The Botanical Concierge

Went to the forest to take some test shots for a Photoshoot I have coming up (thanks to my lovely friend Lorena for putting on a salal crown and modelling for me 🤪). Came across a huge score of oyster mushrooms 😍😍😍. I took a course last year from .jacks.wild.mushrooms and it was amazing. I’ve been having a blast foraging for mushrooms and highly recommend trying it! It’s like an Easter egg hunt for adults.

Talking about soils to the Pender Harbour Garden Club today! Building healthy soil is incredibly important so I’m excited to share some knowledge with other keen gardeners. If you want to come it’s at the School of Music 1-3 and doors open at 12:45!

Times are changing… Crop Swap Vancouver has officially been handed over to three amazing women to carry on the community! As much as I loved running the group, I’ve moved on from the city and been on the Sunshine Coast for a year now. Since moving I’ve been working for myself full time for the first time ever! I’ve had so much fun designing gardens, teaching people in their garden, and getting my hands dirty with maintenance work. It has been busy!

I’m excited to also be learning more about consulting arborist work and have been putting more time into my photography business (). I’m not quite sure what I’ll be doing with this account, as I’m not really into posting too much. But I’d still love to share my garden adventures with you and hopefully be a source of some inspiration and useful information!

So welcome to my new page - The Botanical Concierge. I chose that name because I have my hands in a lot of different plant themed pockets, and I’d like to be a go to source for all things plant related in my local community. I hope you’ll stick around for this next chapter and I promise not to take another nine months before my next post 🤣

*you can still follow the ig account - the handle has been transferred over to a brand new account :)

I love tropical plants! Was freeing up some phone space and came across these pics of my tropical bed design at VanDusen botanical garden from a couple years ago. This was my first big bed design I got to take on. I made a path through the hardy bananas and chose a burgundy, green and silvery colour palette. I would love to create something like this in a private garden, though a lot of these plants wouldn’t be winter hardy here. Although, recently I’ve started designing some indoor tropical plantings which is such a blast! Oh the last pic is from my time volunteering at Bloedel Conservatory where I talked to visitors about the cool tropical plants and birds there - highly recommend visiting both these gardens ❤️

The neighbour’s grandkids came by to get some goodies from my garden so I gave them a tour and helped them find veggies to pick. They harvested zucchini, pattypan squash, green onion, cucumber, lettuce, beet greens, blueberries and radish! I love seeing kids excited about gardening and have so much fun teaching them about plants. Oh and to top it all off I got an invite to dinner (the pattypan dish was so delicious)!!
🌱

If you’ve walked through the forest lately you may have come across this super cool plant called Monotropa uniflora (ghost plant). It doesn’t contain any chlorophyll so can’t generate energy from the sun. Instead parasitizes certain fungi that have a mutually beneficial relationship (mycorrhizal association) with trees. The fungi colonize a tree’s roots allowing it to receive energy (carbohydrates from photosynthesis) from the tree, while the fungi can tap into water and mineral sources the tree roots are too big to reach on their own. Then cute lil Monotropa hops on the train by taking carbs from the fungi. So you’ll find Monotropa in quite dark locations and in complex relationships (aren’t we all 🤪)! What surprised me most was to find out this plant is in the Ericaceae family (which includes plants like blueberry, huckleberry, arbutus, and heather). Have you seen these before?! They’re one of my favs to come across.

I cut my only broccoli for her for dinner… that’s how special my bestie .teej is 🤣! Known this gal over 30 years and although we’re total opposites in so many ways, it’s one of my most cherished friendships! Thankful for the visit in my new home and a weekend of great chats, yummy local food, laughs and love!
🌱
❤️ 🇨🇦 ☀️

I was fortunate to get some farming lessons from Mel when I attended horticulture school at UBC. So great to see their new business grow on the Sunshine Coast!

So nice to be meeting some more gardening nerds in my new community through sharing extra seedlings. They were also kind to bring me a kombucha scoby and black currants! There’s a group for swapping garden stuff on the coast already so I won’t be starting a crop swap up here. Im still running the group in Vancouver but will probably try to find someone to take over it soon. A bit sad as it’s been a lovey little group to be a part of the last few years!!

I love this time of year when our native Pacific dogwood Cornus nuttallii is blooming. Those showy white things aren’t actually the flower petals - they’re modified leaves called bracts. The flowers are clustered in the middle and there can be over 30 of them! I don’t know what it is about the genus Cornus but there’s something about the plants in it that I find comforting (if that makes any sense 🤪). I’m a big fan of Cornus florida (native to eastern North America and northern Mexico). If you get a chance look up Cornus florida subspecies urbiniana (Rose) Ricket 😍😍😍

Oh hiiiii it’s me! Yes I’m still around... big changes over here though! Two weeks ago I moved up to the after spending a third of my life in Vancouver. I have been settling into my little town of 3000 and enjoying the quiet and my new ocean views. Of course I took up half the moving truck with my plants 🤣! I’m excited about this new chapter in my life and just taking some time to figure out what I want to do with this account. I’m still doing horticulture work (although working for myself now not the city) and am trying to grow my photography business (). I’m also busy studying for some industry exams including my red seal in landscape horticulture and ISA certified arborist. So lots on the go at the moment!! I’m a little absent from social media these days but hopefully will start sharing fun stuff with you again soon. I hope you’ll stick around to share in my plant adventures!
🌱
🌱
🌱

Beautiful Ribes sanguineum! These are always a welcome sight in the spring and a beacon for hummingbirds. They’re a great PNW native to add to your garden and you can find cultivars in different colours as well.
🌱
🌱
🌱