Having spent much of my childhood playing around in the garden my mother built for my grandmother and I to play in, I became interested in plants at a very young age. Near the end of my elementary school experience, a social studies project on the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island led to my discovery of the pink lady’s slipper (Cypripedium acaule), the floral emblem of that province. A young and curious mind with a thirst for knowledge had to know everything there is to know about this enchanting flower. Before long, I had Cypripedium plants growing in my backyard. Not long after that, I was writing my own articles on the culture of these plants, as well as their taxonomy and botanical history. I spent hours continuing my research, drawing the flowers and dreaming about how I could fill my relatively small yard with these plants.

I decided that my interest in plants was not to be limited to Cypripedium species. While reading wildflower field guides I noticed other herbs that I fancied, and on the Internet the term "lady’s slipper" would quickly lead me to other genera of this kind. Trips to The Home Depot saw me begging my mother to buy a Phalaenopsis, and a science textbook burned the image of a Venus flytrap in my mind. Before high school, I already had a well-established collection of orchids, a developing garden with my own vision in mind, and a few select carnivorous plants.

And it didn’t end there. After years of experience and research, I have joined the Orchid Society of Alberta (2006) and have become involved with the Edmonton Naturalization Group (2008). Although my first term of post-secondary education has led me to ponder whether computing science might be best route for me as a career, I have no doubt that horticulture will be a lifelong passion for me, and I take it very seriously, along with my other hobbies of music (I am a flautist and vocalist) and video game collecting.

My garden is located on a fairly small lot in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, rated zone 3 by the USDA. Our average winter temperature is roughly -15 C and our average summer temperature is roughly 17 C. However, on an average of four to five days during the winter temperatures drop below -30 C and during the summer rise above 30 C. Many would describe our climate as "harsh"; winters are cold and summers are hot and dry, with little transition time between the seasons. Winter is very long, generally lasting from November to March, and heavy frosts are common in April and October. Our growing season lasts from May to September. July is the wettest month, and from June to August violent summer storms are not unusual. My garden is largely shaded, so I grow many woodland plants, which are my favourite kinds. I am always trying my hand at new things, and my garden is always changing, with new projects surfacing each year. I draw inspiration from everywhere and formulate ideas during the winter. The majority of my land is used for plants; there is little lawn. I like a mixture of native, classic, and exotic perennials to fill the garden to form a diverse environment with unlimited textures and colors. I like the unusual!

My tropical orchid and carnivorous plant hobbies make themselves at home within my home. A large three-tiered, light-mounted shelf houses roughly 90 varieties of tropical orchids at present (full to the brim basically) and a small terrarium with about 10 CPs. A small cabinet before my bedroom window is home to another few tropical orchids on its top. Combined with the hardy orchids growing outside, my orchid collection comprises about 130 individual plants; at least 80% of these are slipper orchids. I am currently working on a project to build a larger growing space in my basement so that my collection can be expanded, and to make maintenance more reasonable.

Thank you for reading my About Me page! I hope you enjoyed it. Please remember that any information and photos posted on my website may not be copied in any way without my permission. I always welcome feedback, comments, questions, and requests for articles to post on the site. Send any of these such things to jgadbois@live.ca .

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