Daisy Days of Summer

There's nothing like daisy flowers to represent summer.  These were at the Simcoe Container Garden trials, in the garden of the owner.

Lilycrest In Bloom

Brian's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field is showing great colour and beautiful blossoms.  But yesterday I was there to pick  beans.  Brian had a little extra space and planted potatoes, beans, tomatoes and zucchini. Just like the lilies blooming profusely, the beans are producing profusely.  Zucchini seem to be like balloons and just expand.  The area's soil is very fertile with Bakker's nursery stock fields all around.  This year's crop is small trees rather than roses - I wonder where the blooming roses are this year.

The Shipping News

Do you expect to see ships when you visit gardens?  Particularly ships with sails made out of the leaves of the plant 'Lamb's Ears'?  Here's one of the sculptures in a country garden in Canfield that is on the Hamilton Spectator's Open Garden Week.

What Colour is Your House?

If you owned a Painted Lady, what colour would you paint it?  There's a newly renovated and added to house in Grimsby Beach, and we saw the owners on Saturday as we toured the gardens in the Blooms for Africa Garden Tour.  We asked the owner: "What colours are you going to paint the house?".  He is a young man and replied that some of the houses in the area were a bit bright and he was going to stay with something more subdued.  So, we'll see what happens on the house colours. What would you choose for your painted lady? What theme would your fence and free work have?

Dark Corners

Isn't this a lovely art piece for the garden? It is the answer to what to do with dark corners in the garden.  When you live on Heath Street, one of Toronto's premier streets in Forest Hill, you add a beautiful sculpture to the garden that emphasizes the darkness and plays with the filtered light.

Garden Edits on a Theme

Hostas multiply.  The front garden was too full of plants so had some editing and a 'truck load' went away last week. They took a stylish trip to their new home in Grimsby. On to Kale - the magic vegetable in the second picture.  This one is at the Celtic Garden in Vinemount - a garden of natural willow sculptures and hostas. Did you know that kale is called 'the new beef'. There's a variety of Kale named Black Magic - sounds like  something for my front garden as its theme is Magic and Mystery.  The theme got started with: - Arisaema (tropical Jack in the Pulpits) - both Green Godess and Corbra (that's the stinky one) - my version of a Fairy Garden - toad and mushrooms sculptures. - Chocolate-coloured plants contrasting with Chartreuse Any ideas you have for creating magic and mystery - send them along!

Lilycrest Gardens - Full Bloom Week

My brother is a lily grower and hybridizer.  He has a field on 5th Street in St. Catharines, and it is in its prime right now with lilies in bloom.  You can see him loading the van with lilies to go to the National Show.  The past two days was the Ontario Regional Lily Show in Burlington at the Royal Botanical Gardens. Lilycrest Gardens brings to mind the "lilies of the field" in the Sermon on the Mount: 'Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin...' Brian's field grows Lilium lilies - and the Madonna Lily is a special flower of Christian symbolism.  However, it is unlikely to be the lily referred to. It doesn't grow in Israel. Tulips, poppies, daisies and other wildflowers have been suggested as candidates for “lilies of the field". And the likely candidate is the flower Anemone coronaria, the Crown Anemone.  It grows in every part of Israel. There are many possibilities to choose from as there are hundreds of flowers with Lily in the common name and dozens that grew in Israel.  The reference remains interesting and mysterious, with no definitive answer.

Creemore Garden Folly Dream

There's Disney's Magic Kingdom and Chanticleer Garden's Castle Ruin.  This castle ruin is a garden folly in a private country garden in Creemore. These were created to remind the owner of Scotland, and the ruin set out in the garden  was created as the setting for the owner's daughter's wedding.  You might be convinced that I've been travelling to Scotland.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I was in Caledon yesterday at the botanic garden, Plant Paradise for the Delphinium Festival.  The spectacular botanic garden is set within a managed pine forest and I found the rows of trunks disappearing into infinity a great subject for tunnel photos.  I thought you might enjoy how different the story of filtered light is from even light, and the difference between a tunnel story and a maze story. Find Plant Paradise at: http://plantparadisecountrygardens.ca   Facebook Twitter Website

Adirondack or Muskoka - What's in a Name?

"The beloved Muskoka chair started out as the Westport chair, named after Westport, New York, where it was patented.  It later became known as the Adirondack chair, in honour of the mountains of the same name in New York state, where tuberculosis patients were sent to relax and take in the fresh air at a convalescent home." Over the years, improvements were made, such as using slats instead of a single slab for the seat and back. No one knows who brought the first one to Canada or the start of the term Muskoka chair.  But there it is: Muskoka or Adirondack - nothing different.  Both are the epitome of summer comfort and relaxation. What better way to enjoy the calendar's slide between July 1st and July 4th!