Explore

May 5, 2010

4 Comments

Sunlit Grass

I just found out that it is ‘Roid Week and have decided that I will post all Polaroids in the Daily Botanical for the remainder of the week.

I took this photo on December 13, 2009, our third day in Dominica but our first in the little cottage we would stay in for the remainder of the trip. Come to think of it, that’s not entirely true. We stayed in a much, much smaller cottage below it the night I took this picture, a tiny room I dubbed “The Prison Cell” for the feelings of encasement and discomfort we felt in there.

After unpacking our bags for the umpteenth time, we took a walk further up the mountain to check out the neighbourhood and ended up at the top of Jack’s Walk, a popular tourist lookout point with a path that descends into the Botanical Garden below. Throughout our trip, while trudging up and down the mountain (sweat pouring down our faces and backs), we passed countless vans loaded up with cruise ship tourists on their way to the top to get the view of Roseau below.

Look up Dominica on Flickr, and 90% of the photos are of that view or the view in the opposite direction taken from the ship. Cruise ship tourists spend no more than 6 or so hours on the island, and few go beyond that quick jaunt up the mountain. Dominica is filled beyond capacity with treasures — those tourists have missed literally everything.

Here’s a great story by Paul Crask (author of the very best Dominica travel guide) that explains just how much there is to discover there.

I’m sorry I can’t tell you any botanical information about the grass in this photo — I haven’t a clue what it is other than pretty. The reason I chose this photo is because today is our 17th anniversary and I wanted to choose a photo that reminds me of Davin. When I look at this photo I remember that day and the joy-filled smile on Davin’s face, meeting the local Snackette owner and discovering bush rum, the mango we picked off the ground only minutes before, and our excited talk that a week in and we had already had so many adventures and yet our trip had only just begun. We still had weeks of free time remaining that we would spend together without schedules, obligations, or jobs to get to.

If you’d like to see more pictures from our trip (botanical and not), Davin has posted some of his film here and here. I still have a giant bag of undeveloped film and an equally giant bag of developed film that I have yet to scan. However, I try to make time to post here now and again.

Leave a comment

April 22, 2010

13 Comments

Yellow and Orange Cosmos

Recently, I’ve started some of my summer flowers from seed and the potential for future colour and perfume laying dormant in those little packages has got me daydreaming once again about all of the inspiring and cheerful cosmos I saw in the Caribbean.

Leave a comment

April 16, 2010

4 Comments

Red Clerodendron

Today’s photo is a mixed botanical of sorts, representing tropical colour explosion at its best. I took this photo on a street corner in the town of Soufriere, St. Lucia. I can spot roses and croton (big colourful hedges) in the background, but what stands out most are the two red clerodendron (aka Clerodendrum) flowers up front.

I first saw clerodendron in Barbados but had no idea what it was. The plant was taller than the house it flanked with massive blooms that managed to stand upright, even in the wind. Very impressive! My friend David says it is a “tough as nails” plant that can be difficult to transplant due to its tap root. But once established it will grow just about anywhere.

Leave a comment

April 9, 2010

6 Comments

Skirt Aloe (Aloe alooides)

Leave a comment

April 2, 2010

14 Comments

Meanwhile, Over at the Greenhouse

We have been enjoying an unseasonably warm March here in Toronto that has lead into the warmest early April I can recall, ever. Temperatures are supposed to soar this weekend, sending gardeners (including me) into a flurry of activity. I have already sown spinach and mâche into containers on the roof. The chives have been shooting up slowly over the last few weeks, and I am starting to identify lettuce seedlings that have self sown where I let mature plants go to seed last season. I intend to spend this weekend cleaning up, amending the container soil, and getting all of the gardens into shape.

Meanwhile, over at the greenhouse, my little seedlings are go. I started tomatoes and peppers on March 5 and have sown the odd thing here and there since. I’m enjoying the simplicity of this stage of the growing season very much. I’ve been through this stage countless times now and you’d think it would get dull, but it never does. Every year there is something new and even the same old same old haven’t lost their appeal. On a basic level I am amazed by my plants’ progress every time I visit the greenhouse. I am relishing just observing the beauty of new seeds as they come out of the package and discovering the early growth stages of plants I have never grown from seed before. This is a happy time all around.

These are a pansy called ‘Caramel Spice’ from Botanical Interests. It’s a little late to start pansies and violas from seed as they are typically started in January. In fact, I just bought the first pansy cell-packs of the season yesterday. Unfortunately, these seeds came late but I figured I might as well give it a shot anyways. I can always try tucking them into a cooler spot once the summer heat hits and hope they make it to the fall cool-down.

This is cardoon (Cynara cardunculus), one of my fun experiments for the 2010 growing season. Cardoon is a gorgeous, and rather massive plant that looks an awful lot like an artichoke or giant thistle. In fact, they’re related. What’s interesting is that you eat the stems of the plant, not the flower bud as you do with an artichoke. But before you harvest it you’ve got to “blanch” it, much like celery, by covering the stems with a large box or some other cover to keep light out and soften the leaves. Perhaps a bit complicated but my curiosity has got the better of me so here we go. Another fun fact: cardoon is often used as a vegetarian rennet substitute in cheese making.

I like the seedlings at this stage; so perfect.