Tag: wildflowers

Not too early to be planning for wildlife-enhancing gardens

In January, the gardener’s thoughts turn to seeds: browsing seed catalogues, preparing seed orders, and receiving parcels of seeds in the mail. When we are not obsessing about seed, we are reading nurseries’s lists. It gets us through the winter – dreams and plans  and anticipation that next season will be the best yet.  With… Continue reading Not too early to be planning for wildlife-enhancing gardens

What did well in the garden this year

Cardinal Flower

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) loves sogginess in the spring, so it’s no surprise that this was a great year for the tall, red, hummingbird favourite. More surprisingly, Bird’s Foot Violet (Viola pedata) was another species that did well this year, This is a violet for sun and infertile, sandy soil. That is what it gets… Continue reading What did well in the garden this year

2017: A Year in Native Plant Gardening

The Rock Garden after rains in the wet summer of 2017.

It was wet. We expect the swale garden and the lawn below it to be wet in April and well into May, from snow melt running down from the hills which surround us. This year it was continuously and unrelentingly wet until late July. The swale was continuously full of water, which would be lovely… Continue reading 2017: A Year in Native Plant Gardening

Native Plants for Rock Gardens

American Lady caterpillar on Plantain-leaved Pussytoes.

Charming and diminutive plants from Ottawa Valley’s natural rock gardens Species from slide show, in order shown Early Saxifrage (Micranthes virginiensis) Early Buttercup (Ranunculus fascicularis) Common Bluets (Houstonia carulia) Long-leaved Bluets (Houstonia longifolia) Hairy Beardtongue (Penstemon hirsutus) Dwarf Hairy Beardtongue (P. hirsutus var. pygmaeus) Field Pussytoes (Antennaria neglecta) Hooked-spur or Early Violet (Viola adunca) Bird’sfoot… Continue reading Native Plants for Rock Gardens

Talk on Native Rock Garden Plants

on Saturday, November 11th, 1pm for the Ottawa Valley Rock Garden Society Westboro Masonic Hall, 430 Churchill Avenue, Ottawa Trish will be showcasing some of the diminutive and charming wild flowers which are native to the local alvars, barrens and rocky slopes, many of which she is propagating at Beaux Arbres. If you do not… Continue reading Talk on Native Rock Garden Plants

Bringing some Standing Cypress to market

I planted some biennial standing cypress (Ipomopsis rubra) last summer just where they would catch the eye as one drove up our driveway. And these scarlet towers of bloom certainly do catch the eye. Like other vivid red flowers, they are hummingbird pollinated. From the U.S. Rockies, they are well north and east of their… Continue reading Bringing some Standing Cypress to market

Relentless rain a week before the Ottawa sale

Wood Poppy

The Rare and Unusual Plant Sale on Sunday, May 14th, at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa is less than a week away and I am past hoping for a spell of warm, sunny weather to bring on some flowers. At this point, I am reduced to hoping fervently that our local ferry service will… Continue reading Relentless rain a week before the Ottawa sale