A personal love for jigsaw and crossword puzzles, which bring moments of usefully absorbing diversion, probably explains at least partially the fun I find in helping friends and others solve gardening puzzles.
My latest in-person clue-chasing garden venture evolved from a friend鈥檚 recent purchase of a nearby condo, where she is loving the process of setting up container food and flower gardens on her two large balconies.
Her puzzle: How to create a solid evergreen privacy screen to hide year-round an undesirable view of limited dimensions.
She quickly found someone to build her a substantial planter with an attached trellis 120 centimetres wide and 145 centimetres in height from the听top of the planter.
What to plant? A search on the internet gave her a list of potential choices in evergreen vines that would suit the warm, sunny balcony. She came up with evergreen clematis, star jasmine, "pink jasmine" and Akebia.
Since I had three of the vines in my garden, I invited her to assess them in view of her needs. Attractive foliage and a desire for fragrance were further factors in the choice.
My friend liked the long, dark green leaves of the Clematis armandii, whose white or pinkish-white spring flowers are fragrant. This vine is, however, sometimes damaged in cold winters and the growing tips of young vines require rigorous pinching back to promote a dense foliage cover on a support. My two vines certainly do not present a solid wall of greenery.
The star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides, Confederate jasmine) growing in a large pot at a south-facing gazebo wall is a weak climber that needs securing to a support and pinching back for thick, well-branched growth. The shiny evergreen foliage is听attractive though, and the white, pinwheel-style summer flowers are deliciously fragrant.
A long-established five-leaf akebia (Akebia quinata) has formed a dense wall of ornamental, dark green foliage along a pathway in my garden, at a far edge that is never watered. Planted as one of those 鈥渓et鈥檚 see鈥� experiments, the vine has turned out to be a minimum-care jewel, requiring only the occasional cutting back to tame its vigour. The spring rose and purple flowers are fragrant and interesting, but fleeting.
This was the one. Akebia would provide the desired thick growth, is adaptable to sun and shade, and can easily be kept trimmed to fit the trellis.
My friend still longed for the type of fragrance offered by star jasmine and pink jasmine (Jasminum polyanthum, Chinese jasmine).
The solution: Have the leafy wall and fragrance too, by growing the Akebia to cover the trellis and having a pink jasmine and a star jasmine in pots placed in front. Both are weak climbers, suitable for growing free-form or as trailers in containers.
I advised my friend to try for small plants, which would settle in most successfully. Right away she found both an Akebia and a star jasmine, each in one-gallon pots. She鈥檒l search for a pink jasmine in the spring.
During our tour of the vines, she admired pots of sedums and sempervivums. I had plenty to share, and dug up some of each for her to take home and pot for her sunny balcony.
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GARDEN EVENTS
Orchid meeting. The Victoria Orchid Society meets Monday, 7:30 p.m. in the Gordon Head United Church Hall, 4201 Tyndall Ave. Alexey Tretyakov, orchid grower and creator of new hybrids, will talk about growing orchids outside the box, which will include ideas for managing, potting and mounting orchids.
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HCP classes. The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd., is offering the following classes. Register at 250-479-6162. hcp.ca.
鈥� Getting Started with Backyard Beekeeping, Sunday, Oct. 2, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Learn the basics of beekeeping with Gordon Mackay. Cost听to HCP members $25, others $35.
鈥� Fall Maintenance for the Garden, Sunday, Oct.听2, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Jane Tice will share discuss how a little work now can save much work later. Cost to members $25, others $35.
鈥� Willow Club Chair, Sunday, Oct. 9, 9 a.m. to 5听p.m. Make and take home your own willow club chair with expert instruction from Andrew Kent from The Willow Way. All tools and materials will be provided. Members $225, others $250.
