You've likely noticed that I haven't blogged all season? One factor is that Google+ ceased to exist, I may be one of a handful of nerds who liked this service but I am not a 20 year old and I despise social media. Google+ allowed those with a specific interest to share within a group, around the world, I won't have access to such things again! The reason to pull the service was that information was being hacked (probably by Russians) which could have been solved by either asking for less information or users not answering sensitive info, I can't even recall what would be sensitive on my Google account but never put it past a Russian hacker or spy to gather info that is widely available publicly! Most people willingly put very sensitive info on Facebook and other sites for free anyway so I never understood Googles reason for this change!
Another reason was our very questionable Spring/Summer, a fairly late Spring followed by hot and cold spells all season with above normal precipitation, raining about 4 of 7 days of the week. Not very inspiring. As a fun social science side note I noticed when walking around this spring during the Provincial election that those who had election signs for the left-wing NDP often have beautiful expansive gardens for the public to enjoy while those with Conservative signs rarely have a garden at all! Go figure?, the socialists are best at beautifying a neighbourhood, Flower to the people!!! LOL
I appreciate all my followers but I really don't know how I can expand my audience anymore with Google + gone, sometimes I would get readers from the UK, Australia and the US. Hopefully a new medium will come around soon.
Canada Day fireworks started the summer off with a little rainy but warm weather.
Many stormy and rainy days throughout July.
I haven't seen this many kinds of mushrooms in Calgary flourishing but that's what happens with the rain!
Thought we'd try a greenhouse this year, ordered from Amazon. A bit of a learning curve, sometimes too hot or not moist enough or too wet but we did grow some great peppers, yellow zucchini and tomatoes!
One crowded greenhouse!
Some plants that did well with wet and cool weather. A white begonia I overwintered from last year and a pink Astilbe blooms end of August.
Annabelle Hydrangea loved the rain but often got pelted to the ground, this one is bigger than your head!
A challenge of many ageing gay men is often how fast will I turn into an old lady? Apparently this is happening to us very quickly as we become new fans of Lobelia, Zinnia, and Geranium! If you had told me 20 years ago I would have these plants in my garden I would have not have believed you, but I guess times change, aesthetics too?
Our Aunt C mailed us some Zinnia seeds and having never grown this plant before I tried it in several spots. As with many things in Calgary they did best in pots with heavy watering every day. These flowers are at once everything offensive about 1970's colour schemes and patterns and also completly fascinating. I can't take my eyes off the nuts colours of these flowers!!!
I overwintered this Geranium 'Merlot Sizzle' because I thought it didn't give us our money's worth last summer. We just wanted a little colour hit for the front public garden but it didn't bloom much until this year. As someone who usually mocks Geraniums this is quite the thing for me. This one is so prolific and such a bright colour I like to think of it as a small Bougainvillea instead, I think I'll overwinter it again!
New to me this year; Cerinthe 'Pride Of Gibraltar'
I've seen this plant before but have never grown it, Cerinthe is from the Mediterranean and noted for it's unusual flowers and blue/purple bracts. Easily grown from seed, did very well in this pot but also did moderately well in the ground in a hot spot. I planted this with black petunia, we also had issues about petunias once upon a time and still do but we can forgive this black variety!
It is difficult to find a true black in horticulture, this is extremely close!
Close up of Cerinthe flower, difficult to capture the true colours on camera. Bees love these upside down flowers and the plant becomes quite prolific as it ages, a pair of large seeds are produced between the purplish bracts. These plants are ideal for sunny and hot areas but I found also respond well to daily watering in a pot.
The flower of Datura. I used to grow this all the time and recently managed to sprout some seeds in the greenhouse, nice to see again!
Cannas did well and fit in well with the current orange flower trend.
My collection of craziness.
