Plan and plant now – big rewards next spring

By Rosalyn Charland

This is the perfect time to check out your nursery catalogues and local garden centres for fall flowering bulbs and colourful chrysanthemums to brighten up your containers and flower beds for the fall months. At the same time, check out the tulip, daffodil and other small bulbs, as you will get first choice and can order or reserve your supply from your nursery. You will then be ready to plant from mid October to early November.

The wide variety of bulbs available in every price range makes tulips and other spring blooming bulbs a great addition to your garden. Try to get some early, mid and late blooming varieties so that you will have bloom over at least six weeks. You can also choose from a wide range of flower shapes and sizes and a complete palette of colours. Spring flowers have always inspired poets. Who has not heard of “A host of dancing daffodils”. If you are less poetic and a more practical sort, buy the species tulips and daffodils which are very vigorous. They will come back every year and multiply just like your old friends.

Plant your tulips and other bulbs pointed side up, in groups of five or more of each kind,. Plant a bit deeper than recommended on the packages, at least twelve inches for the larger bulbs, adding a handful of bone meal around them. Cover with soil and compost, if available, and sprinkle with dried red peppers flakes and extra leaves and twigs if you have pesky squirrels around. Bulbs can be grown in heavily shaded areas as they make roots in the fall and emerge before the leaves are out.

Keep your tulips moist if you have a dry spring and deadhead the stems but leave the foliage until it wilts ands dries up completely as the leaves must grow on to store food in the bulb for next year’s blooms.

Why are my blue hydrangeas pink this year?

For the past few years at easter time we get a blue florist hydrangea to brighten up the house as winter draws to an end. After a few weeks the flowers die off and we store the plant in the cold room in the basement until it warms up enough outside to allow us to plant the hydrangea.

These hydrangeas will bloom steadily from year to year and even when the flowers dry they add interest to the garden. One fascinating aspect  about the hydrangea plant is that the flowers can change color from year to year. They plant is very sensitive to it’s environment, especially the pH of the soil. Actually it is based on the amount of aluminum in the soil. The more aluminum, the more blue the flower will be. The less aluminum, the more pink the flower will be. Sometimes the plant can’t make up it’s mind and you get pink and bluish flowers on the same plant.

To get hydrangea to be pink increase the pH of the soil (more alkaline) so the plant will not take up aluminum from the soil. This can be done by adding dolomitic lime a few times a year or by using fertilizer with high levels of phosphorus.

To get the hydrangea to be blue then decrease the pH of the soil (more acidic) by adding aluminum sulfate to the soil or by adding organic material that tends to be more acidic such as pine needles or even coffee grounds.

So the reason our blue hydrangeas where pink this year is that our soil became “sweeter” and less acidic. I had assumed that with the hydrangeas so close to our woodland that the large evergreen trees would make the soil more acidic and that I wouldn’t have to add a lot of organic material this year. I guess this was a bad assumption because we have a lot of pink hydrangeas.

Every garden needs a water feature

A few years ago we wanted to add a water feature in our garden in order to get a bit of the sound of running water in the backyard. We didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it or have the headache of maintaining a big pond. Another thing we had to consider is that in our neighborhood raccoons are also a big problem with water features, so we needed something that would not turn into a raccoon Jacuzzi!  We tried various things through the years, but nothing really worked that well and the raccoons always seemed to get into them. We had seen some beautiful fountains at the up scale garden centers, but didn’t really want to pay over a thousand dollars. One day we were at the Home Depot and we noticed that there were some relatively cheap ($150 to $250) fountains that didn’t look too bad. We bought one of these fountains and a few interlocking brick wall stones to build a base for it and within a couple hours had it installed and were enjoying the sound of running water in the garden. We have had the fountain for a few years now, and it has more than paid for itself. Once in a while the robins also have a bath in it which is quite a scene.

The base for the fountain is a cap paver that you can get at Home Depot. We used this because of the semi circular shape of the fountain base.

You also will need a power source for the pump. We put our fountain against our garage/garden shed which has electricity.

To really prevent raccoons from enjoying our fountain I cut a piece of plywood in the shape of the fountain base, and every night I cover the fountain. You don’t really have to do this if you don’t fully fill the fountain as the raccoons have a hard time getting at the water unless it is right up to the top.

If you are finding the sound of running water too loud you can soften the sound by putting a few river stones in the catch basin.

Just make sure that every few days you put water in the fountain as the level will go down as the water evaporates.

In the winter we empty the fountain and store it.

Why are there so many ants on my Peony?

A few people have asked us about ants on their Peony's and if they should spray them. DO NOT SPRAY THEM IF YOU WANT FLOWERS!!! The ants actually help the peony flowers to open and have a symbiotic relationship with the peony. The flower buds on the peony have a sticky honey on them that attracts the ants. The ants will eventually remove the honey and this allows the beautiful flower to open. The double peony flowers especially need the ants to remove the honey to open. I have had friends who sprayed their peony and wondered why it didn’t flower – so if you want your peony to flower just let the ants to their job and you will get beautiful peony blooms.

This is a picture of an heirloom peony in our yard that is white with a little bit of reddish pink center and a rose like fragrance. This was one of the few plants that we found in our yard when we moved in many years ago and it’s still doing well after probably 60 years. The ants love it….

Mirrors in the Garden

A few years ago we built a potting area behind our garage and we wanted to hide it so that nobody could see it from our patio. I had been walking through a very upscale neighborhood near my work and noticed that in one of the yards that the professional landscapers had put a mirror in an entrance. It seamlessly created the illusion of a very long garden. I thought that maybe we could do something like that to hide our potting area and went home and got an old mirror that used to be over our living room fireplace out of the basement. It fit perfectly and after installing it gave a great feeling of depth to the garden and successfully hid our potting area.  It also gave that perfect background for our climbing rose and made it look more substantial. To our surprise, we found that the mirror really never needed cleaning – the rain seemed to do the job. We just made sure to protect the back of the mirror so that the silver would not wear or get scraped off by some raccoon trying to climb it.

One thing we decided to do with our mirror was to protect the back of it from the elements by applying a spray marine varnish. Not sure if it was needed, but it hasn’t faded at all in the few years that it has been installed in the garden. We also put a lattice backing on it so that it wouldn’t easily get scratched.

Another area that you could use a mirror is a fence where you want to give the illusion of depth, or a façade entry into your neighbor's yard. Dust off those old mirrors you have in your basement, or go to a salvage store and buy an old mirror and be creative – you will like the results…

I’m a Hot Pink Tree Peony Save me!

A few years ago I was out for a walk around the neighborhood on a pleasant spring night, and came across a small shrub in the garbage with a hand written note on it that said “I am a Hot Pink Tree Peony Save me”. At the time tree peonies were very expensive running at about $60-$100 depending on the size. This particular tree peony was bare root, not in a pot, and had obviously just been pulled out of the ground. I grabbed it and though that I had nothing to loose by trying to revive it. I got it home and immediately put it in a pot of compost until we could find a home for it in the backyard. That summer it leafed out, but didn’t produce any flowers. Every year since then it produced more and more flowers and this year the hot pink tree peony we saved looks amazing….

Spring Showers Mean a Very Lush Garden

It's been an extremely wet spring this year and that has been really good for the many plants in the garden. The woodland plants have especially benefited from the cool wet spring. The ferns seem to be much taller and more lush than previous years. 

On the downside, we haven’t had a chance to sit outside as much and I’m sure that this wet spring will also mean a lot more of those nasty slugs and snails feasting on the plants.