Musings by Paul Jung, the owner of a small Toronto gardening services company, who uses organic and ecological gardening techniques without relying on herbicides, pesticides and gas-powered machines.
Toronto spring blooms to get you through until April
What miserable weather we're having in Toronto right now! As a tonic, I'm posting pictures I took yesterday at the Allan Gardens Conservatory for you to enjoy. We'll see them outside likely in April or earlier if you visit Canada Blooms (our national flower show) next month.
Purple and pale yellow is a favourite colour combination. And, yes, the smell from the hyacinths knocks your socks off!
The pale blue grape hyacinths/ muscari is kind of different (maybe "Valerie Finnis"?)
Unusual markings on the right daffodil. Such a soft yellow!
A little jumbled but the pink cyclamen flower, its bluish-green leaves and the bright yellow daffodils scream out "Easter isn't that far off!"
Such a clean white and bright orange
Possibly a Calibrachoa (Update: Confirmed as Salpiglossis, thanks Barry!) The petal marking is crazy and psychedlic!
Just got the lighting right for this shot I think
Another Salpiglossis sinuata
I hope you gathered some ideas and inspiration to plant more bulbs next fall. I didn't see many tulips but maybe they'll be shipped and planted in later before Easter when the next Flower Show starts!
The other parts of the Conservatory showcase the permanent plantings which require higher temperatures and humidity. These tropicals would never survive outside in zone 5ish Toronto so seeing them strut their stuff safe and snug during a Toronto blizzard is wonderful.
The following were blooming during my visit:
A bloom of Bauhinia x blakeana or the Hong Kong Orchid Tree showing its very suggestive stamens and pistil
Now I know what the source of the emblem is on Hong Kong's the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China's flag
The huge blooms of this Variegated Angel's Trumpet (Brugmansia x candida)
Keeping it in the family (Solanaceae), here is a closeup of Brunfelsia pauciflora or Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow. The blooms emerge purple, turn lavender and then white before dropping off.
This Clivia miniata was blooming in fine form too
Blooms of a purple spiderwort/Purple Heart (Tradescantia pallida "Purpurea")
The philosophy is simply to treat the soil with care and respect. The practices involve having organic matter (e.g., composted plant and animal material like leaves and manure) worked back into the soil in order to add back the nutrients taken out to grow edible crops, annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees. Mulching is used to reduce watering, reduce soil compaction and reduce weeding. As we revitalize the soil, pesticide and fertilizer use can be avoided altogether. The aim is to grow plants in a healthy and balanced eco-system. It is assumed that, as a result, some pests and diseases will exist below an acceptable threshold to the gardener. This dynamic of plant and wildlife life and death is accepted as sustainable over the long term by the organic gardener.
What are the benefits of treating the soil with respect?
Safer conditions to play, learn and work in for you, your family, your neighbours and the greater environment
More cost-effective gardening will occur as less money is spent watering, fertilizing and maintaining
A greater variety of animals will co-exist with you and your gardens, many beneficial in controlling pests but some are simply beautiful to see and hear
Food crops are better tasting and ornamental plants experience less pest and disease damage
Your carbon footprint is reduced by composting, growing food crops, and using no synthetic pesticides
Knowing it’s the right thing to do for you and future generations
By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening
blog"
My Phalaenopsis (moth orchid) set new buds last week and is (re)blooming below:
Phalaenopsis orchid, cultivar unknown
I forgot how I brought this home. (Likely it was bought at a big box store for a ridiculously low price.) Local Toronto garden writer, Sonia Day, recently wrote about how these orchids, for various reasons, are now "as ubiquitous as doughnut shops" and given the number of coffee and donut stores in Toronto, that's a lot of moth orchids!
Over time, the many beautiful blooms on my "Phal" dropped and I was left with a whole bunch of basal leaves and a bare stalk.
What to do?
I hated the thought of chucking it out so I left the pot on a west-facing window in the kitchen. Maybe I'm turning out to be like my father who can't seem to discard things like plants. (I wrote about him in a previous post called "Do cacti need viagra?") Besides watering very sporadically, I gave it no attention: no fertilizing, no misting, nothing. (You don't do the same! Here are some good instructions to take care of your moth orchid.) And it just sat and looked at me.
Then recently it sent out these lovely blooms, in spite of my lack of Phal-love.
Maybe it's reminding me that Canada Blooms is around the corner...
Anyone else keeping Phalaenopsis, Cattleya, Dendrobium, et al? What have been your experiences?
By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening blog"
Looking at all these pictures of modern gardens with their clipped hedges, monochromatic colour schemes and use of Cor-ten steel, I wonder if people using them actually have fun walking or lying about. How is any of the five senses (besides sight) satisfied if there are no flowers, no birds, no fruits, no fountains, no herbs? It would not appear that a "conceptual" garden offers a lot beyond the concept or theoretical abstraction itself, merely a physical framework for a particular design theory. A whole lot of mind games:
Can the garden above be called a "pleasure garden?" (No, it's not a rhetorical question!)
After reading Trea Martyn's Elizabeth in the Garden (London, Faber and Faber, 2008), I discovered that the rich and powerful in mid 16th century Elizabethan England certainly used gardens as locations to put on games for pleasure, profit (political capital) and influence. Her (Martyn's) story
...is a story of two lost gardens and the powerful men who created them in their battle for ascendancy. Queen Elizabeth was their audience and muse. Inspired by her love of gardens, her favourite of the time Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and her chief minister, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, competed for her favour by laying out innovative and extravagant pleasure gardens at their palaces for when she came to visit--which was very often. page 3
Now, let me get this out of the way. I'm not a student of Elizabethan history and know only about the Virgin Queen, the victory over the Spanish Armada, and Sir Francis Drake on a very cursory level (High school history classes lost in the mists of time.) More interesting to me was the conflict between Dudley--the younger of the two, dashing, impetuous-- and Cecil--older and more cunning and how their rivalry for Elizabeth's affections and favours were manifested in the building of their fantastic gardens. I use this adjective because fantasies were created and brought to life in the pleasure grounds for Elizabeth's delight. Their gardens represented power, influence, and unabashed symbols of their love for the Queen:
The pleasure grounds of Kenilworth and Theobalds were made--at enormous cost-- to be lived in by Elizabeth....Her love of gardens made gardeners of courtiers, statesmen and soldiers. She encouraged Dudley and Cecil to lead the way. In their lifelong rivalry and devotion to their queen, they created the most sensational gardens ever seen in England. The lost world of the Elizabethan garden holds an enduring fascination pp. 297-8
The Elizabethan garden was many gardens in one, composed of mazes, wild hunting grounds, terraces, herb gardens, knot gardens, outdoor theatres and pools. It drew much inspiration from the Italian Renaissance gardens of the day at Villa d'Este, Villa Lante and Villa Medici.
The gardens at Kenilworth and Theobalds, long ago destroyed by Elizabeth's successors, were magical places where Elizabeth would enjoy feasts pageants, plays, fireworks, and mock-sea battles (among other activities) held in her honour. They were also places of intrigue, mystery and of assassination attempts!
Elizabeth was, apparently, also a lover of horticulture and at Theobalds, we are introduced to the famous "herbalist" John Gerard. He was also a physician, pharamacist, and horticulturist to royalty. I learned that certain highly-scented flowers were symbols of love and devotion like the rose and the "gillyflower" or carnation and planted expressly so that Elizabeth could appreciate their scents. Herbs like hyssop, lavender and rosemary were grown for culinary and, ahem, personal hygiene applications. The growing of lemon and orange trees was reserved for royalty and was unknown and out of reach to the public given their rarity.
Martyn weaves history and horticulture together with Elizabeth connecting everything and everyone together. In many ways, modern gardens commissioned by the wealthy are still outward expressions of power and status and that hasn't changed since the Egyptians. But along with the power, the Elizabethans knew how to have a good time!
Anyone else interested in reading about history and horticulture in the same book? Can you suggest some good titles?
Elizabeth in the Garden:
A book review of Trea Martyn's "Elizabeth in the Garden" by Paul Jung, owner of a Toronto organic and ecological gardening services company.
Garden muses-a Toronto gardening blog by Paul Jung
Martyn weaves history and horticulture together with Elizabeth connecting everything and everyone together. In many ways, modern gardens commissioned by the wealthy are still outward expressions of power and status and that hasn't changed since the Egyptians. But along with the power, the Elizabethans knew how to have a good time!
One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in your kitchen!
Browsing through a local Toronto paper today and stumbled upon this article photo of a combination herb planter and light fixture called the "Babylon Light".:
A Hanging Garden?
According to the spec sheet,
THE BABYLON LIGHT IS A PLANTABLE LIGHT FIXTURE. MADE OF ALUMINUM WITH A POWDER COATED FINISH, IT CAN BE USED AS AN ORGANIC CENTRE PIECE OR A WORKING HERB GARDEN OVER THE KITCHEN COUNTER. NO MATTER WHERE ITS SITUATED - BABYLON WILL BECOME YOUR VERY OWN HANGING GARDEN.
(Sorry for shouting, the text was all upper case in the PDF)
No price given as you have to inquire with the designer.
Any thoughts/comments on its utility, design, and function?
By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening blog"
Toronto gardeners can get an early glimpse of spring
To escape the February gardening blues, I suggest making a trip down to the Allan Gardens Conservatory soon. I took these pictures recently and will return to update since the greenhouse crew was just trucking in the daffodils, hyacinths and tulips as I was leaving. I figure you wouldn't mind seeing these "cyclamen-heavy" pictures because any colour is better than no colour at this time of the year. The azaleas and camellias in bloom were especially appreciated!
More "bulby" shots to follow...
A drift of cyclamen with Jerusalem cherry (Solanum pseudocapsicum) fruit and a rosemary topiary on the left
I feel ambivalent about the sedge(y) thing to the right. What do you think?
These next two pictures are blooming azaleas massed throughout the beds
These next four pictures are Camellia japonica flowers (alas, not hardy for us in Toronto and needs to be overwintered inside)
Pale blue muscari, brown sedge and that limey cypress (?) really appealed to me
This urn is full of different textures to make up for the muted spring pastel colours
