Early bloomers, late bloomers

I don't have a particularly tidy garden, probably not even in the pictures I'll post here. Until my wife insists I clean up in the spring, the leaves stay where the wind left them, usually in a mound propped up by dried out flower stalks of daylilies and such. This time of year, I start to see a little bit of life (especially this year, with a mild winter in the Fraser Valley), and I'm especially appreciative of the plants that make me look good, despite my laissez faire attitude. Aside from the fact that they're the most interesting thing coming up this time of year, ease of maintenance is probably one reason why hellebores get so much press in the winter.

So you see what I mean now about being a bit of a slovenly gardener. The least I could have done is pick up some of the leaves and pluck out some weeds before I shared my front yard with the world. But I don't get too fussed about it. Soon this whole patch of my front yard will be covered by sweet woodruff (Galium oderatum). At least until the sun takes its toll.

Have a look at a couple of other early blooming plants in the garden:

I put in just a couple of small plantings of Scillia (blue flowers) to accompany the Winter Aconite (Eranthus hyemalis). It's a bit underplanted at this point, I know, but it's their first season, and I know they'll spread pretty aggressively over the next couple of years. And speaking of aggressively spreading plants, the one in the foreground is Artemisia 'Oriental Limelight'.

Today, I also gave some attention to some the rose cuttings I took last year. I can't believe how much new growth they have already. I hope we don't have a snap of really cold weather, because I'm not sure how they'd take it at this point. Here's a pic I snapped after I took them from the greenhouse:

I'll share more pictures of these early shoots and flowers as the season progresses, time permitting. As it turns out, getting a job in horticulture may mean that I'll have significantly less time in my own garden this year. The trade-off is great... some weeks, I'll be spending insane hours working at the nursery. I'll get tons of hands-on time with plants, and unlike in my own yard, they'll actually pay me to do it!

Overall, I'm a bit late into the horticulture industry. I'd been working at retail management jobs for twenty years or so. A few years ago, I decided to make the change. Wanting to work with plants was the easy part. Turning it into something real was a lot more challenging. As an early step, I enrolled in some courses in horticulture at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. It's a great school, by the way, but maybe I'll expand on that later.

Last fall, my wife happened upon a job posting for a Nursery Supervisor at a great local wholesale nursery. I was thrilled to be called for an interview. Working at this particular nursery was kind of a long-standing pipe dream of mine. I love their plants. I've always been impressed with their marketing. One of the first books that bought when I took up the gardening hobby was published by this nursery. So, yeah, I was pretty excited.

In the end, they took a bit of a chance on me. What I lack in industry experience, I'm looking to make up for with hard work, enthusiasm, and a commitment to learning. So far, so good. They really are a great organization, and I'm learning a lot.

Now, someone might ask me, after having read the last couple of paragraphs, "Why don't you just write the name of the nursery?" Fair enough. I'm not going to go out of my way to hide it. Those who know me already know who I've gone to work for. For those who don't, it wouldn't be too hard to figure. C'mon... excellent local nursery in Abbotsford, with a reputation for quality, a flair for marketing, and for their main product lines, distinctive coloured pots.

The reason I'm not throwing the company name around is that this is a personal blog. While I don't expect to say anything particularly contraversial here, I also don't want anyone to think I'm trying to speak for my employer. They don't need me to speak on their behalf - they do a great job of it themselves. So if I say I like a certain Heuchera (say 'Lime Marmalade'), I'm not sure they'd disagree. If I go off about how I still think Sempervivums (my mother's beloved Hens and Chicks) look creepy when in flower, I'm not sure they'd want me pretending that's anyone's opinion but my own.

I'll post again soon with details on how I've sheet-mulched a whole hillside in my back yard. The neighbours are too polite to say anything about it, but my wife isn't!