March Plant Spotlight

Spring is just around the corner and I think the excitement is starting to build. It's hard to not throw on a pair of shorts and flip flops but the weather is not quite there yet. The temperature has been dipping down below 0 over the last week, especially with those blue cloudless skies. It's a great time to drive around and look at the plants brave enough to burst into bloom. I took a few snapshots around the course of these showstoppers!  

Camellia in gorgeous magenta pink 

Bird loving Cotoneaster berries hanging heavy

Winter heath 

Helleborus

Viburnum blooms

Beautiful architectural cones 

Blooming January

Fairy Blush Camellia

Moss patina on picnic table

Life abounds throughout the year at the golf course.  What the Winter loses in colour, it certainly makes up in elegance. I found a few shrubs in all there hearty beauty, embracing the grey Westcoast Winter and bursting with blooms. Fairy Blush Camellia (Camellia x 'Fairy Blush'), brimming with buds, has started blooming near the Men's change room entrance. The old gardening staple, Winter Heath (Erica carnea), has sprays of pink and white blooms in various locations around the course. As well, as Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) has brightened up a few of the Winter containers with showy seasonal flowers. I'm particular fond of the appearance of the elegant pink buds on the Purple Laurustinus (Viburnum tinus 'Gwenllian'), near the kiosk.

Winter heath

New growth in hay bale

Buds on Purple Laurustinus

I also saw life breaking through the chilly weather right beside the Horticulture garage. The hay bales, resting on the pallets on the South side of the Turf Care Centre, were erupting with fresh new growth. Here are a few shots from a particularly sunny day last week. Check out these elaborate ice patterns formed in a set of tire tracks and the beautiful live moss patina growing on a picnic table at the TCC. An exceptional showcase of Mother Nature's artistic abilities.

Ice Formations in tire tracks

Pink Dawn

One of the few flowering gems at this time of the year is the lovely Pink Dawn Viburnum (Viburnum x bodnatense 'Pink Dawn').  This deciduous shrub drops it's leaves in fall and bursts fragrant powder pink blooms, from red buds, on its rough branches from Fall until early Spring. These blooms are later followed by bird-attracting red berries that mature to black. These shrubs look absolutely at home in a woodland garden bed and especially when in close proximity to a Winter blooming Witchazel and a mass of red twigged dogwood.  Quilchena has three Pink Dawn Viburnum shrubs massed in the centre of the garden bed adjacent to the parking lot and the pond at the #18 hole. When you're making your way to the #10 hole take a look to the right and check out these Winter wonders. These bushy shrubs eventually reach a height of up to 10 feet with a potential 6 foot spread by maturity.  They prefer full to part sun with well drained soil.  It's an excellent Winter specimen plant for the Westcoast.  If you have some extra room in your back border I would highly recommend picking one of these up.