Medinilla magnifica is the "it" plant of the show.

After spending just about every day last week at Canada Blooms, helping Charlie Dobbin with the plant material, attending two media events and chatting with the garden designers, you’d think I’d be all Bloomed out! Instead, I’m so impressed with this show that I just have to share my absolute favourite gardens, plants and people. So, if you’re visiting Canada Blooms this week, don’t leave the show without seeing…

1. Medinilla magnifica is the “it” plant of the show. Big, blousy pink blooms cascade from deep, dark green tropical foliage. A longtime favourite houseplant of the flower-loving Dutch, Medinilla (think “med-” and “(va)nilla”) is being introduced to Canadians at Canada Blooms. To see it (and an amazing miniature grapevine that produces clusters of grapes — honest!), visit the Ontario Growers booth G17 — or just look up to find pots and pots of them cascading from the pergola that surrounds the booth. Medinilla magnifica is available in three sizes, from $19.99

Perfect Corner of Toronto depicts the rebirth of Roncesvalles Avenue

2. Sweetpea‘s three — count ‘em — three displays. The super-talented Sara Jameson won two awards for her “Perfect Corner of Toronto” garden (Garden 6B), a streetscape of Roncesvalles Avenue that cleverly incorporates street signs, TTC streetcar stops and traffic pylons surrounded by a richly textured carpet of handsome foliage plants. Around the corner, you’ll find her display of found objects, including cake stands showcasing muffin tins and cake pans rescued from Granowska’s bakery when they closed their doors last year. And in the professinal florists exhibit area, Sara has created a glasshouse terrarium banked with moss and old, discarded books and filled with everyday, backyard flowers that any good gardener would recognize.

Terrariums showcase muffin tins at Sweetpeas' display booth.

3. Chock full of plants, books and a new series of weather-resistent terra cotta pots marked with its logo, the Toronto Botanical Garden (booth G8B) offers sooo many temptations you’ll be hard-pressed to choose the ones you want to take home. Whatever you do though, be sure to pick up a copy of <em>Gardens by Design</em>, a special issue of the TBG’s member magazine that celebrates 25 years of gardening with design ideas from the city’s top garden influencers. At $3, it’s a steal (and light enough to tuck away in your Canada Blooms tote bag)!

There's lots to buy at the Toronto Botanical Garden's booth, including signed copies of the season's latest gardening books.

Jonas Spring, in collaboration with Victoria Taylor, transform a concrete jungle into a horticultural art installation.

4. I love surprises. And one of the most delightful of them was discovering the horticultural installation called “Concrete Blooms Burst” created by Victoria Taylor and Jonas Spring. Concrete rubble never looked so good. Colourful flowers, bulbs and grasses spring from the nooks and crannies of this display, which stretches the width of the floor (G27A&B) demonstrating the sheer tenacity of the creative spirit. And look closely at the light fixtures: they’re made of reclaimed galvinized metal sprayed with shotgun pellets that let the light shine through. When you see it, betcha can’t stop smiling!

5. Three colourful suspended umbrellas will lead you to yet another garden that shows the ingenuity of its designer. B sq. Design’s “Plug and Play” features wooden pallets that form walkways, walls and vertical growing spaces planted with lettuces and other leafy green vegetables. I love the two-storey shed, complete with penthouse patio. What a great idea for space-starved city gardens!

Alhtough these were five of my favourite things at Canada Blooms, there’s much more to see, including the Garden Club of Toronto’s stunning floral exhibits, the colourful Taipei garden, the sinuous Reford Gardens exhibit, the Master Gardeners advice clinics and of course a terrific lineup of speakers. (Oh, did I mention I’ll be talking about the gardens of Thailand on Wednesday afternoon? Stop by and say, hi!)

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.

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

Non-gardeners just shake their heads when I tell them one of the highlights of a recent pre-Christmas trip to New York (apart from the no-hassle flight on Porter Air…)  was a brisk walk along the elevated park that runs from Gansevoort in the Meat Packing District to just beyond Chelsea Market. I admit, the grass-lined walkway wasn’t bustling, and the wind whipped the bitter cold air into an icy, body-numbing cold, but it made the subsequent lunch at a cosy little Soho bistro all the more warming. And, winter isn’t such a bad time to look at a garden. The ornamental grasses obligingly bent to the wind and you could clearly see the way designer Piet Oudolf wove the plants into the patterns made by the old rail lines.

One of the many picture-perfect views in the Redwine garden

8. Private Gardens
The story tours of private gardens are a real treat of any Garden Writers Symposium, and the 2009 symposium in Raleigh was no exception. These tours offer a chance to see the best gardens of the region, to talk with the garden-makers and to discover new plants, plant combinations, and design ideas. Here’s a photo gallery of some of my favourite private gardens. 

 The Redwine Garden: Texture, Plant Combos and Picture-Perfect Views

Side entrance to Redwine garden in Raleigh.

A handsome euphorbia grows in front of a soaring mirrored screen in the Redwine back garden.

Corkscrew vine (Vigna caracalla) grows up the side of the house in the Redwine garden.

The Yoest Garden: A Wildlife Haven

Upper terrace of the Yoest garden

The berm that skirts the verandah is packed with colourful flowers to attract birds, bees and butterflies.

The Yoest garden features many whimsical details.

An inviting bench in the Yoest garden.

Lush flowerborders flank the upper level lawn in the Yoest garden.

The Stevens Garden: A Lakeside Garden with Classical Influences

The pergola overlooks the lake at the Stevens garden.

Swans visit the dock at the Stevens garden.

The view from the upper terrace of the Stevens garden.

Simple elegance -- a gardenia floats in a birdbath in the Stevens garden.

Allan Gardens

Lights glowed from the Victorian Palm House and greenhouses at Allan Gardens while dignitaries and gardeners alike gathered on October 5, 2009 to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Canada’s oldest horticultural society – the Horticultural Societies of Parkdale and Toronto.From the evening’s speeches, it was evident that gardening traditions run long and deep. Both Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable David C. Onley and His Worship, Mayor David Miller harkened back to the days of their youth, sharing memories of times spent in their grandfathers’ gardens. Lt. Gov. Onley went on to speak of the significant contributions of horticultural therapy to the ill, disabled and at-risk youth while Mayor Miller pointed out the importance of community gardens to a city of “newcomers from everywhere”.

No slackers in this area, “the Hort”, as members fondly refer to it, has a long history of contributing to the community. Funds from the gala reception’s Silent Auction will be added to monies the Hort has already raised to support more than 15 community-based gardens as well as the heritage gardens at Colborne Lodge Museum in High Park.

In a call to gardeners to make gardens not war (my words, not hers), author and garden personality Marjorie Harris spoke to the crowd gathered in the greenhouse, pointing out that gardeners and horticultural societies are in a good position to form a powerful lobby group to help save our green spaces. “Gardeners are smart and see the big picture,” she said, “and are not disconnected from the environment.” In fact, our “biophilia”, she says, gives us the right perspective to leave this planet in better shape.

Will we raise our trowels to make our world a better place? Let’s hope enough of us do so that future generations will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Horticultural Societies of Parkdale and Toronto.

OHA past president Ken Fink presents a one of a kind certificate to Hort president Mrs. Dorothea Cook

Mayor David Miller

Silent Auction at the gala celebration

From left, Denis Flanagan, Tara Nolan and Lorraine Flanigan. Photo by gardentoronto.com

Allan Gardens bedecked with chrysanthemumsMums at Allan Gardens

Mums at Allan Gardens

The front garden at Montrose

4. Montrose
Some of you old-timers might remember the Montrose Nursery mail order catalogue, which folded in 1993, while others of you may know about owner Nancy Goodwin from her many books, but both the Gardens of Montrose and their tender were a complete and pleasant surprise to me. On the grounds of this 19th century historical property are beds filled with colchicums (in full bloom when we visited at the end of September), hellebores (a reason to return in springtime) and brash tropicals, colourful annuals and unusual perennials and trees. With vistas galore, this garden was a treat to photograph, but our time here was all too short.

Entrance to the back garden at MontrosePhotogenic vistas abounded at MontroseA flowerbed hugs one of the outbuildings at Montrose

Photogenic vistas abounded at Montrose

The view from a side entrance to the back garden at Montrose

A flowerbed hugs one of the outbuildings at Montrose

A wagon load of plants spotted leaving Plant Delights Nursery

As a garden writer, I’m lucky enough to be able to attend annual conferences where 600 or so plant-and-garden crazy writers gather in various parts of North America to discover the newest plants and the finest gardens. As if that’s not enough, we listen to seminars – both thought provoking and educational – given by experts in their fields.The 2009 Garden Writers Association Symposium was recently held in Raleigh, North Carolina. Over the next 12 days, I’ll show you what horticultural delights I discovered in Raleigh, starting with:

 1. Plant Delights Nursery

The agave courtyard -- eat your heart out Paul Zammit!

The minute I heard this nursery was on the Raleigh tour, I signed up. Run by the irreverent Tony Avent (his catalogues are noted for their humorously controversial covers – Gardening Jihad, Nationalized Plant Care and Desperate Gardeners, to name a few), Plant Delights is such a Mecca for plant aficionados, there’s a guide, complete with visitor classifications, to help you plan your time. Simply decide in which category you belong – from “gardener who likes pretty flowers” (allow 30 to 60 minutes) to “plant nerds with no social life” (3 to 10 hours, not including shopping) and start walking through the extensive five-plus acres of display gardens and plant-packed greenhouses. The nursery holds only four Open Houses each year (click here for schedule), so don’t even think about planning at trip to this part of the USA at any other time. Tony Avent also publishes the PDN newsletter that’s a great read for plant-a-holics.

Brunnera 'King's Ransom' looks just as ratty here as it does in my garden!

Fellow garden writer Sara Katz is bowled over by the lush greenery.