The last days of summer

It's still lovely and warm when the sun is out and this is the time of year when thoughts of next year's season come into your mind. Weeding, trimming and moving things around is the perfect thing to do right now… along with harvesting the hold outs in your garden. There are always the farmer's markets for those of us who aren't diligent about succession planting :) I recommend the UBC Farmers market.

Salvia - great plant I picked up at Thimble Farms on Salt Spring Island earlier in the summer

A great new discovery up the Sunshine Coast is a nursery just off the highway near Robert's Creek called Jardin de Flores - Suzanne is passionate about plants and it shows. A lovely selection of the most marvellously tended plants I have seen in a long time. I picked up some specimens for our garden… Cistus 'Mickie' which is a variegated evergreen that gets white flowers in May and June - it's sometimes called a rock rose; Jasminum x stephanense evergreen vine that has downy green leaflets and clusters of sweetly scented, soft pink flowers in the summer that I planted by the apple tree behind the Florida Patio…; Toad Lily tricyrtis hirta which is completely exotic - it has orchid like lavender flowers and likes the shade so I put it in the shady part of the hobbit tree; blue knoll bluebird caryopteris x clandonensis that has silvery green foliage and bright blue flowers in mid summer and should attract butterflies. Oh ya, and a Rose of Sharon too (Hibiscis) which I have been wanting to get into the garden for a while but they are so expensive! I found a smaller one at Jardin for a very reasonable price so I couldn't resist. I'm hoping for a great display next season once all these plants settle in over the winter.

Just enough room for little Biscuit in the car!