In a February Garden

Bravely pushing up through a blanket of white, a patch of reddish heather (Calluna vulgaris 'darkness') adds colour to an otherwise snowy landscape.

Native holly berries (Ilex verticillata) brighten up another area of this Chester garden. Both these photos, as well as the winter sunrise shot (following below), were submitted by Sandy Dumaresq, a member of Chester Garden Club.

The Club's first meeting of 2010 took place on February 15th when guest speaker, Iris Burke, who runs a very hands-on nursery (Not Just Irises), gave a knowledgeable talk about getting one's garden to produce more flowers. Her helpful hints about encouraging plants to bloom were a welcome diversion from a general preoccupation with winter weather, and members are once again looking forward to another gardening season.

The Club's next meeting will be held on March 15th, which also happens to be Bloom Day so we hope that some members will send in garden photos taken that day (or near that day) and we will post them on the blog.

This sunrise photo was taken in early February, looking across the water from Chester's peninsula to Quaker Island.

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Florida florals

While unable to be present at the Chester Garden Club's February meeting, your blogger was not negligent in touring floral displays at venues to the south. The two decorative arrangements below were spotted in an entryway at the Naples Botanical Gardens in Florida.



The Naples gardens, with the tagline "Gardens with Latitude", include such specialty areas as Brazilian and Caribbean gardens, a Florida uplands preserve, and even a Children's Garden.

The special children's garden (designed after consultation with children themselves) includes educational aspects of gardening and many playing spaces. In the butterfly house, we came across a number of Monarch butterflies. Anyone visiting the area and interested in knowing more about the garden can get it from the website: naplesgarden.org.



The Marie Selby Garden, in Sarasota, is a centre of horticultural and educational expertise, especially in the cultivation of orchids. Many gorgeous specimens are for sale in the garden shop.

Soon it will be farewell to palm trees and (and the silk flowers that are a feature of so many rental condos!) and a return to the snowy landscapes of Chester. It's been a grand adventure but it is also always good to arrive home.

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