Really cool winter container idea + more

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This container featuring Protea blooms was pretty sweet. Unfortunately I did not catch the name of the designer but if I can get it I'll post to give him credit. It was a pretty sweet container all around. They will apparently do well outside in a container over the winter provided they stay frozen. Freezing & thawing will do no good for them.

I may have managed to get my blog to redirect to the Google reader provided mobile friendly version of my site but just to test if you have a smartphone could you visit my blog by typing in the url and let me know if the redirect works for you?

Need advice: wintering Musella lasiocarpa

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As the nights get cold and after our first frost of the fall (!) serious thought has to go into wintering some of the plants. Most are easy, they are going somewhere inside the house (where they'll all fit is a question for another time) but the Musella is not.



For obvious reasons my Musella lasiocarpa has become a favourite plant of mine.

The best I could hope for outside I imagine is survival of a very very heavily mulched root, leaving me with a plant that will never flower. I am in zone 5, my backyard is easily a 5b to 6 because of how sheltered it is but I would be seriously pushing all of my luck to think anything that's only reliably hardy in zone 7 would ever survive and thrive for me outside. So that's out of the question.

Bringing it inside the house is out of the question as well. This thing is huge.

My garage is probably the best bet. I'm hoping that the dormancy will mean that the darkness will not be an issue - no leaves = no need for light, right?

The pot will be wrapped probably in a foam pad (the sort that you might use while camping under a sleeping bag. I'm not sure how thick a layer this will make, so maybe I can place all that in a larger box with something like straw around it?

To protect the stems... I'm at a bit of a loss. Moisture should not be a huge problem because it won't be getting snowed on in my garage but I'm not sure what will be the best material for the job - newspapers? Blankets? Something that will breathe more? A wire frame with dry straw? Should the pot be dry or how often should it be watered?

Unfortunately this is also a new garage door and I've never payed attention to how cold it gets in there in winter. I'm sure it goes at least as low as freezing, a big plus though is that there won't be any wind which is usually the worst killer of plants here.

Amaryllis 'Black Pearl'

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Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) 'Black Pearl'

This was in flower for Christmas but due to circumstances (i.e., cats) the first flower was knocked off before opening, the second had tooth marks in it, the third had a crooked top petal and the fourth was blocked by the second flower stalk, which is now open and fantastic. Flowers are very large and basically as nice a red colour as you could ask for in a flower (or anything else). It's a nice red - no real hint of pink or orange and a fairly dark red without looking like it's trying to be black (though the name hints that someone really wanted it to be darker). I'll be trying to re-bloom this one next year but if that doesn't work I'd be more than willing to buy the same one again.

We also had one at work I meant to take a picture of called 'Evergreen' which was different, interesting and fairly cheap (a potted one cost less than 'Black Pearl' bare-root) but didn't get to take a picture of. There are pictures around though.

Exciting things at work assuming a few things. Nothing is confirmed yet so I won't go into details (yet) but it could be good.

Winter container step by step

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So I said earlier that I would do a step by step of how I made an evergreen branch pot fairly cheap.

Start with a pot. I used garden soil (not potting) packed pretty hard.



Pot

My design will be one sided - this makes life much much easier and the container will be less expensive to decorate because you only need to decorate one side. I started with Fir (looks like Balsam Fir) branches arranged at the back to make a nice solid green backdrop. You could use other greens for this but I like the firm branches and flat fan shape you get from fir - I've also used Carolina Sapphire (Cupressus 'Carolina Sapphire') which is also fairly upright but much finer in texture. Leyland Cypress (X Cupressocyparis leylandii) could also be used. Important thing here is strongly upright - you don't want it being crushed by snow).



Pot with Fir

I used Ontario Cedar (Thuja occidentalis) for a "skirt" on this pot. I much prefer the shape and colour of BC Cedar (sp.?) but I was looking to save money and this was the way to go. Also the Ontario cedar will be exactly the same in April as it is now while the BC Cedar tends to brown around the first few warm days in March. I do my containers seasonally - one for post-frost spring/summer/fall, one for late fall/winter/early spring so it's nice having everything last until the dogwood is rooting and leafing out before having to take everything apart.



Pot with Fir and Cedar

After this you basically add whatever decorations you want. I have used very natural things like Sugar Pinecones & berries with Magnolia Leaves as well as more glittery seasonal things like large gold snowflakes and balls. I wanted to cheap out here so I went with a single 5.99 Ball on a Stick with some pinecones from something last year (Super easy table-top decoration - Brandy Snifter + pinecones (I used natural colour but shiny) and small ~ 1 inch green and red ball ornaments - I had extra ornaments and used them on the tree to help tie it all together) and filled in around it with white pine. At some point (doesn't have to be at the end) add dogwood or willow (or something similar) branches for height and a bit of extra colour (and if you use dogwood or willow then you get a number of cheap shrubs the next year too!).

Water well until the container freezes then that's about it. I have mine in a sheltered spot so it doesn't collect snow like it did last year.



Pot, finished.

So what did this cost?
6lbs Ontario Greens - $8.88 (Reg 14.99)
Bundle Dogwood branches - $7.99 (10 sticks, only used half here)
Red Ball - 5.99
Pinecones (had them last year, don't really remember but less than $10/10)
Already had pot & Soil so total is less than $30.

I had enough greens left over to make a small wreath as well (fairly boring though without adding a little extra to it) and could probably have managed to bang out a small door swag as well but didn't really feel like it do I just have a few pine branches still lying around.

Now I've been talking with my colleagues at work about this and apparently these containers are not wide-spread. My supervisor (from England a few months ago) says these don't exist back home (in a wonderful land where hardy plants can be grown in containers year round). They're not common or popular anywhere that doesn't freeze over either because, I suppose, the greens won't last very long then.

December - flowers & Christmas trees

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Funny, it doesn't feel like December yet.

Even though we had a pretty hard frost Sunday morning here's a quick list of plants I've seen flowering within a 2 minute walk of my house:

Perennials:

Clematis 'Rebecca'

NOID Red Carpet Rose

Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’

Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’

Gaillardia grandiflora 'Arizona Sun'

Calamintha nepeta (Dwarf Calamint)



NOID Red Carpet Rose

Annuals:

Chrysanthemum cv. (Fall mums)

Bacopa sp.

Antirrhinum sp. (Snapdragons)

Not in flower but still looking fantastic are the various Coral Bells (Heuchera) varieties I've planted around including 'Obsidian', 'Caramel' & 'Green Spice' to name a few.

Consider that even finding a tree with leaves is fairly tricky by now and we usually have at least some snow accumulation the fact that there's anything flowering nevermind this many things is pretty amazing!

Going in the completely opposite direction now!


"Yo Fraser Fir, I'm real happy for ya and I'ma let ya finish, but the Nordman Fir has the best needle retention OF ALL TIME!!"
-- Not an actual quote

Christmas tree sales are starting to pick up now, last weekend being the first weekend I'd describe as "busy" though we did sell some before that. Now about 80% of our trees are Fraser & Balsam Firs. Maybe 10% will be made up of pines, the other 10% are oddballs (this is growing by the year). Last year we had a handfull of Nordman Firs (that were stunning if a little short and stubby) and Noble Firs (nice but not a huge fan of their color - be careful of massive trunk diameters on fairly small trees). This year we have two sizes of Nordman Fir and at least 3 times as many as last year, probably similar numbers of Noble Fir and four Concolor Firs (which might make a nice tree for someone who is used to the needle length of a Scots Pine but wants the needle retention of a fir.

Anyway the Nordman Fir is probably my favourite tree I've never seen alive. The needles are dark green with a silvery underside that's clearly visible due to the curve of the needles with light green tips where the newest growth was (usually to a max of 3" around the outside of a branch. It may be the way these have been grown but they also have absolutely perfect shapes though they're a little thin on branches in the top third of the tree. If it weren't for our cats and the price of the trees I'd be all over them.

Oh, I've also taken a few more Gesneriad pictures that I just need to edit and upload and I should have a post on them soon.

Winter Container Designs

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While I'm technically now in the cut Christmas Tree department they needed help in the custom container section keeping the tables full so I've been working with evergreen boughs and the like for the past few days now.

Here are two I did yesterday that follow the same basic design:







I started with a bundle of BC Noble Fir for each container (3 boughs) placed upright and leaning slightly back (the boughs curve so it's tricky to do any other way but this works well enough). BC Cedar (not sure if it's the cedar we sell (Thuja occ.) or maybe another Thuja or maybe a cypress/false cypress or whatever but that's what it's shipped to us as) makes a nice skirt for the pots - I used 3 bunches split between the 4 containers.

In the first container I used 5 pussy willow branches per pot. A large ornamental ball on a stick and large gold snowflake made a nice focal point while the "everlasting" berries and white tipped pinecones toned it down a bit and added a more natural feel.

In the second container I used 5 Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea) branches per pot (note - these can root - from last year I spent less than $10 on dogwood branches and got two shrubs out of it just by sticking them in dirt in November - actually I'd be surprised if the willow didn't also root). A large sugar cone pine per container paired with a few more or the same berries in a bed of Magnolia leaves with small red grapevine balls for balance completed the more natural looking container.

Now these all came to a retail price of around $69.99 per pot - I will post my own that I will make out of Ontario greens (mine stayed green into April last year while the BC stuff browned by March) for $20 to $30.