Calgary Plants

Matrix (TM) White Blotch Pansy overwintered in Calgary!

2011-06-05T13:29:00.000-07:00

Matrix (TM) White Blotch Pansy (Viola x wittrockiana) Photo by Jill Browne, May 16, 2011, Calgary.

I couldn't believe it but I had a few flowering annuals overwinter, in spite of having every temperature imaginable and multiple cycles of warm and cold. These little guys sprang back to life. The freeze-dried flowers just picked up where they had left off last fall!

I don't usually notice the exact variety of plants I buy on the fly as it were, particularly the pansy and petunia types.

However, I left the little label stick in the ground (tacky but effective) so I know what these are.

I'm very impressed!

Amur Cherry, Tough & Beautiful Hardy Decorative Tree

2008-10-07T21:02:00.001-07:00

autumnal amur bing, originally uploaded by D'Arcy Norman.

The Amur Cherry, Prunus maackii, is an excellent tree for Calgary, and is deservedly popular.

Its cinnamon-coloured bark is attractive in winter. The flowers are white, in drooping racemes (similar to Mayday and chokecherries), showing up against the green leaves in spring.

I like the Amur Cherry as a shade tree. We have two in our backyard. Birds love this tree. The robins seem to like the berries and, earlier in the season, roost in the tree, perhaps finding insects to eat. Chickadees and nuthatches visit and stash birdseed. The peeling bark gives a lot of nooks and crannies for this.

This tree has lots of seasonal variation - never a dull moment. Reasonably fast-growing.

Some of the drawbacks:

tall enough to get caught in wires leading to the house (15 to 20 feet)
cherries are not edible but their dark black juice can be brought into the house on shoes during the week or two when the ripe berries are falling
young tree may need staking (especially in the prairies with the prevailing west wind)
branches are prone to crossing each other - careful pruning and shaping the tree can handle this

More information on the Amur Cherry can be found in the article, "Amur Cherry" by Susan Mahr, on the University of Wisconsin's Master Gardener webpages. I dont' disagree with Ms. Mahr's comment that the fruit can be used for jellies, but personally I wouldn't bother making pure cherry jelly from these. The flavour might be an interesting note to a jelly made from larger, sweeter fruits, but it's a matter of taste. I don't care for jellies that take as much sugar as a pure Amur Cherry jelly would.

Photo by D'Arcy Norman, shared under CC Attribution 2.0 License on Flickr.com. Thanks, D'Arcy!

The Fall Colour in Calgary is Yellow

2008-09-21T19:38:00.001-07:00

autumn yellow, originally uploaded by D'Arcy Norman. Creative Commons Share Alike Attribution License v.2.0 - Thanks, D'Arcy, for sharing.

D'Arcy Norman's picture of fall 2007 is a great reminder that our autumn colour is a short but spectacular season.

The big deciduous trees around Calgary are mainly poplars - Balsam Poplar (Populus balsamifera), Trembling Aspen (P. tremuloides) and some poplar hybrids.

The trees glow like candles against a cloudy sky, as on today. The fallen leaves below are very much like golden ponds.

I'm not being poetic, that's literally how they look.

This is the time of year when our lowly poplars really do shine.