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Spring Fever:
we’re in the home stretch now:
It’s just around the corner. You can feel it in the longer days and see it in the melting snow banks. A friend says he always knows spring is coming when he hears that sound of water rushing below the sewer grates.
For me it’s the smell of the earth thawing. If you’re having trouble believing that spring is on the way, a trip to Canada Blooms will do more than just reassure you, it will revitalize and inspire you. Check the website for more information: www.canadablooms.com The Royal Botanic Gardens in Hamilton
is hosting Spring Into Bloom which includes a day of family fun during March Break. Kids can enjoy hands-on craft centres and entertainment, and the greenhouses will provide the requisite aromatherapy for the whole family.
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Force of Nature:
a cheap and cheerful cure for
the late winter blahs
Each fall when I’m planting my bulbs, I hold back
a
handful for ‘medicinal’ use. Forcing several pots
of bulbs
indoors is the perfect tonic to keep
me going through the bleak late winter season.
I choose
my bulbs carefully: a few of the new
ones that I’m trying
out for the first time,
as well as some old favourites.
Forcing bulbs
couldn’t be easier: until you’re ready to
pot them,
store your bulbs in a cold, dry place.
Place them
pointy-side-up in a clay pot partly filled
with soil.
Add more soil until all but the tips of the bulbs are
covered. Keep the soil loose around your bulbs
and don’t
bother with any fertilizer as they’re
already nutrient
packed. Bulbs thrive in sunny,
cool locations, and will
produce blooms in about
three to four weeks.
Prolonging your blooms is
easy: make sure they are in
the coolest location
in your home overnight. You can even
put
crocuses in the refrigerator while you sleep.
You can
try planting your indoor bulbs in the
garden when they
finish blooming, but don’t
count on them for
next year, they’re usually ‘spent’ by being forced.
In a
week or two I’ll be getting a preview of my
new Clusiana
and Rai tulip varieties, two small
pots of crocus will bloom
just in time for Easter,
and right now I’m enjoying a
wonderfully fragrant
pot of lily of the valley. These,
and our annual
March Break road trip to Florida
with the kids,
are the two best ways I’ve found to
beat the winter blahs.
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Raina’s Picks: the best new plants for 2004
It’s confessions of a gardenaholic time. This is definitely one of the most thrilling times of the year for me. Finding the best new power plants for this next growing season is a huge pleasure, and a welcome challenge. I’m looking for plants that have proven themselves in Ontario trial gardens so I know they’ll perform well in our home gardens. I’m also looking for the latest flower fashions, new colours, heavenly scents, and any other stand-out plant features that make gardening, especially spring planting, so much sheer fun.
After looking over the hundreds of new varieties and hybrids of flowers, plants, shrubs, and trees, here’s a look at a few of the plants on my ‘must have’ list for oh-four:
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Perennials |
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Bring on the orange Orange is one of the hottest colours for the garden this year which puts these new Orange Meadowbrite coneflowers near the top of my list. I'm a big fan of echinacea: tall and gorgeous, they are great native plants that bloom in late summer, are a terrific butterfly lure, and produce seed pods for hungry birds in the fall. Brains and beauty - a great combination.
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Good enough to spread on bread
Is how Landscape Ontario describes the new 'Marmalade' heuchera (coral bells). This is a big, gorgeous plant has rippling, richly coloured umber to sienna foliage that stands out in the garden all year long. It should come with a badge that says 'No Whining' because these are wonderfully weather resistant, durable plants. |
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A new take on an old standby
Sarah Willis, the editor of the Landscape Trades magazine, practically gushed when she told me about the new gaillardia 'Fanfare'. She says that before seeing this plant in the Guelph trial garden, she'd never been a big fan of gaillardia (blanketflower). But when she saw this one, with its 'fabulous tubular shaped, bright red and yellow petals' she was blown away. A recommendation this good must be heeded, and since gaillardia are famously reliable and floriferous, this sounds like a winner.
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Annuals |
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| Container Plants |
Riding the wave
I confess, petunias used to be one of my least favourite flowers. I associated them with the
big, floppy red and white flowers that lined every front walk in the ‘60’s. As well as being
boring, I always thought they looked like discarded kleenex after even the slightest rain.
All that changed a few years ago when they brought out the ’Wave’ series of smaller, sturdier,
longer flowering varieties in a rainbow of colours. These fantastic plants have made me take
back every mean thought I ever had about petunias. This year’s crop of Waves includes the
‘Easy Wave Salmon’ a terrific eye-catching colour that will make your containers pop.
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Go for gold
Here it is, finally, after years of work: a yellow flower for the shade. It’s called ‘Jungle Gold’ and it’s not like any impatiens you’ve ever seen before. These are stunning, orchid-like flowers that resemble their cousin, Jewel Weed, more than our familiar single and double varieties. It’s great to find a new shape as well as colour for the incredibly useful and reliable impatiens.
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