted shrubs about 2-3 feet in height. Hindsight makes me ask why, oh why did I not mulch this bed at the time of planting? 15 years makes a lot of difference in the energy I have for garden maintenance. The bed was filled in with perennials including peonies and a waft of spring flowering bulbs. It grew and so did the weeds. What had started out as a wonderful display has now grown into a jungle, almost impossible to weed. But the lilacs are still beautiful and bloom every year. So I will start out with these five dependable beauties.

A new lilac every week

Now that I am kind of catching on to blogging (still a long way to go) I am proposing to post a picture of one of the lilacs in our collections every week. At the end of the year there should be pictures of at least 50 different lilacs that are growing in our gardens here in the Robson Valley.
In order to catch up I will be adding several lilacs in the next couple of weeks.

Looking back at pictures of the garden from last year, I realize what a great companion plant for lilacs is the Purple Sensation allium. I wish I had planted hundreds more last fall.

We are having unseasonably warm weather here in the Robson Valley. It has been raining for the past three days and the soft fluffy blanket of snow protecting our precious lilacs is slowly disappearing. It will turn to a hard icy prison once the weather returns to its normal temperatures. The last few winters have had a few such worrisome weeks. We always wonder if our lilacs will suffer or indeed survive, but so far we have managed to keep them alive.

After visiting other lilac gardens and seeing what a difference a bit of fertilizer makes, this coming year we plan to do a bit of fertilizing as well as feeding them with bone meal.
We were able to salvage quite a bit of bonemeal from a highway spill about a year ago. Last summer Mamma bear and twins made short work of it, so we are left with going to the garden centre again.

2010 will be the tenth year we will be holding our annual lilac walk. It's hard to believe time has gone by so fast. We're planning something special for it, so check back later this spring.