When early pioneers were rolling their way across the tall grass prairies of North America, sometimes, in mid summer, they would come across a towering plant with huge basal leaves that often were oriented on a north-south axis. They called it a Compass Plant. In later years scientists speculated the leaves point that way to […]
Month: July 2017
Spring into July
Is it too early to start thinking about what the garden will look like next year? Sorry (I am Canadian, after all), but I just can’t help it. It’s the hottest week of the year, the garden is lush with annuals and summer blooming perennials, the veggies are starting to be harvested, pole beans and […]
Daylily Dreamin’
Daylilies (Hemerocalis spp) started to bloom in early June in my back garden. Well, one lovely tall spidery lemon yellow variety of daylily anyway. The common orange ‘ditch daylily’ started to open July 1, as they do every year. Stella d’Oro about three weeks ago and the rest, large brash colourful varieties, just this past […]
Tale of Two Echinaceas
I have to confess I don’t have just one favourite plant – I have dozens. And the list changes every year depending on things as mundane as the weather (too dry to produce many flowers, or, so dry the whole plant just dies) or as esoteric as did I grow it from seed (or it […]
Star of the Show
As the growing season progresses I find that some plants, even amongst dozens that may be blooming, steal the show. Lilac and Lupin in spring. Sunflowers (seeds sown late to ensure autumn flowers) and Asters in the fall and, before the bright orange Rudbeckia starts, the tall and serene majesty of Hollyhocks. They’ve just starting […]
location, location, location…
Let me confess first that I should have known better. In fact, I DID know better, yet I did it anyway. I planted something in a spot I knew was just not suitable, a spot that was already getting a tad overcrowded, didn’t have quite the right requirements, a spot that meant something, sooner rather […]
New Additions
I really enjoy visiting nurseries – especially the small owner-operated ones that specialize in specific types of plants. You can often find things that don’t make it to the larger nurseries, let alone the supermarket parking lots. The people working there (ie those owner-operator types!) are a wealth of knowledge about what grows well in […]
County Gardening 