My Bit of Heaven - by Kristl Walek

[Kristl Walek]

As another year draws to a close, the seed drawers are full, my website
updated and I draw my work around me, like a shawl, while I process orders
through the dark months.

Despite a chaotic and emotional pre-move 2009, and no further progress with my book,
I was given awards from Dave's Garden for being in the "Top Five Seed Companies" in two categories (native species and trees & shrubs) as voted by my customers.

Hopeful for a new start after many difficult years; I've survived my first 5 months in Nova Scotia. Although I still feel lost here, a stranger in a strange land; I know it is always the land, in the end, that makes me whole again.

If I can hike the hills, perch on a rock, see plants at my feet, trees towering above me, nothing else is unbearable. So this early morning, I walked the bleak, icy shores of the Fundy Bay but felt renewed.

I look forward to another year with all of you as I continue to explore the wild spaces of maritime Canada.

[Maggi Young]

Dear Kristl, I wonder if you realise just how many of us are wishing you the very best of good fortune in establishing your new life in Nova Scotia?
Your friens hip and expertise here in this Forum is greatly appreciated. As well as sharing your tremendous experience in matters seed and plant related, you bring us such wonderful photographes of the wild and beautiful lands around you to expand our knowledge and delight our eyes. And through all this we feel joined with you as you progress along a road that is uncertain and often downright frightening.....friends joined together across the miles through the simple expedient of a joy in nature!
Thank you for all you give us here..... my fond hopes to you for a grand year to come in 2010!

[Lesley Cox]

 I would like to hope for you Kristl, a wonderful year to come in 2010. Moving is always traumatic and doing so with garden and business as well as home, is trebly so, of course. What you can be sure of is great support from friends here on the Forum and I've no doubt you and people like John W will soon be firm friends if you are not already. Kindest regards from us all.

[annew]

Congratulations on your awards, Kristl. Sending you warm wishes on your new start.

[Ragged Robin]

Many congratulations on your awards Kristi and all the best for 2010 in your new home.....so looking forward to your postings as the seasons change this year and discovering new landscapes and plant life through your adventures 

[cohan]

congratulations on the awards--its good to get recognition for doing something above the minimum standards common in most fields!

hopefully 2010 will see you growing into your new home in many ways

[Kristl Walek]

I feel that my new life in Nova Scotia is really beginning now, rather than last July, when I first moved to the Annapolis Valley.
It is my first full plant season here. It is, in particular,  the first spring in my new bit of heaven.

And, with the sense of renewal in the air, no better day than Good Friday to have my first serious plant explore of the season. This was made all the more special because my new friend Jill, of Bunchberry Nursery was eager to botanize with me. Our goal was to find Symplocarpus foetidus (Skunk Cabbage), the first native plant to bloom.  Because of a recent heat wave, we feared it may have already finished flowering.

However, we could not have been luckier. The first site we stopped at along the side of the road, on a hunch that it might be the "right kind of spot" (a steep incline leading down to a boggy area) was *exactly* the spot. Peering down the slope I could already see the large spathes dotting the wet area.

Here we found ourselves in skunk cabbage heaven, in a site even larger than my "mother lode" spot back in Ontario, and not requiring a long drive. My first impression was that everything was larger about these plants---the individual spathes were huge, the clumps mostly multi-spathes, not the normal single spathed clones on Ontario. I wondered whether the much milder climate contributed to the added vigour here.

[Kristl Walek]

close-ups of individual specimens.

[Kristl Walek]

To the rear of the skunk cabbage area we discovered a large, open bog, full of treasures that I will be eager to return to see at flowering time. Rhododendron (Ledum) groenlandicum, Vacciniums, Empetrum nigrum, Chamaedaphne, Andromeda, Kalmia polifolia, Gaultheria and many others were to be seen here.

The highlight, however was finding unusually-coloured  Sarracenia purpurea. While the normal maroon-reds were in attendance, here there were also plants with  distinct oranges and salmon-toned foliage. Then, I almost fainted when Jill pointed out a beautiful yellow plant---which I had heard of, but never seen before in the wild.

If it turns out to be Sarracenia purpurea f. heterophylla (which can only be conclusively decided if it turns out to have a yellow flower as well, I will be doubly thrilled.

It was originally recognized as a separate species, then reduced to a variety and finally a form. I will certainly be returning to this spot in June to observe flowering---as I also have a feeling about some of the other orange/salmon foliaged plants.

Before leaving the site we saw (and smelled) a Daphne mezereum growing on the slope of the roadside (an introduced species that has taken hold in the wild here). As Jill went to inspect, a mother bird was frightened away from its ground-level nest underneath the Daphne---a most appropriate sight for Easter weekend.

[Kristl Walek]

We had been having altogether too much fun, so decided to proceed to a second site for skunk cabbage. As we were on Digby Neck (a narrow peninsula in the Bay Of Fundy), we soon boarded a ferry for Long Island. All day we slipped in and out of fog. Our goal was a popular tourist destination: the site of the Balancing Rock, a columnar basalt sea stack that rests precariously on it's end.

Barely out of the parking lot, the sides of the path and boardwalk were full of Symplocarpus. Further along, Cornus canadensis appeared, still in maroon winter colour. The wonderful Coptis groenladica was abundant and greening and the very choice Gaultheria hispidula was seen in abundance. Exquisite, colorful, textural mats of small creeping plants covered spaghnum mounds everywhere.

[Kristl Walek]

As we proceeded along the short (2.4km) trail towards the shore, we passed areas where the moss was in breathtaking colours---a feast for the senses. Never having seen this phenomenon before, I have now educated myself to discover that sphaghum does indeed vary in its hues and the reds, oranges, pinks are a normal phenomenon. You Scots would certainly have known this.

The 235 steps down to the coast of St. Mary's Bay are easy enough---climbing back up was just a bit trickier. The coastline here is majestic and composed of columnar basalt rock. The 9m high "Balancing Rock" has stood here, without toppling, for some 200 years, defying gravity. We noted that someone had managed to climb out to the rock and construct an Inukshuk at its base; somehow particularly appropriate as these human inspired "balanced rock" sculptures were historically created as navigational aids by the Inuit.

[TheOnionMan]

Awesome Kristl!  Keep us posted with any new findings.  I see why you took so many photos of Symplocarpus foetidus, it such an amusing photogenic little creature isn't it!  I've never seen Gaultheria hispidula before, looks intriguing, and the "textural mass" images are delightful.

[Maggi Young]

Kristl, what can I say?
This new bit of heaven is surely proving a very happy hunting ground.... and one which you are generously sharing with us; thank you 

I am very excited to see the ericaceous plants when you return to their bog in season..... if they grow as well as the Symplocarpus are doing, it will be worth seeing!

[Lvandelft]

Kristl, you never stop surprising us. Your series of plant pictures give a really good idea of how it looks out there.
Looking at the moss plants gives me the feeling standing there and getting wet feet 
Being in a skunk cabbage heaven cannot be so bad as it sounds 

[Ragged Robin]

Kristi, thank you for such a wonderful introduction to your new vision of Spring - it certainly looks heavenly and I just love the mosses and textural leaves interwoven with one another.  The excitement of all your new findings is palpable and makes the whole experience of joining you on your thread so enjoyable