Spring has sprung. The Robins are chirping, the trees are budding and the patios are being swept. And in most gardens the first flowers are in full bloom. All that hard work you put in the late fall planting tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and crocus is finally paying off in brilliant displays of color.

Most everyone is familiar with those plants when discussing bulbs but many don’t realize that there are several different specimens that if planted this spring will produce a similar showing of blooms in the late summer and fall.

When autumn comes and the leaves begin to turn and flowers are harder to come by it would be a beautiful sight to see bursts of color throughout your flowerbeds.

All bulbs, no matter when they flower, are planted the same. Dig a hole that is 3x’s the size of their diameter. Mix a small scoop of bone meal in with the soil in the bottom of the hole and place the bulb. This will help keep rodents away and produce healthier plants. Don’t worry if the bulb is upside down, it will corrected itself. Cover the hole with soil and make sure the ground stays moist through it’s growing period. It’s always best to plant bulbs in bunches to create a better visual effect.

The following are examples of fall flowering bulbs that may be a great addition to any garden. Don’t be afraid to try something new. It’ll be worth in the end. Or should I say in the fall?

Colchicums

Autumn Crocus, Meadow Saffron

Blooms: Mid September-early November

Flowers: large goblet like blooms in shades of pink, purple or white

Size: 2-8″ tall

Special Note: the foliage of this plant dies away before the plant blooms

Crocus

Crocus

Blooms: late September-first snowfall

Flowers: narrow grass-like leaves with white, blue, violet, yellow, orangeor lavender blooms

Size: 2-4″ tall

Special Note: the flower will close up on dark and cool days

Cyclamen

Cyclamen

Blooms: late August-early November

Flowers: marbled leaves with dainty white or shades of pink flowers

Size: 6-8″ tall

Special notes: leaves appear before or after flowering

Dahlia

Dahlia

Blooms: summer-fall

Flowers: large variety of sizes from button small to dinner plate large with many different color combinations

Size: anywhere from 1′ to 7′ tall

Special Note: Cut flowers from the dahlia will last at least a week

Now that the ground is blanketed in snow and the air cold it’s a great time to try your hand at a little landscape design.

This can be a very personal endeavor where creativity can flow and experiments can be tried. You can easily look at books and “borrow” designs that have caught your eye or you can put pencil to paper and design your own. It’s very satisfying to walk through your garden and take full credit for the enjoyment it brings. Great landscaping lies in the eyes of the one who created it.

The Principles of Landscape Design

Keep in mind that these are not rules. They are simply guidelines to increase your ideas and creativity.

Simplicity – As with any new activities or hobbies it’s always best to keep things simple. Choose one theme (i.e. Chinese gardening) and 2 or 3 colors you want repeated throughout the garden.

Unity - By picking one theme you have already begun creating a unified look through the garden. Unity also refers to height, size, texture, etc. For example if you were creating a garden to attract hummingbirds you would consider adding feeders and ornaments relating to that one theme.

Repetition – Repeating plantings and colors will give the garden a less cluttered look.

Balance- There are two types of balance; symmetrical and asymmetrical. The easiest to achieve is symmetrical where if the garden were split in two both sides would appear the same. Asymmetrical balance is the opposite. An example of this would be a large ornamental tree on one end of the garden and lower shrubs and flowers taking up the bulk of the other end.

Proportion- This refers to the size of the elements in relation to each other. Placing a giant rock in the middle of a small flowerbed doesn’t make much sense.

Color - Here is where you can really create something visually outstanding. Using bright colors like red, orange and yellow you create a sense of excitement while combining blues and green causes a more calming affect. This includes the color of foliage, which can be used just as effectively.

Spring Bulb Display

Natural Transition- Transition can be achieved by ascending or descending groupings of elements with different textures, forms, sizes or colors. This also helps create illusions. For example create depth by planting taller plants behind shorter ones.

Now that you understand the basic principles why not play around with a few ideas you’ve though up. Quickly sketch out your design area. Let’s start small and work on one individual flowerbed. Once you get use to applying these principles you can go bigger and plan out large spaces. You don’t want to worry about sizes and types of plants right away, just plot out existing features such as shed, fences, pathways etc. Draw the shape of the garden you wish to design. This method is called a bubble graph. Is it in the middle of your yard or the fence line? Don’t forget to mark these features in.

Decide on your theme. A cutting garden? Trees and shrubs? A shade garden? Add groupings of plants according to size, color etc. Again don’t worry about specifics, just get an idea of what you want to see. This is where your creativity starts and you may find that you are drawing multiple plans.

Once you have a final design then browse the Internet, books and magazines and decide what plants you want to grow. Ask friends what has worked for them. Remember to keep in mind height, width, texture and form when selecting your plants. A few well-selected plants can have more effect than a lot of individual species. Once you have decided on your plants draw a new bubble graph this time adding in the varieties you have chosen. Voila!!! Your first landscape design!

Don’t forget that nothing is permanent. Gardens always change and evolve as will your design. So experiment, take a chance and have fun!

Wintertime is a slow time for the avid gardener. It’s usually a time where we start thinking about next spring. We pull out books and magazines deciding whether we want to change a flower bed, try out a new species of plant or sometimes we start designing something new altogether. Yet during the holiday season the greenery outside still finds it’s way indoors.

In this month’s column I’m going to share the stories behind some of Christmas’ Horticultural traditions.

Poinsettias

Known in Central America as the “Flame Leaf” or “flower of the Holy Night”, the Poinsettia is a beautiful red, star-shaped plant. Originating in Mexico, it was discovered and brought back to the states by Joel Roberts Poinsett, the 1^st Ambassador to Mexico.

As the legend goes one Christmas Eve two young poor children in Mexico were heading towards their church for service. Maria and her brother Pablo loved going to see the large manager scene but were sad because they were too poor to buy gifts for the Baby Jesus. Along the roadside they picked weeds and decided they would present them as a gift. Once they arrived the other children teased them but Maria and Pablo said nothing because they knew they had given what they could. As they placed the green plants around the manager the top leaves began to miraculously turn bright red surrounding the scene in beautiful star like flowers.

Holly

This prickly-leaved green plant with bright red berries has come to stand for peace and joy. Holly was used at the Roman festival Saturnalia to honor the god Saturn. In December while the Romans continued their pagan worship Christians decked their homes with holly to avoid persecution while celebrating the birth of Jesus. As the number of Christians increased their customs prevailed therefore Holly lost it’s pagan roots and became a Christian tradition.

Mistletoe

Have you ever been lucky enough to be kissed under the Mistletoe by someone you love? Or have you been unlucky to be under it at the same time as the creepy neighbor your Great Aunt Mildred has been trying to set you up with and wondered why we have a crazy tradition like this anyways?

First you may be surprised to know the Mistletoe is a parasite. It grows on the branches and trunks of trees and sends out roots into the tree and takes up nutrients. Secondly its name “mistel”, Anglo-Saxon for dung and “toe”, the word for twig, is loosely translated as dung-on-a-twig.

So why do we kiss under this rather awful plant? Much like Holly mistletoe started during the festival of Saturnalia and later in primitive marriage rites. It was believed to have the power to bestow fertility. It was also considered a plant of peace where truces were declared and spouses “kissed and made up”. But make sure you have the correct etiquette. A man should pluck a berry when he kisses a woman and once all the berries are gone there should be no more kissing.

The Christmas tree

Over 1,000 years ago St. Boniface, who had converted the German people to Christianity, was said to have come across a group of pagans worshipping a mighty oak tree. In anger he cut down the tree and was amazed to see a young fir tree grow from the roots of the Oak. The saint took this as a sign of the Christian faith. It wasn’t till the 16^th century however before the devout Christians brought the tree inside their homes.

In England the Queen’s husband Prince Albert made Christmas more fashionable by decorating them with candles, sweets, fruits and gingerbread. Other wealthy families followed suit using more extravagant items like toy guns and swords, dolls, tiny musical instruments and furniture, and costume jewelry.

The invention of electricity and the creation of Christmas lights helped make it possible for the trees to glow for days on end. Important building and town squares began putting up trees as a signal of the beginning of Christmas holiday. Every part of the world now decorates their trees uniquely different yet personal to their culture. Czechoslovakians trees display painted eggs while the Japanese decorate with paper lanterns and tiny fans.

Famous Rockerfeller Tree, New York

So I hope you enjoyed learning something new about some of our holiday traditions as much as I have. No matter what tradition you have or how you celebrate them I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Now that summer is coming to an to a close and the weather is turning cooler it’s time to start putting our gardens to bed. The autumns tends to focus on 2 types of gardeners, those who garden for 2 seasons and those who garden year around. To tell the difference all you have to do is look at their gardens. The fall garden may not be as colorful or abundant as those in the spring and summer but the year round garden will still continue to flourish and impress. 

The following are some tips to get your own gardens ready for the first snowfall as well as easy ideas to help you become a year round gardener. 

Pumpkins

Vegetable Gardens 

Since there are a large choice of vegetables that can still be harvested right up till the first snowfall there is very little that needs to be done to the vegetable garden. Summer plants can be removed and some bulb vegetables can be planted to be ready for the spring. 

Fall harvest Vegetables: cauliflower, squash, pumpkins, carrots, onions, garlic, parsnips, turnips, and eggplant 

Fall planted Vegetables: onions, garlic, and rhubarb 

Trees and Shrubs 

One great way to keep color continuing into the winter is to plant trees and shrubs that have bright autumn foliage, berries and branches. When most plants have died down deciduous trees such as Red Maples provide a welcome burst of color. The bright red twigs of Dogwoods will continue to impress even in the dead of winter. The fall is also a great time to prune out all the dead wood from your trees and shrubs and to tidy up their shape. Most people tend to just let them take care of themselves, which is fine when the plant is still young however over time the health and appearance of your trees will decline, as light will not be able to reach the center of the plant. 

Evergreens require little fall maintenance. To help protect the top growth from snow damage you can wrap your plant with burlap, which will also help maintain their shape. 

* Rule of thumb- always prune flowering plants opposite their flowering season. If it flowers in the fall prune in the spring and vice versa. Summer flowering plants should be pruned after the flowers have finished.  

Flower Beds 

At this time of the year you have two options when it comes to fall maintenance. 

Your first would be to just leave everything alone. The number one benefit to this is obviously that it requires no work. But also by leaving everything to die down it shelters and protects newer and more temperature sensitive plantings from the elements. The decaying plant material also adds a layer of compost to the soil for the next year. Just remember to prune off any seed heads or you may find yourself with new plants sprouting where you don’t want them. 

The second choice, the choice of the year round gardener, is to cut back all the perennials to about 8 inches above the ground and to remove all annuals from the beds. This frees up space to plant some fall ornamentals to add some late splashes of color and to make room for planting your spring bulbs. It also makes the general appearance of your landscape much cleaner and tidier. 

Below are a couple of common fall plants that will give your garden a lift this fall. 

Garden Mums

-Requires full sun and can grow up to 3 feet tall 

-Beautiful fall colors, rust-red, copper-oranges as well as yellow, gold, lavender, pink and white. 

Ornamental Kale

-Requires full sun and can grow up to 1 1/2 feet tall 

-Blue green outer leaves with cream, white, pink, rose-red and purple centers. 

-Light frost actual improves color 

Ornamental Kale

Bulbs 

The colder the weather the better when planting your spring bulbs. The most important thing to beware of is the chance of a late season warm spell that will wake up your dormant bulb and prompt it to start growing. If that happens the bulb will not survive till the spring. Some years I’ve actually been in the garden after the first snowfall planting my bulbs. 

You want to plant them in groups and preferably around other summer plants that will grow up around concealing the dying foliage in the spring. They should be planted with their bottoms at a depth 2 1/2 times their diameter. Since there are hundreds of colors, sizes and varieties try to experiment with layering and groupings. 

Tulips in bloom

While the fall can seem dreary compared to the luster of the summer past these few things can help you to continue enjoying your garden late into the season whether you’re a 2 season or a year round gardener.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! The dog days of summer. My favorite season of the garden! It’s when we can sit on our decks, beverage of choice in hand, and bask in the glory of our labours. The view from our window no longer shows the drops of rain from endless storms, the blustery flakes of snow or the depressing browness of falling leaves. In the summer we aren’t looking out those windows. Instead we are outside amoung the showiness of gorgeous flowerbeds and the ripe plumpness of our vegetable harvest. Spring is the season of beginnings and fall the season of endings. Winter…. well it is Canada after all….winter is winter. Oh but summer…..summer is about slowing down, savouring, appreciating, it’s about peacefulness. Summer + gardens = decadence.

For those of you who don’t already know my background before being a Lab Assistant, I graduated in 1997 from Cambrian College in Sudbury as a Horticultural Technician and worked before, during and for 5 years after my schooling in different aspects of this field. For the first 5 years I worked for a Cut and Dry flower farm/landscaping company and while in my second year of college I was fortunate enough to teach the first year Botany program. Upon graduation I furthered my experience working in a local greenhouse and landscaping company. Considering I took the fewest number of science classes possible in high school and specialized in Art, History and English, my recent fields of “expertise”; Healthcare and Horticulture, have come as a huge surprise to my friends and family.

My education and experience has given me the knowledge in turf management, weed and pest control, floral design, arboriculture, greenhouse operations, landscape design and construction to just name a few topics. I do enjoy all aspects of Horticulture however my greatest interest is in perennials while my weakest is indoor plants. (I have a cat that considers all greenery and flowers to be breakfast so I don’t even bother).

So this is my inaugural article for what I hope will be an educational and potentially amusing quarterly column in which I welcome any questions you have to ask or topics you have an interest in knowing more about that will be featured in subsequent articles (though I will answer any questions sooner as I get them).

And since this is the first column and my favorite season, the topic this issue is mine for the choosing!

Annuals – A plant that flowers and dies in one season. New ones are planted each year.

Biennials – A plant that produces leafs and stems the first season then flowers the next year. After flowering the plant dies. New ones planted every second year.

Perennials – A plant whos stems, flowers and leaves die each winter and new shoots appear each spring. These are permanent residents.

The most important thing you can learn when it comes to any type of gardening is that it’s only as complicated as you make it. If you don’t have a lot of time to spare you’ll want to stick to trees and shrubs which are relatively maintenance, disease and pest free. For those who have a little more time on their hands adding annuals gives a great touch of color to any garden and only requires a spring planting. But anyone who wants to do more, those who enjoy cut flowers, season long burst of color and the joy of getting their hands dirty should try planting a few perennials.

Without getting into great detail I will give you some quick tips to help you get started. Following these tips I’ve provided you with a few species that are favorites of mine but also make a beautiful impact in any garden. Most of all have fun with it and experiment until you find what works best for you.

 1. “It’s all about the odds.” To get the best visual, plant in staggered groupings of 3 or more of the same plant but always having an odd number.

2. Sun or Shade. Plants, like people, all have preferences. Make sure you know whether the plant prefers sun, partial shade or shade.

3. Flowers all season. Some perennials produce flowers in only one month or across several. Make sure you add a variety of flowering times in your garden to guarantee flowers all summer long.

Daylilies (Hemerocallis)

 -full sun, flowers July-September. Perfect for cut flower bouquet

 -bright green strap-shaped leaves with huge trumpet shaped flowers in every color which grows anywhere from 1 1/2 ‘feet to 4 feet tall.

Astilbe (Astible x arendsii)

-part shade, flowers June and July. Makes a beautiful stand alone plant in any garden

-green or bronze colored tooth edged leaves with feathery plumes of tiny flowers in red, white, peach, rose, lavender and pink that grows 2-3 feet tall.

Hostas (Hosta)

-full shade, flowers August and September. Foliage alone is extremely eye-catching.

-white, purple and lavender flowers in spikes on foliage of all degrees of green,bronze, and blue green. Solid and variegated leaves are available in 100’s of varieties.