Freaking floriferous! (Yes, I admit, Rose of Sharons look nice right now)



Someone in Toronto loves her Rose of Sharon right now!

This is why we grow it (for 2 weeks a year)!

I worked at my client Dale's garden today and was astounded to see her Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) in full bloom. This is a double flowering variety called "Lavender Chiffon" and the shrub is absolutely loaded with flowers. You may not see it clearly but I "trussed" up the stems to prevent the top-heavy shrub from sprawling and to try to achieve a pseudo-standard look. Not exactly a Horticulture 101 best practice but the client is happy.

Bees were everywhere which will mean dozens of seedlings next spring. It's a small price to pay for such fleeting beauty.

Detail of "Lavender Chiffon" Rose of Sharon flower

I took several closeups of the different (to me) double flower type and this one seems a good example. Like the perennial Hibiscus or rosemallow, the petals have that crepe or chiffon texture.

D. found several "shiny metallic-green bugs" congregating and damaging a few flowers so I quickly introduced her to the Japanese beetle and gave her advice of disposing them between her fingers or under foot. 

Who has time for soapy water for these devils?

Toronto Music Garden with the Kids

School's out and what's a Toronto gardener to do?

The kids finished school and their day camp starts next week so I had to entertain them yesterday. Did I take them to a movie or the mall? They know better!

As it was an absolutely beautiful day, I wrangled / bribed / threatened them into accompanying me to a garden we last visited last fall: the Toronto Music Garden. Designed by Julie Moir Messervy , cellist Yo Yo Ma, and others, the three acre space is "a reflection in landscape of Bach's Suite No. 1 in G Major for unaccompanied cello, BWV 1007."

There are six sections of the garden which corresponds to each dance movement in Bach's piece: Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue, and Minuets. Here is the link which describes each movement's physical, design, and horticultural components.

I think a visitor can have a greater appreciation of the space if she/he actually knows the music driving the design. Since I don't (but should simply add it to my iPod and listen to it during my next visit,) I am more interested in the perennials and woodies used and their placement in the design which equally drive the design.

Toronto Music Garden Gigue section
showing Japanese forest grass, blooming smokebush,
purple salvia, yellow potentilla 

This picture is in the Gigue section but more importantly, to me, shows the design principles of mass, line, and repetition in combination with using complementary colours (yellow and purple) for visual tension and excitement. Yes, you can grow the Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’) in full sun and doesn't it look smashing containing the Dropmore Blue Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii ‘Dropmore Blue’) and the yellow cinquefoil (Potentilla tridentate) on top? A smokebush in bloom to the left and a crabapple in the background provide more structure throughout the year.

Looking eastward, there's an ubiquitous condo to the left and the CN Tower in the middle. To the immediate right is the lakefront, providing conditions which make the visit very pleasant with a prevailing breeze.

Mass of pink astilbes

Lines are always flowing in this space and here's a great example in the Minuet section. The curved metal bench merges into this bed with the Japanese Anemone, a mass of pink astilbe blooming so nicely for us, "Makamik" crabapple, and dwarf lilac in the background. If you like pinks, this area is for you!  I hope you can make out the path to the right. It leads down a grove of nannyberry viburnum fronted by a mass planting of "Stella de Oro" daylilies, both in full bloom.

To their credit, the kids humored dad for about an hour before making plaintive cries of starvation and neglect. Time for lunch and they led the way up the stone stairs of the gigue. If you're in the Habourfront area, as a local or visitor, try to spend some time at this garden. It's hard to believe that the busy city is so close when you're wandering down the garden's many spiralling paths.

Among the many things I adore about it is the realization that there is not one annual used in the plantings so the space is visually interesting (arresting, peaceful) for most, if not all, of the year. Come back in October to confirm this. Its design principles are timeless, like Bach's music.

Green is a Colour Too, in Dappled Shade

Shade gardening in Toronto

There are days when I question why I gave up cubicle life in exchange for the joys of self-employment (wild income fluctuations, bugs, humidity, client "relations", etc.) But imagine enjoying your lunch surrounded by a setting like this on a bi-weekly basis. Such doubts rarely enter my mind here.

The clients' backyard is embraced by 100 feet plus high red oaks so the shade is never deep and oppressive as it is under, say, a Norway maple. Gardening and entertaining activities are very enjoyable due to this type of dappled shade. Certainly made my ham sandwich more delicious today.

Under dappled shade, enjoying my lunch

The particular part of the garden in the picture consists of a waterfall feature surrounded by classic shade tolerant perennials and shrubs. We have two types of Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra "Albostriata" and "Aureola", left and right respectively), Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum var. pictum), "Halcyon" hosta, Rodgersia aesculifolia, and "Arnold Promise" witchhazel (Hamamelis x intermedia "Arnold Promise")  in the back.


I think we have a beautiful composition with contrasting foliage (linear vs. broad vs. palmate) and a soothing green palette that's easy on the eyes. With the trickling of the fountain on this warm late June day, it was hard to leave, albeit only temporarily.

Hakone grass, "Halcyon" hosta,
astilbes and Rodgersia in the shade 

A Low(er) Maintenance Toronto Garden Bed

Do you have full sun and lousy grass in Toronto?

I often get asked about how to make a client's front lawn nice, weedless, and green (again) with minimum effort and cost. I try to answer diplomatically that these are contradictory goals. The homeowner must either put in the effort to (a) re-seed or re-sod; b) fertilize and apply weed killer regularly;  and c) mow or pay a "mo-blow-and go" landscape professional a living wage to do so.

Uncomfortable silence usually ensues.

If I'm lucky and have good karma for the day, I might meet someone/couple who sees past a brown and patchy monoculture (a.k.a. failing turf) and envisions a design that is much more more interesting and ecologically sustainable.

Promising bed, not-so-promising lawn

The little (6' long by 3' wide kidney-shaped) bed above was cut out of a thin patchwork of turf. The front area of this client's house faces south looking onto a quiet street. Although the site is in full sun, the lawn is not lush and full as there is no sprinkler system involved with a poor, compacted, and infertile soil profile. With the client's input, I chose perennials and a shrub which appreciate the southern aspect and drier conditons. These include Papaver orientale "Allegro", Stachys byzantina, Caryopteris x clandonensis "Worcester Gold", Perovskia atriplicifolia, and Cotinus coggygria "Young Lady." The soil was profusely amended with homemade compost and bagged triple mix and topped with a 2" layer of mulch.

The client planted orange tulips and purple alliums last fall which have finished blooming now. We'll have a sequence of continuous blooming from April to September with minimal watering and weeding and no fertilizing. Lastly, there are plans to enlarge this bed in the future!

Don't Fence Me In! (or "Scared Straight", Horticulturally.)

Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation taking a hard line towards flower pickers?

Yes, I know...I've been neglecting you, gentle reader, as it's been a month since my last post. Weeding, transplanting, and pruning almost daily (when it hasn't been raining) for my clients makes the time fly by. Finally, we're experiencing sunny and warm weather in late May and early June. This is truly one of my favourite times of the year to be outside. We know that the humidex readings of over 35 will be arriving soon so let's savour days like today.

Speaking of today, I had no reason not to take pictures and write this post since the flowers are blooming so vividly around the corner.  Paul Kane House has what I believe is the only English perennial border (or a reasonable facsimile) downtown. 

 Here's what is blooming right now:



Love those fuzzy pom-poms!

"Purple Sensation" alliums give vertical interest.  I've seen them used with great effect planted in and among "Sum and Substance" hosta. The hostas' chartreuse leaf colour and broad shape contrasts very well with the alliums' vertical nature and fine mauve inflorescences. In this bed, they contrasted nicely with the hot yet fragile-looking poppy flowers.

Allium hollandicum "Purple Sensation"
and  "Sum and Substance" hosta 

Allegro Oriental poppy bloom 
at Paul Kane House gardens 

A closeup of an Oriental poppy flower and hairy buds (This may be the cultivar "Allegro.") Yes, I can hear the whining about perennial poppies going dormant after a two week show but really, how can you not love the red-orange crepe-like petals and that dark hypnotic eyeball of a centre? And those buds! Since we're all consenting adults, am I the only one who sees them as, ummm, testicular and labial simultaneously? Yeah, maybe it's just me.

Papaver orientale "Allegro"
Oriental poppy bloom detail 

Papaver orientale "Allegro"
Oriental poppy blooms

A perennial best appreciated in someone else's garden

I'm not a fan of bearded irises and prefer Siberian ones instead but I'll admit, these big blooms are eye-catching. The flower shape just doesn't do anything for me but I appreciate the purple and yellow contrast. A herbaceous peony bud is about to open to the left, sans ant/s.

Early summer blooms in a perennial bed

Here's a shot taken from the side looking up/down the bed. The lower left clump is summer phlox (Phlox paniculata), cultivar unknown. To the right, a mass planting of "Caramel" heuchera gives a nice mellow contrast to the poppy fireworks. The back of the bed is a yew hedge which is the classic backdrop for this high maintenance English border. Other perennials in the bloom sequence are false lupin, peony, catmint, hardy geranium, and hollyhock. You might think you're in Great Dixter until you see this...

Nobody knows the troubles I've seen...

We are in downtown Toronto and the perceived threat of plant injury, theft, and overall mayhem is so high that the city's bureaucrats/garden cops have expensed this lovely partition to keep out ne'er-do-wells. It's all good and well to lean over and look but forget about actually smelling or touching a flower or leaf. If you cross your eyes and think positive thoughts, you might even make the barrier go away! Well, maybe not.

 

Looking west on Wellesley St. E., 
with the parcel of land behind "condo ready!"

I'm not out to be overly critical because I realize that these plants are nicer than the typical euonymous and Emerald cedar combos inflicted upon us and deserve to be protected in the urban environment. But this reality still doesn't make the fencing any less unattractive or minimizes the city's message: don't feed the plants!