I'm alive!
Readers will forgive me for not blogging in a while as it's been another incredibly busy spring as a (paid) Toronto gardener. The upside, besides much needed income, is that I can take pictures from my clients' gardens showing what's in bloom in this month.
As a bonus, I've included some pictures of foliage and blooms from my garden as well. Alas, none of veggies...
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| Star Magnolia ( Magnolia stellata ) |
One of my prized trees is this "Ukigumo" Japanese maple that has these speckled green (or speckled white?) leaves in spring. The cultivar name translates into "Floating Cloud" in Japanese and if you use your imagination a little, you can see why. The leaves were much paler when they first emerged.
"Ukigumo"'s fall colour I find a little underwhelming, a light yellow, but maybe my tree needs more sunlight to produce a better yellow. It's located in part shade so it doesn't get fried during intense summer heat and seems happy.
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| "Ukigumo" Japanese Maple ( Acer palmatum "Ukigumo" ) spring foliage |
Right now, if you were to visit me and share a drink on the back deck, you'd notice the sweet scent from my Fragrant Snowball bush. There are about a dozen of such blooms below emitting their spring perfume. The fall colour for this viburnum is good too but you really grow it for these two weeks when the blooms are out. Mercifully, the viburnum leaf beetles tend to leave V. x carlcephalum alone while they (beetles) are destroying my V. dentatum and sargentii.
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| Viburnum x carlcephalum (Fragrant Snowball) |
The Star Magnolias have bloomed already by the time you're reading this so I was lucky to capture these pictures from a client's yard. Another "two week shrub" but the blooms are reliable and wonderful after a brutal winter.
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| Magnolia stellata (Star Magnolia) |
From another client's yard, I captured some pictures of Striped Squill and Glory of the Snow in early May. The Puschkinia is well-behaved unlike the Siberian squill that is very invasive. I've been digging out Scilla siberica from many beds this spring.
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| Puschkinia scilloides var. libanotica (Striped Squill) |
Just some red tulips. I like the curved petals, that's about it.
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| Red tulips |
Another fleeting moment captured: Serviceberry flowers last about a week before all the petals drop. Not too ornamental but without the flowers, you don't get the berries, which lead to unhappy robins, squirrels, raccoons,
The berries are quite edible. I describe them as semi-sweet blueberries in size, taste and texture. Personally, I prefer chocolate-covered raisins but you can harvest the fruit in late summer if you put netting up. Which would lead to unhappy robins,....
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| Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) flowers |
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| Kerria japonica spring flowers |
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| Epimedium and Japanese Anemone spring foliage |
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| Star Magnolia |
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| Amelanchier arborea (Serviceberry) flowers |
In the same garden with the Striped Squill, these "Katherine" (syn. "Katharine") Hodgkin dwarf irises were happily blooming. I planted these last fall for m client and they seem to have come through the winter fine. Very cute!
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| Dwarf Iris "Katherine Hodgkin" |
A closeup of the maple's mottled leaves. "Ukigumo" makes a great specimen. Well, that can be said for almost all Japanese maples but it has a big "wow" factor.
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| Acer palmatum "Ukigumo" Japanese Maple spring foliage |
I actually germinated this redbud from seed years ago and this is the first year it's decided to bloom. While it wasn't exactly covered with these magenta-coloured flowers, it's a promising start.
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| Cercis canadensis (Eastern redbud) flowers |
Commonly found Chionodoxa: an early and reliable spring bloomer.
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| Chionodoxa (Glory of the Snow) |
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| Kerria japonica flowers |
The Kerria is pumping out these bright yellow flowers by the dozens in the backyard. This shrub is next to the Fragrant Snowball so I'm not too happy seeing white and yellow flowers together not (one of my favourite colour combinations) but the Kerria is so low maintenance--besides pruning out a few dead stalks--that I really shouldn't complain.
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| Acer shirasawanum "Aureum" (Fullmoon Maple) spring foliage |
I really need to make room for this maple in my yard! Yes, I'm showing some serious hort envy here.
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| Iris sibirica (Siberian Iris) |
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| Iris sibirica (Siberian Irises) and alliums |
Siberian and bearded irises are blooming now across town. Here's a classic combination with great contrast in texture above.
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| Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa macra "Aureola") with allium |
Speaking of texture, I can't express enough of my love for Hakonechloa in combination with ornamental alliums. "I LOVE THIS GRASS!" Yes, I'm shouting!
The following are some highlights from my recent visit to James Gardens in Toronto's west end:
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| Iris pseudacorus (Yellow Flag Iris) |
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| Paeonia suffruticosa "Coral Sunset" ("Coral sunset" herbaceous peony) |
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| "Coral Sunset" peony (Paeonia suffruticosa "Coral Sunset") |
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| Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum 'Mariesii' ( "Mariesii" doublefile viburnum) |
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| False Indigo (Baptisia australis) |
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| Clematis "Nelly Moser" at James Gardens |
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| James Gardens, Etobicoke spring flowers |
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| Pasque flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) seed heads |
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| "Nelly Moser" Clematis at James Gardens |
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| Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum 'Mariesii' doublefile viburnum at James Gardens |
I hope you're enjoying your spring. It's silly season for me now but no matter how hectic and tired I am at the end of a long day, it beats working in a cubicle.
Not even close....
