There’s a buzz in the air about local hero Clement Kent, a York University postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology in York’s Faculty of Science & Engineering and president of the Horticultural Societies of Parkdale and Toronto.  Kent founded the Pollinator Garden Project two years ago to teach gardeners, members of the public and school children how to create and conserve habitat for pollinators. The success of this project has garnered him the Pollinator Advocate Award of Canada from the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC).  Kent will accept his award at an international conference at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington in late October. Whoo-hoo!

The Stooks and Punes installation at the TBG is the first Canadian project by renowned landscape designer W. Gary Smith who celebrates plants and their connections between people and nature. Now a resident of Toronto, Smith has worked extensively in the USA and is currently master planning a garden design for the new Santa Fe Botanical Garden; the Children’s Garden at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas; new children’s features in Bryant Park in New York City; the Discovery Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden; a therapeutic garden for the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Alabama; and the John C. Wister Rhododendron Garden at Tyler Arboretum in Media, Pennsylvania. He is the ongoing restoration landscape architect for Winterthur Museum and Country Estate in Delaware.

For the sake of child’s play, we can only hope this is the first of many of Smith’s projects in Toronto.

Woman To Woman is a fundraising event for Toronto Botanical Garden, in support of its valuable programming, among which environmental education for over 6000 children a year, many of whom from high-priority neighbourhoods; the highly regarded Edwards Lecture series, bringing world-renowned gardeners and environmentalists to our own backyard; and special projects, such as the upcoming natural playground, the Children’s Garden.

The spirit house at Jim Thompson House and Museum in Bangkok

Those of you who have been following my Facebook posts know that I was lucky enough to be invited by the Tourism Authority of Thailand to visit some of that amazing country’s gardens and attractions. Fresh from that trip, I’m all agog with ideas for adding a touch of Thai to my own garden.

Once I got over seeing beds planted with amaryllis, bromeliads and cycads (okay, the truth is, I never did get over seeing these “houseplants” grounded in the earth…) I noticed that every garden seemed to have a little house on stilts or pillars nestled into a nook or corner. Often built of sturdy teakwood, each house was laden with fresh, colourful floral “offerings” made of marigolds, orchids and roses. Many of these houses held pots for smoldering sticks of incense while others were even fitted with little electrical lights. Our guide Tippie told the story of a recent lottery winner who extravagantly outfitted his garden house with air conditioning!

What was this distinctive Thai landscaping custom all about? Too small (and impractically high) to be tool sheds and too large for bird feeders, it was clear these little houses were important garden structures. They often stood at the end of well-trodden pathways where they commanded a certain amount of attention.

These, explained several guides on the trip, were spirit houses. A remnant of a form of spirit worship that predates Buddhism and that endures to permeate everyday life in modern, religiously tolerant Thailand, spirit houses are meant to placate the gods of the land, and if you care about your property, you’ll take great pains to site your spirit house where it can offer the best protection.

Rituals, often elaborate and involving the help of a Brahmin priest or a monk as well as consultations with the landowners’ horoscopes, guide the placement, colour and design of the spirit house. There are some basic rules: never place one under the eaves of the house and never point it towards a toilet (or “happy room” as our guide Tippie calls it!). Once erected, daily offerings ensue, to charm, entertain and otherwise placate the gods of the land in the belief that contented spirits will bring prosperity, health and happiness to the land and its owners.

Although I might forego the ritual (it’s difficult to find a saffron-robed monk in Toronto), the idea of constructing a spirit house in my garden is appealing. I would gladly bedeck it with offerings in the hope that my lovely double bloodroot will bloom for another season; that the mature tree peony I brutishly moved last spring regains its former vigour; and that the Zone 7 erodium adapts to my Zone 6 garden.

And anyway, a spirit house would be a handy place to tuck away a trowel…

Fresh offerings are bestowed on spirit houses daily and might include anything from traditional strands of marigolds to tiny tuk-tuks to amuse the gods.

Spirit houses can be mounted on pedestals, like this one, or perched on stilts.

A spirit house in a garden just outside Chiang Mai.

I was glad to learn that some of my favourite gardens won top awards. Here’s the rundown, straight from the Canada Blooms Show Officials: 

 Sheridan Nurseries Award for Outstanding Garden, Small Size:  BEN HEPPNER GARDEN Premier Landscaping & Design Ltd

S.G. Ulbright Award for Outstanding Garden,  Medium Size: ‘A Taste of Zen’ Humber College 

Humber College, "A Taste of Zen"

 Gordon A. MacEachern Award for Outstanding Garden, Large Size: ‘Earth Tones’ Parklane Nurseries Ltd.

Parklane's award-winning garden, "Earthtones"

Outstanding Interpretation of the Show Theme  “Rhythms” Presented by Mark Cullen: ‘Nurture Urban Nature’ Toronto Botanical Gardens & the ROM

Nurture Urban Nature by Royal Ontario Museum and Toronto Botanical Garden

I first met Donna at the Garden Writers Symposium in Portland Oregon — she was chattering on about soil and microbes while we sat on the bus, heading to our next garden-gazing excursion. Soil is a subject very dear to my green thumb, so this was the start of a beautiful friendship. I first met Steven at a Professional Writers Association meeting where he was chairing a panel discussion about garden writing. Well, little did I know that these two horticultural gurus would get together a few years later to collaborate on a book called No Guff Vegetable Gardening. And voila, here it is. It’s full of facts and fun, all delivered in a breezy, over-the-garden-fence kinda way. If you’re planning to attend Canada Blooms, be sure to hear them speak on Thursday, March 17 at 11 a.m. in Garden Solutions Room 105. If you can’t make it, check out the how-to videos on the Garden Coaches Chat website and get a no guff start on your veggie garden this year!  

Native bloodroot growing in my garden.

Belinda Gallagher tells it like it is. And backed by an impressive career as a nursery-owner and most recently, as Head of Horticulture at the Royal Botanical Gardens, her words reflect her experience and pragmatism. Although I missed her lecture on January 27, 2011 at the Toronto Botanical Garden, my good friend (and note-taker extraordinaire) Lorraine Hunter was there. Here are the points that she took away from the lecture: 

Native plants are not always the answer for gardening problems ranging from drought conditions to flooding Belinda Gallagher told a full house at the Toronto Botanical Garden Edwards lecture on January 27.

“I’m a huge fan of native plants but they are not the be all and end all for every situation, she said.

First of all, there is no definitive definition of a native plant. While generally considered to be plants here at the time of the European settlers, that’s not always true.

Then there is the issue of natives versus the ‘nativars’, which are cultivars of native plants bred for specific things which may carry little or no pollen. “We don’t know if they perform the same services as the parent.”

She cited purple coneflower (Echinacea) which has some naturally occurring cultivars and some selective. “Orange purple coneflower sounds like an oxymoron to me.”

Plant identification, Gallagher said, is a big problem. While breeders and some growers know where their plants originated, big box stores generally do not.

“Is a plant produced in Ecuador or Holland really a North American native?

Ecological diversity is important, she said, “Lots of different things in the garden will protect our insects and birds.

She also noted that some species plants, such as Solomon’s Seal have cultivars bred in North America and Asia that look very similar and that both native and imported varieties of cimicifuga  are often grouped together in nurseries.

“It doesn’t matter in an isolated backyard if your native plant is from Ontario but if you back onto a native ravine, it does,” because imported versions could be extremely invasive.

The demand for native plants, driven by media and marketers, is huge, says Gallagher., “and far exceeds the capability of local growers. There is not enough supply for the market.”

Plants come onto the market too soon, she said. “I have an unease about the short supply. Not everyone knows where to plant or how to care for them. We’re putting natives on boulevards and they’re getting salt dumped on them. These plants came from oak savannahs not the 407.”

When not to plant natives, she said, is “when it’s not the right plant for the right place.”

Thanks Lorraine for a great overview of the lecture.

Now, what do you City Gardening readers think about using native plants? Do you agree with Belinda, or not?

Leave a comment and let the discussion begin!

There are many more of these wonderful fall bloomers, including ‘September Charm’, which comes a close second to ‘H. J.’  Which one would you choose to grow in your “desert island” garden?