Plants are a Midwinter Reprieve

...Gloomy and dark with fog in the valleys.
It's still winter, although a mild-ish one.

A reprieve was in store as we stepped inside the old Vernon Lodge on 32nd Street in Vernon. 


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It's been years since I've had occasion to go there, and I had forgotten how lovely this plant conservatory was.  The aroma of blueberry pancakes and fresh coffee called us from the Lobby.

Even on a foggy day, the clerestory ceilings allowed light to bathe the interior's plants.

Some photos:



















Breakfast (very yummy) finished, it was time to head into the fog and home again.



A plant surprise--an open blossom on the Cymbidium orchid, met me at home, too:



And, soon, this long stalk will be festooned with the orange and blue Bird of Paradise flower.



And winter-protected (with heat/incandescent lights) palms...yes...palms are looking forward to being out of their winter enclosures, but doing well.

From this in summer: 

And during flower: 

To its warm wrap for winter: 

The much sought after Brahea armata: 

Yucca rostrata "Sapphire Skies": 

And, the saying "not pretty, Colonel, but does it work?" could apply to this winter-protected collection of small palms.  Yes it works.



Here's a summer look at two Washingtonia filifera, and the Y.rostratas:



And about 100 more inside the clubhouse, safely stored for winter: 



Winter's end is a ways off.
It'll be good to see the sun again.



Thank God for plants to get us through winter.

Routine Question

"What do you do all winter?"

Lost track of all the times that's been asked when I run into golfers in town.

So...call me crazy, but here's my many-years-long palm tree growing passion exposed.
...as though golfers don't know as they routinely walk into a palm tree on the patio in summer, necessitating hat retrievals.

This hobby resembles an obsession (grin), but aren't all hobbies like that?

Unusual varieties--which I love the most--invariably have to start as seed because North Okanagan nurseries don't stock them, understandably.

These duck-egg sized Wodyetia bifurcata (Foxtail palm) seeds came from Mike Dahme's tree in Florida...
Very beautiful seeds:

And here's the 5-year old Foxtail Palm (still a juvenile):

 Eventually resembling these beauties:

Stunning, huh?  Yup.

Then there's the planted (yes, planted) Trachycarpus fortunei (Windmill Palm), here shown in its heated and insulated winter hut (door is open on mild-ish days).

No small task protecting this brute:

And then there are the two planted Washingtonia filifera (Mexican Fan Palm), first a summer photo, and then a photo of their winter protection, replete with C-9 Christmas lights on a T-3 thermocube for heat.  Three Yucca rostrata are planted between them.

And, as usual, the clubhouse is chock-full of patio palms every winter.

Buckets of water for sporadic watering, as lines are turned off at the source during the off season.

The clubhouse is also where last year's "babies" are spending their first winter:

To list--and show--just a few, there are Chamaerops humilis, Phoenix var. Deglet Noor and P. var. Medjool, Trachycarpus Princeps, Trachycarpus Tesan, Wagnerianus, and Jubaea chilensis (blue), and Brahea nitida.

Geraniums that adorn #1 Teebox to greet visitors are anxiously awaiting spring, too:

Oh...and yes, there are new palm seeds, warming in the basement near the woodstove, ready to germinate:

Seeds this winter:  Copernicia hospita (not much luck with those...ever!), Brahea armata, Nannorrhops arabica (silver form), Nannorrhops ritchiana, Bismarckia nobilis (no luck with these either!), as well as some Cycads.

Some that have already germinated:

N. arabica (silver), N. ritchiana, B. armata, Beaucarnea

Keeps me busy until it's time to welcome golfers again...

Oh yeah...gotta call the programmer for the cash registers now that the failed HST has to be changed into the resurrection of the former PST (and separation of the GST).  

Good ole' government...can always count on them to screw up my winter and add costs for business.

And Kia hated winter...apart from missing her golfer friends.

"Hate it when I can't see my feet," mutters Kia.

Paws, Kia.  Those are paws.