Toronto Music Garden: Brown Friday

Can dormant ornamental grasses be...ummm...ornamental?

The American shopping phenomenon called "Black Friday" has been rearing its lovely commercial head in Toronto with greater frequency and intensity recently. For those few not in the know, the last Friday in November in the Great White North is just that: the last Friday in November. But for more than a few of our American brothers and sisters, Black Friday means donning on the protective gear and joining the masses at the Wal-Marts (brawl anyone?) to get, apparently, ridiculous deals on made in China widgets.

Hey, I love a deal as much as the next guy but lining up in the cold at 5:00 a.m. for widgets doesn't do it for me. So the celebrate Black Friday, garden muses-style, I visited a place far, far away from the madding crowds: the Toronto Music Garden.

To my half-dozen readers, I present Brown Friday!

Toronto Music Garden winter
ornamental grasses Courante section

Ok, so you see dead plants (I prefer dormant but I won't split hairs). But if you're a zone 5 or lower gardener in many places of North America, you should consider such plants with "winter interest." Now I write these two words in quotes because, for some, asking them to appreciate dried berries, peeling bark or dead stalks and flowers for a solid 4 months (!) of the year is really asking too much. Many gardeners just dismiss this idea,  raze their garden beds to stubble, close the curtains and finger their seed catalogues longingly in January and February.

Last time I checked, brown is a colour and on this cold Friday, you can see many shades of brown in these pictures I took at the Toronto Music Garden today. 

I do think the grasses and sleeping perennials are ornamental indeed for maybe 10 months out the year, except when they're cut back hard in spring. 10 out of 12 isn't a bad ratio, when you think about it.

Toronto Music Garden perennials showing
their winter structure in the  Courante section 

Toronto Music Garden in early winter
with the CN Tower poking out of a grove of conifers! 

Toronto Music Garden winter
Miscanthus/maiden grass 

Toronto Music Garden winter
Miscanthus/maiden grass seedheads

Toronto Music Garden winter ornamental
 grasses and rudbeckia along Courante section 

Toronto Music Garden Courante section
 showing winter ornamental grasses and
 other perennials 

Some visiting Toronto Blue Jays

And I didn't even have peanuts....

Not much to show you in my garden right now as we in zone 5/6 Toronto are heading into a long and dreary winter. As a reminder, we got a taste of snow yesterday with some intense but short-lived flurries.

I was out of the house but my wife and kids had these two visitors: Blue Jays or Cyanocitta cristata. I'm not a birder so I can't tell you a whole lot about this noisy pair that chilled out on the Wayfaring tree (Viburnum lantana) in the back, other than their human namesakes comprise our city's perennially (well, since 1993) sub-par baseball team.

They make a pretty pair, don't they?

Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 

Cyanocitta cristata /Blue Jay 

Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) in early winter

Cyanocitta cristata early winter Blue Jay 

Two Blue Jays resting on a Wayfaring Tree
(Viburnum lantana "Mohican")

By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening blog"

The fleeting beauty of autumn Japanese maples

Some Acer palmatum cultivars I love (there are so many!)

Lovers of Japanese maples notice when the foliage just switches in autumn to almost electric colours: crimson, scarlet, gold, and tangerine, among others. The fall foliage doesn't last too long before strong November winds here in zone 5/6 Toronto strip them off branches.

Acer palmatum  "Bloodgood" is the most commonly found cultivar in many gardens, almost to the point of being overused. When you see dozens of 3 or 5 gallon containers of these plants stranded at big box stores, half-dead by August, you kind of weep. (But some deals were amazing.)

I'm still busy with fall garden work so I took the following pictures to, at and from work. I'll try to add more but it's getting very late in the season!

Acer palmatum "Bloodgood" Japanese maple's autumn colour 

Acer palmatum "Bloodgood" Japanese maple
 autumn leaves against a brilliant blue sky 

Acer palmatum "Butterfly" Japanese maple's autumn colour. 

Notice the variegated margin which is much more pronounced 

in the spring when the new foliage emerges. 

I planted this specimen in my sister's garden (what a good brother I am!)

Acer palmatum Crimson Queen Japanese maple's autumn colour.
This maple is located at the perimeter of  my client's rain garden.

Acer palmatum "Seiryu" Japanese maple's autumn colour.
I have two Seiryus in my backyard and recommend that you have at least one!

Acer palmatum "Shishigashira" ("Lion's Head") Japanese maple's autumn colour. 

Acer palmatum "Shishigashira" ("Lion's Head")Japanese maple's autumn leaf colour.
The curly leaves are quite unusual!

By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening blog"

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Fall garden cleanup in Toronto's Annex neighbourhood

A fall garden cleanup and extensive weeding in the Annex area of Toronto

Work description: 

• cleaned out 2 backyard beds heavily covered with violets 
• edged with spade
• pruned heavily 3 shrubs (very overgrown forsythia, barberry and red twig dogwood)

Annex garden cleanup Annex east bed
 Paul Jung Toronto Gardening Services before