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Hosted on every 15th of the month by Carol of May Dreams Gardens, Garden Bloggers Bloom Day is a chance to share what’s going on in your garden, month by month, all year through. It’s also a chance to look back at your own garden from year to year, to review the changes, positive or […]
Upside down in this pic, these onion sets form at the top of the stem There aren’t too many do-nothing perennial vegetables, but one of them is the Egyptian walking onion, Allium cepa var. proliferum. That variety name, proliferum, isn’t because these onions produce well, although they do. It comes from the botanical term proliferation […]
Double bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis forma multiplex AKA S. canadensis ‘Flora Pleno’) At last, I can put a tick mark on my Lust List: I now have double bloodroot, the fluffier, multipetalled version of the native spring ephemeral, Sanguinaria canadensis. The large-format image was a must here, that’s how much in love I am. They look […]
Call me superstitious, but some garden things are best left unsaid. For example, it can be dangerous to look forward to the blooming of t***ps. I dare not speak their name. Because the squirrels who, each spring, unceremoniously snap off the heads of the handful of t***ps in my tiny, tiny garden have been at […]
I always let out a whoop of delight when I see the first seedlings poking their heads up. Spring has sprung! You may be going crazy wondering where to start if you are planning a vegetable garden by growing from seed. Help is at hand. Some vegetable seeds you baby a little by starting indoors, […]
Some early downiness from the downy serviceberry (Amelanchier) branches I’m forcing As winter has thrown an I don’t wanna go to bed! tantrum in Toronto, I’m extra glad I decided to trim off a couple of wayward branches from my serviceberry last weekend – and pop them in a vase for early spring bloom. In […]
The evidence is in: there’s Spring in them thar hills! Or, at least, there are snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) blooming in the east end of Toronto. These fellas aren’t the 60 or so I planted last fall. They’re part of the happily multiplying family that has been hardily pushing through snow and leaves for years. One […]
The rather gross-looking cankers of Eastern filbert blight, a fungus that’s not a fun-guy! Run out right now and inspect your corkscrew hazel shrub (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’) for bumps like these. If you see semi-regular, black cankers along the stems (like I did), your hazel has Eastern filbert blight (Anisogramma anomala). If left to its own […]
Not very promising for Blooms Day, eh? But don’t go away. You might be surprised by how this story ends. Yesterday’s wind did a good job trimming branches from the trees, including these whips from a weeping willow. I wish I’d found more. Because, with their flexibility and buttery colour, weeping willow whips make excellent […]
Just to remind you that spring will be springing soon… because we’re just fed up with winter. These photos were captured on Mother’s Day 2010 at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington Drink in all that voluptuous colour. Don’t worry about the species or cultivar now. Although the dark purple Tulipa ‘Queen […]
Ontario’s native floral symbol Trillium grandiflorum – can you be sure it was responsibly propagated? Is choosing native plants always the right thing to do for the planet? Simple answer, right? Well, after a couple of recent encounters, I’m surprised. The simple answer turns out to be more than a little complex. When are native […]
The view is clear when you can see a tree silhouetted in its underwear. Let’s let go of our moaning. Snow in January is a good friend to the Toronto gardener. First, it’s precipitation; a long, cool drink for the garden. It’s an insulating blanket of snow for our tender plants, especially when the temps […]