A noun. A verb. A blog.
Wild enough to eat? A buffet table of cake-shaped arrangements by floral designer Albert Graves of Bloemen Decor. You can have your cake, but you might not want to eat it, too. Not if it’s one of the tasty designs above by Albert Graves at 2014’s Canada Blooms. What a cool centrepiece that might make […]
In the midst of another snow storm, here are a few shots from my trip to the Allan Gardens Spring Show last Saturday – shot in the midst of another snow storm. The Spring Show isn’t the cornucopia of bloom that the Easter Show will be. Still. Any port in a storm. While, outside, Allan […]
Cascades of dried grasses at the Toronto Botanical Garden. Admit it: they look even better against all the snow. Some people live in the past. But as this Polar Voldemortex-blighted winter drags on and on, many of us long to live in the future. Spring! Spring! Please, be sprung already! Tell me, why do we […]
Do these stepping stones above the water call to you? What draws you through a garden? The answers pop up again and again as – in the midst of another January coolth-wave – I look longingly through garden photos. Certain garden features give me what I call “come-hither looks.” Come here, they say, irresistibly. Walk […]
A modest entry marks one of my favourite garden experiences from 2013’s Through the Garden Gate – because the reveal was such a surprise, combining formal elements with quirky details. If you read our blog, you know: Quirk R Us. P’raps that wasn’t one of those headlines. You know. The crawler-friendly ones that neatly index […]
“Call her green and the winters cannot fade her…” ~ Joni Mitchell, Little Green Green was the theme for the New Year’s Eve bash thrown at our place by our Number One Dot before she takes off next week for London, England. Although the dishes have long since been washed, the leftovers eaten and empties […]
A spray of rolled magnolia leaves adds a novel touch to this mantletop display by Sheridan Nurseries’ Jung Won Woo The ideas were cool, and not just because the topic was winter decor. Yesterday evening at the Toronto Botanical Garden holiday open house, Sheridan Nurseries shared trends and tricks for prettying up the outside and […]
White cedars (Thuja occidentalis) and yews (Taxus) get precision haircuts It takes you by surprise. As you walk up the gentle rise through a very pleasant, but somewhat conventional shade garden in front and stand beside the hundred-year-old cedar-shingled home in St-Romuald, Quebec you see this. It’s a wow reveal; so beautiful, and so unexpected. […]
Simple but effective planter combo: Monstera deliciosa and this chartreuse coleus, Solenostemon ‘Wasabi’ Treating this one as an almost-wordless Wednesday, because it’s hard to type with a dislocated finger. Isn’t this planter great? Simple drama, with the tropical plant and fancy-leaf coleus – like giving your houseplant a summer romance. Love it with the blue […]
No grown-ups allowed! At the 2013 Toronto Islands garden tour in May, we enjoyed a closer look (as close as grown-ups are permitted) at a cool new treehouse. Isn’t it great? I don’t know about you, but I’d trade a few hours of grown-uppiness for a little time at the top of the ladder. Nice […]
The Wave Garden in Richmond Point, California, overlooking San Francisco Bay. Is it essential for a garden, a serious garden, to always start with a plan? And if we don’t have a plan, should we say, “Oh well, nothing’s written in stone”? In June 2013, I visited a garden that began with no real plan: […]
Majorelle blue paint on the bench goes perfectly with the crisp green ferns Three vignettes from 2013’s Toronto Island Garden Tour, all featuring ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthioperis) and the rich azure known as Majorelle blue. A little bit of Morocco at the edge of Lake Ontario – and somehow it works. I love this colour […]