Butterfield Park Garden Restoration


	Heather's Flower of the Month OCEAN SPRAY June 2004 *Holodiscus discolor* As usual things seem to bloom a little later on the south slope of Mount Newton than elsewhere; so while Ocean Spray was glorying in its moments of magnificence elsewhere it was just starting to bloom in Butterfield. These few weeks when the sprays of creamy flowers allow the plant to live up to its name are when we can truly appreciate it and remember these days during the rest of the year when the tatty brown remains of the withered flowers give the shrub an unkempt appearance. In fact the cream colour changing to the brown may be the reason for the specific name discolor. Another common name for H. discolor is ironwood for the hardness and strength of its wood. Made even harder by heating over a fire the wood could be used by native peoples for digging sticks, spear and harpoon shafts, bows and arrow shafts. Sticks were also used for construction. More recently sticks were even used for knitting needles!! And those brownish fruiting clusters had a use. They could be steeped in boiling water th make an infusion to be drunk for diarrhea and for measles and chickenpox and as a blood tonic. Ocean spray is an important native shrub in providing habitat for many of the small animals especially small birds. MAY, 2004 STARFLOWER Lighting up the darkish woodlands is a favorite of mine, the starflower. I had always thought that starflower aka *Trientalis latifolia* was so called because of its six white petals, but one of my sources informs me that starflowers are so called " because the flower stalks are very thin leaving the flowers apparently hanging in the air like tiny woodland stars". The specific name *latifolia* means broad-leaved and this differentiates this species from the northern starflower. So as you wander through the woodland areas of Butterfield take closer note of the broadleaved starflower and decide for yourself whether you think that they are starflower for a)their colour, b)shape, c)"suspension" on the stalk or d)all of the above?! APRIL, 2004 For Roy *Erythronium oregonum* I had to do it; I mean I couldn't not do it. That is I just had to make Erythronium oregonum the flower of the month for April, 2004. E. oregonum is more commonly known as the white fawn lily or Easter lily and at present is found in quite large numbers in certain places in Butterfield Gardens. There are at least fifteen species of Erythronium world wide. The use of the Greek erythros, meaning red, comes from a Eurasian species that is pinkish. Many of the species of Erythronium are commonly called fawn lilies, but there is some difference in opinion as to why this should be. A John Burroughs thought that the pair of succulent leaves resembled the pricked ears of a fawn; others used the common name for the mottled colour of the foliage in some species. Be that as it may our local species of Erythronium has a pair of mottled leaves that may either look like the pricked ears of a fawn or the dappled protective coloration of those young mammals. Take your pick! Erythronium species have unusual underground structures of a bulb with only one scale and a segmented corm of round annual segments. But as with many other plants that grow from bulbs, picking the leaves dooms the bulb and hence the next year's growth and bloom. As it is, much of the habitat of these plants with the pristine flowers has disappeared thanks to the bulldozer and development; it is well that we have protected areas in which to keep and encourage the spread of Erythronium oregonum and other of the spring wild flowers. Naturally the white fawn lily is limited to the eastern side of Vancouver Island, south of Campbell River. It is an easy plant to cultivate in a semishaded woodland garden or grassy meadow. This can be done from bulbs purchased from specialist native plant suppliers or from seed. The latter method will take longer for you to enjoy your first blooms. March 2004 Indian Plum or the Shrub of Firsts It's been many, many sleeps now since my first spring here in the Victoria area, but each spring the early haze of green leaves and greenish flowers on the Indian Plum bushes never ceases to amaze me. Because this deciduous plant leafs and flowers before most others and then develops its fruit before most other shrubs have even flowered and then…its leaves begin to turn yellow and fall off before summer has barely begun…I call this shrub my shrub of firsts! This harbinger of spring is a little later this year than last in beginning the process of greening the region, but observant eyes will have noticed that certain shrubs along roadsides and other edgelands are indeed beginning to leaf out and if one looks closely one can see the "bouquets" of male and female flowers in terminal clusters on the branches. However one will have to go to separate shrubs to find the two types of flowers for Indian plum is a dioecious plant or one in which the males live in one household and the females in another. Indian plum or Oemalaria cerasiformis or Osmaronia cerasiformis can be cultivated fairly easily from twig cuttings, but to be sure of producing plants with fruit, one should perhaps go to a nursery and buy one plant of each gender. These plants will do very well in a woodland garden and the purple, olive-sized "plums" attract birds. Indeed the "plums" are edible by humans, although they have a slightly bitter taste. The native peoples of the coastal area ate them fresh, cooked or dried. Apparently the fruit, though bitter when fresh, makes a very flavourful jelly. February 2004 Daphne [click on image for a larger version] The most obvious plant in flower this February, 2004 at Butterfield Garden Park is Daphne laureola or Spurge Laurel or that dreaded dratted Daphne!! However one has to look for the flowers which are not only hidden under the glossy green leaves but are somewhat camouflaged. If you do move the leaves aside, you will find a cluster of pale greenish, quite beautiful flowers on this member of the Thyme family. Another Daphne plant is listed as flower of the month at another garden as I discovered when I went to Google in my research!!! "Native Plants in the Coastal Garden", Pettinger, 1996 has this to say about Spurge Laurel. "Although not a menace to the same degree as broom or purple loosestrife, spurge laurel can be an aggravating nuisance in a woodland garden, popping up unbidden in random spots, especially in areas of heavy shade." This garden escapee is present in shaded woodland spots in many local coastal areas, but nowhere have I seen it as dense as at Butterfield Gardens. The plants are growing so densely in much of the gardens that work parties and school groups are hard at work trying to eradicate it, thus allowing native vegetation to re-establish itself. Daphne thrives here for a number of reasons, one of which is its shiny evergreen leaves. Like other native plants such as salal, azalea, arbutus and Mahonia and cultivated ones such as camellia, azalea and rhododendron, water runs right off the slippery surface, not staying to freeze on it. As well a thick layer of cuticle protects the fragile cells of the leaves. Thus these plants survive our mild, wet winters with an occasional frost or snowfall. Other reasons that it survives so well are the spread of its seed contained in a shiny black fruit by birds and the tenacious hold in the soil that its roots provide. January 2004 SNOWDROP There they were on that walk on New Years Day, a few flowers of this member of the amaryllis family, the snowdrop. The scientific name of these harbingers of winter with spring not too far behind is Galanthus nivalis, meaning milkflower resembling snow! They are a plant that naturalizes very well in some locations and can spread as it has done at Butterfield but can be difficult in what would seem to us to be identical conditions elsewhere. Mrs Butterfield planted a few of the small bulbs here as did many of the other pioneers of the region. Coming from Europe as it has, it is also known as Maid of February, bulbous violet and glory of the snow.