Lotus - A magic flower

This is one of my favourite flowers - Lotus.  It is the beautiful centre that I so enjoy.  This Lotus is at Coles Nursery in Grimsby, where I live.  Blooming in a pot, it is easy to get close, too.

Stormy Weather

We had a great rainfall yesterday in the Niagara region.  I realized just how much rain fell when I went to St. Catharines for the Grimsby Garden Club field outing.  Along Fifth St. Louth, near my brother's hybridizing field, there were orchards in water.  It is sandy loam, so that means a lot of water came down in the day.

The garden club went to Lilycrest Gardens, my brother, Brian Bergman's lily hybridizing field, and then to Squirrel House Gardens, the 11.5 acre garden of Elisabeth Hilton.  It is also on Fifth Street.

Lilycrest Gardens - Lilies and Lilies

There's such a variety of lilies - size, colour, form, texture and shape.  My brother's lily hybridizing field, Lilycrest Gardens, is in St. Catharines Ontario.  He has more than 100,000 plants, so I can see all the varieties in profusion, which this first image illustrates - masses and masses of flowers.  By using textures I can disguise the paths and soil that would be distracting from the flowers.  When we're in the field, we really don't see the backgrounds as we are so drawn to the flowers and their intense colours. 

Buffalo Garden Walk 2014

I had such a great time on the Buffalo Garden Walk yesterday.  It seems that there must have been even more people than last year, as I parked even further away from the Central Headquarters.  I saw some gardens I hadn't seen before thanks to Dan Cooper, garden writer and book author.  He sent me the release to media on the showcase gardens to look at.

Here's one I hadn't seen before.  What beautiful architecture!

Another Lily

I posted this yesterday on the marilyncornwell photography blog.  It's a lily portrait from my brother, Brian Bergman's Lilycrest Garden field.  There are so many distractions in this field of distinctive blooms that I like to use textures to focus the image on the flowers.

Grimsby Gardens

I wanted to share another beautiful Grimsby Garden that was on the July 5th Grimsby Garden Tour.  You can see that big views of this garden work wonderfully - the paths are gently curving, and the focal points of plants and structures seems perfect.  This is the garden of a jewellery artist - so often artists create the best garden compositions.  The other aspect of this garden is the pictures that are from a higher point of view - the property drops down so that it is possible to take the pictures from the house at the higher elevation, giving one the sweep of the garden all at once.  What a great canvas to work with and what great art has been created in this garden.

Waiting for the Lotus to Bloom

I am lucky to have a great garden centre just down the street from me, in fact, in walking distance.  It has a pond store across the street from the trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals.  I noticed the lotus the other day and it looks like it might bloom this week.  It got me started on lotuses.  I saw more last year than ever before.  They are not hardy in my zone - they are hardy in the Philadelphia area - and Chanticleer has a beautiful pond of lotus.  I also saw a beautiful stand at Lotusland in Pasadena.

Here are a few from last year - I was lucky to get some pretty lighting and be able to get close enough for a macro image of the lotus centre.

Love Those Garden Doors

I've noticed that garden doors are very intriguing and interesting in the garden.  A door for most of us gives entrance to an indoor living space.  So a garden door signifies an outdoor living space.  

Here's a door in Spindletree Gardens, located in Tamworth, Ontario near Kingston.  Its curved top and little window give a sense of delight and whimsy.  I asked Susan Meisner what its origin was and it had come from an antique dealer.  It does has a sense of old-world elegance and a handmade quality to it.  This is something I really appreciate about Spindletree Gardens - all the structures and garden elements have a history.  Some of them have been salvaged and saved, and brought back to beauty in the gardens.

This next door seems to be to be a modern version of the door above.  It is in an elegant garden on the lake in Grimsby, Ontario.  It is interesting how it maintains the old-world charm yet has a modern elegance.

Many of us focus on the plant material in our garden.  I am certainly one of those people.  I can't wait to find some climbing roses for my trellis:  I am looking for a Fourth of July and Roberta Bondar.  Yet, something like a garden door has immense stature and presence in the garden and tell a complete story of themselves.  

I look forward to hearing about what stories your garden tells - in the elements such as doors, in the paths and the flowers and plants.  

A Little bit of Lilycrest Gardens

Here's another image from the hybridizing field, Lilycrest Gardens, in St. Catharines, Ontario. July 2014.  What great contrast in the colours.

Sunnylea Garden's 2014 Milestone

Hi everyone,
The Sunnylea Garden was ready for the July 5th Grimsby Garden Club Garden Tour.  It took a lot of work over the last 2 months to get the back yard into tour-ready shape.  It was only last October that the hardscaping was installed, and the end of May this year that the garden carpentry was completed.  The original concept ideas were done by Frank Kershaw.  Christopher Campbell, who designed my back garden at 46 Orchard Crescent in Toronto, did the design.  I particularly appreciated his design of the Rendezvous with its trellis work and seating area.

Here are a few images of the garden on the morning of the tour:

This is a significant change from 2011, where the back garden featured a large deck, seating area, hot tub and ponds.   With the move of the Conservatory from Toronto, the raised deck, hot tub and bedroom wall were in for major changes.   The front garden was renovated to include a parking area for a second car, and a seating area under the mature red maple tree.

Lilycrest Gardens - Prime Time

My brother, Brian Bergman, has a hybridizing field in St. Catharines where he grows his hybridized lilies.  I was in the field last week, and took these pictures.

Lakeside Living

This house was on the Grimsby Garden Tour (July 5th 2014) and the Hamilton Garden Week…it is on Lakeside Drive in Grimsby.  Wouldn't that be a wonderful experience in the bunkie overlooking the lake at sunrise...