May blooms and foliage in various Toronto gardens

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...

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.

"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.

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.

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.

Puschkinia scilloides var. libanotica 
(Striped Squill) 

Just some red tulips. I like the curved petals, that's about it.

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,....

Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea)  flowers 

Kerria japonica spring flowers

Epimedium and Japanese Anemone
 spring foliage

Star Magnolia

 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!

 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.

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.

Cercis canadensis (Eastern redbud) flowers 

Commonly found Chionodoxa: an early and reliable spring bloomer.

Chionodoxa (Glory of the Snow) 

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.

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.

Iris sibirica
(Siberian Iris)

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.

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:

Iris pseudacorus
(Yellow Flag Iris)

 Paeonia suffruticosa "Coral Sunset"
("Coral sunset" herbaceous peony)

 "Coral Sunset" peony
(Paeonia suffruticosa "Coral Sunset")

Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum 'Mariesii'
( "Mariesii" doublefile viburnum)

 False Indigo
(Baptisia australis)

Clematis "Nelly Moser"
at  James Gardens 

James Gardens, Etobicoke
spring flowers

Pasque flower
(Pulsatilla vulgaris) seed heads

"Nelly Moser" Clematis
at James Gardens

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....

My beloved children

Father's Day in the garden: reflections

I always grumble and mumble that Father's Day is given short shrift compared to Mother's Day. Now, before you mothers (mine included) send me a gift of variegated goutweed, this thought disappears quickly when my kids give me their annual recognition of the work and effort I've expended in raising them to be good responsible Canadian citizens: the proverbial hand-crafted Father's Day card made in school.

I do love them! (Kids and cards.)

They are at such a wonderful age (10 and 13), expressing beauty and attitude...which, naturally, brings me to our garden.

Fellow southern Ontario garden blogger, Barry, always talks about his cherished plants as his "kids" and you can really tell how proud a papa he is, detailing their strengths and accomplishments, never their weaknesses and failures (all our kids are special, no?)

I suppose it would be bad parenting to favour one child over the other/s (although my mother never learned about this!) but human nature being what it is, it's tempting and sometimes inevitable. I don't consider the perennials, shrubs and trees in our backyard as "kids" but I do have a strong emotional bond with certain "members" of the family.

(I do understand why it's so very hard for some of my elderly clients to accept my recommendation that it's time to prune their prized Bridal Wreath spiraea. You know, the one that hasn't been touched in over 20 years and is threatening to hide the house?) 

Sure, we're anthropomorphisizing  (big word) these silly garden plants but as far as erratic human behaviours go, it's normally harmless.

I freely admit that I have some favourites in the garden. Some have been profiled before, like my beloved "Arnold Promise" witch hazel and my "Popcorn" doublefile viburnum. 

Let me introduce you to my other favourite garden child (now a teen) showing her (always a her!) beauty. 

Say hello to my Chinese Dogwood or Kousa Dogwood (Cornus kousa var. chinensis): 

My kousa dogwood absolutely loaded with bracts

If you have the space for a mid-sized tree, please consider  me!

After a few years of growing moderately (but with no/few flowers), the kousa has taken off and giving my neighbours a spectacular show. I'm seeing plain old kousa blooming gloriously right now in nicer gardens over the city, along with pink hybrids like "Satomi" used as standards. C. kousa does get to be a mid-sized tree or multi-stemmed shrub but is pest free with beautiful fall colour and can be loaded with fruit.

Another of my favourite garden children you should consider growing in dappled shade is Acer palmatum "Ukigumo" or Floating Cloud Japanese maple. 

You can see, hopefully, why this cultivar is called Floating  Cloud.

If I was to plant this specimen again, I would site it in front of a very dark backdrop like painted/stained black fence or maybe a yew hedge to really make the leaves stand out. But this baby ain't moving! 

Underneath a big Japanese Tree lilac, my Ukigumo seems to be thriving.

I think dappled shade in a protected zone 5 (better with 6) site is ideal for Ukigumo. Growing it in an exposed site in full sun, with these variegated leaves, likely wouldn't work, unless you're aiming for Acer palmatum "Crispy".

Summer foliage of "Ukigumo", turning a creamy yellow in the fall

So if you have "kids" in your gardens, it's ok to have favourites.

 I hope you celebrate Father's Day in your own way.

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

Google Google Find us on Google+ Find us on Google+