Monday, February 9, 2015

Sub-tropical Plants

“What can you grow in Powell River?” This is a question that is often asked of our unique landscape and climate. Indeed, coastal BC allows for a wide range of warm-weather plants to be grown here that cannot be (or are not being) successfully grown in other parts of Canada

Acca sellowiana-pineapple guava
—plants such as figs, citrus, olives, and many showy ornamentals with edible and medicinal uses. What determines which plants will grow here? By looking at microclimates, soil parameters and plant ecology, we will explore ways to expand the roster of plants that can be grown in Powell River, opening up possibilities for sustainable horticulture, economic diversification, and food security.

Olive Leccino
Olive trees are great for a variety of garden uses, including specimen trees, hedges and even espalier training. Some varieties are self fertile, but as a general rule more than one variety of olive should be planted to ensure good pollination if fruit is desired. In the Gulf Islands, the Saturna Olive Consortium imported over 500 olive trees from California and now has a thriving grove.

Citrus × meyeri

Citrus × meyeri flower

The Meyer lemon fruit is yellow and rounder than a true lemon. The skin is fragrant and thin, coloured a deep yellow with a slight orange tint when ripe. Meyer lemon fruits have a sweeter, less acidic flavor than the more common Lisbon or Eureka supermarket lemon varieties. The flowers are white with a purple base and fragrant.

Punica granatum-pomegranate
P. granatum var. nana is a dwarf variety of P. granatum popularly planted as an ornamental plant in gardens and larger containers, and used as a bonsai specimen tree

Find out more from botanist Ioni Waisgluss when he presents

Growing Sub-Tropical Plants in Powell River (Thursday February 26 7:00-8:30 pm at the Cranberry Senior’s Centre, 6792 Cranberry Street )



4 comments:

  1. I used to live in the Powell River area but now reside in Burnaby, BC. Currently I own approximately 50 citrus trees/shrubs located mostly in my good sized backyard. I have 5 Yuzu (a very cold hardy Japanese citrus) in large pots outside, but on my covered deck in the winter (too much rain & citrus hate "wet feet"). 1 Meyers lemon and 2 Key Limes are now on my front window sill. The rest of my citrus collection are in my two 16' greenhouses. 10 or so are planted in a large 8'x3'x3' garden box inside a semi-enclosed greenhouse structure and the others are in large planter pots in my full enclosed double pane greenhouse. 2016 is supposed to be a wetter and colder winter than we've experienced for a number of years so I've added extra 6 mill poly over my open greenhouse citrus trees to help trap more heat this winter. If the temperatures drop below zero, I have two small space heaters (one for each greenhouse) to add just enough heat energy to keep the temps from dropping below freezing. I hope this helps those who have or are thinking of keeping citrus trees in PR.

    Anthony Shieh

    ReplyDelete
  2. BTW, I also have a hardy pomegranate, a self-fertilizing variety of olive tree inside a small greenhouse which is inside my big greenhouse. I also have 7 Fuyu & Izu persimmon trees (3 inside my big greenhouse, 1 planted in-ground outside and the others are in very large pots (25 gallon) outside. Each year my persimmon crop doubles in quantity (this year I'll be harvesting 80+ jumbo Fuyus/Izus from inside the greenhouse and probably 40-50 good sized ones from the in-ground Fuyu tree.

    My fruit tree addiction has caused me to collect 32 fruit trees at last count, plus my 50 citrus. The climate in Burnaby is not that different from PR, so with a greenhouse, I'm sure most of the varieties of fruit trees I have would survive/thrive in PR as well.

    Cheers,

    Anthony Shieh

    ReplyDelete
  3. BTW, I also have a hardy pomegranate, a self-fertilizing variety of olive tree inside a small greenhouse which is inside my big greenhouse. I also have 7 Fuyu & Izu persimmon trees (3 inside my big greenhouse, 1 planted in-ground outside and the others are in very large pots (25 gallon) outside. Each year my persimmon crop doubles in quantity (this year I'll be harvesting 80+ jumbo Fuyus/Izus from inside the greenhouse and probably 40-50 good sized ones from the in-ground Fuyu tree.

    My fruit tree addiction has caused me to collect 32 fruit trees at last count, plus my 50 citrus. The climate in Burnaby is not that different from PR, so with a greenhouse, I'm sure most of the varieties of fruit trees I have would survive/thrive in PR as well.

    Cheers,

    Anthony Shieh

    ReplyDelete
  4. I used to live in the Powell River area but now reside in Burnaby, BC. Currently I own approximately 50 citrus trees/shrubs located mostly in my good sized backyard. I have 5 Yuzu (a very cold hardy Japanese citrus) in large pots outside, but on my covered deck in the winter (too much rain & citrus hate "wet feet"). 1 Meyers lemon and 2 Key Limes are now on my front window sill. The rest of my citrus collection are in my two 16' greenhouses. 10 or so are planted in a large 8'x3'x3' garden box inside a semi-enclosed greenhouse structure and the others are in large planter pots in my full enclosed double pane greenhouse. 2016 is supposed to be a wetter and colder winter than we've experienced for a number of years so I've added extra 6 mill poly over my open greenhouse citrus trees to help trap more heat this winter. If the temperatures drop below zero, I have two small space heaters (one for each greenhouse) to add just enough heat energy to keep the temps from dropping below freezing. I hope this helps those who have or are thinking of keeping citrus trees in PR.

    Anthony Shieh

    ReplyDelete

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