Thursday, July 4, 2013

Nelson House B & B Garden continued...

 
Our B & B guests are sometimes blown away by the beauty of the West End's gardens. If stepping off a plane from Phoenix or even Sydney, the green can be kind of trippy! I remind them that Vancouver is in a temperate rain forest. If you visit the depths of Stanley Park, there is moss hanging off the tree branches. We may not be hot and humid like Louisiana but we are certainly cool and humid like the foothills of the Himalayas.
 
 
I joke that I am something of a Darwinian gardener. I mean by that I am a firm believer in flowering shrubs and perennials. The photo above shows some of our camellias and rhododendrons. I stick'em in the ground and let the toughest survive! It gets a bit jungly at times but then it also creates a feeling of privacy and escape right in the centre of the city.
 
 
The hydrangeas are lovely this year. We have several mature specimens along the front fence and I must have missed adding garden lime to one. With our winter rains, Vancouver has a naturally acidic soil, so now we have blooms in a lovely range of pinks and purples. I will try to take some more pics as the heads grow. The roses, by the way, are "bonica" and always happy bloomers.