A noun. A verb. A blog.
Surface Deep from the International Garden Festival at Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens A friend asked me about Canada Blooms, “Is it good this year?” And I replied, “There are ideas worth stealing, so that’s reason enough to go.” It is. Many of those ideas make better experiences than photographs, like this exhibit from Jardins de […]
Anemone blanda ‘White Splendor’ Where would gardeners be without the gigantic Ranunculaceae or buttercup family? Well, we’d be without perennials such as Clematis, delphiniums and hellebores, without annuals such as columbines (Aquilegia) and love-in-a-mist (Nigella). And we’d be without anemones. And, without anemones, we’d miss out on one of the easiest early spring bloomers, Anemone […]
A carpet of Pushkinia and Chionodoxa at Rosetta McClain Gardens In his chapter on bulbs in Planting the Dry Shade Garden (a review of that will follow), Graham Rice mentions two that for me are tried and true, one that is on my wish list, and one big surprise. The charmer brightening the path above, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Welcome to the Microgarden this Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Hope you like my new cushions… and enjoy the jasmine fragrance of the Hall’s honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica ‘Halliana’) by the front porch. I wrote recently about the nice perfume of the black locust tree. Well, Hall’s honeysuckle is yet another of those highly invasive plants with […]