scrawlings & scratchings, murmurings and mumblings

March 6th
Winter Sown
1 - Fennel Flower
2 - Foam Flower
3 - Wild Lupin
4 - Kiss-Me-Over-The-Garden-Gate
5 - Scarlet Pimpernel
6 - Blue Pimpernel
7 - Wood Betony
8 - Grandmother's Garden Columbine
9 - Texas Blue Bonnet
10 - Primrose
11 - Delphinium, Pacific Giant
12 - Moonflower
13 - Cardinal Climber
14 - Morning Glory, Grandpa Ott
15 - English Daisy
16 - Alyssum
1 - 15 planted in milk jugs, 16 planted in a small clear tote (see next post for winter sowing details.)

March 11th
Indoor Sown
Germander Speedwell
Coral Bells
Straw Foxglove
Foxglove
Hollyhocks, cream & mixed
Yarrow
Summer Savory
Parsley
Coriander
Bergamot
Bee Balm
Lemon Bee Balm
Lemon Balm
Hyssop
Jalapeno
Chili Pepper
Onion
Leeks
Okra
Thyme, orange scented

March 25th
Indoor sown
Celery
Cape Gooseberry (Lantern Fruit)
Winter Sown
17 - Purple Rain Viola
18 - Misc. Viola
19 - Sweet Violet
20 - Labrador Violet
21 - Corsican Violet
22 - Gold Currant
23 - Wild Rose
All planted in milk jugs.

 

Squeee!
My seeds arrived today... well most of them anyway, some are on back order & will be along later.
That's all.

One of the plants I wanted for the garden to go along with the cottage garden/wildflower theme was violets (sweet violet, English violet). These are the flowers that give the distinctive smell & taste to the violet sweets I had as a child.

I had a number of "mini pansy" style violas in my garden (like the ones the bees are visiting in this post) & I've lots of seeds collected from those plants ready for the new garden but they are not particularly fragrant so I was hoping to get the real deal!

While looking through The Cottage Gardener's online catalogue I saw them only to read that they were unavailable for 2010... hmmm me thinks to myself... I wonder if they have any for 2011... I e-mails them & they do!!

*happy dance*

I haz a happy!

One of the quintessential parts of a cottage garden is roses... this meant finding roses that didn’t require any special winter care... while I don’t mind molly-coddling one or two plants through winter, I’d rather not have a whole stack of them. There are two main series of roses that have been developed specifically to live in our cold Canadian winters, the Explorer Series – developed at an Ottawa research station and the Parkland Series – developed in Morden, Manitoba. I was looking for climbing roses as well as the bush type, so far I have come up with:

Explorer Series

John Davis (climbing rose) – light pink, spicy fragrance

John Cabot (climbing rose) – red to deep pink, light fragrance

Henry Kelsey (climbing rose) – Red to medium pink, light spicy fragrance

Alexander Mackenzie (climbing rose) – Red, medium fragrance

J.P. Connell – Light yellow to creamy white, medium fragrance

Parkland Series

Morden Blush – light pink to blush ivory, slight fragrance

Morden Fireglow – orange red, light fragrance

Morden Sunrise – Yellow to yellow orange, strong fragrance

Rugosa
Wild Spice - white, strong clove fagrance

Others
Wild Alberta Rose – pink, slight fragrance

I’ve seen the Morden roses in person & love them all. The Wild AlbertaRose would go in my front garden as I’m planning on that being predominantly native plants so the upkeep is minimal. Out of the climbing roses the John Davis is the most “cottage garden” looking & of the three red ones I think John Cabot is my favourite but I’d like to see them all in person before making up my mind. I’d like the J. P. Connell & the Wild Spicebecause they're white, I think the wild Spice would compliment the Wild Alberta Rose nicely.

I have a chain link fence at the bottom of the garden looking out onto the green space & I plan to use it for sweet peas, here are the ones I’m thinking of getting:
Queen of the Night

Pastel Sunset

Blue Celeste

April in Paris