Have you wondered how we get these beautiful plants. Who grows them? How are they started? This week we had the privilege of a behind the scenes tour at our grower's greenhouse.
It smelled so good. It was so green as far as you could see! I just wanted to breathe, and my skin felt like it was absorbing moisture it hasn't seen all winter. At this time of year your plants are still TINY. They are in trays of 72 plugs. That's 72 plants for every 20"x10" space on the floor of the greenhouse. There are multiple greenhouses!
Our grower starts plants via 4 different methods.
Many plants, including almost all of the native plants, are started from seed. Here is a trays of Anise hyssop and Beebalm that were started from seed. We were told that usually they put 2 seeds into each cell, to ensure plant growth. One of the challenges they face is seed quality. If they get seed with a bad germination rate, then you can imagine that the process needs to start all over again and there simply isn't time in the schedule for that. It takes 6-8 weeks in these small plug trays before the plant is ready to be transplanted into bigger pots. Seeds are particularly preferred for native plants, as the diversity of genetic material is maintained in the seed stock. Where possible seeds for native plants are sourced locally, but it isn't always possible yet as this side of the industry races to catch up with demand for native plants.
Many plants are cultivated from cuttings. In some cases the mother plant is kept at their own nursery and they make their own cuttings. But, also, there is a large business of tiny cuttings supplied to nurseries all over the world, especially for trademarked plants. The cuttings may be tiny, as in this picture. It is dipped into rooting hormone, and then planted in plug trays to root out and get started. This process results in all the plants being genetically identical.
Some plants are purchased as bare root stock from other growers, and planted up into pots ready for the spring season. This is just how some plants propagate themselves naturally. If you have ever grown irises, you know that they tend to expand prodigiously via rhizome. Those can be dug up, cut up, and each made into new plants. Again, in this case, the genetic material is identical to the parent plant.
In order to provide the full catalogue of plants, some of the plants we sell are grown by others, and purchased, by our grower. This is particularly the case for plants that require a special environment, or schedule, in order to grow. For instance, this week they received some of their hellebores, in full bloom, from another grower. This is surprisingly common for green houses behind the scenes. Some people are just better at, or prefer to, get more excited by some plants than others and end up specializing.
When I saw how tiny the plants are right now, in early March, I wondered right away what is the timeline to get these big enough for sale? After these grow up a bit more, they will be transplanted into larger pots for sale in the spring. The fastest and healthiest way to do this is by moving them from tiny plugs, to larger plugs, to bigger pots as their roots fill in the soil. It is very labour intensive! For most plants, it takes 6-8 weeks for them to be big enough for their first transplant, and another 4-6 weeks to get to a salable size. Of course, that depends very much on the type of plant. Some plants were planted last fall, and have been in cold green houses, some are starting now from seed, some are being grown from cuttings, some are being grown from bareroot stock. My head just swirls! It never ceases to amaze me the knowledge and care that goes into growing plants for our gardens. Behind the scenes there is a huge schedule for each of the 1200 plants our grower brings to market.
]]>The directions regarding spring cleanup seem to keep changing, for many good reasons. Perhaps we could all use a bit help to understand why some old practices need to change. The good news, every single suggestion is less work than what we all used to do.
In the way back, advice used to be to turn over your garden beds. Perhaps, even double digging! I think this idea came from farming, where large tractors would turn over the soil at least annually, to turn in old stubble as a soil amendment in place. However, the thinking now is that digging over beds is actually very detrimental. There are only a few instances in which I would dig over soil; for instance if I was trying to remove the roots of an particular plant that spread via roots/rhizomes such as quack grass. And, in that case, I would still limit it to where I had a problem to deal with. It turns out that soil has clumping structure that is vitally important to it's health. That structure allows air and water to flow through the soil. If you dig it, then you break up those clumps, and end up with a more powdery soil, that compacts easily, and doesn't have these precious pores. So, don't dig over your garden.
While we are on the topic of soil. Please wait until your soil dries out a bit before walking on it. When it is soggy and wet in the spring, those same pores and air spaces can easily get crushed just by walking on the ground.
But then, how do I add amendments? Shouldn't I dig those in, at least in the top portion. It is sufficient, in most cases, to simply add amendments on top of the soil. You can add a couple of centimeters of compost, for instance. The worms, rain, and other small creatures, will work it into the soil for you. Bonus, it will also act as a mulch to protect the important top layer of the soil. Did you ever notice that fence posts tend to rot just at the surface of the soil, but are likely just fine above and below that layer? That's because there are so many microbes that live in that top layer of soil, whose function is to break down whatever organic matter falls from the sky. We don't want to mix those up with deeper soil, where they would just die.
I confess, right now my garden looks very messy. There are leaves that I raked in there last fall that still haven't broken down. Dried up, burst seed pods from butterfly milkweed hanging by a thread from last year's stalks. Switchgrass that broke under the weight of snow and is waiting to be cut down for spring growth. And, hopefully, many small creatures biding their time until actual warm weather to start their season too. We want to provide protection for those as long as we can. There is no magic temperature, or time, by which all of these creatures have emerged, as they all have their own different life cycles and schedule. Some overwinter as eggs, or larva, or adults. So, what to do? I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water! My advice is to do as little as you can stand to look at. If you must clean up, try to find a way to leave as much of the plant materials in your garden, or near by, as possible. I cut back my goldenrod in the spring, and pile the tall branches in an out of the way place by my fence. I cut my perennials at about 30cm from the ground, and drop the tops into the garden. Soon enough new growth covers those stalks and dropped materials. If the leaves that I raked in are still a bit too deep, I move them to the side to allow the plants underneath to grow. Spring cleanup used to be an arduous task involving cleaning everything, and then spreading mulch. No longer, because the plants themselves are providing my mulch. I don't even use a wheelbarrow any more!
Ohh..I get that. Spring is when I do any pruning (since I don't do fall pruning). Soon, it will be time to prune your roses (watch for forsythia to start blooming). Also, spring is when you can most easily see many of our worst invasive weeds. Why is it that they turn green before anything else!!! Garlic mustard, quackgrass, and chickweed are already going strong. Or, set up your hammock, grab your tablet, and browse our store for the plants you want to add to your garden this season.
]]>Everyone wants an attractive garden, and often we want it colourful. But what does that mean, and what are your preferences? If you have pastel flowers blooming next to something that is screaming hot tropical, they probably won't look good together. Some people love the combination of pink and orange, but I can't abide that. Everyone has their own preference, and in fact I maintain that everyone sees colours differently.
Is your garden simply messy like this one?
There isn't any right or wrong, but many people struggle to deal with colours in their garden. Most people need a framework to help organize their thoughts about what to plant.
If find it helpful to define a colour scheme, and then choose plants to work within that constraint. The simplest is to pick 2 colours, and refuse the plant anything the doesn't fit into that category. You can't really go wrong with pink and purple, or pink and yellow, or white and orange...see how that helps?
If you just have to have a plant that doesn't fit your criteria (no, there are NO blue roses), then you can either site those away from your main garden, or split your garden into two different colour schemes for different parts of the season. I do this in my own garden where I have a cherry red fern-leaf peony that came from my father's garden. I don't want a pink garden, but I also want to keep that sentimental plant. So, in the spring I have cherry red and purple tulips, and blue camassia to complement the peony. Later, everything turns yellow and purple for the rest of the season.
I once worked in a garden that was a rainbow. Each section of the garden was a different colour, but the plants in that colour zone progressed through through the summer; yellow daffodils gave way to yellow daylilies, then to black eyes susans, and so on. It was a bit complicated, but the framework gave the gardener the opportunity to site almost any plant in their garden. My point here is to choose a scheme, and then use that to choose your plants so that they all work together in your garden. Here are some notes on various colour schemes that I like in a garden:
A garden based on white is very popular, and fantastic if you often get to enjoy your garden in the evening. To research this, google moonlight gardens. You'll be in league with Mrs Thomas Edison, and Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst, and even the Persian gardens at the Taj Mahal. I suppose that limiting your choices to white may seem very constraining, but actually there are lots and lots of white flowers, and you'll never have to worry colours clashing. I recommend that you also include some very fragrant plants in your evening garden. At dusk flowering tobacco and white oriental lilies (Casablanca) simply sing with aroma. It's up to you how strict you want to be about the whiteness of your garden, but remember that many white flowers fade to a pale colour.
I love a pastel garden, and it is usually easy to pick a variety of plants for each part of the season. The pale pinks and purples of allium, roses, balloon flower, fall anemone, and perennial geraniums are easy to mix. There are some lovely peach and pale yellow flowers as well - look to the daylilies, yarrow, columbine and astilbe. All of these go well with a repeated white flower such as a shasta daisy or garden phlox.
It's hard to resist these strong colours that often find their way into my wardrobe. Look for large flowers, or flowers that will make a mass of blooms. I find that individual strong coloured flowers somehow get lost. But, I love a block of shocking pink asiatic lily, orange butterfly milkweed, red hot pokers, dark red roses, scarlet bee balm. Don't be afraid to mix in long flowering annuals in a hot coloured garden. It will help to intensify those colours.
Don't forget that green is a colour too! Exclusively green is an extremely restful colour scheme that focuses on texture. Mix up hostas, with shade grasses (Japanese Forest Grass) , and leafy evergreens such as rhododendron. To brighten up a shady spot, add in some silvery leaves such as siberian bugloss or ghost fern. In fact, since most perennials only bloom for a portion of the season, we are forced to consider the foliage in the rest of the season and how it looks in our garden. A swath of Soloman's seal or peonies make an excellent backdrop for later blooming plants. Did you know that there are even green flowers? Bells of Ireland, Hellebore, Limelight Hydrangea, Cushion Spurge, Jack in the Pulpit, and Coneflowers come in green. Often green flowers attract pollinators with scent, adding another layer of interest to your garden.
I hope this helps you to think about your garden. Are there areas that you'd like to improve? Fall is a great time for planting, and we still have lots of availability. We'll be delivering plants up until mid-October.
]]>Are you disappointed with the performance of your boxwood? Little evergreen hedges surrounding gardens are popular in many of Toronto's neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, there are several pests that are affecting our boxwood. I would not recommend planting any boxwood at the moment. You are simply asking for a future of fighting boxwood psyllid, boxwood leafminer, box tree moth. and boxwood blight. The boxtree moth showed up in Toronto a couple of seasons ago, eats entire hedges in the blink of an eye, and has several generations of caterpillars every season. You can learn more at Inspection Canada's website: https://inspection.canada.ca/plant-health/invasive-species/insects/box-tree-moth/fact-sheet/eng/1552914498593/1552914498889 In my opinion boxwood are simply not worth it. I really feel for people who have spent big money on boxwood hedges only to have them attacked by these pests.
I think we will be hearing many people suggest inkberry as a substitute for Boxwood. It is native to the Eastern US and Canada (although not here in Ontario), evergreen, and has small shiny leaves. Be warned, it thrives in acidic soil. If its soil is too alkaline, then it is subject to yellowing. We see this commonly for other types of holly in Toronto. It is possible to amend soil to increase your soil's acidity, but you need to do it annually. None the less, I learned this week that there is a beautiful hedge of it by Women's College Hospital, if you want to go take a look. I don't have any personal experience with inkberry. Please, let me know how it is working for you, and if you think it should be recommended.
Yews are certainly a possibility. I would select Dense Yew (Taxus x media 'Densiformis) or Dwarf Japanese Yew (Taxus cuspidata 'Nana') as the best best. However, yews would prefer to grow to more than a meter high, and almost 2 meters wide. Both of these make fantastic larger hedges, of the 1 meter scale, but can be difficult to keep as small hedges of the 30cm scale. If you do plant a yew hedge I recommend that you scout regularly for mealy bugs, who seem to love them. Yews make great hedges because they are one of the few evergreens that will rejuvenate from dead wood - so if you have an overly rambunctious day with your hedge trimmer all is not lost.
Cedars take very well to shearing and can also made a good evergreen hedge. There are several different tiny cultivars available. An old standby is the Danica cedar, which naturally grows to into an 80cm ball. If you start with a small sized shrub, you could keep these to as a small hedge. The smaller ball cedars do have a tendency to break open under the weight of snow. So, you may want to consider a plan for winter. Options include a small burlap cover (but then why plant an evergreen just to cover it up), supportive string around each shrub, or simply making a habit of knocking off the snow after each snowfall. If your cedars do fall open over the winter, then you can tie them back together in the spring. I use a biodegradable string on the inside to pull the branches back upright, and allow the shrub growth to fill in. Cedars are not a good option if you have deer browsing your garden, but if that's you, then you probably already know that.
Maybe it's time to consider some different looks. Lavender is actually a small shrub, and keeps its look through the winter. The soft grey green foliage off sets darker green perennials very well, and it only needs one major prune in May to tidy it up for the season. Lavender requires lots of sun and well drained soil. If you plant a hedge, I recommend that you use one of the older standard cultivars, because very few years you will probably need to replace a plant or two and you'll want to be able to match. Hidcote Superior and Munstead are both varieties that are hardy in Toronto and widely available.
Someone told me once there there is a sedge for every garden. There are literally hundreds of different sedges - some for sun and some for shade. They will keep their green through the winter, or green up quickly in the spring. Many of the sedges are native to Ontario, and more natives are coming onto the market all the time. Although we usually think of flowering plants to support our local insects, grasses provide great winter habitat and many butterflies use them for parts of their life cycle. Commonly available Plantain Leaved Sedge Carex plantaginea), Oak Sedge (Carey pensylvanica), and Bristle leaf Sedge (Carex eburnea) would make a great garden edge. You may want to leave some space between your lawn and edger plants in this case, to set them apart visually.
On our small urban lots, your hedge may be taking up a disproportionate amount of space. I'm not even going to discuss the disproportionate amount of maintenance time spent shearing and feeding and generally fussing over them. My personal preference is to do away with this look all together, and use that space to add more varied perennials to your garden. Imagine if every boxwood in Toronto was replaced with a few native flowering plants - we'd have an instant butterfly way throughout the city linking the ravines and parks where many of our native insects struggle to survive. One of the biggest problems is that while a small area can support a small population of some insect, it is much more precarious than if it is linked to another small area where 2 populations can intermix, or move if one area is threatened. This is why creating pathways between wild areas is critical to supporting our native insects. If you are facing the prospect of replacing your boxwood hedge, I urge you to consider having no hedge at all. Take back that extra space and do something more creative.
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Are you new to gardening and just don't know what to choose? Welcome to the hobby. We're here to help. We have put together two starter packs of plants that are reliable, perform well in many conditions, and also help support our native insects.
With your Full Sun starter pack you'll get 8 plants, a sachet of root rescue, and an instruction sheet to help with planting and care questions.
If your garden gets at least 6 hours of unimpeded sun everyday, it is considered full sun. Just take a moment to consider the actual spot where your plant will go - make sure it isn't shaded by something before deciding it is a full sun garden. For instance, is there patio furniture next to the spot? Is there a tree that doesn't have leaves at the moment, but will at other times of year? Is there already a plant that is small in the spring, but will grow up later in the season, such as a large ornamental grass? Nope. OK. Good to go with full sun plants.
We've made a selection that has blooms from early summer through fall, and is in a primary colour palette (pink, blue, yellow) that will be easy to add to in future. The 5 plants that we have chosen for a full sun garden are:
This is a smaller, upright sedum with bright pink flowers in the fall. You will likely find bumble bees sleeping in it on cool fall mornings. These are the male bumble bees that never go back to their nest after they leave it. Sedum are very easy care. They do not need tending while they bloom, just cut off the finished stalks late in the fall or early in the spring. If you find that it gets so many stalks that it is falling open, that is your cue to divide it in the fall. (Package quantity 2, size 1 gallon)
Garden sage starts blooming in June, and will keep blooming all season long if you deadhead it. That simply means cutting off the flower once it is finished blooming. In the fall you can cut back the upright stalks, but leave the rosette of leaves at the bottom. Those are close to evergreen, and new growth will come from among them next spring. (Package quantity 2, size 1 gallon)
This is shorter version of the native Liatris spicata is also known as Gay Feather. It actually grows from a small bulb, and will self seed and grow new plants in your garden if you let it. Don't cut it back too soon or you'll be missing out on the fantastic red and burgundy fall display from the leaves. I leave mine all winter and cut it back in the spring because I want mine to spread. I am including this close cultivar of a native plant, because, although it isn't strictly native, they do tend to behave a bit better in our gardens. These are selected from naturally occurring variations in the species. (Package quantity 2, size 1 gallon)
This is a selection of a native flower. It is shorter than the wild version, and pinker. If you keep the dead flowers removed, it will keep blooming. But, towards the end of the season I leave them alone, so that they will peek out of the snow during winter and remind me where my garden is sleeping. Coneflowers are loved by many of our native insects and if you watch you'll see bees, butterflies, grasshoppers, and hover flies stop by for a snack. Small finches will also come and feast on the seeds. (Package quantity 1, size 1 gallon)
This is another selection of a native plant. The native, Achillea millefolium is white, spreads aggressively, and doesn't bloom for a particularly long time. However, the coloured versions of yarrow are much better behaved, and will bloom for a long time if you keep them deadheaded. In my garden I have fun watching the smallest bees nectaring on yarrow. If you have raspberries nearby, you probably also have the small carpenter bee, since they love to nest in old raspberry canes, and they also love to nectar on my yarrow. Don't worry, these aren't the bigger bully large carpenter bees. In the fall or spring you can cleanup any finished flower stalks, but like the salvia, leave the greenery at the bottom. If your clump of yarrow gets too big over time, you can easily divide it to put some somewhere else. (Package quantity 1, size 1 gallon)
Of course, that depends upon the type of plant. We have chosen a selection of plants that will need approximately 20 sq feet at maturity. Of course, when they arrive they will be small. You can expect your plants to take 2 to 3 years to fill in their space.
We are providing these collections of plants at a discount. We are not able to handle substitutions at this price.
We do not anticipate any problem sourcing these plants. If we run into a problem, we will provide a different plant that is suitable for the same conditions.
Of course. Just put them in your cart.
We have selected plants that aren't very picky about soil. However, if you have heavy clay, it is always a good idea to plant with some extra compost/manure. You can just throw a couple of handfuls on the soil after you dig your hold, and it will naturally mix in when you use it to plant. Take a look at the blog post about soils for more information.
We have selected plants that aren't very picky about soil. However, if you have sandy soil, it is always a good idea to plant with some extra compost/manure. You can just throw a couple of handfuls on the soil after you dig your hold, and it will naturally mix in when you use it to plant. Take a look at the blog post about soils for more information. Think you've read this somewhere before? Yes, the prescription for sandy soil is the same as the prescription for clay soil. Compost solves most soil issues.
You can purchase this package at our website : Plants in the City Sunny Garden Pack.
]]>Are you new to gardening and just don't know what to choose? Welcome to the hobby. We're here to help. We have put together two starter packs of plants that are reliable, perform well in many conditions, and also help support our native insects.
With your starter pack you'll get 7 plants, a sachet of root rescue, and an instruction sheet to help with planting and care questions.
In gardening terms shade is up to 4 hours of direct sunlight. Just remember, it doesn't mean darkness. Shade gardens generally thrive in an area that gets some dappled sunlight throughout the day, for instance under the edge of a tree's canopy. In a place where they are constantly shaded, such as behind a tall building, they may survive, but probably won't thrive. To add confusion, there are spring ephemerals. Those are plants, such a our native Trillium, that grow in the early spring, taking advantage of sunlight under trees that haven't leaved out yet in the spring. Many of those plants are sold as shade plants, which is why so many of our shade plants bloom very early in the season, and then go dormant.
We've selected plants for your shade garden that provide at least interest and texture throughout the season. I'm not going to mislead you - if you want flowers in the shade you should consider annuals. We'll provide:
Here are some notes about those plants
Hostas are a standard item for shade gardens because of their large spreading leaves that provide lushness even in shade. Some hostas grow huge, over time. You can expect a new hosta to have several leaves, and by the next season twice as many, and the season after that...you get the idea. Also, a young hosta will usually have smaller leaves than an older one. So, take that into account when choosing where to plant a hosta. Once your hosta gets big, with many leaves, you can divide it into more plants. In fact a hosta was the first plant I ever tackled dividing. The advice I got at the time was: if it has some leaf, and some root, it will grow. Don't worry, it's a hosta. (Package quantity 1, size 1 gallon)
Lungwort blooms in the early summer, but afterwards the leaves are an interesting fuzzy texture with silvery splashes on them. You may find in the heat of the summer that the leaves start to look worn out - even brown. If that happens you can cut them off and expect new ones to grow for the fall season. Lungwort spreads by seed, and you will likely find baby plants scattered around your garden. Bonus! (Package quantity 1, size 1 gallon)
This adorable native plant grows naturally in our woodlands. If it is happy, you'll find that you get more growing from seeds naturally. They prefer to have a rich moist soil, so don't let them dry out. Often the leaves will die back in the heat of summer, so if they start to look tired, you can cut them off. I think they look best in a large clump of plants, so you may want to let the seeds mature on the plant and then, um, help, them fall nearby. (Package quantity 2, size 1 gallon)
Ferns are a fantastic addition to a shade garden. This is an evergreen fern, that will slowly spread. I chose this slightly smaller fern, because once established is it tolerant of dryer soil. (Package quantity 2, size 1 gallon)
Bleeding heart is a spring ephemeral, so you can expect it's foilage to die back after it is finished blooming. At that point, once it starts to yellow, you should cut it off close to the ground. It will come back next season. (Package quantity 1, size 1 gallon)
Of course, that depends upon the type of plant. We have chosen a selection of plants that will need approximately 20 sq feet at maturity. Of course, when they arrive they will be small. You can expect your plants to take 2 to 3 years to fill in their space.
We are providing these collections of plants at a discount. We are not able to handle substitutions at this price.
We do not anticipate any problem sourcing these plants. If we run into a problem, we will provide a different plant that is suitable for the same conditions.
Of course. Just put them in your cart.
We have selected plants that aren't very picky about soil. However, if you have heavy clay, it is always a good idea to plant with some extra compost/manure. You can just throw a couple of handfuls on the soil after you dig your hold, and it will naturally mix in when you use it to plant. Take a look at the blog post about soils for more information.
We have selected plants that aren't very picky about soil. However, if you have sandy soil, it is always a good idea to plant with some extra compost/manure. You can just throw a couple of handfuls on the soil after you dig your hold, and it will naturally mix in when you use it to plant. Take a look at the blog post about soils for more information. Think you've read this somewhere before? Yes, the prescription for sandy soil is the same as the prescription for clay soil. Compost solves most soil issues.
You can purchase this product from from our website here: Plants in the City Shade Garden Package
]]>Its an ornamental grass, native to most of North America.
It has a rich blue foliage turns sizzling red-orange throughout the fall and bronze into the winter, it grows to 120 cm height and 60 com in width. Its 'bloom time' is August through September and is hardy to zone 4 . It is deer resistant, drought tolerant and low maintenance. It prefers to grow in the sun.
Partly because it is a native plant but also because its versatile and different. As the selection committee writes: "Summer through fall, the slender leaves and stems of little bluestem are an ever-changing kaleidoscope of gray-green, blue, pink, purple, copper, mahogany, red, and orange tones. Wispy silver-white seed heads sparkle in autumn sunlight and coppery brown leaves persist through winter. Little bluestem is a tough and dependable clumping grass that blends well with perennials such as asters, sedums, coneflowers, and other grasses. Native grasses play their part in the pollinator story too. Little bluestem is a larval host for a variety of butterflies and moths"
The Perennial Plant Association is a non profit, North American wide trade association composed of growers, retailers, landscape designers and contractors, educators, and other gardeners who are interested in and promote the use and growth of Perennials. Their mission is to connect professionals, provide education and promote the use of Perennials. Read More
An ornamental grass can find a place in your garden in a number of ways. Alone or as a stand of grass they can form a screen or a backdrop of other plants. They can also add a lot of texture and motion to your garden as the grass will sway or move in the breeze. Additionally, since they are drought resistant and sun loving they can be the perfect plant for a spot that does not get enough water or a lot of sun. And if you have deer, they are generally deer resistant.
The Little Blue Stem will be greenish blue in the growing season, a colour that will pair up well with other flowering plants in your garden and turns to a reddish bronze colour in the fall. Full grown, this grass, while termed little will grow to about 90 cm in height. It is described as 'not too short, not too tall.'
If you want to read more about the use of grasses in your garden, Better Homes and Gardens wrote this great article.
]]>There are lots of good reasons to plant native plants, some more altruistic than others. Are you an altruistic gardener, or simply a lazy one?
Native plants are best suited to live in our climate. They evolved here. Winter, shminter. On May 27 we had snow in Toronto. The next day, all my native flowers were just as perfect as ever. I took the photo below, of native cransebill, Geranium maculatum, the day after snow. They really didn't care much about some late spring cold weather. That's their normal. Compared to many "alien imports" they fare very well with the variations in our weather.
Actually, this is a complete fallacy. It is most important to choose a plant that is right for the conditions that you plant it in. So, if you put a swamp plant such as Lobelia on the top of a hill of sand, it's not going to be happy. Similarly, if you plant Rattlesnake Master in a wet depression, it's not going to be happy either. The good news is that lots of our natives are actually not at all picky, and adapt well to normal garden conditions.
Now, arguably, this can cause it's own problem as you may end up with more of something than you need. But for me, one of the joys of using native plants in my garden is that they often self propagate by making seeds that germinate and pop up in unlikely places. We had our neighbour's Canada Anemone show up between our cedar and our house! It's very heart warming to me to know that these plants are just doing their own thing in my garden. Besides, free plants!
Which, brings up another point. Even if native plants self propagate into a nearby wild place, it would be a good thing. When I walk through our ravines in Toronto, I usually find plants from other parts of the world growing wild there. In some cases these plants are out competing our local native plants, and taking over the growing space. What's the problem with that? Our local insects often can't eat them, so when a non-native plant displaces a native plant there is that much less support for our insects in what seems like a wild place. Allowing non-native plants to take over a wild place can have so many unforeseen consequences to our native insects. I'd rather not be a part of that. So, whenever possible I plant a native plant instead of an import.
In fact, all our native insects. People always think of providing flowers for pollinators, but the real picture is so much more complicated. Insects and plants evolved together and help each other out. Insects need food for all stages of their lives, and places to nest and shelter. For your average cavity nesting bee, that means pollen and nectar at the right time for their mating season to both feed the adults and to store for their infants, a nice dry cavity for their nest. Most of these precious bees spend the majority of their time in their nest as a larva, and only fly as an adult bee for a short few months in the summer. Having native plants in your garden is the number 1 best way to help them out. They evolved along with those plants, and so they give each other what they need to survive.
Another upside of having native plants in your garden is that it will help to balance your local insect population. You'll find that your garden starts to attract more and more different insects, from tiny wasps to lacewings and ladybugs. Spraying for pests eventually becomes a thing of the past. These predator insects will help to take care of the pesty ones, and you won't want to risk hurting them. You will start to see tiny wasps that attack aphids, flys that hide in plain sight by looking just like bumble bees, robber flies, dragon flies, and even assassin bugs. Some of those names are downright alarming. But, really, they aren't interested in us humans in the least. I admit that this world of insects is too huge for me to understand all the interactions, but each one I learn about fascinates me.
And, some of them are drop dead gorgeous! Butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) provides long lasting bright orange flowers. Spikes of Gayfeather (Liatris spicata) are amazing in late summer, and their foliage puts on a second show after cold weather arrives. Prairie smoke's (Geum triflorum) flowers, followed by the wispy seed heads can't be beat in the early summer.
In honour of Canada Day 2021, for the month of June, we are hosting a buy 3 or more and get 10% off for natives sale.
Shop Native Plants]]>Soil should be full of life, which is hard to see, as much of that life is microscopic. But your garden soil should be a thriving, living microcosm that is responsible for providing nutrients to your plants. If your soil is not alive, most plants will have a difficult time living, let alone thriving, in your garden. These microorganisms are responsible for unlocking all that your plants need from the soil, otherwise you are just gardening nothing more than ground up rock.
Factors that could reduce a soils effectiveness include intensive farming, construction and over use of commercial fertilizers. The soil in your garden is probably not the victim of intensive farming, but it could have been left there following construction, as fill or as inexpensive landscaping. And, if you live in area where commercial fertilizers have been over used your soil may also not have had a good balance of nutrients in the first place, or the required nutrients may have leached out over time. Sometimes we need to ameliorate our soil to optimize the plant’s growth, that is feeding your soil.
The current means of fertilizing, that actually grew out looking for a use for excess chemicals after the end of WWII, is to add to the soil the macro-nutrients that plants need and to hope that will be enough. These are the old familiar formula NPK - Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium.
N Nitrogen promotes healthy leaf growth by stimulating the production of chlorophyll necessary for the conversion of sunlight to food.
P Phosphorus support the vigorous development of roots, stems, blossoms and fruits.
K Potassium plays a key role in helping plants digest and manufacture their foods.
General purpose fertilizer: 20 20 20 - This is for balanced feeding. The number mean that 20 percent of the weight of the fertilizer is each element. The remaining 40 will be inert materials and trace elements. However, if you want to boost flower production: you may want a mix more like: 15 30 15. The higher middle number means more phosphorus, which will boost blossom production. Generally speaking, these types of formulas also include trace elements which also feed the plant: calcium, magnesium, iron, copper etc.
There are two types of applications possible:
Granular food which releases nutrients slowly over time and is placed in or on the soil. And water-soluble food that feeds the soil while you water.
Organic fertilizers are derived from plants and animals Old standbys include animal manure and compost. And while these have long been used for garden enrichment, and are great for soil building, but depending upon their source and content they may not have the nutrients that are necessary for, or lacking in, your garden. Manure if taken directly from a farm, has known drawbacks as it may contain unwanted seeds that lead to weeds and grasses infiltrating your garden. Also insufficiently broken down manure may be too potent and burn plants in the garden. There is also the bagged variety of manure however these may have been sanitized to a degree that the wanted microorganisms have been removed. For flower and fruit development traditionally, gardeners have also relied on bonemeal which is high in phosphorus and blood meal which is a source of nitrogen. These would be applied according to the supplier’s instructions.
Whether using organic or chemical fertilizers most products recommend an application in the spring, but not in the rain, as the rain water will leach away the fertilizer. Heavy feeders may need applications twice in the season. Do not fertilize seeds or tiny seedlings as this may cause fertilizer burn. Some plants are considered heavy feeders: chrysanthemums, lupins, lilies, peonies, delphiniums, astilbe, phlox. Some do best without: Butterfly weed, false indigo, asters, monarda, speedwell, cone flowers and ornamental grasses.
More recently, there has been a movement towards overall soil health, and unlocking the natural potential in your soil using living organisms. Coupled with that is the desire to use more natural products and organic methods of gardening. In this regard you could consider a mycorrhizal fungi product. It is used to inoculate the roots of your plants, at planting time, with fungi that form a beneficial network around the roots of the plant, bringing it nutrients. The hyphae (fungal filaments) are many times smaller than roots and grow hundreds of times faster. This allows the plants to tap into their absorptive capacity and grow stronger. The mycorrhizae solubilize and transport mineral nutrients in the soil back to the plant. Plants typically trade excess carbohydrates (sugar, starch) in return.
Plants in the City is happy to announce a new product in our catalogue to help optimize your garden soil. Root rescue is a mycorrhizal fungi product. Root Rescue is a product intended for use only at planting time so that the beneficial soil fungi go to work immediately helping your new plants, and the beneficial network you create will stay with your new plant for life. Once and Done!
You will use one 4.5 gram package of Root Rescue and mix it with 7.5 litres of water and use it to water in your new plants. One package should be enough for four to five plants. For a more detailed discussion, and to read about University of Guelph Efficacy Trials, go to https://www.rootrescue.com/site/home
Additionally Plants in the City has added a totally organic fertilizer to our catalogue: Acti-sol Fertilizers. Acti-sol does take more of a traditional fertilizer approach, but in the most basic unprocessed way possible, that is still feeding the soil and it's microbes. The Acti-sol pure hen manure product (Multipurpose Organic Fertilizer) that we have added to our line is just that, dried hen manure. 100% natural. It doesn't contain any fillers, soil, compost, sludge, binding agents or synthetic products and is approved for organic agriculture. It is a great, efficient, all purpose fertilizer and will give a boost to your newly planted perennials.
To use it, spread 1/4cup per 11 sq ft (or 40g/square meter) on the ground around established plants, or mix in 1/2 a cup with soil at planting time.
The second Acti-sol product (Perennial & Annual Flowers Organic Fertilizer) is a mix of hen manure, feather meal and potash sulfate, It is intended specifically for a more balanced all purpose fertilizer for perennials, annuals, roses, fruit trees, hanging baskets and balcony planters. It has a high organic matter content to improve water retention. Their recommendation is to use 2/3 cup per 11 sq ft (120g/square meter) for established perennials or annuals, or 1/3c per hanging basket. This can be repeated every 4 to 6 weeks throughout the growing season. You can read more about the Acti-sol line of products at their website. https://acti-sol.ca/en/
Nothing is perfect in this world, including the soil in your garden. These items are but two of the many items available to ameliorate the growing conditions of your garden. Each of them takes a slightly different approach to soil health. They can be used singly or together, depending upon your garden's individual situation. However, you must be the judge of what works for you, your garden, and your soil conditions. As always, we welcome your feedback about these and all of our products.
See Products]]>Over the last few years, the advice around this topic has changed considerably. We used to cleanup every last leaf, cut back all our plants, and make everything as tidy as possible. Whew, what a lot of work. Now we are beginning to understand that our gardens need to be a part of nature in order to thrive, and that our insects need our help. Now, the best advice is to clean up only as needed for the health of your plants. And, since most of our plants thrive perfectly happily in the wild with no help at all, that means minimal cleanup. But, there are a few tasks you should take care of in the fall.
If you still have a lawn, don't allow leaves to sit on it. Instead, gently rake those leaves into your garden beds. That will allow any insects hiding in the leaves to survive, feed your soil as the leaves break down, and protect your soil over the winter. But, don't go overboard. You shouldn't bury the crowns of your sun loving perennials, especially those that prefer a dry environment. You don't want wet soggy leaves rotting those.
Generally, your perennial garden beds shouldn't need much in terms of soil feeding. But, if you have large trees around, or you have been carefully cleaning up every fall, you may need to find a way to add more vegetative matter to your garden. In that case you can add compost to your garden. How to do that? Rake the leaves into your beds, and the worms and small creatures will take care of it by spring. Or, you can top dress with a centimeter of compost either in the fall or spring. That just means sprinkling it on top. I'm not a fan of digging anything into your beds, as I never understood the theory that you could help a plant by disturbing its roots.
No, you don't need to wrap up your plants in tight little burlap bundles. The purpose of that is to keep the salt from busy roads off of the plants. So, unless you live by a highway, you probably don't need to do that. If you have plants that are more tender, and in a windy site, you may want to erect a wind screen using poles and burlap. Make these strong, otherwise they'll likely blow over onto the plant you are actually trying to protect and break it.
Fall is a great time for moving or dividing plants. If you move them now, then in the spring they are most likely to wake up in their new home and forget all about the old one. Here are a couple of tips for fall planting. Make sure to 'plant them well'. Now is not the time to do a sloppy planting job, their roots need to be spread out in those holes, and the soil firmed well around them to avoid heaving over the winter. Make sure they are well watered going into winter. In the spring they will likely still have compromised roots from their move, and you don't want them to also be thirsty and unable to support new growth. Don't worry about the leaves. In the fall the leaves are naturally dying back and if they are already yellow, or spotted, you can just cut them off without any worries. The new ones will grow in the spring, and those old ones have already done their job for the season.
Many of our winged friend stick around all winter, and need lots of fuel to stay warm. An easy way to help them is to leave the seed heads on your plants. You will be rewarded with visits by birds throughout the winter. I remember watching a robin eating rose hips during an ice storm. I was so glad I hadn't chopped that down in the fall. Chickadees will eat the seeds from your goldenrod, and finches will cleanup up the cone flower buffet. Bonus, they are fun to watch. All you needed to do is stop dead heading.
You want to get all diseased plant matter out of your garden. Powdery mildew and other fungus survive winter as spores. So, you'd like to get those out of your garden. Also clean up anything you think will be too ugly through the winter. Personally, once grasses fall over or break I don't like the look of them. Sometime mid winter those tend to disappear from my garden. Fall can be a good time to tackle perennial weeds that just won't go away! That dog strangling vine at the back of your flowerbed, or that garlic mustard that will simply still be there in the spring if you don't eradicate it now!
Also, I do cleanup hostas. They get so yucky after the first few frosts, and I often find slugs hiding out in the center of them. If you can keep 1 slug from surviving winter, that's an entire extended slug family stopped from chomping on your hostas the next year.
Take a moment to clean, sharpen and oil your tools. You'll appreciate it next spring when your clippers cut cleanly.
Turn off your outdoor water, drain your hose. Connect the two ends together to keep it from dripping when you move it inside.
Enjoy the view of your garden sleeping through the winter. Consider what you will do next season, and remember the joys your garden brought you this summer.
]]>It's a lot to ask of a new plant to grow roots, new leaves, and flowers all at the same time. So, especially for those plants that bloom in the spring, now is the best time to plant. If you are thinking of a peony, bleeding heart, daylily, canada anemone, lungwort, or other spring bloomer, get them in the ground now.
Even for plants that will bloom later in the season, it's easier to get established in the fall. The cool weather means that it is less of a struggle to support leaves, and, anyways, those leaves will be dropped in a few weeks so they aren't even as important by now. The soil tends to stay warm for a while, making it easier to grow roots than first thing in the damp cold spring soil.
Some people plant right up until the ground freezes. But, I'd recommend not being quite that aggressive. In any case, we can never tell when that might be. For years the only time I had to work on my own garden was the end of October. At the time I was surprised that all those plants survived and thrived and now that's why I wholeheartedly recommend fall planting. Mid to End of October is usually safe enough in Toronto.
As with any planting, you should make sure your plant is going into appropriate soil. For instance, lavender will want a well drained sunny spot, but other plants are happier with wet feet. Watering is important - but remember that your soil isn't going to dry out as fast in cooler weather. You want to make sure that your plant gets the water it needs to grow roots, even if nothing happens above ground.
You should take precautions to make sure that your new plant doesn't heave over the winter. What's heaving? That's when the freeze/thaw cycle in the soil lifts solid things out of the soil. Ever notice there are more pebbles on top of your soil in the spring? If your plant doesn't root out very fast, and the root ball is basically still the shape of the pot it came in, it can heave. That will expose the roots to winter, at a time when it is unlikely anyone will come to it's rescue. To avoid this, make sure to massage the roots of your new plant and spread them in the planting hole. Backfill carefully around the plant so that there is garden soil over the roots. Mulch around the plant to reduce the freeze thaw cycle.
Sometimes when we plant in the fall, we find that the plant drops its leaves early. This is simply the plant going dormant, and holding onto it's energy rather than supporting leaves. Usually it is not a problem; just, it can happen. In the spring, chances are your plant will wake up from dormancy and forget that it was ever in that nasty old pot and love it's new home.
We still have lots of stock. We will be able to supply plants right up into October. However, there are some popular items that sell out and won't be available again until spring. If you are considering two different plants, and would be happy with a particular substitute, let us know.
Because of our business model, purchasing plants from a wholesale supplier on your behalf, we don't have benches full of plants that have been languishing in a garden center to get rid of before winter. Our costs don't change as we get into fall. None the less, we are offering a fall sale this season. BUY 4 PLANTS, GET 1 FREE. Just put your 5 plants in your cart and checkout withe the checkout code FallFolly.
Shop Now]]>What, Why, When, How
We seem to wait all winter for the garden to come up and to start to bloom, and then suddenly the show is over, the blossoms have faded, dried up, partly disintegrated. This is your clue. Now is the time for deadheading, or as one article was cleverly entitled: "off with their heads!" Perhaps you could shout this as you do it, to make yourself feel better about the fact that for these flowers their day has come and gone.
So, what exactly if deadheading? It is the process of removing the dead or dying flower blossom so that the plant does not spend its energy on setting seeds.
It seems like such a shame to have to cut off the flowers it took so long to grow, but there are two main reasons why you would engage in this practice. The first is really enticing: REBLOOM. Some perennials if deadheaded in a timely fashion will reward you with a second show of colour. By removing the spent blooms, the plant has enough new energy to refocus and set a second round of buds. Not all perennials will favour you with a second coming but there is a chance with the following: Baby's breaths, Bee balms, Blanket Flowers, Mallow, Dianthus, Delphiniums, Foxglove, Geum, Hollyhocks, Lavender, Phlox, Salvia, Shasta Daisies and Yarrow, to name few. The second reason, which is equally valid, but less fun is: IMPROVED APPEARANCE. After all appearance is what makes the garden. These perennials will not rebloom but the garden will look neater and more appealing if the spent blooms are removed. Perennials in this category include: Iris, Bell Flower, Coral Bells, Daylilies, Hostas, Peonies, Bleeding Heart and Rose Mallows.
Don't fool yourself, you will know when its time to cut off the head of the dead tulip, the dead peony, the dead day lily. It doesn't require much explanation, once the flower begins to fade, closes, shrivels or turns brown, its time to remove it. There are a few exceptions, Allium once faded from purple can still make a show in the garden, hydrangea can look good in its brown golden stage, but most of the rest in your garden is just hanging around to no purpose.
Choosing the exact point to make a deadheading cut can seem confusing. There is talk of a lateral leaf, lateral flower, new bud, no new bud. For most plants, however, all you need to remember is to cut spent flowers and stems back to a point where there is a new flower or bud. If no new flower is apparent, prune the stem back to a lateral leaf, that is the next leaf on the stem. The general rule of your green thumb when deadheading is to cut off a flower - the whole flower, not just its petals - and its stem, but to just above the first leaf below the dead flower. Don't leave a naked stem sticking up in the air, cut it back cleanly to encourage new growth from the base of the plant.
Some people claim to find deadheading contemplative or a form of meditation. I cannot say I fall into that category. So, don't be overwhelmed by the task at hand. Make it a plan to clip a few each night or each morning as a way to keep up. You will be rewarded, not only with a tidier garden but hopefully with a reshow of some of your favourites.
Shop Now]]>Did you grow up with flurry of garden activity from Mother’s day til May 24th. We sure did. Everything seemed to culminate in the May long weekend, after that it was only tending, weeding and watering, but everything was certainly in the ground. Ah, old school thinking.
In the modern age we have many resources on the internet to help us with determining when to plant and when is it too late. Let’s look at a few.
We plant after the last frost, okay that seems good. But then last year it snowed in April. According to the Farmer’s Almanac we should keep a frost diary, relying on historical data to decide when to plant. You probably don’t have one of these if you are new to gardening. I only know one person who has one.
Or perhaps you want to try taking the soil’s temperature, but this website, which was suggesting a range of 15 degrees to 35 degrees, failed to indicate how deep we needed to trowel to insert the thermometer. Not to mention that’s a 20-degree temperature swing.
Alternatively, we can eschew weather all together and go with moon phases. The theory is that perennials should be planted in the dark phase of the moon, when it is waning or from the day after the Moon is full until the day before it is new again. Most of us are so busy that we can just plant after we finish our work day, its already dark.
To start off we say that a plant is always better off in the ground than in it a pot. So, now is the best time. Whenever you are reading this is the right time. Well, if the ground isn’t frozen. If you can dig, its not frozen.
If you have clay soil, and because our springs tend to be very wet, it’s best to wait until the world dries up a bit. Otherwise, you’ll be crushing the soil structure, and causing it to be compacted right where those new roots need to grow.
Probably not. Almost all perennials go dormant in the winter and will simply wake up where ever they find themselves. So long as the soil isn’t actually frozen, you can probably plant.
Nope. The plants that we provide are kept in top condition by our growers until we bring them to you. They’ll adjust happily to their new digs.
We do recommend avoiding planting in extremely hot weather. In extremely hot weather plants tend to have more problems getting enough water to their leaves which causes wilting, so it’s better to avoid that. If you must plant in hot weather, we recommend that you dig your planting holes, and then top them up with water and wait for that to settle, before you finish filling in the hole with dirt and the plant. Then water again. In fact, this is always the best way to plant.
Think about your site. If it is extremely exposed, or particularly difficult site, you will have most success in the spring planting season, May and June and fall planting season, September to the end of October.
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Hopefully, you already have a garden bed prepared. If you are considering adding amendments, before or at planting time is the right time to do it. If you have poor or compacted soil, consider adding additional compost or well rotted manure right in the planting hole or to the soil you remove and then use for planting. Otherwise, my preferred method is to simply distribute the compost on top of the soil. If you do it before you plant new plants, you will naturally mix up your amendments as you plant. Bugs and worms and other creatures will do your work for you to bring top dressings down to the root zone. It seems silly to dig up a plant to add amendments around it's roots, so I don't ever dig amendments into an established bed.
If there is mulch, push it out of the way to make a space for the planting hole, and also to pile the soil you dig out temporarily. Ideally, you want your plant to end up at the same level in the soil as it is in the pot. So, avoid disturbing the soil that will end up underneath it. That disturbed soil will settle, and the plant will end up settling with it and be too deep. Also, ideally, all of the soil that you remove from the hole should be used to plant with. If you dig your hole a bit wider, you may be surprised to find out that it all goes back in.
To remove the plant from it's pot, the easiest way is to tip it upside down and hold it in one hand with your fingers on either side of the plant. Then, remove the pot with your other hand. Occasionally, a plants roots will fill the pot so tightly that it doesn't come off easily. In extreme cases you may need to tip the plant right way up again and cut the pot off of the plant.
Now, you should decide if there is anything that needs to be done for your new plant's roots. Ideally, the answer is nothing, you see a few roots in the ball of soil you are holding and can just tip it right side up again in the hole. But, sometimes, you may see some roots circling around and around. These roots should be gently pulled out so that they aren't going around and around any more. If they are really long, you can simply cut them off. (Really, the plant will grow more). You do not need to dig a super deep hole so that they go straight down.
If you find a solid mass of roots, then your plant is quite root bound and needs some more attention. Try to break up that root ball, and tease out some roots, so that it they will grow out away from the plant. If necessary, you can cut off some of the roots with a sharp knife or pruners. If you have a solid mass of roots to deal with, don't worry too much, that plant is obviously of the kind that grows roots easily, and will grow more once it's in the ground. You do want to make sure that the circling roots are interrupted, so if you can't do anything else, slice through the outer layer of roots.
Place your plant in the hole, spread out it's roots if necessary and fill up the outside with about half of the soil. Then, fill up the hole with water. The water is going to do 2 things. It will water your new plant, and it will pull the soil into any voids. You don't want big air pockets around your plants, as roots will not grow into a big air pocket.
Once the water seeps into the hole, finish back filling with the rest of the soil. You should be able to get all of that soil back into the hole.You want the soil firm, but not squished. You can press about as hard as you would press a slightly overstuffed suitcase. Redistribute any mulch again.
Yes, again. To help that plant to settle.
Usually plants start to get established easily and right away, but occasionally they suffer transplant shock. The plant wilts, and simply looks like it wants to die. The best treatment is to water it a little bit every day, and hope it revives.
Unfortunately, there isn't one simple answer for this question, because it depends upon so many factors. However, your new plant certainly needs more care for its first year. You should plan to water regularly, and deeply, for it's first season. Your new plants should not be allowed to completely dry out, but neither do you want to drown them.
Ideally, no. Perennials are a long term investment, so you want them to naturally grow to their final size. Trying to hurry them along with extra fertilizer is more likely to cause them to outgrow their roots, and then not have the root mass to survive future stresses, such as the likely event of a drought in August. If your garden exhibits problems that are due to a nutrient deficiency, then work towards fixing that specific problem. But, most garden soils do not need any additional fertilizers for perennials unless you have some plants with unusual requirements.
]]>Contrary to common opinion, paper yard bags actually do stand up fairly well for storage. The secret is to make sure that everything you put into them is dry, and that you don't store them on wet soil. Alternatively, the city will pick up yard waste in open topped bins - such as the old blue bin you've been keeping in your garage. For the last Toronto pick up however the City requested bags only in order for them to be manually picked up. We will have to see what if any changes the future brings.
This might just revolutionize your gardening practices. It's so simple, and easy. Cutting down your plants, collecting them, and bagging everything turns out to be quite a chore. Instead, simply chop everything into smaller pieces and let it fall where it will in the garden. This serves several purposes: It creates an instant mulch, it returns the nutrients back to the place they came from, it creates places for beneficial insects to live. It does look a bit messier at first, but after your plants grow up through it, it really isn't at all noticeable. Some things to be careful of: if your plants have any fungal or mildew pests, you should get that out of your garden. For example that white chalkiness that sometimes appears on the leaves of peonies or bee balm, those leaves should be discarded. If your plants are some that you want to keep from self seeding, don't drop their seeds for example you can have columbines or poppies everywhere if you crush up their dried seed pods and scatter them as mulch.
If you look on the interweb you can undoubtedly find lots of expensive and complicated advice regarding composting. But, at it's heart, composting is simply allowing plant material to break down in the presence of air. If you have a back corner, you can simply pile up yard waste. To help it along, several times a year mix all the material, try to mix new green materials with older brown materials, and possibly add a bit of soil to make sure it is inoculated with microbes to help everything decompose. So long as you aren't adding any food scraps, there should be no concerns about unwanted animals. For more hints about composting try: https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/home-composting-zmaz06onzraw For more scientific information about composting try: https://www.livescience.com/63559-composting.html
You can take the left over evergreen branches out of your winter display and use them as mulch, or to protect small plants emerging in the variable spring weather. You can take the tall dried stalks of ornamental grasses and (after removing the seed heads), cut them and use them as straw mulch. In fact, I don't think there is any difference from actual straw. You can use this on your tomato bed, or around your strawberries to retain moisture and reduce weeds. Larger logs that are actually woody can be used as fire wood, and smaller branches as kindling. If you don't have a fire place yourself, perhaps you can find someone who would like to pick up these items.
At this time of year many insects desperately need to shelter provided by last year's plant growth. Cleaning up too early leaves them exposed or worse, collects them up and then you inadvertently dispose of them. You may come across various advice suggesting a particular temperature after which it's ok to clean up, but the fact is that insects, both good and bad, live in your garden all year around. In terms of supporting our native pollinators, the best action is as little action as possible.
This variation in your practices will be beneficial to your garden. You'll be surprised how little of the ground litter persists. It mostly gets eaten and drawn underground by worms. Here is a great video of how that works. https://youtu.be/n3wsUYg3XV0
Shop Now]]>Asking me to choose only 10 favourite perennials is, well, like asking a mom which of her kids is her favourite. First of all, you love them all differently, so you can't possibly rank them. And, even if you could, that ranking probably changes from day to day, mood to mood, and there is never really only one answer. I tried. I really did. But I ended up with 15 instead of 10, and there are so many that should also be on this list. Here are my top 15 picks, in no particular order, because ranking them is pointless.
Butterfly milk week (also goes by the name of Butterfly weed) hardly needs any introduction any more. A few years ago you would have been hard pressed to find this plant, or even anyone who wanted to grow it. But, it's the darling of monarch butterfly support with good cause. The caterpillars need milkweed species to survive and grow to adulthood. The bonus is that this plant is also a prolific bloomer, with shockingly orange or red flowers and will re-bloom if you deadhead as they are spent. In late fall the seed heads also take on fall colours before they finally dry and release their seeds attached to floating feathers.
Gillenia, or Bowman's Root, is a terribly under used native plant that can add a different texture and colour, especially in a shady spot. This is such a dainty choice, as the blooms seem to float in the air above the foliage. Afterwards the red seed heads persist into winter.
For those of us who are eternally on the search for something just a little bit different for our garden, there is the native Prairie Smoke - Guem triflorum. As the flowers turn to seed heads, they become silky and feathery plumes that resemble smoke close to the ground. It thrives in hot dry spots, or any well drained soil.
This plant is on the list for purely nostalgic reasons. I had purple delphinium flowers in my wedding bouquet more than 25 years ago. Every time I see this flower I remember how lucky I was to meet my husband and give thanks for his years of tolerance for my horticultural pursuits. Thanks Phil!
This is exactly a case in point. Who could possibly choose just one hosta? While I do love June hosta - she's got lots of different yellow and chartreuse shades, and thick durable leaves, my love for June doesn't diminish my love for the other 100 or so hostas that we carry. One hosta is never enough, start a collection.
I came across this plant for the first time in a client's garden. What is that? It took a certain amount of sleuthing, but I found out that there is a blue cousin to the better known red lobelia. Great blue lobelia, also native here in Southern Ontario, should be in any garden. It like its cousin, Great Blue Lobelia prefers a medium to wet soil and some shade. The lobelia tend to be fairly short lived perennials, with seeds lying dormant in the soil to fill in a spot suddenly left empty by some natural change, like a tree falling over. Have fun watching the bumble bees fight to get inside those flowers, and eat with their little bums hanging outside.
Yarrow is a no nonsense easy care perennial that will slowly spread in your garden. The flat flower heads have a floating quality, and are a favourite for butterflies. I see a never ending parade of tiny carpenter bees mine (they are only about 3mm big!). I like the terra cotta because it combines a silvery foliage with the salmon pink to terra cotta flowers, but there are several other yarrow's available if you prefer a different colour.
True confession, I really can't tell all the cultivars of switch grass (Panicum) apart. But, it hardly matters, as they are all graceful and beautiful. Panicum is a warm season grass, so it sprouts a bit late in the spring. Every year I'm sure I've lost mine, and then suddenly realise - look it is alive. It is a host plant for the skipper and satyr butterflies. Do not cut them back in the winter, as they provide important shelter for small mammals (even bumble bees) and birds will come to feed on the seeds. Besides, they look great with a dusting of snow on them.
This was an easy choice. Who could not love the pink and purple asters that grow up to 6 feet tall without any human intervention at all along our roadways late in the fall? They are one of the critically important late season nectar and pollen sources for our native insects and is a larval host plant for the pearl crescent butterfly. Although they prefer moist soil, they will grow almost anywhere. Just give them enough space, and perhaps plant something in front of them as they can get messy by the end of the season. You can also pinch back the stems in July to create a shorter fuller bloom.
This is a sterile selection of evening primrose that is well behaved in the garden, and won't self seed all over the place. After a long bloom with a profusion bright yellow flowers, the foliage provides great fall colour. It's best in a sunny location, and is quite drought tolerant after it is established.
With so many different garden sages on the market, how come I fall back on the old standard Caradonna? Because, simply, I like it best. Sage will re-bloom if you deadhead it, but with Caradonna, the dark purple stems persist even after the flowers are spent. Although the salvias are not native, they are certainly loved by all our nectar eating insects, and you'll have a great time watching them visit. Plant this one in full sun for best results.
This is another plant that instantly caught my attention in a client's garden and is a little known native plant. With tall spikes of white flowers, it reminds me of a candelabra. Its a great choice for a rain garden, as it prefers moisture but is fairly tolerant of drought once established. It's going to need some space to reach it's 2m tall and 1.2m wide stature and is a long lived perennial.
I love golden rod. There is one for every garden, and to support insects we really need to grow more of them. There are entire ecosystems of insects that live only on our golden rods. In the fall, as all your other flowers are fading, go stand in a patch of golden rod. Watch all the different insects coming by to feed before the cold winter hits. If you aren't a fan of the somewhat thuggish wild Canada Goldenrod, then I encourage you to choose some other better behaved option. If you get push back from people telling you that these are weeds that cause hay fever, that's an opportunity to educate them that golden rod pollen is heavy and sticky, so it does not float in the air, and does not generally cause allergic responses. Leave the seed heads on in the fall and you'll be visited by chickadees and finches coming by for the seeds.
This is another plant for those who seek the weird and wonderful. The flowers have a definite other world attitude. The fuzzy leaves are a source of nesting materials for the wool carder bees, who come along and gather fibers. This is a fantastic ground cover for a sunny border, and will give a different silvery texture to the garden.
Hepatica is one of the first woodland spring ephemeral flowers. It has almost evergreen leathery leaves, and will slowly spread to form a larger clump if given rich shady moist soil. Every year I look forward to seeing hepatica blooming after the long winter.
Shop Now]]>You may not know this about me, but I used to be a homeschooler. Our homeschool probably wasn't what you imagine. It usually involved getting together with a group of families, with kids of all different ages, to explore some topic, loosely defined. Since so many people suddenly find themselves at home with their kids for the next 3 weeks, I thought I'd put together a list of horticulturally inspired activities to keep everyone busy. It's a little early for most growing projects. At least here in Toronto, the weather won't be good for planting for another few weeks. So, I've put together a list of spring activities that you can do right now. Pick one or two, or better yet, let your kids pick.
My advice is to not worry too much about what they learn, only worry that they are investigating stuff. My daughter says the most important thing she learned while homeschooling was how to learn independently. Now she's a PhD student and she uses this skill every day. If someone is bored, then they need to check the details more closely. It's almost always in the details, and kids are surprisingly good at details.
This is just an example of looking for the details. It looks like just some boring old rock. Turn it over. At this time of year there is a whole slew of life happening under that rock. How many worms can you count? Ew what is that thing? A beetle larva? Rolly pollies are so cute! Look how they curl up! If you have a magnifying glass stuck in some drawer somewhere, this is a good time to get it out. Depending upon your student, you could just look at all the interesting creatures, or name all the creatures, or investigate the life cycle of one creature. You get the idea. Just remember that it is their home you are visiting. Put the rock back gently.
This could be a competitive contest or a collaborative activity. How many different signs can you find? Are there any sprouts up in the garden yet? What about buds swelling on trees? Are any of the trees in flower? What about mud. Sorry, mom, mud is a sure sign of spring. Splat.
Take some used chicken bones, or maybe a toy dinosaur, and bury it. A sandbox would be good to contain the event, but not absolutely necessary. Let the kids discover it and carefully clean it up using a small paint brush. If you have a budding paleontologist on your hands, here is a great link for some ideas to improve that experience. https://www.parentingscience.com/dinosaurs-for-kids.html
You'll already know if this is right for your kids. Splat. It goes well with various mud exploration activities. Someone dresses up in a raincoat and acts like a dirty car. Someone else uses soft sponges and brushes and a hose to wash the dirty car. Actually, I think this is a grammar exercise. Human car wash. Is that human car, or human washer of cars? Afterwards, snuggle up to read the book Eats Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss.
Depending upon the age of your kids, and their fitness level, you may want to be there spotting them, or you might just send them off. Good climbing trees have lots of sturdy branches near the ground and for new climbers a safety talk is in order. Also, avoid dead branches. Look down from this new perspective. Draw a picture inspired by the view from the tree. Or, climb higher than your friend, and snap a picture. You may want to do the drawing part at home, or in the tree, or at a picnic table.
Most spring flowers are great for dissection, as they have all the basic parts big enough to see. Another homeschooling mom already wrote this great blog post about how to dissect a flower with kids. https://www.classichousewife.com/2010/02/18/flower-dissections-tulips-and-daisies/ .
This is surprisingly easy, but takes practice. My son says that even though I've been "teaching" him for years, he still has no idea about trees, and this is a very specialized and skilled activity. I say, anyone could learn. Firstly, you need to learn some vocabulary about parts of the tree. Concepts such as tree shapes, alternate vs opposite branch structures, shape of leaf scar, shapes for buds, colours of bark all help. Then, with a decent resource, you'll be equipped to identify many of the trees in your neighbourhood. Here's a link to get you started. https://www.thoughtco.com/dormant-tree-identification-gallery-4122781 In a few weeks you can come back to the same trees and check out their leaves and flowers to find out if you were right.
Seeds are totally fascinating. Check out all the different colours, shapes, smells and flavours in your spices. Maybe you even have some spices that are used as whole seeds, such as pepper, celery seed, dill seed etc. With a toothpick, a bottle of Elmer's glue, a sheet of art paper and an ounce of creativity you'll end up with fresh artwork for the kitchen wall.
You could even plan a sale and have a little entrepreneurial lesson at the same time. Many houseplants propagate quite easily. For succulents, such as aloe or snakeplant, you usually take a leaf and let it dry out for a day or two and them simply plant the end of it in soil. Many other plants, such as Swedish ivy, root easily in a jar of water. (Which is pretty cool, 'cause you can see the roots!) There are so many resources on line for this, and it may depend upon the type of plant you have, that I'll leave it to you to do a bit of specific research.
Bean sprouts grow easily from many of the dried beans and lentils you probably have in your cupboard. Sprouting is easy, and afterwards tasty and nutritious. But, please, do heed the warnings to make sure your beans start off clean and consider cooking rather than eating them raw. https://www.seriouseats.com/2011/04/how-to-grow-bean-sprouts-in-a-jar-slideshow.html
Soil comes in all sorts of colours and textures, and is the basis of life. Try the art of soil painting. You don't need fancy stuff, just some supply of different colours of soil/sand, a bit of water and some Elmer's glue should do the trick. But, for inspiration, please watch this amazing video. https://youtu.be/XTLdsLadom0
Would you prefer to avoid the grocery store? Garlic mustard and dandelions are already growing and are perfectly edible. Harvest with a clean knife and wash them well. Steam or stir fry with lots of butter and garlic. Garlic mustard also makes good pesto.
If you take a look at forsythia branches in the early spring, you'll see that they are all set to flower and just waiting on some warm weather. Cut a few and put them in a vase inside. In a few days you'll be rewarded with fantastic yellow flowers for your table.
This could lead to a discussion about how plants respond to environmental stimuli such as temperature and day length. And, even, perhaps, how one of the problems of climate change is that the insects and plants that rely on each other, may rely upon different environmental stimuli. Here is an article that discusses the changes in phenology (timing.) and has several links to follow up on the topic. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-climate-change-messing-bees-ability-pollinate-180956523/
Choose a specific plant. What makes them joyous? What makes them angry? What do they need that is different from what another character in your story needs?
This may be something you remember from your childhood, but it never ceases to amaze anyways. Take a stalk of celery, or a flower, cut off the end freshly and stick it in a glass with food colouring. You'll be able to see the coloured water move up the stem in a few hours when the colour shows up at the tips of the leaves and petals. There is a great explanation of how it works and what processes are causing this to happen here. https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/colorful-carnations/
Sorry, I just couldn't resist adding in a toilet paper topic. Seriously, just don't.
There are lots more ideas at this great website https://kidsgardening.org/garden-activities/ .
These ideas are brought to you by your local online nursery serving Toronto and Mississauga. https://plantsinthecity.ca
Shop Now]]>The soil in most areas of Toronto and Mississauga is Luvic soil. Feel like that helps? Not really? So lets use words we really understand. You have clay soil. So think about clay you played with as a child and then think of gardening. Its hard to see where they meet. We have a few suggestions and tips to help you with what you have. If you want to be more informed about the soil or just look at an interesting map check out: https://soilsofcanada.ca/ And Luvic soil is described here. http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/taxa/cssc3/chpt08.html#distinguishing
Most of Toronto has clay based soil. (If you are in one of the pockets that has sandy soil, see below) That means that when it gets wet, it tends to stay wet. When it gets dry, it tends to crack and get fissures. If you dig it, or drive over it, or even walk over it when it is wet, you will compact it easily. Then, once it is dry again, it will have the texture of hardened concrete. And, well, that's certainly not ideal.
On the upside, clay soil is generally very rich in minerals. No need for fancy amendments.
You may live in a part if Toronto or Mississauga that has sandy soil. Or you may have a mix of both. Here are the tips for sandy soil.
Well..it’s kind of the opposite..because sand drains so well that you can’t keep the soil wet. But, surprise! The solutions are all the same.
If you want to read more on that subject of soil and how to tackle clay and sand soil we recommend the following:
https://www.finegardening.com/article/improving-clay-soils Its an American article but not area specific, and concentrates more on vegetables over flowering plants. But its very readable and shows you how to roll the clay soil in your fingers to test for "clayness". https://gardening.usask.ca/article-list-soils/misconception-adding-sand-to-clay-soils.php This is a Canadian resource with the same basic message.
Title: Nature's Best Hope; A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard Author: Douglas W. Tallamy, 2019.
I always enjoy reading Douglas Tallamy’s books. They are full of insights, deep knowledge of North American ecosystems, and yet very accessible. Page by page I learn tidbits of interesting information, woven into a whole plan for improving the planet in which we live. Sometimes I feel like one of the fledglings that he talks about, there is so much to learn. Tallamy's book is focused on the US, but we can certainly use his advice here in Southern Ontario as well. The specific ecosystems may be different, but the principles are the same.
Until now much of our conservation efforts have focused on tracts of land where we try to preserve a natural environment. However, Tallamy points out that these are too few and far between. In order to preserve viable populations of our wild creatures, we need to create bigger and more interconnected areas for them. The big idea of Tallamy’s new book is that we need a “Homegrown National Park.”. In the contiguous US83% of land is privately owned; the lowest hanging fruit for this endeavour is the land we each privately own. In Canada this is not the case, as 89% of Canada is crown land, just not so much of it in our own bio-region. In short, he is talking about our backyards, the land around our places of work, and any other scrap of land that isn’t already paved over. We need to step away from the idea that nature exists somewhere else. Nature exists right where you are and we all need to practice stewardship.
He points out that insects are the primary mechanism through which energy from the sun is transferred to animal life. “Most vertebrates do not eat plants directly, far more often, they eat insects that have converted the plant sugars and carbohydrates in to the vital proteins and fats that fuel complex food webs.“. Not only do they pollinate the huge number of plants on earth, they provide many other essential ecological services as well. A healthy population of insects is vital to a healthy ecosystem. In order to preserve life on earth, we need to preserve the insects.
Ninety percent of insects that eat plants, can only eat the plants that they co-evolved with. Wow! Think about that!
If your garden has mostly plants that evolved in other locales, then it is unlikely they are plants that your local insects can use. I've observed that this is often a reason for bringing foreign plants into ornamental gardens. They simply don’t get eaten as much. But, if you want to have a healthy ecosystem, then you need to provide food for your insects to eat. So, you need to provide local native plants for them.
Research has shown that there are a few genera of plants that are key to providing an ecosystem that can support many insects. These are the keystone genera, and are required even if there is otherwise a wide variety of plants. “Throughout most of the United States, native oaks, cherries, willows, birches, cottonwoods, and elms are the top woody producers, while goldenrods, asters and sunflowers lead the herbaceous pack...”. Here in Toronto, we should look to local references such as the Grow Wild in Carolinian Canada program. (https://caroliniancanada.ca/grow-wild).
Shrink your lawn – it’s not doing it’s fair share to support species.
Remove invasive species – those introduced plants that tend to spread.
Plant keystone genera – that can do the heavy lifting to support more species.
Be generous with your plantings – increase the abundance and diversity of your plantings.
Plant for specialist pollinators – so that both the specialists and generalist insects can be supported.
Network with neighbours – two yards are bigger than one.
Build a conservative landscape – think ecologically in all you do. Do you need a light on all night? It’s really gonna mess up the moths!
Create caterpillar pupation sites under you trees – they need a place to live in the winter too.
Do not spray or fertilize – most native plants are adapted to the low nitrogen soils and don’t need fertilization. (Bonus!)
Educate your neighbours – get everyone involved.
At Plants in the City we have a substantial list of native perennials in our catalog available for delivery right to your front door. Take a look the “Best Natives” and the “All our Native Plants” collections to select plants to add to your garden.
Browse the Online Nursery]]>
What does that even mean in the gardening world?
All plants and gardens are not created equal. And because at Plants in the City we want your garden to flourish we therefore want to ensure that you buy a perennial that will thrive in your area. That is why you will see on the website that all plants are tagged with respect to their zone.
But what is a gardening zone?
Zones are a measure of hardiness. Canada's hardiness map is divided into 9 zones: from 0, which is the harshest - to 8, the mildest. Just to further confuse you there are sub zones for example an “a” zone and a “b” zone are provided for all zones except 8, which consists of 8a only. “A” is harsher, ”B” is less harsh.
Toronto is generally considered Zone 6.
Mississauga is also generally considered Zone 6.
However, the hardiness zones differ even within the greater Toronto area, where parts of Mississauga fall into zone 6b,and Etobicoke can be considered zone 7a.
Within the GTA, the specifics of your landscape can push you higher or lower. Close to Lake Ontario, you’re more likely to be Zone 6b or you might have a micro-climate (a pocket that is a zone unto itself) that’s Zone 7. In a more exposed situation, or farther from the lake, you might be 5a or 5b.
We recommend that you think about your micro-climate when interpreting these zones. Here are some hints:
If you are in zone 6a, but the wind howls over your garden all winter, plant something extra hardy.
If you are planting on an apartment balcony, or roof garden, assume you need everything to be a couple of zones hardier.
On the north side of your house you probably have a later spring than on the south sunny side.
As gardeners we need to pay attention to these details when deciding if a plant is going to thrive in our yard.
You will notice that we carry plants that are not hardy in your zone...we carry those for people who need them for their yard. You are responsible for making your own decisions about this.
So bottom line you have to get to know your garden. You might have a sheltered spot where you can grow plants normally rated for a slightly warmer zone. We mean 7 not 11.
We are supplying this neat link to a garden zones map https://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-canada-hardiness-gardening-zone-map.php (we apologize for the annoying advertising, don’t click on the links unless you want to download whats offered.)
Check out the following on our website, PlantsintheCity.ca they are Perennial favorites that thrive in this zone including:
Happy gardening in the zone.
Marg and Chaz
Browse the Online Nursery]]>Now, there is a more nuanced meaning of native coming into usage.
]]>Oh, now that's a loaded question in the landscape industry because the meaning of the word is changing rapidly. Native used to mean "any plant that had been growing wild somewhere in North America for a long time without being selected for special features".
Now, there is a more nuanced meaning of native coming into usage. That would be that the plant "grew in your bio-region". And, perhaps, had even "been grown from seed collected locally". Most plants in the landscape industry are propagated by cutting, and so they all have identical genes. It's clearly better, from an environmental genetic diversity standpoint, if the plants are grown from seeds from a community of plants that themselves have genetic diversity. We are actively looking for a supplier that will be able to supply this level of native plants for you. In the meantime, we have native plants that are considered native under the older thinking patterns.
A nativar is a the result of selective breeding of a native plant for the features that the grower is looking for. A prime example of this would be all of the fancy coloured cone flowers such as the Cara Mia Yellow Coneflower. (Echinacea purpurea would be the straight species.).
These plants are closer to a native plant than some plant imported from afar, but still may not provide the same benefits for our local wildlife that the native species would. For instance, if the flower is a different shape, it may be harder for an insect to access the pollen and nectar. Or, the plant may make much less pollen and nectar - after all it was likely selected for colour of petals or size rather than for how well it fed wildlife. Also, our native plants provide many other resources for wildlife, that we don't always even know about, such as shelter, leaf forage, or perhaps supporting specialized soil life.
So, we'll leave it to you to make the choice, but encourage you to select native plants whenever they will serve the purpose in your garden.
Whether native or nativar, we hope that you enjoy the plants that you have received from Plants in the City.
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