Thursday, 18 July 2019
Our company arrived from Canada: Kilyn and Peter. They came bearing gifts of books, a box of Builders Tea, some British throat lozenges for winter ills, some pastries from the local bakery and some British biscuits.
You may know Kilyn as the reader who comments as Steveston Gardener. Her spouse, Peter, is a delightfully droll Australian.
We had our own garden as ready for touring as time and energy allowed—pretty good, if I dare say so, and the unweeded parts can be called “rewilded”.
Our Garden
We’d had this much rain in the past two days, giving us the gift of this day off.
In the back garden, I immediately realized the Cripps Pink apple tree was half its former height. Rain, wind, and the weight of too many apples had snapped off the top. Peter demonstrates how heavy with apples the snapped trunks are. What a shame.
When Kilyn took a photo of the little pond, I saw that raccoons, or perhaps Skooter, had knocked several blue pottery pieces into the depths. Allan fixed it. We were all excited to see the one fish. I had assumed it had been eaten weeks ago.
Those are the sort of things that would be a disaster on a garden tour day but are just fine with good friends.
By going garden touring in Ocean Shores this weekend, I will miss three days of lily-opening time.
That timing proves the wisdom of anyone setting a garden tour date for this weekend as peak lily time reliably begins now.
After touring into every corner and path of the garden…
followed by some sitting in the shade…
Peter (Allan’s photo)
…we needed to pass another hour or so before the main feature of the day and so we repaired to
The Boreas Inn.
After touring the entry garden and the west lawn beds…
…we had a tour of the inn…
(My favourite is the garden suite.)
…and a visit with Susie in the west-facing sunroom.
We then were off…
…for an afternoon at
The Bayside Garden.
Upon arrival, Peter said he almost cried on the way up the driveway “because it is so beautiful, and,” he added, “I’m not a gardener.”
Kilyn is the impassioned gardener and garden blog reader. She faithfully reads (among others) my two favourites, The Tootlepedal blog and The Miserable Gardener.
We both best like blogs that show imperfections rather than, as she puts it, carefully curated photos.
Kilyn, Peter, and John with his garden notebook
A trio of Rhododendron pachysanthum was first to be thoroughly admired.
We viewed every part of the garden.
Kilyn’s photo
Kilyn’s photo
Kilyn’s photo
red stems of drimys picking up the color of Orange Rocket Barberry.
We all expected Orange Rocket to be columnar. It is not.
Thuja ‘Forever Goldie’
Kilyn’s photo
“mosquito grass” (Allan’s photo)
Rhododendron ‘Sinogrande’
Allan’s photo
Steve, Kilyn, ‘Cryptomeria ‘Black Dragon’
in the Cryptomeria grove
blue-silver Rhododendron lepidostylum
Rhododendron edgeworthii
deer ferns on the move
Kilyn’s photo
Rhododendron quinquefolium
Rhododendron sinofalconeri
Rhododendron ‘Cherries and Merlot’
We visited my most special favourite pet of a rhododendron:
Rhododendron degronianum subsp. yakushimanum x R. pachysanthum
Hydrangea ‘Lemon Daddy’
Rhododendron makinoi
Rhododendron ‘Ever Red’
How to hide an ugly electric box:
Steve says he’d now choose something other than laurel, and the vine to the right is fatshedera.
Kilyn and the evergreen huckleberry glade
Kilyn’s photo
kayaks passing by on a high tide
We closed our tour in the kitchen with coffee and homemade muffins and some garden talk.
from inside the house (Allan’s photo)
John’s garden book (Allan’s photo)
Later in the evening, we met again with Kilyn and Peter for dinner at
The Depot Restaurant.
steak Killian
Prawns Bangkok
After feasting, we walked west one block to tour
The Sou’wester Lodge and trailer court.
I do believe that the next time they visit, Kilyn and Peter will be parking their caravan here.
We suggested the Peter “place a call” at the phone booth and could hear his laughter.
Kilyn tried it next.
vintage trailers for rent by the night (known as “Trailer Classics Hodgepodge”)
Jessica Schlief is doing a spectacular job on the Sou’wester gardens.
Tomorrow, the four of us leave to take two different routes to meet again at Saturday’s garden tour in Ocean Shores.
Tangly Cottage Gardening 