A noun. A verb. A blog.
Your forsythia shrub now is probably a fountain of gold. Or maybe it isn’t. Blooming season is when a less-than-forthcoming forsythia makes itself very plain. Wonder why? Forsythias always make this year’s flower buds last year. And most of the time when they don’t bloom it’s for two reasons related to pruning. Yours might not […]
My Rosa ‘New Dawn’ is not only beautiful, she’s a tough customer. I’ve written about her before. Not many climbing roses put on a show with about a half day of sun. She does. But every couple of years at this time, when the buds show signs of life, she does need to be wrassled […]
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 […]
Other than a little huddle of snowdrops bowing under a March rain, there isn’t much Awakening yet in my garden. So to find a subject for a March entry for the Gardening Gone Wild Picture This Contest, I raided the archives. This little Pulsatilla vulgaris or Pasque flower – photographed in my sister’s garden at […]
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. […]
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 […]
For down-to-earth, spring flowering rock garden basics, you don’t have to go much further than the letter A. Rock garden plants are often called by their own A name: alpines, because of their origins on mountainsides, thriving with sharp drainage and full sun. A well-drained, full-sun position is still is their favourite venue. This is […]
No, don’t stay at home waiting for the petals to fall off your magnolia. There are far too many things to do and see this weekend after your weeding. F’rinstance… May 2nd: • The tulip celebration (all weekend, 10 am to 5 pm, and for the following two weekends) in the rock garden of the […]
This clump of hellebores (Helleborus orientalis) started to open up a week or so ago, towards the end of April this year. But I could see the flower buds marshalling for the big push under the leaves as early as March. That’s why a common name for this flower is the Lenten rose, because it […]
It’s too long since I’ve had the joy of seeing a sea of trilliums brighten up a woodland floor. This is one of my fond memories of childhood, having spent part of our youth living near wooded areas in different parts of Southern Ontario. However, I do have a few in the garden. This year, […]
This is the lovely bouquet Sarah brought me from her country garden yesterday. But, sadly, Narcissus or daffodils, don’t make very long-lasting cut flowers. Today, most of them have expired. Best to enjoy them in the garden… If only we could put far-off places on wheels and yank them closer, our gardening lives would be […]
Let’s call the whole thing … a really splendid harbinger of spring. Actually, most people say “fors-i-thia” when we’re talking about Forsythia. But I always see Mr. Forsyth’s surname fossilized in there. He was the royal gardener who introduced this Asian native shrub to the west, around the time when Jane Austen was a girl. […]