Hello from Southwestern Nova Scotia

[Gordon]

Hello everyone, I recently joined NARGS, and thought I should introduce myself. My partner and I live on 45 acres of old farmstead in southwestern Nova Scotia. Since we moved here from Vancouver BC in late 2009, we have been gradually building gardens and a small business. Currently we are members of the Arisaema Enthusiasts Group, and the Society for Pacific Coast Native Irises. I am also an avid orchid enthusiast, and was happy to discover two of Nova Scotia's native orchids growing happily on our property.

Over the next few years we plan to build more garden beds, where we can trial potential new plants to introduce to the region. I have been propagating many different Arisaema species from seed, as well as preparing to test some of the hybrid Pacific Coast Irises (also grown from seed) in our zone 6b to 7a climate.

[cohan]

Hi and welcome! Is Gordon your first name?
45 acres is a nice size chunk - is much of it native vegetation?
Cohan

[McDonough]

Gordon, welcome to the NARGS Forum! We're looking forward to hearing about what Arisaema you grow (a particular favorite genus of mine) and West Coast Iris, a group of plants many of us would like to learn how to grow here in eastern North America.

[Gordon]

Hello Cohan and Mark,
Cohan - Yes, you are right about the name. Our 45 acres is divided between roughly 10 acres of cleared field (where I have found Platanthera lacera and either Platanthera psycodes or grandiflora), and 35 acres of woodland. I have barely explored the fringe of the woodland, but have found Trillium erectum. I suspect there are more treasures to be found in the depths, but that will have to wait until we clear some paths enough to get further in.

Mark - Thanks for the welcome. I've only recently gained interest in Arisaemas and Pacific Coast Iris. The only Arisaema planted out in the garden is A. ringens (dark rimmed form), which I was given about this time last year.I was also given a tuberoid of A. costatum, but that hasn't fared well in a pot, and is smaller now than when I received it. The others that I have are all seed grown in the last year or so. Most of the seed came to me through the Arisaema Enthusiasts Group seed exchange, and two species were purchased from Gardens North.

Here's the list:
Arisaema ciliatum var. liubaense, A. consanguineum (ACE 2031), A. consanguineum (with white markings), A. costatum (single tuber), A. fargesii, A. jacquemontii, A. ringens (mature tuberoids planted out), A. serratum, A. sikokianum, and A. tortuosum.

I have been trying to accelerate growth in the seedlings by refrigerating the small tuberlets in ziplock bags so I can get them through more than one growth cycle per year. I'll be potting up most of them to re-start indors soon.

Regarding Pacific Iris - I'll be moving my first seedlings out into the garden this summer. I purchased seed last year through the Society for Pacific Native Iris, and managed to germinate a small portion. I'll keep you posted on the results (ie- if they bite the bullet in their first winter or not). Iris tenax and Iris innominata are supposed to be the hardiest as far as cold tolerance goes. I'll be getting some seed of these in the next few months for further experimentation.

Cheers,

Gordon

[cohan]

That woodland sounds like it will be fun to explore- hopefully you'll keep us posted

[Hoy]

45 acres! Wow, that makes possibilities

[Gordon]

Will have to clear some pathways into the woods- just to see what is there. So far, I've only managed to get about 100 metres into the forested part of the property. 35 acres is woodland and 10 acres is cleared. We put in 2 ponds the other year. You can read about our adventures to date at:

www.sleddinghill.ca/blog

[cohan]

Nice blog, Gordon- I read the main entries, haven't looked through the links/other pages yet..