Bees and other pollinating insects are back again this year. I haven’t seen a lot of bees this summer, but as I was standing, watching, I saw three visiting this one echinacea flower at the same time. Looks like it’s a favorite of a lot of different insects!
Well, this was a surprise this morning! Little yellow mushrooms in the pot with the crown of thorns. So I take a closer look, then google to see what’s growing – I have Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, the yellow houseplant mushroom!
I’ve had this crown of thorns for nearly 20 years so I have to infer the spores arrived recently. So what do I do to get rid of the fungus?
There is a chance that spores from Leucocoprinus birnbaumii will travel to your other plants and infect them as well. So if you don’t want a house full of yellow mushrooms… you can try one of the following to get rid of them:
Remove the plant from the house – Either put it outside or get rid of the plant entirely. No doubt the simplest solution.
Attempt spore removal – Pick off all visible mushrooms from their base and replace the top few inches of potting soil. This may or may not work, depending on how deeply the fungus has grown into the soil.
Replace the soil entirely – As a last resort, you can try replacing the potting soil entirely. Remove the plant and try to get as much dirt as possible off its roots. Know that by doing this you may stress the plant, and the mushrooms could very well come back anyway.
Truthfully these mushrooms are very hard to get rid of. As the spores and mycelium (the vegetative growth of the fungus) are deeply settled in your plant pot and roots, it’s difficult to remove them entirely.
Well, I don’t want to get rid of the plant – it’s growing well. I will remove the mushrooms and as much of the mycelium as I can see. Add some fresh soil and hope for the best! I’ll dry out the pot – the plant is after all a cactus and will likely be happy dried out – to see if that helps.
I’m not concerned about the mycelium – I just don’t want spores infecting the rest of my indoor garden.
Memorial University has a lovely botanical garden – for research and education. A friend, who’s been following the blog wrote and suggested I visit. So this morning Andrea and I drove over.
The garden consists of some cultivated beds and woodland gardens, a couple of greenhouses and several nature trails depicting different aspects of the natural environment of Newfoundland.
The first thing you see is an herbaceous border – filled with plants happy in this damp, cool environment. Blue flag iris:
Allium:
Cow parsnip (poisonous):
Leopard’s Bane (Doronucum):
Enter the garden trails and you see many varieties of Rhododendron (some still in full flower, others would have been gorgeous last week!). One whole section of a trail was lined with them:
We passed a slope covered with Cornus Canadensis in bloom:
We came across a crevice rock garden on a gentle slope (I would never have thought of using long slender rocks in that way):
There were California poppies:
A plant I didn’t know:
And several patches of lovely blue Mecanopsis:
I could go on – a lot of the plants were in bloom, making a leisurely stroll worthwhile.
Got any old, mismatched glass plates/bowls/glasses? I’m going to try making one of these when I get home!
Finally a bloom. I planted two Mandevilla six weeks ago – one had the start of a spray of buds – this is the first to open.
Many more to come, I hope.
The flowering crab apple trees in our cul de sac are in full bloom. Haven’t seen them this full of flowers for the last several years – thought the trees were dying (they’re more than 40 years old). I wonder whether the harsh winter could be responsible for this lush display. It’ll last another few days and then the flowers will drop. Haven’t seen much in the way of pollinating Insects – I wonder whether there will be any fruit at all this year.
It’s dandilion season. They’re blooming everywhere in great profusion.
They’ll be around for the next three weeks or so then other wildflower will take its turn.
Since the city has banned the use of herbicides and pesticides I’ve had to dig the plants out individually, one at a time – it’s time consuming and hard on my back but it’s kept the dandilions at bay.
There’s rain in the forecast for tomorrow – I will have to put “dig out dandilions” on my Sunday “to do” list.
Two weeks ago, when I got back from San Francisco, the deck was finally free of snow, although the patch of grass between the deck and the back garden bed still had a couple of inches remaining. It went within a week. Last Saturday, a sunny warm day, I moved pots around, picked up my broom and swept away the debris. Monday, I cleared out the dead remains of last year’s planting from the containers so the new perennial growth could come through – chives, hosta, coral bells, even the peony, all survived beneath the snow. The maple, yellow birch, dogwood – all originally volunteers – are in bud. My clematis is showing lots of new growth, and I can see I’ll have a good display of blooms on both rhododendrons!
Today, I planted some ajuga reptans (bugle weed), echinacea (last year’s planting didn’t survive), and pansies (all can handle the still cold nights). The other day I happened to see some pink wax begonias – couldn’t find them anywhere last year so I bought a couple of sets – since it’s too early to put them out, I’ve stuck them in my covered basement window well where they are protected from the low night temperatures and still get light during the day. It won’t be warm enough to transplant them to containers for at least another 10 days.
I’m now on the lookout for a second small peony. The canna lily last year was gorgeous – I hope to find one again this year. I should be able to buy a hibiscus at the Superstore garden centre in a couple of weeks. Then some million bells or verbena for the three pots on the fence. A pink mandevilla would finish off the planting nicely!
I love this time of year – finally being able to work in the garden, watching everything growing. Looking forward to five months without coats and boots. This is living in Canada!
Spring has finally arrived in Nova Scotia – the Coltsfoot has popped up! I noticed this patch on the roadside as I was driving by late this morning on my way to pick up a friend for lunch. The cheery yellow flowers are our first spring blooms.
The temperature actually reached double digits today and the snow patches are all but gone, thank goodness. I was happy to see these harbingers of warmer weather to come.
Next flower to look for is Forsythia – for the last many years it has come into bloom between May 3-6. Not this year for sure! I must keep an eye out for the shrubs in my neighbourhood. (I do have a few pathetic crocuses in my front garden bed, but the display is so paltry it doesn’t count as spring.)
This was the Ornithogalum a month ago – here it is today:
It continued blooming while I was away (cared for by my next door neighbour) and I’m guessing it will last a few more weeks! Amazing.
It’s a bulb so I’ll try to keep the foliage going for a bit before letting the plant die back. If I’m lucky, the bulbs will survive till next fall when I’ll replant them and see if I can encourage them to bloom.
Ann Williamson shared some lovely spring photos from Portland OR today: 
This is one of several photos of spring in full bloom.
Then I look at my back deck: 
The towering cap of snow on the shed has grown smaller but we’ve a long way to go.
And out my front door:
It’s a wonderful sunny day today, but more snow is in the forecast for tomorrow.
I’ve taken this crazy winter in stride for the most part but I am beginning to wonder if we’ll ever see spring. I sure hope our vegetation has survived under the snow!
jmn 