A gardener's garden in Victoria

Lewisia tweedyi 'Rosea'

I start with a plant (a great plant that grows in both Canada and USA), since Janice Currie (and your's truly) is very much a plant person. Unlike most of us plant "nerds" she also happens to have a fantastic eye for design and a breathtakingly wide canvas upon which to paint...I was privileged to be hosted by Janice and her husband Mark for six nights and glorious days! They practically had to employ a crowbar to get me out of their house and to the airport!

Glimpse of part of the garden from the front porch...as you scroll through you will find it hard this all can possibly fit, albeit Janice has a very generous sized lot (I'm guessing an acre?): ANYone who visits this garden will love it, but this is a garden for sophisticated gardeners. Go on: you'll see what I mean...

Darned container never DID empty the whole time I was there!

Caltha palustris

Another pond...I call this a gardener's garden because only a keen gardener can appreciate the level of sophistication it takes to grow such an enormous spectrum of plants well. And she's a garden artist to boot! Good thing she's lovable....

The large rock garden in the back of the house

 

There are so many kinds of gardens: woodland gardens, crevice gardens, all manner of rock garden--but there are also vegetable gardens and not one but two exquisite greenhouses--not to mention a fantastic assortment of shrubs and trees. Janice has it all! Everyone told me this was the worst winter in years--I found that hard to believe: everything in her garden looked perfect!

Primula marginata

Another corner of the back garden rock work with conifers...and choice shrubs...

I've seem many a garden "bed", but this my first garden bathtub!

She even grows veggies!

One of two enviable greenhouses...

 

I have a trough that looks uncannily similar--you may have one too!

Lots of propagation in this greenhouse!

Waiting to be planted? Or to be shared?

Lots of primulas blooming in the alpine house

Primula x polyantha 'Cowichan strain'

Erythronium californicum

Muscari aucheri 'White Magic'

Fritillaria uva-vulpis

Saxifraga cochlearis

A wonderful assortment of Porophyllum saxifrage in the alpine house...

Salix sp. in the alpine house

Janice didn't want me to show this--but I love the long views: there are lots of them I neglected to photograph: this is a spacious garden!

Sunny view of the trough plaza

Trachycarpus sp.

Another view of her trough assemblage in backlight

Saxifrage trough

Moss growing on the boles of the bigtooth maples

Porophyllum saxifrages in the garden

Saxifraga cf. marginata

Helichrysum intermedium

Pyrrosia sheareri

I grow this wonderful fern as well.......indoors for the winter of course!

I believe the middle primula is P. x pubescens 'Freedom'

 

A tufa crevice garden! Quite new--lots more room for treasures!

Bellis perennis in the lawn

Asarina procumbens

Tsuga mertensiana dwarf

Hebe 

Sempervivum "Chick Charms" 'Gold Nugget'

Saxifraga longifolia hyb.

Rhododendron saluanense spp. chameumum var. prostratum ex Mt. Tahoma

 

Some views of the large crevice garden that embraces the Southwest corner of the house...full of alpine treasure!

Sequoia sempervirens var. prostratum

Funny to think this is the tallest tree on earth--here growing only a few inches max!

Pittosporum daphniphylloides

Daphnephyllum and Shefflera delavayi and Osmanthus fragrantissima (from Paul Bonine)

Oxalis griffithii 'Pink Flore Pleno'

Cardamine trifolia

Trachystemon orientalis

Penstemon davidsonii var. menziesii

Muscari sp. 

A mystery grape hyacinth: I'd like to grow this one!

Sedum spathulifolium

It is mildly annoying for us in steppe climates to see this maritime sedum growing contentedly in shallow containers here and there around the garden, thriving through "extreme winters" (ha!)

Brunnera macrophylla cv.

Sedum rupestre Crested form

Thlaspi sp.

Boechera koehleri

Here's the same plant on another, sunnier day: which one do you think is better?

            

Whicord Hebe 'James Stirling'

Epimedium colchicum

Ribes x gordonianum

Berberis thunbergii 'Helmond Pillar'

Daphne x transatlantica 'Eternal Fragrance'

Nothopanax or Metapanax delavayi

Saxifaga marginata

As I draw near the close, I want to remind you this was still early spring. I could see from the masses of shoots and buds around the garden that in a few weeks it will have masses of color. Summer (she said) was the showiest season! You're looking here at it's sparsest (she'd just finished cleaning up the winter herbiage)...

And here she is: emceeing the 100th Anniversary VIRAGS conference! Thank you Janice (and Mark) for a fantastic week of gardens, great food, and fun!

 

With you as a perennial leader, I know VIRAGS will thrive!