A noun. A verb. A blog.
This single, late tulip, “El Nino” positively glows in the sun. I probably need to be planting flower bulbs right now, but I’m not. The last few falls I haven’t planted any tulip bulbs, no crocuses, no nothing. I have my reasons (cough *excuses*), listed here: • My city garden is hard as heck to […]
Nip your lily leaf beetle problem in the bud, or in the egg, by squishing this pest’s red, shiny ova before they hatch. Here’s what they look like… laid in a line, on the underside of lily leaves. Oriental and Asiatic lilies are particularly yummy to the lily leaf beetle, and the three successive generations […]
You can add texture to your garden in many ways. Here, we have a tulip with fringed petals, one of the many forms (or textures) available in hybrid tulips today. Imagine having two tulip varieties blooming together in the same colour, but with different textures – simple but dramatic. Or try contrast. I don’t know […]
At the Toronto Botanical Garden on Sunday, we visited the Ontario Rock Garden and Hardy Plant Society plant sale. Wow. Wall-to-wall plants and people make for a floral feeding frenzy. Considering the temptations, Sarah & I were restrained, coming home with only three and two plants. (The members’ preview for the TBG’s own plant sale […]
Because the trip took me through St. James Park beside the cathedral, I’m glad I decided to walk to the subway from my meeting yesterday, despite my inappropriate shoes. I won’t dwell on how I suffered. Instead, I’ll wax mildly poetic about Fritillaria imperialis, the crown imperial fritillaria. What an exotic bulb this is, with […]
A geophyte seems like the perfect kind of flower to post in celebration of Earth Day’s 40th Birthday. The etymology of the word geophyte is Greek: from geo- (meaning earth or ground) plus -phyte (plant or growth). It relates to the plant’s underground storage organ. Yes, geophyte is a fancy word for bulb, corm, rhizome […]
Our visit from the Galloping Gardener resulted in her great post on Allan Gardens – and inspired me to drop by myself in search of Toronto’s reluctant spring. And there it was, in all its splendour! In fact, it was gearing up for the Easter Show next weekend, when the lilies will be trumpeting their […]
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you… snowdrops! Finally. In sooth, they made their appearance in my garden on Sunday, but I was too imprisoned by a school project to do anything about it. But even March 7th is two weeks later than last year, despite the city’s lack of snow. Welcome snowdrops. […]
Surprise! This dried-up, former grocery store potted Easter Lily (Lilium longiflorum) has borne unexpected fruit. Or flower. It was rescued from its way to the green bin in the front hall of ma belle-mère (mother-in-law) this summer and plopped into a spare corner of the back garden. Just in case. Ta da! It is now […]
I’ll own to being lazy. It’s mostly on account of my curmudgeonly front yard. I say “English cottage garden” and it snarls back with sieve-like feet upon feet of inert yellow sand. (Thank you, Lake Iroquois.) I think “peonies” – it hands me a thirsty webwork of impenetrable Norway maple roots. And shade. Lots of […]
Have you heard of the Spuria beardless iris, a cousin of the Siberian iris? I hadn’t. And I certainly hadn’t been prepared for the Wow-ow -ow! factor of seeing one of these five-foot-plus-tall giants in a garden. It happened yesterday, when Sarah and I took an interesting detour. While looking at a new community garden […]
Two of the tulips I like best (besides two lips in the dark) are late-bloomers making a show right now. The Tulipa above is in the fringed group of tulips. I wish I knew its name. Squirrels and their guillotine tendencies aside, these were reliable performers in my garden for many years, increasing happily and […]