March 2012 in the Garden

Lots is happening in the garden right now! In a "normal" spring, this would all be taking place in April, but...well, there's not a lot that can be done about things being "early," so might as well enjoy it...


At left is a showy white hellebore. I'm not sure what chewed on the petals, but something thought they were tasty while still in bud stage, as they opened with the holes already in place. Oh well, the overall effect of seeing these lovely white flowers against all the composting leaves is still lovely, in my opinion.

In the front yard is another hellebore, but this one is deep purple.  The effect from a distance isn't quite as dramatic, but up close, it's certainly something to look at!















The crocuses, of course, have been putting on a fantastic show. Their bloom time is short lived but they do make the most of it!

One of my pollinator friends decided to take a closer look...

Unfortunately, bees aren't the only creatures stirring already. I strongly suspect it was a squirrel that decided to "rearrange" the tulip bulbs I had been "forcing" in a pot (The forcing was a bit of a flop. Due to the early warm-up the tulips in the ground are actually farther ahead than the ones in the pot!) Mr. Squirrel definitely does not have an eye for floral design, is all I have to say about his arrangement!

These guys are on the crawl, remarkably plump for so early in the season...

And yes, I did squish him after I took his picture (sorry to the squeamish, but this was the first of many, many that will meet the same fate over the summer. If anyone wants free escargots, please give me a shout--all you can pick, free!)

The Itoh peony is by far the most advanced in growth in the garden so far. It is in quite a sheltered spot and it is traditionally an early bloomer (May 24th most years.)

A few of the species tulips are starting to show colour. Again, these ones are in a protected area. The more exposed ones in the front yard don't have any colour yet. You can see a nice little field of bluebells emerging. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to see their blue blooms next to the dark pink tulips.



It's not only the flower garden that's showing signs of life; there's action in the vegetable patch as well. The garlic I planted in the fall has pushed up about 3" through the straw mulch.

Of course, what says SPRING to me like nothing else (even if I could be seen shaking my head this year, imploring this plant to wait, as it's only March, and you're risking freezing your blooms off)...is the magnolia (Magnolia x loebneri 'Leonard Messel')

Spring is here...for now, at least!

Before you go to Canada Blooms 2012...

...there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes. From Saturday until today (Thursday) teams of people, including many volunteers, have been working long hours to create the garden magic that is Canada Blooms. I apologize for the cell phone camera photo quality, but here are some of the faces behind the hands that make the show happen:

I wish I could put names with all of these faces. But you can tell just by looking at them, can't you, that they're a great fun bunch to work with! The fact they're still smiling after many of them have been working non-stop for days says a lot about them. It brings me back year after year.

We purposely posed the group in front of the rose garden so we'd have a pretty backdrop. Can you see the rose garden? Maybe not. Let's try a smaller group shot...

Canada Blooms volunteers in front of the rose garden.

Yes, that's me, on the far right. For the past several years I've had the privilege of volunteering a day or two of my time to assist with planting the large decorative planters that are placed throughout the aisles of Canada Blooms.

It's a huge amount of fun to have this many plants to play with, especially in March!

When the planting is going on, it's a full fledged construction site. Steel toed boots, hardhats, and stylish flourescent safety vests are required...

I'm beaming because that orange coleus is so fantastic. It's name is ruffle something or other, and I'll definitely be growing it in my garden this year!

A few of the decorative planters we created this year featured edibles. I have to say that these were the most challenging ones for me.

I grow tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers and peppers in pots in my own garden. But making a flower show worthy display in a planter (the idea is to make an arrangement that is eye-catching and inspiring, which is very different from providing a plant with its ideal growing conditions for a full season) of fully grown vegetables, overwhelmingly comprised of nothing much but green leaves, took all the imagination and gravity defying skills I could muster.

The cabbages are like giant roses, to my eye.

 

There was a little get together for volunteers tonight (thanks, Canada Blooms!) so I took the opportunity to spend a few minutes checking out some of the amazing gardens that have been created for the show. Here are just a few samples (and again, I apologize that these are only cell phone camera quality):

Have you ever seen a more charming set of garden stairs?

There's so much to look at in this garden. I especially like the copper water features.

A clever tapestry of heuchera (my favourite!) and other fantastic foliage plants.

Medinilla

You can try leaving the show without buying one of these Medinilla plants but you'll need very strong willpower. Canada Blooms Horticultural Director Charlie Dobbin tells me that not only are they very easy to care for, they like to be on the dry side, and the blooms will last close to 6 months. Think they look interesting in even in this lousy picture? Wait until you see them in person. They're spectacular! I predict they'll be selling by the truckload. I haven't bought one yet only because they're big, we're in the midst of some renovations, and I have no idea where I could safely put it. That probably won't deter me for long...

 So that's my sneak peek of Canada Blooms 2012. I'll be at the show a couple times (with my good camera!) over the next ten days so there will be more pictures later. One of my favourite things about the show is learning from some top notch speakers. I'm disappointed to be missing Marjorie Harris' presentation tomorrow, but very much looking forward to hearing Paul Zammit and Liz Primeau (on growing garlic!) on the days I will be attending.

Buzzworthy news...in March!

The earliest blooming shrub in my garden is Witch Hazel. This is only the second spring for Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane' in my garden, but it has been putting on quite a show since mid-February. From a distance the flowers are a burnt red.






Today, March 11th, they've turned into a lovely fireworks of oranges and reds.


But what was really astonishing to me today, when I went out to see what was poking out of the soil on this warm day, was this...

There were about half a dozen of these pollinators (bees, wasps--I can't tell the difference) swarming the plant! I imagine they were starving, and this was one of the very few "restaurants" in town open!


Noted plant guru Marjorie Harris often talks about the importance of planting lots of tiny bulbs that flower early so that the early pollinators will have something to eat. I have to admit that I didn't think there were a lot of pollinators out looking for breakfast when the earliest of these bulbs and, in the case of witch hazel, shrubs bloom, but today was quite something to see. Granted, today's temperatures were record breaking, but in a "normal" year, the same scenario would be playing out in a few weeks.


I think this is a good excuse reason to buy more early spring-flowering bulbs this year. The three snowdrops that bloomed last week aren't going to be enough of a buffet for my early buzzing friends!

Geraniums! Who knew?

Head on over to the Gardenmaking magazine blog for very exciting news on dealing with Japanese beetles. These sparkly critters have made a complete mess of my roses the past few summers. It hasn't helped that they seem to favour my favourite roses (the English roses, especially "Pat Austin.")

Bring on the zonal pelargoniums (geraniums!)

Book Review: The Heirloom Tomato

The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table

Amy Goldman, 2008

I’ve been on a bit of a heirloom tomato kick the last couple years. If you pick up The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table and take a look at how beautiful they are, you might understand how I became smitten. There are dozens of tomatoes pictured, all plumply ripe, and visibly delicious (if that’s possible. I think it is. Pass the salt shaker and fresh basil please!) 

I stumbled on this book by accident. Even though this was an amazingly mild winter, the lack of growing things started to get to me, as usual, in January. To take the edge off I stopped at the garden center one day on my way home from work, to peruse their selection of seeds. They had an excellent selection of many flowers and vegetables, but there weren’t any “interesting” tomatoes (i.e. heirloom varieties that I wanted to grow). I thought about waiting until Canada Blooms, as there are always several seed vendors there, including those selling unusual heirloom vegetables. But what if they weren’t coming this year? After dinner I went on the internet to have a look at this year’s Canada Blooms vendors.

One thing led to another, and before I knew it I had stumbled on the mother of all heirloom tomato seed websites, Tatianas Tomatobase. 593 varieties of heirloom tomato seeds were available!  And yes, I went through the website and looked at every last one. Amazingly, the site has photos (at various stages of growth and development) for each variety, along with details on the plant’s history, growth habit, etc. This is the work of a genius or a well organized tomato addict, possibly both. Even better, the grower is in Canada, the seeds were $2.50 a package, and the shipping costs were extremely low. I was quite proud of myself for only ordering 5 packets (which arrived in less than a week!)

While I was poking around on Tatianas Tomatobase I followed some links and discovered www.tomatoville.com which bills itself as “the world's largest online community of tomato growers.”  There are countless forums and articles on, of course, tomatoes. If you have a tomato-growing question, this is the website for you.

Anyhow, somewhere on Tatiana’s website she listed The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table as a good resource, so I picked it up at the Toronto Public Library. As mentioned, there are many beautiful photos of tomatoes, and lots of detailed information on quite a few varieties. But not nearly as many varieties as you’ll find on the tomato website. However, if you like to browse through a lovely book instead of clicking a mouse, this is a good way to get your information. The back quarter of the book is devoted to recipes, the front eight to growing and seed saving.

As I’m not one to read the complete details of every plant described (but instead leaf through, look at the pretty pictures, and delve into the full details only of varieties that looked especially interesting) I found it a pretty quick read.

If you’re interested in a book that’s more of a tomato story than a reference, I highly recommend Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer by Tim Stark, 2008.  If you’ve ever grown a tomato, you’ll enjoy this book.

Book Review: The Surprising Life of Constance Spry

The Surprising Life of Constance Spry: From social reformer to society florist.

(Sue Shephard, Macmillan, 2010)

I picked up this book for two reasons; I have the David Austin rose “Constance Spry” so I wanted to know about its namesake, and I enjoyed a previous book by this author, Seeds of Fortune: A Great Gardening Dynasty. I’m delighted to report that this book is a much faster read than Shephards’ previous book, and in fact was a real page-turner. Spry’s life really was surprising!

Shephard brought to life the interesting tale of a forlorn child with a rather miserable beginning who, through many odd twists and turns, ended up the florist of choice for the UK’s elite, even doing the flowers for a royal wedding! The book had to be a biography; as a work of fiction it would never be believable.

I won’t give away all the interesting parts but will instead dwell on what the book revealed as the cutting edge of floral design in the 30’s and 40’s—the use of kale leaves and other edibles in arrangements. Indeed, a floral design in a shop window featuring these elements was such a head turner that the police had to be called to clear a sidewalk! Startling for the time, I’m sure. But what struck me is that these are the very elements we see touted now, both in cut flower design and in planted containers, that are thought to be so “on the edge.” How did the floral design and gardening world lose these elements between the middle of the last century and now?

Also interesting is that Spry, who was really behind the birth of formal floral arranging competitions (oops, I gave away more of the story!) completely disapproved of the idea of competition in floral design. She thought it should be a venue for self-expression, and a way for everyone of any economic means, to have beauty in their life. Furthermore, she abhorred the idea that there were set “rules” for design (you know the ones we all contort ourselves to for floral shows—flowers must not touch the table, the proportions must be thus and so, etc.) 

For gardeners and those who like to arrange flowers (and yes, even grow Rosa “Constance Spry”) this book is worth a read. 

Unexpected Sights Out the Back Window

One of my favourite things to do on a winter Saturday morning is to sit with a cup of coffee and watch the birds out the back window (which faces south.) We have two feeders filled with black oil sunflower, and one finch feeder filled with niger seeds.

Last year we sometimes had 4 pairs of cardinals visiting, plus house finches, the little American goldfinches, and the odd woodpecker. This year, it's the same type of birds but there have been a lot less of them, which I attribute to another visitor...

I believe he (or she?) is a Cooper's Hawk. Last year we had the odd visit from a larger hawk, but it wasn't too frequent. However, this Cooper's Hawk seems to have figured out that we have a very nice bird restaurant, and he's not talking about the black oil sunflower seed... :-(

He's a fairly frequent visitor. This shot was taken a few weeks ago, as he sat in the cherry tree right outside the window.









This morning, as I sat with my coffee, I didn't see too much bird activity at the feeders. There was one pair of cardinals sitting in the cherry tree. I figured they'd come down to the feeders eventually, so I started reading the Saturday paper and drinking my coffee, with a glance out the window every few pages to see what was happening.

After awhile I realized that the cardinals weren't moving...at all.

And, they were kind of...flattened against the braches.

You have to look hard to see her, but there's a female cardinal in the top left corner of this picture. The male (who is brighter red) was on the south side of the tree.













I looked up into the big tree further south in the yard, and sure enough, there was a hawk.

He was looking in the other direction (with his back to the north, where the cherry tree with the cardinals was.)







 

So there we had the cardinals, not moving a feather, scrunched as close in to the branches on the tree as they could, terrified, trying to make themselves invisible.  Which is kind of difficult when you're bright red and everything else outside at this time of year is greyish or white.

I realize this probably happens all the time. And yes, the hawk has to eat too. But these are "my" cardinals!

So I threw a coat on over my pajamas, boots over my bare feet, grabbed some gloves, and tromped out to the back yard. I headed toward the big tree, looking at the hawk. He looked at me, saw how close I was getting (even though he's up pretty high) and took off. I clapped my hands to give him a further bad experience at my "restaurant," hoping he wouldn't be a return client.

When I turned around, the cardinals still weren't moving a feather, but they were certainly watching me! I didn't go too close, figuring they were probably stressed enough already.

But what I saw next surprised me so much I almost exclaimed something out loud.

Hiding on the north side of the tree, below the branches with the cardinals, were a pair of woodpeckers!

Do you see them? 

If you scroll back up and look at the picture of the cardinal...they're there, but they blend in so well I hadn't seen them until I went outside.










I didn't take the camera outside with me, which is a real shame, since I was only about a metre away from them. Once I was back inside the house I took these pictures out the window.

Just like the cardinals, they weren't moving a feather. And they were glued to the tree. Just their eyes were moving as they watched me closely.


















After a while, the male woodpecker (the one with the red bit on his head) figured out that the hawk was gone and flew off. A little later, so did his lady companion.

But the cardinals still didn't move! Eventually I had to leave to run some errands, so I don't know how much longer they stayed there. I guess when you're that colourful, you have to take extra precautions!

It was certainly a more exciting morning of birdwatching than I had expected!