You may prefer the creamy edges of Brunnera ‘Hadspen Cream’ or the gold-rimmed ‘King’s Ransom’ or even the silvery leaves of ‘Looking Glass’, but my heart will always be true to ‘Jack Frost’. It’s not just the snowy foliage (it reminds me of Frosted Flakes cereal — maybe it’s a nostalgia thing…), or those gorgeous forget-me-not [...]
4.Plant before the rush
Hardy perennials can weather the pre-May 24 weather, so beat the rush to the nursery and select some of the season’s choicest plants as soon as they arrive. Once the ground has thawed and dried out, it’s a good time to plant shrubs and trees too, especially magnolias, birch, oak, yews, rhododendrons and [...]
3. Divide and conquer
Think back to last season. Did the flowers of your phlox seem a bit smaller than previous seasons? Did the middle of your clump of dianthus brown out? Were the stems of your yarrow so tightly packed that they seemed to be choking the life out of the plant? These are signs [...]
If you haven’t been keeping up with my Tweets, you might well ask: Who on earth is Matthew Wilson and why the heck should I care about his star plant picks for small gardens?
Well, firstly, he lives up to his nickname of Heathcliff of the Hedgerows (although the debate rages about whether he’s more Darcy-like. [...]
What better way to welcome athletes and visitors to the Winter Olympics than with drifts of this gorgeous Vancouver Medallion hellebore? Thanks to the advance planning of the Garden Club of Vancouver and Heritage Perennials, 750 of these specially named hellebores (the cultivar name is ‘Candy Love’ — appropriate for upcoming Valentine’s Day, too) have been planted in [...]
11. Bottle trees
Discovering new plants is a big part of why I attend conferences such as the 2009 Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina. It can also be frustrating, especially if the plants aren’t hardy enough for my USDA Zone 5 garden in Toronto. None-the-less, I’m always captivated by shrubs, trees and perennials that [...]
7. Scuppernongs
For a gal who grew up with a grape vine in her backyard you’d think I’d know a grape when I see one, but scuppernongs had me scuppered. The size of ping-pong balls, these juicy fruits were nestled into pint-sized boxes lined up on the open shelves of more than a few vendors at [...]
There were so many plants, both in the gardens we toured and in the exhibit halls where growers were showing off their latest and greatest, that it was difficult to narrow down the list of most lusted-after plants for this series of blog postings. But I just couldn’t take my eyes off…
5. Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’
Okay, [...]
Who would have thought that a lecture on plant pests and disease would be one of the highlights of the 2009 Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina? Here’s why Jim Chatfield’s talk ranked #3 of 12 great things I found at Raleigh.
3. Jim Chatfield
Got diseased or buggy plants? Who you gonna call? Ohio State [...]
At the 2009 Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh North Carolina, I fell in love with…
2. Euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’
Wandering deep within the display gardens at Plant Delights, I lost my heart to Euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’. I stopped myself from sighing and drooling over this gem of a plant only long enough to whip out my camera [...]
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