Dallying is not dead, it’s just been having a bit of a rest. Several of you have been inquiring and here’s the explanation. Big changes in our life. The house and garden have been sold and we are comfortably ensconced in a lovely two bedroom apartment where there is no grass to cut, weeds to pull or snow to shovel. Yes my heart and my mind will really miss the garden but my back will not. Yes, that aging thing has been happening and it was time to admit it. The difficult part was seeing the garden slowly deteriorate and not being able to fix it. Many of you have nodded in agreement when I suggested that bending over or kneeling in the garden was not that difficult but getting back up????? We do, of course have a lovely south facing balcony and it has a few containers on it:-)
This is the biggest container and it was planted in the spring knowing that it might be finding a new home before the summer was out. We just moved about three weeks ago so it looked about the same as it does now and the look on the mover’s faces, when they realized that it was being moved, was priceless. The Peppers are
Pick and Pop Yellow a 2025 All America selections winner and they are prolific and very sweet and are delicious right off the plant. It’s interesting to see the difference in growth and fruit production from left to right as they get closer to edge of the balcony where they meet the sun.
The understory planting is a new Petunia,“Shake Raspberry F1" also an All America award winner for 2025. It was fascinating to watch the changes in the colour pattern depending on the weather the watering and the fertilizing. It is a relatively compact plant that bloomed heavily all summer and seemed to be very happy sharing space with the Peppers. It grows readily from seed and I gave it about an eight week head start to produce nice sized transplants for the end of May.
We had these three decorative wire stands on the deck and we decided they would probably work well on the balcony when we moved so we actually went, in the spring, to the garden centre and bought three different sizes of these ceramic pots and planted them up so that they would be in full bloom when we moved. They probably won’t be happy wintering outside so we will have to figure out how to deal with that little problem in November. The middle sized one is planted with Celosia Burning Embers yet another All America award winner. It has bronze foliage with dark pink veins that contrast nicely with the vibrant pink flower plumes. Plants are well-branched and produce more flowers over a longer bloom time. It is a very vigorous grower and it overpowered the Celosia Flamma Orange that was interspersed with it in this
container. I have grown the orange one in the garden very successfully but it didn’t seem to share well.
The star of the show is this new Begonia Viking Explorer Rose on Green it’s been around for a while, as it won its All America award in 2022 and is one of a new group of Begonias that are incredibly strong and fast growers. You can see how big it gets, even in a 30cm container and that is a single plant grown from seed. These Begonias amaze me as they have some of the smallest seed imaginable and yet they easily grow into these magnificent plants with about a 12 week head start. It starts to bloom almost as soon as it gets planted and doesn’t give up until the frost knocks it down. It thrives in full sun but will also tolerate a bit of shade. This kind of growth is encouraged with regular watering with a small amount of soluble fertilizer in almost every watering. I have even had some success collecting seed from these Begonias.
It is my plan to continue to publish
“Dallying in the Dirt” going forward but its focus may shift a bit to new plants or techniques that learn about and I plan to travel to interesting gardens and will show you what I have found. It’s Butchart Gardens in Victoria BC at the end of October so stay tuned to see what it has to offer at that time of year.
I will, of course, be available to speak to garden clubs or other interested groups and you can find some of my topics on my web page
