A noun. A verb. A blog.
Must be my Viking blood. I don’t do heat well. Was up Sunday morning early to douse the garden with my watering can and soaker hose before peak evaporation kicked in. Even laid down a couple of bags of mulch, now that I know where the volunteer seedlings are. (Mulch can be a major destroyer […]
Hello, I’m a Red Admiral butterfly, and I’ll be your host on May 15, 2010 for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. As you can see, I’m enjoying the last of the lilac nectar this sunny morning. Now that I’m a butterfly, it’s one of my favourite foods. (When I was just a caterpillar, I preferred eating […]
Set in the Arboretum of Burlington’s Royal Botanical Gardens, the Lilac Dell is bursting with early blooms in 2010, due to the unseasonably warm spring. The RBG boasts the largest collection of lilacs in the world, 800 species and varieties from around the world. At dusk, apparently the best time to bring your nose to […]
I feel virtuous about spending at the Toronto Botanical Garden plant sale (which remains on till Sunday). Virtuous because what I bought* was tomato plants, mostly heritage ones at that. Three of them will find a home at my allotment in the community garden. One will probably stay home with mamma, churning out cherry tomatoes. […]
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 […]
Last Sunday, Sarah and Helen visited Barry Parker’s Open Garden Toronto and were once again blown away by this lovely Parkdale garden gem. Helen: The first thing that impresses me about Barry’s garden is its structure. Structure is one of the things that moves a garden from good to great. And Barry proves that you […]
When our youngest daughter was in 6th grade, she had to write a two-page short story. At page five, she was still writing, so I asked her why. “I can’t help it,” she exclaimed. “Things just keep happening!!” Things just keep happening on the garden calendar, too. Sunday, May 2nd is no exception, and one […]
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 […]
Yes, weedsday; you read that right. Norway maples, Acer platanoides, Toronto’s most dominant (in so many senses) street tree. You can’t garden in Toronto, especially its east end, without grappling with these non-native giants; trees that are as voracious as they are fecund. But, gee, they have pretty flowers. They’re all chartreuse and fluffy-y. From […]
This might be a crabapple, though I’m not a crabapple expert. And the Malus or apple family, along with its fruit tree cousins such as the Pyrus or pear [ed: and I should add the Prunus family, which includes plums, peaches (which this might be), apricots, cherries, and almonds], are all five-petalled members of the […]