It's Good to Bee Home

It's so good to be back with my home boys and my home bees. The backyard is an overgrown jungle full of berries and purple podded peas I grew from Saltspring Seeds. These are the photogenic peas on the cover of Dan Jason's new book: The Power of Pulses.

Now that I have a wee window of downtime, I had to go perform a meadowtation at Mountainview Cemetery. Right now it is a riot of buttery yellow large-flowered coreopsis (Coreopsis grandiflora).

a There are bumblebees, honeybees, and turquoise sweat bees swimming in the flowers and fish swimming in the meadow.

The fish are part of a project by artist Marina Szijarto.

 On the way back from the cemetery I noticed this lovely boulevard garden. Those drumstick alliums are beautiful even before they bloom.

And what about the colour in these echinacea flowers? Spectacular!

A Warm Spell in January

On Monday I saw the first honeybees of the year. It was 10 degrees at noon and the bees were checking our the flowers at two different florists. I felt sorry for the girls because it was slim pickings for pollen and nectar. One bee had ivory pollen on her hind legs, which may have come from the heather which is blooming. The sweet box is very fragrant these days and some of the the hellebores are blooming as well.

I am well on my way to ordering seeds for the new year. I'm very excited about trying some different kinds of poppies and zinnias and I've discovered some really interesting varieties of nigella to grow. If you are into flowers, I suggest two seed companies: Beauty Beyond Belief, which is based in the States has a good variety of wild flowers. I have had good service from the company. You can subscribe to their newsletter to keep tabs on their sales. Now that the Canadian dollar has dropped, it's also good value to order seeds from companies in Canada and I'm very excited about the flower seed offerings in William Dam Seeds based in Ontario. This is also a great time to order seeds for flowers, herbs and heirloom vegetables from my personal favorite, Salt Spring Seeds. As Dan Jason grows most of the seeds this is a good time of the year to order before the gardening season begins and Dan gets busy in the fields.

Keep your eyes on those snowdrops and crocuses because they'll be up and blooming before you know it!

Scabiosa Stellata 'Ping Pong'

  

Finding out that there is a flower named Scabiosa stellata Ping Pong has made my day. I can use this fab phrase as an incantation to cheer myself up in sticky situations. If someone tries to push ahead of you in line at the grocery store, fix them with your eyes and recite: "Scabiosa stellata Ping Pong!" in your most intimidating wizard's voice and I assure you people will start treating you with respect. I fell in love with this flower at Dan Jason's farm on Salt Spring Island. It has a demure blue-violet flower which has a good sturdy landing pad for the big bumble bees that love to sip the nectar. The wonderful thing about Scabiosa stellata ping pong is its translucent globe-shaped seed heads, which is why it is sometimes poetically called "Paper Moon." Each dimple in the ping pong ball is marked with a charming 5 pointed star. They are an eco-artist's dream and look great in sculptures and flower arrangements. The seeds would make great holiday gifts.