Scilla vs Chionodoxa..

As per our discussions at the art meeting on the 22nd, we should clear up the difference between these two small early blooming bulbs.

There are many different species in each genus, but the common ones here are the deep blue Scilla siberica (with deep blue, almost black anthers) and Chionodoxa, which comes in pink, white and, most frequently, a lovely sky blue. Chionodoxa, also known as Glory of the Snow, has a white throat, but it is invisible on the white one and all but invisible on the pale pink bloom.

Just to add some confusion, at the same time, Puschkinia is in bloom. It is the palest of blues with a darker stripe on the face of the flower, as well as more bloom per stem.

All of these 'minor' bulbs mix well under lilacs or others shrubs, bunched together with hundreds of the same kind under a specific shrub, or just allowed to run rampant anywhere in you lawn….naturalized.

Come fall, don't buy a bag of ten, but five bags of 100! You won’t regret it!!!

**Mass planting of Puschkinia — a very pale baby blue**

Tulips in Holland....

Nothing else to do these COVID days? Hop a plane…not so easy, I know, and I’m not really serious….and go to see the tulip show in Amsterdam at the wonderful Keukenhof garden and anywhere you look! If you can't go, take a peek at this!

I was there five years ago. Worth going sometime!!

And Floriade is open starting the 14th of April and goes until October. 40 countries will participate, and will show off plant material through the whole summer and into the fall.

https://www.tulipsinholland.com/

The Royal Horticultural Society

Are you a member of the RHS - The Royal Horticulture Society? If you’re not, but are an avid gardener, you should think about becoming a member of this group. They are a gardening charity based in the UK, and their mission is to encourage people to learn about horticulture and generally become involved with everything to do with plants, mainly through their wonderful magazine, 'The Garden'.

We cannot make a winter garden like this in our climate, but we can use some of the items to add interest in the colder months of the year, such as Midwinter Fire Dogwood and yellow-leaved conifers, or even the dark green ones which stand out in the snow.

It’s not terribly expensive, somewhere around £60 for the year, but they have lots to offer, even for people who live outside of England. The cost of the magazine alone pays for your membership, and anything you do on top of that, such as visiting one of the garden shows they are involved with (such as the Chelsea flower show and the Hampton Court flower show) are a plus. There are special rates for members to attend these fantastic shows, the likes of which we no longer have here, and there are many smaller gardens to visit besides the two mentioned above.

The RHS magazine is a very good one to refer to no matter where you live. I am including here a very quick run through some of the interesting articles to be found in the magazines I show you in the pictures above. They range from how to wean your garden off of peat moss, to using bare root plants instead of potted plants, identifying certain insects especially if they are non-native and cause problems in their new environment, and often there is information about the plant hunters who found many of our common plants in the wild Tibet in China etc.

**Everything you always wanted to know about growing potatoes!**

**And mistletoe…while we are not able to grow mistletoe in Ottawa, we can certainly find them in florists’ shops in the winter. And it is just interesting to know what they are and how they grow.**

A winter walk in England at Hyde Hall, one of the five RHS display gardens. The willow is pollarded (the plant cut at the top, year after year to encourage tall shoots) which are then trained into interesting shapes.

Every few magazines, there is an article about insects. A good summary of how to tell what it is and whether or not it is invasive or native. Often they show the many stages, or instars, of each insect so you know whether an insect is ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

**Just for inspiration … this one reminds us to use the sun to backlight stunning plant material to great effect.**

**Someone has been doing this out there for ages, but maybe you had not thought to grow bulbs in pots this way … new ideas each month!**

The Magazine contains lots of information about the fascinating lives of the plant hunters and the plants they discovered. Here, Frank Kingdon Ward, who sent back the first viable seeds of Meconopsis betonicifolia — the Himalayan Blue Poppy — from Tibet.

**Information about the Garden Shows put on by The Royal Horticultural Society. Who would not like to attend The Chelsea Flower Show? There are members’ rates for tickets as well as members’ days.**

I would highly recommend thinking about becoming a member of the RHS, as it gives such a good range of ideas and information for our gardens even though they are on the other side of the Atlantic.

Happy gardening!!!

The Little Island, NYC

**The Little Island logo, carved in granite**

Our son is very fortunate…he and his family live in NYC, about five minutes away from The Highline Park near the Hudson River. And now there is a second park, a much smaller park, but equally interesting, about five minutes south of the southern tip of the High Line. They live in Manhattan, but they could just as well be in a small neighbourhood of a much smaller town with the access they have to these beautiful, vibrant parks.

The latest 'garden' in their neighbourhood (as of May, 2001) is The Little Island, also known as Pier 54 or Pier 55 (the new space the garden is built on is an area which overlaps the two original Piers). You can see the old piles sticking out of the water, and the rusty posts used in the garden to provide safety near the watery edges of the property area echo those stalwart piles which have survived to this day.

**Original piles for Pier 54, still surviving, and rusty fence which mimics the original piles**

This area has an interesting history. Indigenous people fished this stretch of the Hudson River and traded with early settlers. In the early 1900's, Cunard's White Star Line docked and sailed from Pier 54, and in 1912, it brought survivors of the Titanic to NYC. Several years later, the ship The Lusitania was sunken by a German U Boat after leaving from Pier 54 on her way to Ireland. Abandoned in the 70's and 80's, the LGBTQ community in NYC met and celebrated Pride Day on Pier 54 for many years. But in 1998 the Hudson River Park system was engaged in renovations along a large swath of land along the western waterfront, including Pier 54. The work done in this whole area has produced a beautiful stretch of parkland to walk, cycle and drive along, and now there is a new meeting place at Pier 54 where art meets nature!

**The garden from afar. I was still not convinced…**

So, back to the garden….

I must confess, I was not terribly impressed when I saw photographs of this new garden…what were those huge white 'things' like stems with a cup on top of them? And a lot of it seemed to be 'painted' rust colour (Upon closer inspection, it was not paint, after all, but was actual rust, a material which is easy to maintain, and a colour which sets off plant material very nicely). Despite huge efforts, I was just incapable of finding any enjoyment when looking at those structures. But when we were down to see our family a couple of weeks ago, we visited the Little Island, just as they do almost every day.

**The original metal frame of the entrance gate for the Cunard White Star Lines at Pier 54**

My opinion changed almost instantly as we worked our way under the rusted, huge, original gate for the Cunard White Star Lines and up into the garden, (And since listening to the audio tour by landscape architect, Signe Nielsen at littleisland.org upon our return,) I am now totally smitten! The pathways were filled with many visitors that beautiful, cold day we went to see what all of the fuss was about. Everyone was obviously enjoying the garden - there were lots of smiles!!! At just 2.5 acres, it does not take up much space, but it juts out into, and also above, the Hudson River. It has many levels planted in a series of 132 'Tulip Pots' overlooking the original old, broken wooden piles of the piers. So, they were Tulips, were they? Hmmm, ok, I thought. I might be able to find something interesting here after all!

The concept for the island was inspired by a leaf floating on water, and as I looked on the internet at the overhead photographs of the island, it is a surprise to realize that it is a square property, but one which feels anything but. You can imagine that this little jewel is, indeed, a leaf floating on the water, the edges of the leaf curled up to the sky. This was starting to get brilliant instead of not very interesting! And then I read about the British designer for the project, Thomas Heatherwick (look at the series of photos of his firm's projects under Wikipedia, and you will see what I mean!). Well, at this point it was a super fascinating project, and I wanted to know more and more about it.

**Quite a few people for a cold, early morning. And look at those pots… tulip pots! One hundred and thirty two of them…**

**Quite interesting to see the Tulip Pots from below!**

All of the different levels used here make for an interesting space (as it does in all of our gardens), and despite it’s size, it has an uplifting, open feel to it. Signe Nielsen notes that they increased the planting areas by a quarter of an acre just by planting at different levels. She also speaks about the plant material used, and why. Again, you should listen to their audio tour for more detail, but until you have a chance, she mentions that they planted 35 trees, 65 shrubs, 270 varieties of grasses, vines and perennials. Oh, and they had planted 60,000 bulbs! Her reasons for choosing various plant material and interesting hardscape materials has been well thought out and clearly laid out in the audio tour, and she explains her 'bloom sweep' of colours and plant types, which is fascinating to listen to.

**Interesting plant material… lots of grasses, Hamamellis flowers blooming at the end of February**

I think it was pure genius to place the amphitheatre looking out over the river, as was the placement of the many noise-or music-making objects scattered across the property. These not only engage visitors, but they bring to life the entire space!

**Right downtown, the different levels in the garden are shown dramatically bin this shot. What a background…**

**A map of this little jewel of a garden. And it is square!**

Barry Diller and his wife Diane-Von-Furstenberg (the clothes designer) put up a good portion of the money for The Highline (hard to find the total cost as it was built in several sections, but rest assured, it was a lot!) and now they have put $260 million into the initial building of the Little Island, plus another $120 million for maintenance and development of events on the island for years to come. This tiny garden will host musical events, plays, and whatever else people can think of! They say that it is a place for nature and art. Well, the line between the two is very blurred, but in a wonderful way! I am totally gobsmacked, as the British would say. My hat goes off to all of those who were involved in this project, and I look forward to experiencing that bloom sweep as the spring, summer and fall provide us with new flowers and foliage to look at each and every visit. It surely will be something to look forward to as the seasons change, and I expect it will continue to lift our hearts and inspire us at each and every visit.

Forcing branches for early spring colour in your home

The bare branches in our gardens right now look like nothing much, but these scrawny twigs of Honeysuckle (above) and Flowering Almond (below) and many other types of seemingly bare branches will produce beautiful blooms if brought inside at this time of year. Photo: Mary Pratte

Now that the light has changed, the clocks will soon be put forward, the birds are trying out their spring songs, and the sun is giving off a bit more heat than even two weeks ago, well, pretty soon we will start to feel that spring is really not too far away,

But in the meantime, we still have many bare branches to look at outside, and inside our houses are devoid of much natural plant material, apart from a house plant or two (and maybe a Christmas Poinsettia???). Lots of people find February and the beginning of March very discouraging, but I find it uplifting and full of hope! I try to think of what a tree or a shrub is doing at this time of year. The roots are starting to grow, albeit slowly in the cold soil; the bud scales (coverings of modified leaves which protect the flower buds from the harsh winter weather) are swelling; and the sap (as we know if we stand under a maple with a damaged branch) is starting to flow. I can tell you that things are stirring out there, despite the frigid temperatures, and all is getting ready to burst forth!

And we are almost ready to bring some of that spring happiness into our homes so that the last bit of winter can be banished. It is easy to do, but not many people do it. I am talking about forcing branches for your home.

About this time of the year, once temperatures go a bit above freezing, and once you think that the plants have had a minimum of six weeks of cold so they are ready to break dormancy, you can cut branches from many trees and shrubs which set their buds the previous fall. I am talking about things like Lilacs, Magnolias, Quince, Flowering Almond, Cherry and Pear trees, Apples and Crab Apples, Forsythia, Eastern Redbud, Willow, Amelanchiers (Serviceberries). There are certainly others, but these are the main ones.

This process is a simple one - take out your secateurs, making sure they are clean so they do not damage branches which remain on the plant, and cut several stems, each about 12-18” long, but not too many or you will stress the plant. The branches should also be taken with the overall health and shape of the plant in mind, so, treat it as if it is just a slightly early spring pruning! Crossing branches often are chosen for taking indoors, as long as they have swelling, round buds which will turn into flowers, and not too many thinner pointy buds, which are often leaf buds.

**A single Magnolia branch looks stunning in this unusual vase, even when still in bud. Photo: Linda Russell**

Just one makes a statement in a beautiful vase if it is multi-branched and can stand on its own or with a frog (or a Japanese Kenzan - a device placed at the bottom of a container to hold stems in the desired position). Magnolia, with its knobby and structural branches are ideal in this type of vase, whereas Forsythia does well when displayed more loosely, just as it would be in your garden - 6-8 stems in a tall, wide-mouthed vase will be just beautiful! Apples and pears, as well as Flowering Cherries look very good in Asian flower arrangements, with their delicate light pink blossoms.

Lovely loose branches of Forsythia. This is the number one choice for early colour in our homes. Easy to force, of a wonderful cheery yellow like the bright sunshine of spring, and long-lasting indoors… if kept in a cool spot, out of the sun, it will last a good two weeks. Photo: Linda Russell

Cut the branches, ideally on a day where temperatures are just above zero, above a node (the place where a stem attaches to a larger stem or branch, and where a bud is located) then place the branches pretty well entirely into warm water for several hours. You then want to make a final cut diagonally underwater at the bottom of the branch so that oxygen does not get into the vascular system of the stems and block the flow of nutrients and water through them. The air acts like a plug. If your branch is thick and very woody - Lilac, Magnolia - you might need to either cut a 1”-2” cross through the bottom of the branches or pound the end of the stem with a hammer so that more of the vascular system is exposed to and is able to take up water.

It is a good idea to put some floral preservative into the vase as it can take a good couple of weeks to bring the branches into flower. You can also change the water several times a week to try to keep bacteria from blocking the flow of water into the stems. Or you might also consider a couple of drops of bleach in the water, although I always worry I will add too much and kill the branch! My friends tells me it's ok , and just to stir the water after putting those drops in.

Once your arrangement is completed, place the container in a cool spot with bright, indirect light. Before you know it, your home will be filled with beautiful, delicate arrangements, and perhaps even with the lovely smell of spring if you have cut some lilacs or fragrant magnolias.

Magnolia buds about to bloom. Photo: Linda Russell

**Magnolia in all its glory in the house. Photo: KM**

**Magnolia x lobneri (Leonard Messell). Photo: Althea Barcubero**

This is such an easy project, and a big plus is that it gets us outdoors when we would prefer hibernating.

Give it a try!!

Just a bit of a related item… if you have had dogwood and/or willow of various colours in your winter planters, they will root in the early spring in the container, and if you have cut branches of white birch still in the containers from winter, you can make a really beautiful early spring arrangement once you have removed the browned evergreen boughs.

**Outdoor urns with yellow dogwood and white birch, ready for spring bulbs planted at their feet. Adding spring bulbs will give you a beautiful container. Photo: Mary Pratte**

Last year, in about early April, I had left-over white Birch and yellow dogwood (with fresh, new leaves sprouting along the stems) and I underplanted with small narcissus from Loblaws, either flowers entirely yellow like tête à tête, or yellow and white, such as Minnow. Or hyacinths or tulips, or….etc. A simple addition of flowers to go with the branches makes for a beautiful combination! And I reuse the Birch every year, so a real bargain… I did take photos of this combination, but can't find them right now, so, in the meantime, here is the birch with the yellow dogwood branches in my containers…in your mind, fill in the blank spots with some of the miniature daffodils, or any spring-flowering bulbs, and, Voilà! A quick bit of decoration in the urns at my front door until the annuals are ready.

The Breakfast Tree and Light....

It's here!

It may be a bit weak at the moment, hard to really grasp the difference, but things are changing. It really is here!!

**Two weeks after the winter solstice, and it is changing already…the animals feel it too!**

It sneaks into our everyday lives, our boring and tedious days, (let's be honest….)It makes us feel better….happier, calmer, more hopeful…And it is also in the plants and animals we live with. Keep your eyes and ears open to the signs of change….

The light is finally changing…our planet is in the inexorable march to spring….Woohoo!

Which picture makes you feel better?

**What a difference a day makes…which photograph makes you feel happier?**

Here we are, having the coldest stretch of days we have had in several years and yet we can be positive once again…we are going in the right direction…towards the light! The vernal equinox…..ahhhh

**The Breakfast Tree…with social distancing…**

I have been watching our Breakfast Tree the last while, and it has been busier than usual. It is one of two Euonymous alatus (Burning Bush) at the front of our house which have berries. Every morning I put up the blind and have a direct view of one of the trees. This first tree pulls in the birds to eat those berries but they don't touch the ones on the other burning bush until they have stripped the first one bare. (Must be like going for breakfast at Tiffany’s and moving on to MacDonald’s only once the first table is bare …..).

The Breakfast Tree has been populated on recent bone-chilling mornings with several pairs of cardinals, lots of goldfinches and pine siskins, plus a few unusual ones such as a single Carolina wren, a white-throated sparrow, and a couple of juncos. They must spend the night in the evergreens near by, trying to just get through to morning. And then they arrive at the Breakfast Tree just as the changing light from the sunrise can be observed, and felt. They feel it too, despite the frigid temperatures. They then move on to the back eating area where they empty two silo feeders filled with sunflower chips in two days and work through the suet, with the help of squirrels, in about 4, they are so hungry. Chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches join the three different types of woodpeckers (hairy, downy and pileated ) using that suet nonstop from now until spring. The Cardinals and Chickadees have even started to bring out their spring song in recent days. That is a real treat!!!

While we see the animals react to our newfound sunshine/light, we also start noticing changes in our plants…indoor first, and later, in our gardens or balconies.
I don't know about your indoor plants, but some of mine - the succulents, especially, well, they've seen better days by the time the light changes! More about that in a bit!

The Breakfast Tree…Part Two

After having just written about our Breakfast Tree in Ottawa, I Had an email from my grandson with a picture of their Breakfast Tree!

Here it is in Manhattan three days ago… ‘Look at all of the birds in our tree’, he says, with great pride…This is obviously a favourite tree for Robins already migrating north. I believe it is a Honey Locust, and the birds are eating the pods which overwinter and provide a critical source of food come spring when birds fly thousands of miles to reach their summer breeding grounds.

Have you got a Breakfast Tree? Or a lunch or dinner tree? If not, maybe this is the year to put one in…

And The Gold Star Goes To....

Heather Brown!!!

Yesterday I sent my most recent posting to Heather to put up on the OGC site. But she didn't do it right away…sending a photograph for me to look at instead.

And what a lovely photo! Heather sent a shot she had taken of her Poinsettia which she has managed to get through not one, but two Christmas seasons, and it looks fabulous!

Why the great success? I know patience is a crucial element, but there is more… Hope you will give instructions as to how you did it, Heather, and it will be posted for the others who have failed at keeping this Christmas plant looking good year after year.

Heather, I tip my hat to you. You are a much better Poinsettia grower than I! I have to tell you, however, that on my walk on garbage day this week, I went by a green bin, and what was hanging out from the unlatched top, but a very sad-looking, dead Poinsettia! Just like mine, when I tried to grow them. So I am not alone….. This one was stretched from looking for light, and had green and wilted, almost crispy, bracts. No perky foliage or beautiful red bracts like the ones at Heather's patio door. I hope all of these failures, all of the once-beautiful but demanding plants which have met their makers, will all find a place in Poinsettia heaven, and come back to earth in Heather's shopping cart!!!

They deserve it, and Heather deserves a gold star!

Heather Brown’s Poinsettia, blooming again for a second Christmas.

Those other Christmas Flowers - Amaryllis

Maybe I should have written this before Christmas, but with a holiday full of challenges, I just didn’t have the time. So, please put this into your memory bank for next year.

I have sort of become tired of the ubiquitous Poinsettia, native to Mexico and Central America, and named after a Joel Roberts Poinsett, who was the first U.S. Minister to Mexico in the 1820’s, and who brought Poinsettias, eventually, to gazillions of people in the U.S. and all around the world since then. But, as much it must have been quite extraordinary to see these plants when they were first introduced, it is a plant which is notoriously prone to drying out in our overheated homes in the winter, and which grows tall and lanky while trying to reach for the sun in our light-deprived homes. Then we all feel so guilty about throwing out that plant which we have tended to and bought back from the dead so many times - when we should have been baking cookies or playing with our grandchildren, or choosing different plants to decorate our homes for the holidays….What are we thinking??!?!! We are just on auto-pilot as far as Poinsettias are concerned. A total waste of our time, I would say…

**Greenhouses filled with thousands of small Poinsettia plants.**

When working in the greenhouses at Algonquin College, we all had flats and flats of Poinsettia cuttings to tend which we were expected to have in perfect bloom for the flower show held there each year. And ready they were, year after year, the same old plants. Probably the most interesting thing to me was that those red ‘flowers’ were not flowers at all, but bracts – modified leaves - used to attract insects to pollinate the true flowers, which are small and insignificant, and which, most of the time, fall off from excess dryness in our homes – sound familiar? Well, you probably don’t want pollinators in your house, anyway, so where do we go from here?

I read one day that there are over 100 different colours of Poinsettia…100 colours??? Do we really need all of those different colours? ( That’s like choosing a toothbrush in the pharmacy…do we really need all of those different shapes and texture and coloured bristles of toothbrushes??) I was ok with the red Poinsettia and then the white ones became available. They were pretty, quite pretty (and I know Martha loved White ones…)… And then pink – well, I don’t have a white and pink Christmas tree, nor rooms covered in pink upholstery fabric and matching walls, so that did not fit my colour scheme. I think I really went off Poinsettias when they started having white splashes on the petals…no, the bracts… Or when they brought out ones the colour of grape Kool-Aid…ugh! (sorry, I never took a picture of a purple one, so you will have to google them - yuck) But the final straw was when those grape-coloured ones became short and ruffled. That was it. Hybridizing run amok!! I don’t think I have had any kind of Poinsettia in my house ever since. Oh, and they come from the Euphorbia Family, so the sap they produce can cause dermatitis and is also not great in the house if you have pets who enjoy munching on plants. Probably won’t kill them, but could cause some issues. Another reason to get rid of them!!!

What, you may ask, have I replaced the Poinsettias with? Well, with a plant which is commonly known by one name – Amaryllis – but whose real botanical name is Hippeastrum. Maybe the word Hippeastrum is not pretty enough for the general public, so it is much better-known as Amaryllis.

So here goes, and I will be using the name Amaryllis…

**I found a Portmerion platter the other day, and guess what was on it!**

These are the boxed bulbs seen in supermarkets leading up to Christmas. The box contains a pot, a bulb and a handful of peat moss – how extraordinary they are – just add water and, voilà! Pure magic! While I love them as winter-flowering bulbs when there is very little colour in our homes, and have grown them in cache pots for years, mine never quite bloom for Christmas. And sometimes they just get too tall and lanky. One double white bulb in our window right now has a stem about four feet tall. Hard to make something like that look balanced and elegant….

**An Amarylis bulb stretching for the light. Out of control!**

So I now look for cut Amaryllis to grace the counter in the kitchen, the dining room table when we have guests (who am I fooling?? We never have anyone here these days – I am just dreaming!!), and I move them all around the house so I can enjoy them in all the rooms. This year, I bought cut Amaryllis at Metro and they came with a little sprig of white pine and I added some Ilex verticilata (Winterberry), and voilà! A lovely arrangement which lasts a good ten to twelve days after purchase.

**Two or three stems of Amaryllis, a branch of cedar and a sprig of Holly make a stunning display.**

They are beautiful in bud, and spectacular in bloom. Each stem usually has four to five blossoms at the top, so two stems fill out a lovely bouquet for your holiday table or entrance hall. They are native to South Africa and are often referred to as lilies because the flower resembles a Lily, but they are from a different family.

Amaryllis come in quite a few colours, although the red is probably most common. But there are also whites (single and double), pinks with a picotee edging, stripes, and sometimes two-toned flowers as well. You might even find one which is quite orange with some cream highlights. And some of them rebloom in the same year. It is worth seeking out the more unusual ones as they are stunning. Again, a quick peek on the internet will give you a whole range of colours to choose from if you would like to try your hand at growing them. Many years ago, when we got those wonderful Cruickshank catalogues, they sold huge Amaryillis bulbs for about $35, quite a lot of money in those days. These bulbs are easy to keep from year to year, and very much worth the minimal effort and the initial price.
And talk about beautiful! A small sampling….

Lichens - A happy relationship

Horticulturists make bad jokes all of the time...who can forget the wildly popular, 'with fronds like these, who needs anemones ...?' And then there are plays on the words 'you' and 'yew'...although not even one joke about them comes to mind as I write this...brain fog from covid? We can blame everything on COVID, it seems, even if we have not yet had it! Maybe I'll remember a particularly bad joke about yews (or is it ‘youz’) before I have finished this posting...I know you are waiting with bated breath for that one...!

And then there is a favourite joke of mine, 'Did you hear the one about the algae and fungus? They were out in the woods when they met, and right away they took a 'lichen' to each other.'

**Moss (green plant) and lichens together on boulder above Meech Lake.**

Now, we have all seen lichens on trees and rocks and ornamental garden sculpture, often in damp conditions, but I would guess that most gardeners don't know anything about them. I never really knew much, or even thought much, about them, except that many would catch my eye from time to time with their bright colours and variety of structures, especially in the winter on the bare branches of deciduous trees. After a big wind like the one we had a couple of weeks ago, many twigs and larger branches came down, and while cleaning them up, I was surprised at the variety of lichen on each branch, so I started to dig a bit more.

Lichens are wonderful organisms. We don’t really see them much until we actively start looking for them, but when you finally open your eyes to their miniature world and the work which goes on there, well, it is nothing short of a miracle, and a relationship which merits more attention. So, here in a nutshell, is what you might find interesting about lichens.

1 ... they are organisms made up of an algae and a fungus.

2 .... These two components have a very special relationship called a symbiotic relationship, one of many types of symbiotic relationships in the plant and animal world. Lichen has, specifically, a mutualistic symbiotic relationship, where each organism benefits from the other’s presence. Some algae provide food from sunlight to the fungus – if it is green the algae contains chlorophyll, thus feeding the fungus - allowing it to carry on the important work of breaking down dead and decaying plant material. And some algae produce an acid which breaks down the minerals in rocks, providing food for the lichen. In turn, the fungus protects the algae from drying out by producing a covering to protect it. When the algae is kept moist, it works to absorb pollutants from its, surroundings. So, if your trees have lots of lichen on them, it is generally a sign that you live in a spot with less pollution.

3... Lichen also fixes nitrogen from the air – this means that it is able to take in nitrogen in the air surrounding it and process it in order to ‘make’ nitrogen - the fertilizer N, which all plants need for good, green growth. (Lightning fixes nitrogen as well, but on a smaller scale...It unlocks the nitrogen in the air when it flashes and splits apart the nitrogen molecules in the air, which then attach to oxygen molecules, which in turn falls with rain to fertilize the soil (...forgive me, I digress!)

4...Lichen is an epiphyte, often referred to as an ‘air plant’, or an organism which attaches to a surface – often tree branches for lichen – but which does not damage or otherwise affect the host. It draws its food and water from the air and rainwater around it, as well as from organic material in its surroundings., i.e. when the wind blows nutrients across the surface of the lichen. The tree to which the lichen attaches is merely used for support by the lichen. Mistletoe, in comparison, is a semi-parasitic air plant, as it does cause damage or at least might weaken the host by sending its roots into the vascular system of the host.

**Many different lichens on one branch**

5... There are three common types of Lichen

i) Crustose - a lichen which looks crusty and often rather flat – you cannot take the lichen off the tree or rock to which it is fastened without damaging it. Often found on wet rocks or on gravestones.

ii) Foliose – a leafy lichen. The leafy part can be removed from the substance it is attached to. One of the most common lichen found in a forest.

iii) Fruticose – a bushy-looking lichen which almost looks forest-like or shrubby, if looked at closely. Some of these lichen hang from branches and look a bit like Spanish moss.

**Silver birch covered by lichen, NY State**

**Lichen on a gravestone, Japanese cemetery, Big Island, Hawaii**

**A couple of different types of Lichen on stone carvings in Central Park, New York**

So, I hope you will delve further into the world of Lichens! The internet has a plethora of sites which show every colour and shape of lichen – more than you could ever imagine! Take some time on a dreary day (of which we have had many recently) to explore lichens in more depth. You will be astounded at how many there are out there, and that they are working hard to keep our environment clean and to break down decaying matter.

I found one site, for example, about lichens in Nova Scotia which said that there are 1000 different species of them in NS, which is more than all the species of birds, mammals, fish, amphibians and reptiles found in the province, combined. That’s pretty amazing...

A couple of other sites to look at...

https://inaturalist.ca/guides/9793

or google
Lichen Nova Scotia
Blue Rocks Park, Nova Scotia

Blog by Mary Pratte

All photos by Mary Pratte and are not to be used without permission

Gardening 101 - Must have books for gardeners of all kinds ... by Mary Pratte

A good garden book is one which teaches, inspires and guides you, and, is, generally, specific to your needs depending on where you garden. Every garden is unique…even if we were to put the exact same plants and hard-scaping in five different places, the resulting spaces would not at all be the same. Light, soil, drainage, neighbouring trees, weather, quality of plant material, etc., they all affect how your garden grows. So, if you understand all of these disparate elements, you will be able to succeed in making your front and rear yard, the pathways on either side of your home, and even your containers, grow better.

But how do you learn the gazillion things which make for a knowledgeable gardener? Of course, the internet is a wonderful place to visit, but to my mind, there is nothing quite like a book (and a couple of magazines to be dealt with in another post). Here are my top two books by far, and then a third one which serves to transition you from your home to your garden and then back to the house again, while doing a fairly good job of teaching some good garden practices.

**This is a must have book for your library….**

I would pick Hugh Johnson's book on gardening, The Principles of Gardening as the number one, absolutely must have book. My copy was printed in 1979, but while I am sure it is now out of print, I have seen it listed on some of the used book sites, often at a great discount…a great gift for any gardener, or even for yourself!! Yes, you might recognize the author's name, especially if you love wine. Hugh Johnson wrote the hugely successful, The World Atlas of Wine, as well as the The International Book of Trees, and has been the editor of The Garden, the journal of The Royal Horticultural Society.

The thing which makes this a fabulous general book is that the author is able to summarize, for the most part, the most important and complex information on each element of horticulture into a sentence, a paragraph, a page of information on each topic. While soil and roses and a few other topics take up more than a few pages, they are succinct, nonetheless - four pages compared to 30 or so in some other general garden books. So, if you start with this book, the other, more specific tomes will help fill in gaps in your knowledge, and before long, you are an expert in many areas. It really is as simple as that!

The first page of Johnson’s book is entitled ‘The essence is control’ and this is most likely the most important page to read if one wants to understand what is happening out there, in the soil and above ground in your garden. He speaks of plants as fighting for space and light and nutrients in the garden, and that it is man (and woman – this was published in 1979, so this, and probably some other things, as well, are a bit outdated!) who exerts control over plants in gardens for aesthetic reasons. ‘Shoving and elbowing for space is the kind of competition a gardener instinctively controls in the name of orderliness’, he says

So that, in a nutshell, is what is happening in your garden, and how you control the plants within is up to you. You make your garden what it is...perhaps you like to deadhead Rudebeckias, and another gardener might like to leave them up for the seedheads - the look is completely different. Some people like to grow small bulbs up through dying tulip leaves , some plant annuals in that space. To some, self-seeders are welcomed, while other gardeners despise them and rip them out with great glee!! Some people are successful with a rock garden because of their soil, while others have moist soil, so no alpines for them.

This explains why every single garden is different. Although this seems a relatively simple thought, it is truly the basis of gardening and how we choose to construct and control our landscapes. Once we master the elements which are constantly changing out there, then we go from one success to another.

The titles of each of Johnson’s topics gives you a good idea of the range he covers. The wind and the rain….Your local climate…..The soil as a reservoir…..How to look at a plant…..The greenhouse: total responsibility…..Shrubs, the backbone…..France since Le Nôtre…..Composing the picture….the choice of paving……and about 30 pages he calls ‘A gardener’s Directory, with names and dates and definitions and stories of plant collectors …and on and on.

As I write this posting, it reminds me that I want to re-read this book, even so many years later. It really is a fabulous resource.

**Excellent book for your library — you’ll find everything about gardens between the covers!**

The second most helpful book in my library is the Reader’s Digest Practical Guide to Gardening in Canada (published in 1993). It replaces a slightly older book, The Illustrated Guide to Gardening in Canada (1979). The earlier version has line drawings whereas the one published in 1993 has photographs, but apart from that, they are pretty similar. You will take in a huge amount of information from either of these volumes as all is very clear and concise with very good illustrations. I hope you have been lifting your weights, however, as both of these books are very, very heavy!! Start reading them over the winter so you can build those muscles before the gardening season arrives!

Both books were published in England first, then the Canadian versions showed up a year after the British ones. Both are out of print, but can be bought through used book sites such as Abe Books. It is reassuring that the Canadian versions were reworked by someone we are all familiar with – Trevor Cole – Curator of the Dominium Arboretum here in Ottawa. He had been involved in horticulture all of his adult life and knew the Canadian climate and the challenges of growing plant material here intimately. Everything is there – pruning, planting, grafting, espaliering of fruit trees, planting bulbs, garden design, lawn maintenance, growing orchids, pests and diseases, choosing tools for the garden, and much, much more…A great resource book for everyone’s library.

**Here she is — pretty, smart and ready to teach everyone how to garden…properly!**

And now, for my confession and explanation of my third choice, which is (gulp) Gardening, Month by Month, by Martha Stewart. I know, I know….what did she know about gardening? Well, it just so happens that she knew an awful lot! In gardening as in folding napkins 100 different ways, the proper way to remove dripped candle wax from your table, making perfect beef Wellington, putting up tons of jams and jellies each year, or how to knit a coat for your dog, well, Martha knew how to do it all.

September, 1992 changed my life. I went from an elementary school teacher to a long-distance caregiver to my parents to a horticulturist (yes, you read it correctly – Horticulturist, and not Horticulturalist). And it was that year when a Martha-mad friend gave me this book as a present. At the time, Martha was really something. Her stint in jail was impossible to foresee. Her getting older and more smug wouldn’t happen, couldn’t happen, to her! She was young and beautiful and very successful in 1991 when this book was published. I (and millions of other women, many of whom would not admit it out loud) wanted to be just like her - in my case, to be like Martha the gardener.

I said earlier that a good garden book is one which teaches, inspires and guides, and this one certainly did all of those things for me.

Martha, the gardener, made a link between her outside space and her inside space, and she made the passage from one to the other seem effortless and desirable. The essence was control…. And boy, was she in control! I’m not sure anyone had made this link from house to garden (and vice versa) work quite as well as she did. Her gorgeous collections of placemats and china, for example, and silver containers, all beautifully polished (perhaps by Martha in her spare time??) made lovely vignettes in the garden spaces where she hosted Easter Egg hunts for small children. She also served scrumptious meals accompanied by magnificent wine glasses I would never even put at our formal table inside, never mind on a table outside! And then she brought the outside in….. Cutting bare branches of crab apple and Forsythia to be forced indoors; planting giant Amaryllis in antique cache pots to bring colour inside to warm the long winter days; painting pumpkins from her pumpkin patch with gold leaf for the Thanksgiving table, and who could forget the fantastic bouquets from the massive collections of flowers and more in her wonderful, English-inspired garden. The garden and the house would always, for Martha, be linked.

She was in control – she had learned the secrets of horticulture. We all knew that she had a magic touch inside, and now, through this book, we understood how she now knew how it could all work outside as well.

When I received this book, it spoke to me. Martha went into minute detail about all manner of things. The photos were wonderful (they now seem a bit faded, but I guess we have made great strides in digital photography since then, so I forgive her that…) and she seemed really to be out working in her garden. Of course, no one would believe that she looked after her beautiful home in the Northeastern United States all on her own, but it sure looks in the book as if she was doing a lot of work in it and getting dirty doing so – from design to digging; planting to pruning; harvesting and dead-heading. She did it all. She was a legitimate gardener. Hmm, maybe I could be too…?

I read on the first flap of the book that she started helping her father in his garden at the ripe old age of three! (I guess to know everything, one needs to start early!) And, very genuinely, she dedicated the book to many people, starting with:

Pour l’avenir

To the Children

Who depend on us to garden

For their future

And ending with

Most of all, my thanks to my father, for being my first teacher

of gardening. His love of growing things was transferred to me through our

gardening together; I will remember what he taught me forever.

September, 1992 changed my life. And so did this book. Whether it was the aura ever present around Martha, her control over anything she touched, the ‘I can do this too’ feeling when I read how she worked in the garden, or whether I was just seduced by the wonderful drawings of the lay-out of the house and gardens in Westport. Conn. , or even Maybe I was taken in by a very savvy PR job, I don’t know. But I keep coming back to this book, always learning something from it.

It is out of print now, but available on Abe books and other second-hand book sites. A good gift for a gardener friend who needs to be inspired, or maybe even a gift for yourself! It has all of the best of Martha, and lets the worst of her melt away somewhere in that garden of hers. Keep telling us how to do things well, Martha. We sure need some of that in our lives these days…!

**The beautiful drawing on each end paper of Martha’s book. I must have looked at this drawing a million times!**

Holiday Greetings to all....from Mary Pratte.

Wishing everyone a better 2022 and, hopefully, more postings for the Ottawa Garden Club blog!

Writer's Block?? by Mary Pratte

**Here we are again…ready for another fall, winter and spring in the garden. Stay tuned for more things ‘garden’ in the Ottawa Garden Club blog.**

Yes, of course I have heard of Writer’s Block. But I could not possibly have that – could I ????

I spent so much time last year on the blog - thinking about the blog, dreaming about the blog, trying to think up new ideas for the blog, taking photos for the blog - there was never a minute when I had nothing to say! If anything, I had to figure out how to rein myself in as I would start three different ideas at the same time. Or four, or five… Poor patient Heather!

And yet, here we are in late October, 2021, and my last post was back in June! “What ever happened to the ubiquitous impatiens walleriana” and which other plants could be substituted for them. I keep blaming my lack of ideas on the pandemic, but maybe it is just old age or…maybe even writers’ block… Egad!!!

So, here we go again. Let’s see if I can find that balance between having too much to write and not enough…and Heather has agreed to keep me on the straight and narrow. Let’s hope you find a few things interesting, that you learn something from the blog (you can’t ever take the teacher out of a teacher), and that some of the photographs will bring pleasure. If these things happen, I will be happy, and feel as if I have contributed something to the world of horticulture, even if it is on a very small scale.

If you have any questions or stories about your plants and gardens, send them along to me, and I will try my best to answer.

Here’s to happy gardening over the winter!

What ever happened to the ubiquitous impatiens walleriana???

I saw this in March on the website 'Spruce', and wanted to share it around planting time. So here it is....why we are not seeing Impatients around anymore. Although...I saw them near London recently in a nursery. They disappeared from nurseries around 2013, if I recall correctly, which is a long time to go without a decent shade plant. Now it seems as if they might make a comeback, and not soon enough for me. It is hard to get colour in the shade, and even when one knows what does provide something other than various shades of green and white, and maybe neon yellow, they are nigh impossible to find in Ottawa.

How to use Browlilia and Torenia in different types of shade….

if you are looking for white or purple flowers for the shade, Browallia is just perfect. It seems to thrive on little care and little sunshine, adding an unexpected flush of colour either on its own in a pot, or mixed with something like soft pink tuberous Begonias. It is an upright, bushy plant with light green leaves.

**Browalia with Coleus in high shade of deciduous tree. Photo: Mary Pratte**

**Very low light in small pathway with much overhead cover from old maples. Early planting with Coleus, Sweet Potato Vince, Asparagus and Browallia, behind and not yet in bloom. Photo: Mary Pratte**

And then there is Torenia. I have only just started seeing this lovely little trailing plant in our neck of the woods. When I used to buy it many years ago in SW Ontario, white and dark purple were the only options, but now there is a whole range, even some of which are two-toned. It is very worthwhile to search these out, as they not only tolerate quite a lot of shade, but they also will take a fair amount of sun if well watered. And did I mention that they trail over the edge of a planter? A very unexpected trait to have in the shade.

**Close up of white Torenia flower. Photo: Mary Pratte**

**Torenia in two colours growing under old spruce trees. This is an early planting…this will fill out by the time summer starts. Photo: Mary Pratte**

**Another combination with Torenia planted with trailing small white begonia. Also under the large spruces in our back yard. Almost zero direct light. Photo: Mary Pratte**

**Torenia planted with New Guinea Impatiens on east side of our house. About one hour of sun each day. Photo: Mary Pratte**

**Planting of Torenia, Browallia and double whit New Guinea Impatiens on north side of our house…no direct sun at all, but very bright. Photo: Mary Pratte**

Let's keep our fingers crossed that Impatients will return some day, but maybe this time we should remember that monoculture is not the best thing when growing plants - they succumb to pests and diseases when so many are planted together - and that a garden with diversity is a much better place for plants and creatures anyway.

Gas plant?

A four foot tall perennial, Dictamnus alba, (this one is a pink hybrid) is a stellar plant for your perennial border or as a specimen plant used as a focal point, as here, at the edge of a rock wall. Photo: Mary Pratte — A four foot tall perennial, *Dictamnus alba*, (this one is a pink hybrid) is a stellar plant for your perennial border or as a specimen plant used as a focal point, as here, at the edge of a rock wall. Photo: Mary Pratte

What is a gas plant? Well, my neighbour has one, (Dictamnus alba )and it is, every year in June and into July, a most delightful perennial with pink (or white) flowers. But I am envious...I have tried to grow it many times, without any luck at all. I read up all about it, have asked for advice and even contemplated going over one dark, dark night with a shovel and a petzle headlamp, but my conscience got the better of me... sigh. I guess I will just have to appreciate it from afar.

But maybe you should try one? It truly is a lovely plant, about four feet tall, and easy to grow, they say, in well-drained soil and full sun. (Hmmm). Drought resistant once established. It's fragrant, and it is all of the lemony scented oils in it which gives it its common name. They say if you hold a lighted match next to it, the match will cause the gas to crackle and sputter next to the flame. It also produces interesting seed pods to be used in floral arrangements. A hard worker...but it also can cause skin irritation, so wear gloves when working with it.

I hope you succeed, I really do. But be forewarned...I still have my shovel and petzle light ready.....

**A mass of bloom covers this bush. They make a good contrast to their shiny green leaves. But wear gloves as the sap can cause rashes. Photo: Mary Pratte.**

A closer look at the stunning flowers of Dictamnus. Photo: Mary Pratte — **A closer look at the stunning flowers of *Dictamnus.* Photo: Mary Pratte**

Amo amas amat, amamus amatus amant...

I know this will show my age, but I, and, I think most of you in our garden club (unless you are one of the people who are never older than 25), had to learn Latin at school, or at least endure a year of it.

I don't know about you, but I hated Latin! And I grew up in England so they were pretty serious about learning this 'dead' language. But nothing could make me enjoy Latin...well, not until I returned to school to study horticulture at Algonquin College around 1991...30 years ago. Who knew that my conjugating Latin verbs and learning the roots of words as a child would make my life so much easier, enjoyable and just a lot of fun? Latin and fun just didn't seem to ever go together in the same sentence...

But there I was, one of the four or five 'mature' students in the class, finding that when our profs spoke about Sambucus nigra, that we, the old folks, could pretty well figure out which Sambucus they were talking about - it would be an elderberry with almost black berries - while the young-uns who were never subjected to 'amo, amas, amant' at an early age were totally lost. Paeonia lactiflora was a peony with milk white flowers. I understood that. And then there were all of the plants which had as a species name 'officinalis', as in Rosemarinus officinalis (which changed to to Salvia rosemarinus in 2017 just to confuse everyone) or Salvia officinalis, meaning a salvia having medicinal use. Or 'pratensis' - growing in meadows; micro, - meaning small (as in micropetalum or small petals); macro - meaning large (as in macrophyllum, or large leaved). And on and on. What a thrill it was to see that Latin word, and understand the plant a little more, to know what conditions it liked, to which other plants it was related. ....There it is again, that combination of 'Latin' and thrill...in the same sentence!...oxymoronic once again.

It amazed me at how few younger students had any idea of the meanings of many of these words. This was a clear disadvantage for them when they had to learn every word of the binomial system of classification set up by Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus in the mid-1700's in order to better understand plants and their origins at a time when plants and plant hunting was becoming so popular. Scientists and plant hunters needed to make sure their identification of plants was correct, so Linnaeus classified each plant using two words - the Genus or generic name (Paeonia, Rosa, Pinus, Baptisia, Tulipa, etc.) and the Latin species' name or specific epithet. This type of classification was adopted the world over, so botanists could finally speak to each other knowing they were all using the same language and were all referring to the same plant. Added to that were the cultivar names...plants cultivated or chosen and named by humans, often after relatives or famous people, as in Aster frikartii 'Monch', one of the best asters around, and very distinct from others. Or Paeonia lactiflora 'Sarah Bernhardt'.

Instead of just using a common name ...a pine, for example ... they could now specify a particular plant. Pinus strobus, or white pine, could not be mixed up with Pinus mugo, or mugo pine. They are two entirely different plants, one being very tall and the other quite compact.

So, while common names are endearing, it is best to use Latin names when trying to pick a specific plant for your garden. And if you need some help, there are books and the internet to help you out. I bought a lovely little book all those years ago when I enrolled at Algonquin, not knowing where this new career would take me. I attach a picture of it in case you would like to renew your relationship with that old language, Latin, in order to better understand your garden and the plants in it. This particular one may be hard to find, but there are always others if you look around.

So, in the end, after trashing Latin for most of my life, and after having more than 30 years in my 'new' career of horticulture, I have to thank my Latin teacher (name lost in the distant past like many of the plant labels in the garden), for giving me the most extraordinary opportunity to better understand, truly understand, what all of that gibberish was...thank you

- gratias tibi ago.

...and amo you....or however you say, 'I love you' in Latin....never quite got to that...

A beautiful little book on Latin for Gardeners. Hundreds of Latin words to understand and enjoy.Photo: Mary Pratte — **A beautiful little book on Latin for Gardeners. Hundreds of Latin words to understand and enjoy.**
**Photo: Mary Pratte**

This little book is filled with charming line drawings, definitions of Latin words, and anecdotes about plants. Photo: Mary Pratte — **This little book is filled with charming line drawings, definitions of Latin words, and anecdotes about plants.**
**Photo: Mary Pratte**

Garden Porn....

**Photo Credit: Mary Pratte (copyrighted)**

What a spring we have been having. Non-stop flowers on spring bulbs, including glorious tulips with the most incredible flower forms, mixes of colour and pattern on their petals. Magnolias which go on and on, in the expected shades of pink and white, but also now yellows and a coral coloured one which seem to be popping up all over the city! All of these magnolias must have been there for a while, as many are quite large, but I guess three things have made us see them this year...the temperatures are ideal, we are out walking, and walking, and walking....and perhaps this whole experience with the pandemic has made us look at things a little closer.

As it is tulip festival time, I share below a few photos of tulips. I have tried to look closer... Hope you enjoy them, and remember to order fall bulbs early and instead of planting 50 of them, plant 150! Make a little plan in the next while of where you have blank spaces in your garden so you can remember come fall where you need to plant.

Do you live close to Beechwood Cemetery? Their flowering trees are in full bloom now...

Or do you live closer to the Farm? Another place to see fabulous displays of crabapples and lilacs, many of which were bred by Isabella Preston at the Farm.

Next year, why not plant some different tulips in your garden — here are a few unusual ones you might want to look for!

Parrot Tulips - very flamboyant, usually late in the season. Their mutated petals apparently resemble the colours and texture of parrots’ feathers. They burst forth after having shown their uneven edges tightly curled as you wait for them to open. Some are a bit more restrained than this one, which is early and has been blasted open right from the start.

**Photo credit: Mary Pratte (copyright)**

This one seems to be a mix of Parrot and Rembrandt tulips (more about Rembrandts below…). They have the parrot-like feathery petals as well as the streaking found on Rembrandt Tulips.

Fringed Tulips -These tulips resemble Parrot Tulips slightly, with less mutating of the petals. They look quite shredded at the edge, as if a seamstress just wanted to tidy up those edges a bit! (Not my favourite, but had to put at least one in…)

Lily-Flowered Tulips. The elegant dancers of the Lily world, these tulips practically shout ‘Ta-Dah’ as they start to open!! They come in many solid colours, and sometimes combinations of colour, as with this viridiflora tulips (below). The lily-flowered tulips bloom mid to late spring, and look beautiful coming up through mats of forget-me-not, Mertensia and moss phlox. A vase full is stunning!!

The same tulip as above, but fully open. This one measures 8-9” across!

A single Lily Flowered Tulip in all its simplicity.

Peony Flowered Tulips - these double Peony Flowered Tulips really do look like peonies but at the wrong time of year for double peonies. They have been bred to have many petals, and often there are no reproductive parts left. The stamens, etc., have all but disappeared, as the breeders wanted a mass of bloom over the plant’s ability to reproduce by seed. These double tulips usually bloom very late so are often blasted by the sun, but more are available nowadays which bloom a bit earlier.

Rembrandt Tulips - In the 1600’s, there was no housing marked as we have today, but there was Tulip Mania, which saw people selling their houses to buy recently introduced tulips with streaks of colour on a white or yellow background. These streaks were caused by viruses (yes, viruses again!!!), and over time, the bulb would be weakened from the virus, and the bulb would die. In the 1630th, the market for tulips plunged, and people lost everything.

Over the many centuries since then, breeders have figured out how to grow streaked tulips without the virus, so those you see today will not deteriorate as the original ones had. hey are just beautiful in the garden and in a special vase indoors.

A few pictures of a few in my garden, just to give you an idea of what they are like.

And a few other tulips in no particular order or category….

Who says pink and orange don’t mix with red and yellow?'

Like fancy fingernails from the spa!!!

Hanging on…look at that beautiful green pollen!

Remember those kaleidoscopes we had as kids? Think this is where they got the idea!!!
Good old Mother Nature...you can always count on Her!

Unusual colour combinations, but it all seems to fit!

Peony Time Has Arrived!!!

**My first bloom! Paeonia daurica subsp lagodeschiana. Photo Credit: Mary Pratte (copyrighted)**

Our first peony opened today, followed almost immediately by the second. I am not sure of their names, although one came many years ago marked as Paeonia lagodeschiana, but I see that that name has now been changed to Paeonia daurica subsp lagodeschiana. I am pretty sure that a couple of them have bred over the years with the yellow Molly the Witch (mlokosewitschii) so I get interesting pinks and picotées. Always a bit of a surprise when they begin to bloom. I wait for this day all year, and here it is! The second time during the pandemic crisis. Hope it is the last!!!

I was asked the other day if peonies last long, and my answer, as always (and not what the other person wanted to hear), is about six weeks of bloom if you choose cultivars carefully. Of course, they meant how long do they last in the garden, or in a vase indoors, or something along those lines. Well, to answer those questions is almost impossible as it depends where they are planted, what the soil is like, whether there was a late frost or not enough rain..etc, etc...

So I always revert back to the six weeks of bloom answer. There used to be an on line list of bloom dates put together by two prominent members of the Canadian Peony Society, Michael Denny and Lindsay D'Aoust, but I cannot find it anymore. I will be in touch with Lindsay soon to see if she still has a copy which I could share with you. Using that list, you can easily pick peonies for 6 weeks of bloom...a new one each week. You can still rely on some reputable sites which list them as: very early, early, mid, late, but it is not quite as precise.

Anyway, the parade of peonies has begun for 2021. Stay tuned!

**Mlokosewitschi hybrid. Photo Credit: Mary Pratte**

**Mlokosewitschi hybrid in bloom. Photo Credit: Mary Pratte**

**Paeonia daurica subsp lagodeschiana. Photo Credit: Mary Pratte (**

Funny tomato!

I just looked at a slightly old tomato in my bowl on the counter. You know when you see the little, almost black seeds and sometimes a small root starting once the tomato is cut open? Well, this one has burst forth, and there are several others following it! A tomato which will take over the world!! Can't wait to see it in another week.…

I’ll keep you posted!

Spring has Sprung....

Spring has sprung/The grass is riz/I wonder where the birdies is?/Some say the bird is on the wing/But, my word, that's absurd!/From what I’ve heard/The wing is on the bird!

Every spring, this little children's rhyme springs into my mind. Silly, no question, but it evokes childhood memories of the first visitors to appear overhead and in the garden. That would be birds, of course.

Everything from the chatty robins, who arrive worrisomely early each year when snow and freezing temperatures still linger, to the buzzing, erratic flight of the tiniest Hummingbird; from the Baltimore Orioles with their brilliant orange plumage to our favourite Cardinals, which now overwinter in large numbers; from the jittery movements of the tiny spring migrants to massive Bald Eagles (I include them here as, much to my surprise, one flew over my head as I stood in my front yard about two weeks ago, white head and white tail in full view as it soared to the tops of the tall trees around us, and then gently sailed off towards the river and Gatineau, leaving the crows to calm down as they watched him leave ... what a sight!). All of these avian friends are either ready to nest here or to just pass through on their way to plentiful feeding grounds to the north. They sometimes need a little help to get through the often chilly spring when worms or plentiful nectar are not easy to find.

**Water and cover for birds in Clematis vine, Tree Peony, and Boxwood. Photo: Mary Pratte**

Young birds, such as this juvenile Baltimore Oriole, sometimes need our help to find some extra food in the spring, and it is good to use decals on windows to prevent them from flying into the glass. Photo: Mary Pratte

A rare sight in our neighbourhood, but a glorious one. A mature male Bald Eagle, with unmistakable white head and white tail, flew over our yard a couple of weeks ago. Apparently they are more frequent than before around here, so maybe we will have … — A rare sight in our neighbourhood, but a glorious one. A mature male Bald Eagle, with unmistakable white head and white tail, flew over our yard a couple of weeks ago. Apparently they are more frequent than before around here, so maybe we will have a nesting pair one day soon! They will mainly fish for their food, so no attacks on your bird feeders as there are by smaller hawks in the area.

You can help.

Think throughout the summer about which food is available to those early arrivals in your garden and try to add some plantings to your space: Think about fruit trees, nut trees, some crabapples which hold their fruit until spring, some of the Euonymous varieties (burning bush); very early ephemeral flowers such as the winter aconites, snowdrops, corydalis, crocus which flying insects love, and which are, in turn, loved by birds; bird feeders with nuts and/or suet; water and cover (evergreen bushes, for example); and finally, some leaf litter so that insects hiding there can easily be found by the birds...they don't like it as tidy as we do...

Pileated Woodpecker at suet feeder this spring. At almost 20” head to tail, and a wingspan of almost 30”, they are impressive birds. They eat insects mainly found in rotting trees, so if you are able to leave some old trees on your property, that wi… — Pileated Woodpecker at suet feeder this spring. At almost 20” head to tail, and a wingspan of almost 30”, they are impressive birds. They eat insects mainly found in rotting trees, so if you are able to leave some old trees on your property, that will assure that you will see them from time to time. Of course, don’t leave rotted trees standing if they will cause damage. Contrary to popular belief, they do not kill the trees they feed off of — they only go to trees which are already suffering from insect infestation. Their diet also consists of fruits and berries. These birds are less rare than before in our area and many overwinter here or a bit further south. Photo: Mary Pratte

In passing, do you know how many bugs a bird eats in a day? I looked it up and it is hundreds, so multiply that by the number of days they are here, and that takes care of an awful lot of creepy crawlies out there! One site said one bird would eat 1 million in a year...hard to believe, but if it's right, that's impressive!

As I write this, I hear a song sparrow, robins, cardinals, a blue jay, a phoebe, chickadees, and, from time to time, the scary repetitive call of a hawk about to pounce. (Remember to provide cover near a feeder so the raptors don't have a clear path to scooping up the little birds) And those are just the birds I can identify by their song.

Oh, and Canada geese...lots of them flying over at this time of year. At night, even, as many birds migrate on a clear, moonlit night. Go out after dark and listen. It is quietly comforting to hear them up there. But migratory birds fly into windows - day or night - be it at a small bungalow or tall skyscraper. And not just a few, but hundreds of thousands every year. Please turn off very bright lights during migration, put some sort of decals up on your windows (very good ones at Wild Birds Unlimited) ...and all of our tall office buildings should do the same.

**Any water will do for birds, even a pool covering in early spring! And note the places for small birds to hide should a predator come along.**

Seeds from the burning bush (Euonymus alata) at our place. Not their favourite food, they will strip fruit from neighbouring crabapples before coming to us, but seeing the red Cardinals sitting surrounded by berries while the snow is falling is a re… — Seeds from the burning bush (Euonymus alata) at our place. Not their favourite food, they will strip fruit from neighbouring crabapples before coming to us, but seeing the red Cardinals sitting surrounded by berries while the snow is falling is a real delight! Photo: Mary Pratte

So set out that birdbath, fill that clean bird feeder with appropriate bird food, sit down with your cup of tea, and enjoy the endless birdsong of our early spring! You and I can keep them coming back by choosing our plants well and by protecting them from the many dangers which await them on their long journeys.

And do take a few minutes to open and read these two links...

https://abcbirds.org/blog/truth-about-birds-and-glass-collisions

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/the-best-plants-and-trees-to-plant-for-birds-a-starter-list/

Mystery Plant revealed....

**Sanguinaria canadensis ‘Flore Pleno’ (or Sanguinaria canadensis Multiplex) Photo: Louise Tanguay**

**Sanguinaria canadensis, Flore Pleno. Photo: Louise Tanguay**

**Single Sanguinaria canadensis in my garden. Bloom time is very short, but leaves are beautiful even after the flower has faded. Photo: Mary Pratte**

There is a lovely story about the origins of the double form of Sanguinaria which can be found in Alexander Reford’s book, ‘Treasures of the Reford Gardens’. Both he and Louise Tanguay were happy to share the information about these glorious little plants made their way to the Jardins de Metis. So here it is!
(As an aside, their lovely book with portraits of Elsie Reford’s favourite plants is currently on sale at Lee Valley - makes a great gift for an avid gardener!!!)

Congratulations to all of all those who guessed that the mystery plant was a Bloodroot, although only a couple knew that it is the very rare double Bloodroot, Sanguinium canadensis Multiplex (or Flora Pleno).

Six members will receive some European Ginger, Asarum europaeum from my garden for their efforts! This plant is a shiny ground cover with roundish oval, almost heart-shaped leaves. It spreads quite easily, but also can be easily contained. I never think, however, that any of the mildly invasive plants should go to your cottage - use it here in town so it doesn’t go wild on you!

Plant gift for the 6 winners this time around!

**Asarum europaeum. European ginger. Photo: Mary Pratte**

Flowers of Asarum europeaum - insignificant flowers (you can see two clearly in the middle of the photograph, green outside, dark red inside, and almost looking as if they have fangs!) are held under the leaves, but they set seed and are interesting despite being little noticed by gardeners. Photo: Mary Pratte