Summer August 28

Well Sunday afternoon is a good time to wander and check out the plants and flowers. At this time of year you get a sense of the production each plant has put out in fruit and seeds, how much they have grown and by now anyone who was late or did not make it through the last winter. Here are some pictures which show some of these events.
This is an Edible Honeysuckle cutting ready for potting. This particular source plant really rooted well.

Tomatoes in the greenhouse. I tried a number of different varieties this year and found I had to cut out 2 plants in each pot as it was just to full (I planted 4/pot). Several were from seed from a garden friend in Poland and then also Tama and Scotia. One of the plants from Poland is Ox Heart and it is producing good size fruit. Another is Garden Peach and it is also producing some fruit though it is not as productive. One which he called Copia I ended up cutting off by mistake and it only has 1 fruit but there are more coming. There is also one called Raspberry but not sure if I got the translation right.


The Hollyhocks just spring up year to year and do a great job of producing blooms. As far as I know these are some kind of heritage Hollyhock passed down through several generations.  A great show and we have never replanted.

And there will be a ton of Manitoba Maple seedlings to contend with if these all find a home to grow. And last for this post is the Lilium Lavon which is blooming quite late but looks very nice. First time for this bulb so it is not very tall.

Some plants around the yard

One of the plants I bought seed of this year was Ornamental Sunflowers. What has surprised me is that they have not really grown as I would have expected. This group of three heads are all from the same seed. Notice the first head as it is probably 6 inches thick (there is very little cup in the back of the head so it is really amazing). Others around the yard from different seed grew quite differently. They do take up a lot of room and so I have ended up actually cutting some out as they were crowding out some other better plants.
 The plant at the bottom is over 8 ft. tall and this is supposed to be ornamental. I had planted one of these between each of the shorter  ones in the picture above it so they had to all come out except this one. Note to self "read the description details better"!

Evening skies

Ah those Prairie Skies. This was a very colorful evening.

And the answer is!!!!

Well not many guesses at the unusual flower in my last post. But here is a link to an explanation of how they happen. This particular willow has several less dramatic of these "galls" but they are there non the less.

 This is one of the native Saskatchewan willows that started to grow in the flower bed and I left it.

Had a very interesting visit with a plant grower in Saskatoon who has a great collection of plants. I bought a couple of very healthy Martagon lilies to plant here. Very good stuff.

A quick puzzle picture

Just for fun. If you drop by, please post your guess as to what this is!