Late fall foliage, flowers, and a few berries at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Autumn colours at the Toronto Botanical Garden, while they last

It's hard to believe that November is just around the corner. It's been another successful work "year" from May until now but this blog has suffered due the few posts I've written so I'll apologize right now! Things will be slowing down soon after the fall cleanups are done and I'll have more time to write.

I had an hour, literally, to spend at the Toronto Botanical Garden last weekend. I say "literally" as my wife and kids weren't interested in joining me, preferred to go shopping instead and planned to pick me back up in the specified time. Sheesh!

So here are some highlights from my 60 minute "break". If you want to see more late autumn pictures from last year, you can click on Autumn blooms and foliage at the Toronto Botanical Garden: Impending death and decay at a public Toronto garden

Autumn is always a wistful and melancholic time for me in my garden. The Katsura, Japanese maples and viburnums show off their amazing colours one last time before five months of winter have to be endured. I'm enjoying the show while it lasts....

Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) autumn foliage 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

"Donald Wyman" crabapple berries 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Dwarf fothergilla gardenii "Blue Mist" autumn foliage 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Epimedium "Amber Queen" barrenwort autumn foliage
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Globe artichoke (Cynara cardunculus)
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Hamamelis mollis (Chinese witch hazel) autumn flowers 
at theToronto Botanical Garden 

Ilex verticillata "Nana" Winterberry autumn berries 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Miscanthus sinensis (Maiden grass) autumn seedheads 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Panicum virgatum (Switch grass) and 
Amsonia autumn foliage
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Acer palmatum "Kagiri nishiki" 
Japanese maple autumn foliage 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Acer shirasawanum "Aureum"
 Fullmoon maple autumn foliage 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Aconitum "Ivorine" monkshood autumn flowers 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Aconitum x cammarum monkshood autumn flowers 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Amsonia hubrichtii (bluestar) autumn foliage 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum "Peve Yellow")  
autumn foliage at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii)  autumn foliage 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Cercis canadensis (Eastern redbud) autumn foliage 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Chinese witch hazel (Hamamelis mollis) autumn flowers 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Chinese witch hazel (Hamamelis mollis) autumn foliage
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Cynara cardunculus (Globe artichoke)
 at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Digitalis "Berry Canary" (Digiplexis Foxglove) 
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Even the trees beside the parking lot were showy:

Toronto Botanical Garden parking lot 
maples autumn foliage 

"Waterfall" Japanese maple? I'll be dammed!

Another example of bad pruning in a Toronto garden

I don't maintain lawns so my clients either pay for another company to cut, fertilize and spray herbicides on their turf, do it themselves or simply don't have grass. Landscape maintenance companies also get involved with pruning and I'm sure you've seen many examples of meatballs as "foundation plantings" where you live. (I like the term "landscape management" better because it more accurately reflects the business philosophy of looking after a large block of clients with big areas of turf on their properties). "Meatballs" are especially popular around commercial establishments like gas stations and coffee shops, as profiled in another post titled "Trust Me: I'm a Professional Landscaper When did yews become checker pieces?"

I felt compelled; however, to show you a recent example of a questionable, to be extremely charitable, pruning job at one of my client's front garden. I did not do this!

Acer palmatum "Waterfall" Japanese maple
without the waterfall

To give you some context, this weeping-form  Japanese maple is normally a wonderful lace-leaf green variety that is called at times "Waterfall" or "Viridis." The specimen above didn't invoke images of water tumbling over anything. To be honest, I see a somewhat flattened green macaroon.

Although it did make me weep a little.

Here's the view from the front porch looking down. Tell me what you see! It will be kind of like a horticultural Rorschach test.

Kind of cool how this green disc seems to be hovering!

Bad pruning example of
a "Waterfall"  Japanese maple

What to make of all this? I don't have an axe to grind with these "mow-blow-go" guys (and it's almost always men who wield the gas-powered clippers) who can't/don't/won't distinguish between a shrub versus a small tree (!) They don't have an incentive to prune properly because, likely, their pay reflects being a "labourer" and they have to haul their butts to the next job site (or to grab a coffee or a smoke, etc.)

You really do get what you pay for in life, though, and if/when a potential client states that "you're too expensive" or variations of "you want me to pay you what to pull a few weeds?!", I'll send them this blog link to perhaps enlighten and illuminate the true cost of things.

By the way, this is what a "Waterfall" Japanese maple, in the fall, should look like, unbutchered:

Laceleaf Japanese maple
(Acer palmatum dissectum "Viridis")  autumn foliage 

A great reminder that autumn is around the corner. I hope you had a wonderful summer and thank you for continuing to read "garden muses", the dozen of you guys and gals out there!

Late summer blooms at the Toronto Botanical Garden

Purple coneflower, Joe Pye Weed, Rudbeckia and other late summer bloomers at the TBG

Where did the summer go? You may be asking where did "garden muses" go? 

Yes, I haven't posted for almost two months which defeats the purpose of having a blog in the first place. My excuse reason is a combination of exhaustion and laziness. I'm often too tired to take pictures,  don't want to carry a camera around and/or preoccupied with the business side of things to post pictures and write commentary.

I agree, it's lame but there you go, faithful reader!

Today is a rain day so I'm taking a break from weeding and decided to write about a recent trip to the Toronto Botanical Garden ("TBG"). I had 2 hours to kill before meeting a client near the TBG so I made my first visit for the year.

Here are some highlights from my late summer visit. I'd post more pictures but of course my camera batteries died.

Another excuse!

I hope you're having a good summer (winter for those in the southern hemisphere.)

Ligularia,  Rudbeckia and Joe Pye Weed
 late summer blooms at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

This perennial border is showing its summer flowers wonderfully. Pink and yellow may not be your favourite colour combination (it isn't mine) but the butterflies and bees visiting don't have this prejudice.

Late summer perennial border
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

What will this bed look like in winter? When I design gardens, I always think about structure during the winter months. TBG's gardeners know better than to level plants to the ground as part of the "fall cleanup" offered by landscaping companies. Birds have to eat too!

Toronto Botanical Garden's
late summer perennial border 

A closeup of a hungry visitor on this Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum) set of blooms. This native perennial does well at the back of the border in a big mass, of course.

Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum)
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Eutrochium purpureum (Joe Pye Weed)
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

In the Knot Garden, the "White Swan" and species Echinacea and Gaura were in full force. Again, I can't love these enough in masses. The formation remind me of a river/stream or clouds of coneflower.

Toronto Botanical Garden's "White Swan"
purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea spp.) 

"White Swan" purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
at theToronto Botanical Garden 

Echinacea purpurea White Swan purple coneflower
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Here are four pollinator favourites. I'm discovering Agastache cultivars are truly versatile and bee magnets!

Geranium "Rozanne" Cranesbill
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

"Kudos Gold" Agastache (Dwarf Hummingbird Mint)
at the Toronto Botanical Garden  

Buddleia "Nanho Purple" butterfly bush
at the Toronto Botanical Garden  

Blazing Star (Liatris spicata "Floristan Violet")
 at the Toronto Botanical Garden

I'm not a rose fan (a lot of effort yielding low results) but this David Austin shrub rose called "Mary Rose" could change my mind. Nice scent and luckily not ravaged by Japanese beetles.

Mary Rose David Austin shrub rose (Rosa "Ausmary")
 at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Rosa "Ausmary" Mary Rose David Austin shrub rose
 at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

On display were several containers to give condo owners and gardeners who like colourful containers some inspiration. I was attracted to the containers made up of succulents which offer excellent contrasts in shapes and textures.

Echeveria elegans (Mexican snowball)
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Echeveria "Perle von Nurnberg"
at the Toronto Botanical Garden 

Summer container
at the Toronto Botanical Garden

This container definitely has a big wow-factor. Here's the list of plants making up the design (see if you can identify each component):

• Pink Diplandenia ("Rio Pink" Mandevilla")
• Bidens hybrid
• Indian Feather (Gaura lindheimeri "Belleza Compact Light Pink"
• Verbena "Lascar Compact Pink"
• Red Cordyline
• Globe Amaranth (Gomphrena "Fireworks") 
• Heuchera "Berry Smoothie"
• Fountain Grass (Pennisetum x advena "Cherry Sparkler")

I won't even bother showing the containers in front of our house. Compared to this one...

Leslieville front garden summer clean up

Helping another Leslieville client with a front yard summer clean up

It's late summer and the weeds haven't stopped growing! 

Here are some before and after pictures of a small front garden in Leslieville that needed some TLC. The mulch under the spruce helped but weeds like plantain and quack grass were problematic near the sidewalk, path and driveway. I asked the client to apply some more mulch to keep these weeds at bay.

Leslieville front garden cleanup before 

Leslieville front garden cleanup after

Leslieville front garden cleanup before

Leslieville front garden cleanup after 

Leslieville Toronto front garden clean up before

Leslieville Toronto front garden clean up after 

Leslieville Toronto front garden cleanup before

Leslieville Toronto front garden cleanup after

Leslieville front garden clean up before 

Leslieville front garden clean up after