November Meeting 2000

“Growing Rhododendrons – What Works for Me”

by Joan McMurray, 5 Minute Speaker

Many members who have had the pleasure of touring Joan’s magnificent garden could barely keep still in anticipation of at last being given the secrets of her impressive rhodo culture. They were not to be disappointed. It all started 22 years ago when Joan and Vern acquired their seafront property, and started in. Considering the task to be straightforward, a goodly supply of plants were purchased and stuck in here and there. A rhodo hedge? Why not? No mulch, no fertilizer, just “Sears in gravel”. Of course Joan listened to expert advice from time to time, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. The pH meter didn’t work. Well, she does use spot fertilizer from time to time if any specimen appears a bit “seedy”. Watering is important, once a week in season, by hand with a hose, never overhead during bloom. And liberal doses of Epsom salts, a remedy for something or other, which many of us recall (with a grimace) from childhood. She summed it all by attributing the outstanding result to LUCK and not magic. There must have been some other answer, carefully hidden by her modesty. Could it have been great virtue?

At the outset of her talk, Joan quoted her old mother, by promising to make it “short and sweet, like a donkey’s gallop”. And she did: the first speaker in living memory to come in under the 5 minute rule. She was lovely. (The Editor).

Briony Penn’s

“An Animated, Unnatural History of Victoria”

Reported by Bill McMillan

The speaker blended a background in geography and art into an historical romp through the tectonic history, geological history - especially since the last ice age, and human history of gardening in the ecologically unique enclave that is southeast Vancouver Island.

From carelessly meandering plates that crept and crashed to make the Coast Range, and later the Olympic mountains (much to the bane of local weather forecasters), to surging and waning glaciers - we have the ‘rain shadow forest’ that characterizes this ‘on the edge of everything’ area that we call home. Grasslands and people, an area of gardening for more than 9000 years since after the last ice retreat.

Briony cartooned the Camas Club, gardeners growing Camas and weeding out Death Camas. Setting fires kept the weed fir trees down and preserved the Garry Oak meadow habitat. The symbiosis of men and Garry Oaks meant prosperity for aboriginal clans with larger Camas meadows.

The Europeans arrived. Cook was so taken by this area that he saw as so much like England that he referred to the Coast Salish people as Welshmen! English settlers came to our shores and their ‘cultural baggage’ brought us Scotch broom, daffodils, English ivy and other familiar plants. Ironically, they also brought wild currant bushes, which had become popular in Britain, without realizing that they were native to the region.

Diseases reduced the aboriginal population by almost 90%. Settlement and increased development since caused us to lose native grasses; fritillaries, and species like Blue Eyed Mary, Hookes (Hooker’s) onion, and native delphiniums are uncommon. As well, it had a major impact on the Garry Oak habitat. The oaks foolishly prefer the same sites that HUMANS prefer. There are few young Garry Oaks now, but awareness is growing and the speaker urged each of us to set aside part of our gardens for native plant species; each of us can promote biodiversity.

Douglas, whose name appears in so many plant names, was a voracious collector. He LOVED salal, and collected arbutus, manzanita and many other seeds. Back in England, some, like wild red currant, which became the Royal Horticultural Centre’s ‘plant of the month’, were great hits there.

In the last decade or so, Garry Oaks have been attacked by gall wasps and phylloxera aphids but adaptive nature seems to be dealing with the matter; the problem is less threatening now.

Global warming and a shift toward a more Mediterranean climate here will make drought tolerance a key factor in future garden planning (my aside: as well as the cost of watering!) Garry Oaks are wonderfully drought tolerant. With each one degree rise in temperature, ice melting raises sea level by about 20 cm. Douglas firs are dying off locally and water shortages will make restoration of drought resistant native plant species very attractive during the next century.