We have grown these ourselves, and they are now available. This dark purplish black dahlia has lovely twisting petals and 6″-8″ flowers. The plants grow to 4′ tall, in full sun. Our large plants are in one gallon pots and are priced at $12.99 . We also grew other cool dahlias this year and they are selling fast. Look for ‘Bedhead’, ‘Chat Noir’, several ‘Bishop of….’ varieties, and a few rarities from my personal collection (like Citron du Cap , a soft huge yellow cactus type).
April 30, 2010
Dahlia ‘Kenora Macob’ is amazing !
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April 28, 2010
Tremendous Tree Peonies
We are thrilled to offer an excellent selection of these incredible, thrilling plants ! I am personally obsessed with them ! As if I needed another plant family to collect….
Tree peonies are ancient treasures, originally from China. Hybridizers ‘over there’ and in the U.S., Switzerland and England have been breeding and selecting them for centuries. No wonder ! Their incredible flowers can be a foot across, with tissue paper-like petals in amazing colours. Tree peonies form woody stems that should be left unpruned. Slowly, a small bush forms and doesn’t die back to the ground like herbaceous peonies do. They like sun, but do just as well with a bit of afternoon shade, or dappled light.
Always be home in early May, because that is when they bloom. The astonishingly beautiful flowers are fleeting…. usually lasting about one week each. As plants mature, they will produce more than one flower per branch and the bloom time will be extended. Perhaps it is best that their beauty is short-lived….. like fireworks, delicious food, great wine, brilliant talent…. we appreciate it more when we are aware it is limited.
For an amazing selection of tree peonies, check out www.songsparrow.com for Klehm nursery’s fabulous offerings. I ordered (from Canada) and it was worth every dollar.
At Southlands Nursery, our tree peonies are $24.95 each. 
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April 23, 2010
Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’
I am crazy about this this annual ! For the last three years, I have been including it in more and more of my pots at home. It has a true silver/metallic shimmer on all surfaces, and will spill downward to several feet in length. I always assumed it would prefer full, hot sun….. most silver-leaved plants do. To my surprise, it is the plants in afternoon SHADE that grew the most lush, and had the longest trails of lovely silver foliage ! Dichondra does like sun, also. Growth is tighter and leaves are smaller in hot sun.
I like to fertilize everything about once a month with 20-20-20 water soluble plant food. This feeding causes Dichondra to go crazy with lush new growth, which is my goal. There are never any yellow leaves to pick off, virtually no flowers ( if they are there, I have not seen any), and only hard frost finally shuts Dichondra down for good.
I experimented by planting Dichondra in the ground, amongst gravel. It loved it ! I did keep it moist, and sprinkled some of my fertilzer on it monthly. The sprawling habit formed a silver netting between rocks, stones and chunks of blue slag glass. Fabulous!
At Southlands, we now have Dichondra in stock, along with all the ‘other’ annuals . Be sure to pick some up and ‘play’ with it in your containers this season.
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April 6, 2010
Dahlia Time
Now is the time to start dahlia tubers in pots, for planting in the garden in May. Depending on your frost situation, you must not let young shoots be exposed to night (or daytime) temperatures below about 7C . Older growth will be hardier, and won’t turn black from frost until autumn.
I pot my dahlia tubers into one or two gallon nursery pots, using a bagged potting soil. I do this in early April. Tubers should be planted so that their ‘neck’ is showing or just slighly buried. When placed in a warm bright window (or your own greenhouse), the shoots soon emerge. When the new shoots are about 4″ tall, I always pinch them (remove the centre growth tip ) to make them bushier. Then, I plant them in a sunny spot and hammer in a strong stake to tie them to as they tend to fall over or break if not supported.
For the last two summers, I have been thrilled with buckets full of lovely cut flowers , more than I can even give away ! Dahlias really deliver !
A GREAT PLACE TO BUY INCREDIBLE (and CHEAP) tubers is at the Fraser Valley Dahlia Society Tuber Sale . You will not believe the selection. Imagine a giant bake sale . Then double it.
DATE : April 17th , 2010
Place : George Preston Rec. Centre 20699 42nd Ave. Langley, BC Google Map the address. You’ll find it !!
9:00 AM - 5PM
Promise yourself to go !! It is amazing. Vendors come from Washington , as well as BC. This is the way to get varieties not sold in garden centres. There are hundreds of named ones for sale. Look for ‘Bad Hair Day’, ‘Bedhead’, ‘Hissyfitz’, ‘Maniac’, ‘Zombie Teenager’ , etc.
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