Showing posts with label Poppy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poppy. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

My Favourite Moment at Canada Blooms



The big garden show in Toronto called Canada Blooms is like a spring life raft 
at the end of our long Canadian winter. 

Here is my favourite moment of discovery from the show.






Table top display by Quince Flowers
660 Queen Street East,
Riverside in East Toronto
(416) 594-1414

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

What do you like about Gardening?


In a recent post, Laurrie, whose funny and creative blog, My Weeds Are Very Sorry  asked one of her gardening friends, "What do you like best about your garden?" Her friends answer: "The surprises."

In ending her post, Laurrie posed the same question to her readers.



Baptisia and Blue Star in the background

For someone who spends a good deal of time working in, writing about and photographing her garden, I was almost embarrassed to admit I did not have a ready answer for my comment.

I found myself thinking: Just what was it about gardening I liked anyway?

I think I must be one of those cup-half-empty people, because one of my first thoughts was: Well, I could certainly come up with a list of things I don't like about gardening.

The first of the peonies have opened.

Weiglea by the front porch


My first Foxglove ever! I've only been trying to grow them for years.

Blood-sucking bugs should certainly be near the top of my list of negatives. I visit a fair number of gardens and so I feel confident in saying that my garden harbors hordes of mosquitoes like no other.

I don't know if it is our low lying proximity to the river, but the bugs sit waiting to ambush you the moment you step in the garden, like some greasy band of outlaws in a wild western. And add to my list of complaints that winning sound mosquiotes make. It all the charm of a dentist's drill.

There are also black flies in my garden,who like to torture me by pinging into my ears and eyes before the bite my temple of the back of my neck.

Last June, after I had amassed fifteen bites in a matter of a single afternoon, my husband bought me a mesh insect head net.

(Not unlike a ski mask, the mesh bag slips over your head to prevent insects from biting.) Though I was grateful for his thoughtfulness, I felt completely ridiculous when I slipped the net bag over my head.

"Oh this is attractive don't you think?" I asked him. "I look like I should be robbing a convenience store, not gardening!"

"I can just imagine" I continued, "our neighbors calling the police to report a suspicious character lurking in our backyard."


Surely all the work should figure on my list of negatives. The planting, dividing, weeding, watering....

Wait a minute! Come to think of it, I actually like all that work. I like getting out in the fresh air and mucking about in the garden. There an intimacy with nature when you are out there in the thick of things.

Heck, I even like duking it out with mother nature for the control of my garden, even if I know it is a battle I am never going to win.

Iris with Dame's Rocket in the background.

Lilac


This pretty bush overhangs our front driveway. It is actually belongs to our neighbour.

A Japanese Iris from the back garden (below).








Beauty Bush


When I head out to work in the garden, I always start off with a slow walk around the flowers beds. This is my favorite time in the garden. I look and listen to the bees and the birds. I note my successes, lament my failures and make mental notes on things that need to be done. Despite myself, I yank out the odd weed.

I agree with Laurrie's friend. The garden surprises and it delights on these walks.


Just last weekend, I was taking a strolling around my Circle Garden. One of the first things I planted in this garden was a purple rhododendron. It failed to prosper and got down right straggly looking. I banished it to the back of the yard, where it has been limping along despite my almost cruel neglect. It hasn't bloomed in years.

And as I rounded the bed, there it was all frilly and purple. Blooming despite me. Now wasn't that just the nicest surprise.

I am linking this post to Lisa Gordon's Creative Exchange. To see Lisa's beautiful photography and that of other photographers from all around the world, just click the link.


I am also linking this post to Garden Blogger's Bloom Day hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. This is a great chance to see some wonderful gardens worldwide. Many thanks to Carol for hosting this great event each month.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Color Essay #8: Pretty in Pink


Pink can be dramatic...


and it can be subtle.

Dahlia in the field at Butt's Berry and Flower Farm, Rockwood Ontario.

It ranges in intensity from almost red to...

Buckets of lilies at the Kingston Farmer's Market.

soft pastel shades.

Farmer's Market flowers gathered into a white pitcher

Pink can stand all on its own.... 

The Garnet Garden, Oakville, Ontario. (see the garden here)

and it plays well with others.

Have you ever noticed someone at a garden center or nursery, standing in line with an odd or unusual purchase?

I remember seeing this well dressed couple, with a cart filled with rhododendrons and azaleas in full bloom, waiting to complete their purchase at the sales counter. I swear that they must have strolled down the nursery isle and randomly selected bushes that just happened to catch their eye, rather like they might have done if they were shopping for shoes or clothing. I am sure that their purchase decision was fueled primarily by the visual appeal of the bushes in full flower. Rhododendrons and azalea are spectacularly beautiful, after all! 

The azaleas, in particular, would be a challange to grow sucessfully here in Ontario. Our winters are harsh and our summers are hot and dry. Though I have not had great success with rhododendrons myself and am therefore no expert, I at least know from my failings, that rhododendrons need soil amendments to prosper. The fact that there was nothing in the cart, but the bushes themselves, lead me to think that the happy couple were complete novices about to make a potentially expensive mistake.

Not only novices fall prey to the allure of a flower in bloom. I have come home from the nursery, on more then one occasion, with an impulse purchase having been enticed by the arresting face of some winsome blossom who called out to me, "Buy me, I am so pretty!" 


I have been burned by these beauties so many times however, that I am a bit more cautious these days. I consult plant tags and consider growing conditions. If for instance, the plant needs lots of moisture, I give it a pass, no matter how attractive it is. 

I am also am more than little wary of unknown plants that could turn into nasty, hard-to-eradicate, garden invader. When in doubt, I consult one of the nursery personnel or pass altogether, until I have checked out a plant's references.

In today's post I have gathered pretty pink flowers from my own garden and elsewhere as noted, beautiful temptresses all.

The first pink flowers in my garden are bleeding hearts. (Dicentra spectabilis)

Another early summer beauty. Columbine (Clementine "Rose" Aquilegia)

Hollyhocks in the Lucy Maud Montgomery Garden in Norval, Ontario (see the garden here)

Bee Balm (Monarda 'Marshall's Delight') One of my favorite Bee Balms in my 
garden is this pretty pink variety.

Perennial Sweet Pea or Everlasting Sweet Pea (L. latifolius)

Everyone knows annual sweet peas. Well, this is the perennial version. I used to have it in my first ever garden and definitely want to add it to my current garden. 
Now, to be honest, perennial sweet pea can get a bit messy looking, and so it is a good idea to watch it carefully in spring and make sure that it is neatly restrained by its supporting trellis. Like the annual flower, it likes full sun. Unlike its annual cousin, it does not have a scent. I have read that it can self seed prolifically, but I have never had a problem with it. 

Lavatera in a Georgetown, Ontario garden (see the garden here)

My Mum used to grow this old fashioned annual. Last summer, I saw it growing in a private garden in the nearby Georgetown, and I was reminded just how pretty it is.  A cousin to Hibiscus and Hollyhocks, Lavatera has dark green foliage, and large blooms, that put on a great show all summer.

This is one of my prettiest daylilies.

(Papaver orientale)

I already have red oriental poppies, but I like these even better. I saw this soft pink variety at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton and think that they are stunning.

Oriental Lilies in my front garden.

A Rose of Sharon helps to keep pink going all summer long in this private garden in Kingston, Ontario.

Deep pink sedum flowers in my back garden.

In early fall, this Burning Bush initially became hot pink in color.

This is the third of my Stylish Blogger Award posts. This one goes out with my thanks to the blog Elly's Tuin. Elly gardens in the Netherlands, and though I am only just getting to know her, I think that she is someone who appreciates the soft beauty of the color pink.