A Walk With the Camellias

On Sunday it stopped raining after lunch so we decided to forgo the swimming pool for a walk in Hatley Park. I have loved this garden since being introduced to it when I was taking the Horticulture Technician course at Malaspina College (now called Vancouver Island University) in 1995. The garden is now about 100 years old and has never been left to overgrow, so it is an absolute gem.

The parking lot is below the old mansion, and to enter the garden you first have to climb the hill beneath this beautiful stone giant, making it and its sweeping lawns the first thing you see. Parking is $1.00/hr and with small kids, you'll want about two hours to see the garden. Admission is $4.50/adult, kids under 12 are free.

The entrance puts you at the Italian Garden, which was designed in 1912 by the Boston landscape firm Brett and Hall. This is a classic example of a formal Italian garden, complete with symmetrical gardens and tightly clipped box hedges. This garden is also a popular site for summer weddings.

The kids tore through this garden and made their way through the woodland garden to the Japanese Garden.

The garden was designed in 1909, and includes many mature rhododendrons, Japanese maples, ornamental cherries, camellias, and many other wonderful treasures, all centred around a large pond that features two gazebos. This would be a perfect place for a picnic on a warm day. Lucas, Cleo and Abby all had a lot of fun exploring the trails, searching for the water wheel, and hiding in the branches of the low trees and shrubs. There are also little tucked-away lanterns, arbours and trellises, and tiny bridges that make the Japanese garden a perfect place for families with small children.

The most notable of all the flowering plants we saw were the camellias. Hatley Gardens has dozens of cultivars throughout the gardens, as well as a wide path bordering the Japanese gardens that is lined on one side with various types of camellias. Camellia japonica is an evergreen shrub (generally maturing at about 10' high by 8' wide) with a thick and glossy green leaf. Most camellias flower in early spring--though Camellia sasanqua flowers in late fall--with rose-like flowers, usually double, in reds, pinks, and whites . These beautiful shrubs like conditions similar to rhododendrons, in moist shade and rich, organic soil. They also benefit from some overhead coverage (under an eaves, for example), which will protect their delicate and easily bruised flowers from heavy spring rains.

The last section of the garden that we visited was the bog garden, which includes a fish ladder that the kids raced flower petals down, and a large, beautiful pond featuring a Curly Willow (Salix babylonica) at its edge. Lucas found a dried cattail at the water's edge, which, as some of you may remember from your own childhood, makes an excellent sword/torch/fluff spreader/duster/sister tormentor. Soon we were all dusted with tiny fluffy seeds from the cattail, Cleo was upset because she didn't find her own cattail, and Abby had to pee, or rather, had already peed and needed new pants. So, we knew our time was up, and we headed back to the car for new pants and a little bit of the apple cake that I had brought along for a treat.

The dining garden

We recently returned from a trip to the lovely Mayan Riviera, in the Quintana Roo province of Mexico. Among many of the wonderful things that this area has to offer, outdoor dining was one of my favourites.

There are many palapa restaurants hung with vines and small white lights twinkling through them, lanterns hanging from tree branches, and tropical foliage everywhere so that you feel enclosed, safe, and ready to stay for at least one more cerveca.

This feeling, this atmosphere, is a rare find in restaurants or in private residences in this colder part of the world, but certainly not impossible to create.

There are a few necessary elements that will help create the feeling of a cozy, outdoor dining area.

First, every truly comfortable space needs a ceiling, and this can be created with foliage from the overhanging branches of a tree, or gazebos, arbours and trellises, a large umbrella or even canvas or other fabric stretched overhead. Having a ceiling lends a human scale to the space, making us feel that we are not simply open to the great vast sky, but instead tucked in and secure amongst the plants.

Which leads us to the second necessary element of the cozy outdoor eating area, the immediate surroundings. No matter how beautiful the arbour, gazebo or trellis is, if it is not surrounded by foliage it will feel far too open to the elements and again, will leave the visitor feeling exposed and uncomfortable. The dining area needs to be surrounded with shrubs, perennials, and even small trees, whether they are in pots or in the ground. These plants do not need to block the view of the dining area, their presence alone will greatly soften and enhance the atmosphere inside the dining area. To create a calming effect within the plantings, it is best to limit both the types of plants and the colour of their foliage and flowers.

Next, the floor of the dining area is important as well. Ideally, the floor will be made of a material that is relatively even so that chairs and tables don't wobble. Random flagstone is beautiful, but it must be laid meticulously to create an even surface. Permeable pavers such as Aquapave would work well, or for something a little easier on the budget, a concrete surface could be laid. Concrete, however, is not typically a material that creates a feeling of coziness or warmth. Even less costly choices are gravel or lawn but they will be both be higher maintenance than stone, concrete, or pavers.

When choosing tables and chairs, cedar is very nice and certainly its soft, reddish colour creates a feeling of warmth. Wrought iron or aluminum looks romantic, but is often uncomfortable. Cushions and pillows should be in keeping with the colour palette you have chosen for your plants, as well as the exterior colours of your home. For a more eclectic and Mexican feel, choose brightly painted wood furniture and colourful, bright fabrics for seat cushions and pillows.

Lighting is also important for evening gatherings, and can be as simple as white LED lights strung in the tree or arbour above, or the area can be wired by an electrician so that you can utilize outdoor lanterns and even chandeliers, depending on your budget and the style that you have chosen.

Including all of these elements when planning an outdoor eating area will help you create a relaxing, comfortable dining experience in your own home, where you can always stay for one more cerveca.

The not so long winter

To be honest, this really was one of the easiest winters I've experienced since moving to the coast 16 years ago. I can remember only a handful of mornings in the last three months when I looked out the window and saw frost on the ground and on the roofs of nearby houses. I have been easily jogging outside all winter, without once having to deal with snow, slush, or ice.

That does not mean, however, that the first signs of spring in the backyard aren't just as uplifting as in previous years.

As usual, the star of the show at this time of year is the Witchhazel, Hamamellis x intermedia. I grow 'Pallida' in my garden, which has yellow pom-pom flowers for about six weeks starting mid-late January. I love this yellow for its unrelenting cheerfulness. Perfect at this time of year. If I had a larger garden I would also include the cultivars 'Jelena' (bright orange flowers) and 'Diane' (red flowers). Not only do these deciduous shrubs flower in the winter, but they also have lovely blue-green foliage in summer, a pleasing vase shape, and gorgeous, reliably bright fall colour in golds, reds and oranges. It grows to about 10' tall and wide in eight years or so, and likes full sun to part shade.




A good underplanting for the witchazel, especially 'Jelena' or 'Diane' would be the snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis. It is flowering everywhere you look in Victoria just now, and it is a classic, sophisticated bulb that i am particularly fond of. I prefer it to the showier crocuses that are also beginning to poke their heads out just now.

Another perfect pairing for the snowdrop and the Witchhazel is the Christmas Rose, or Lenten Rose, Helleborus. These clumping evergreen perennials sit quietly for most of the year when the other plants in the garden are strutting their stuff, but then at the end of winter, and sometimes even earlier, they begin to flower. And oh, what a show. There are many different cultivars and a few different Hellebore species, and they come in creams, whites, pink, purples, reds, and even a mix of a few different colours on the same flower. Pictured here is a single white flowering Helleborus orientalis, but there are many more. Another personal favourite of mine is Helleborus x hybridus 'Walhelivor', known as the Ivory Prince hellebore. To see this and other hellebores, try this website devoted only to hellebores.

Another quirky little plant in my garden is the wasabi plant, Wasabia japonica. This is the plant that you're thinking; its rhizome is what traditionally makes up the spicy green paste that comes on the side of your sushi dish. This plant likes to be constantly moist, has interesting foliage, and has pretty white flowers at this time of year. We have yet to sample the root, but I will certainly post the results here when we do..

We are really lucky here on the coast for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is the incredible array of flowers we have in January and early February, long before the traditional harbinger of spring, the Forsythia, begins its happy show.