It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks. Somehow the server messed up my whole web site and with a lot of yelling on the part of web mistress Anna Pemberton, it’s come back a little and I hope it will be back to normal SOON.
We have a new e-letter so try and sign up for it and I will get the URL to you immediately. And some day soon I can show you what the garden looks like again.

I couldn’t resist: a little tour of the garden today shows just how many plants look so good right now. From the left: Japanese maples (Acer shirasawanum is the gold, Berberis. Lots of Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ pick up the exact tone of colour in the Syringa velutina (the scent of which is ravishing); even the Rosa glauca picksup the slight blue tone. There is a wonderful Japanese Salix ?which is revealed now the Physocarpus ‘Diabolo’ is whacked right back.

I’ll have a new newsletter ready within a couple of weeks talking about combining plants.
To me, the best fun.
Meantime I’m working on my first column for the Globe and Mail this year, might be in on the 6th, might not. I’m doing a series on what kinds of gardens Landscape Architects and designers build for themselves. The result are really fascinating.
Another House & Home garden page will be out in a few weeks in the July issue. These are such fun to do.
And I’m working on a story about Adienne Clarkson’s garden for Zoomer.
Then there’s Thrifty: Living the Frugal Life with Style.
These little fingers never stop moving.

This is what the garden looks like this morning. ?It’s just gorgeous and I am thrilled with how well it’s survived a cold, wet miserable time. ?

Who knew this was the long weekend. We are so used to the 24th of May being our day for putting out containers and tarting up the garden with annuals. But here we are a week early. Keep the plants off the ground and wait a few days if you are in Southern Ontario. There will be frost tonight in all sorts of places. ?

I’m going to be on Fresh Air (CBC 99.1 fm) tomorrow between 8:30 and 9. ? ?And if you would like to have the spring e-letter let me know.?

Thanks for your?comments?Yvonne (she has a fabulous) garden. ?Haks are great plants and they have about 2 days of down time in the whole year.

The garden has finally dried out and I’m pacing around trying to find spaces for all the new plants I seem to have stumbled upon in various nurseries. I was at Humber with my friend Susan yesterday: ?we managed to find so much stuff I thought we’d never get them into her car. But one skill all gardeners learn is how to load a car efficiently. Amazing stuff.

Humber Nurseries has a superb collection of annuals. Wow, don’t miss any part of it and use your imagination in looking at the greenhouse section; ?

Fiesta Gardens still has one of the best selection of perennials I’ve seen this year. Margaret Serreo is al ways just slightly ahead of the pack; ?but don’t ignore what’s going on at Loblaw’s and some of the other big box stores. But in the latter get them fast, maintenance falls off in a few weeks.?

I was buying a few things for myself but mostly for clients. ?Combinations I adore and hope they will too. ?

One that really gets to me is a heucheras with spikey plants such as Cordylines and something fluffy like a Hakonochloa. ?And certain Ipomea ‘Blackie’ spilling out of the side of a container. ?I will wait a few days to get this stuff in. ?But where I’m putting things is a bit of a mystery.

An outside eye always makes a difference in the garden. ?Susan said “Why have you got all those Pulmonarias taking up so much space? Move the spring plants to the back like they do at Great Dixter.” ?So we did. ??It makes a huge difference and of course there’s more room for new plants. ?In the shot of the garden today you can see a gorgeous little ?silvery Salix which ?has long been obscured by Physocarpus ‘Diabolo’ but ?Kathy whacked it right back and it seemed to open up the whole garden.

I’m now thinking of getting about 8 people to help me get the gigantic grass out now. Every plant has its day in the garden and I’m getting tired of the same old profile. ?Gardeners need change.

I’m also going to stop blogging until August. I’m supposed to be writing THRIFTY: LIVING THE FRUGAL LIFE WITH STYLE. ?I’ve got to get to it full time and right now my life is full of distractions from clients to the garden itself. So blogging’s out. I’ll change the picture of the garden on a regular basis.

And I will do a monthly newsletter (well e-letter) about what’s important. ?Just sign up and we’ll send it to you.?

I love doing this but time is my enemy at the moment and I’m sure you’ll understand.

Yours Marjorie

New perennials and incredible annuals are everywhere and we’ve all been swarming the nurseries from the look of the action in the nurseries last week and this week is going to be even more buzzy. A couple of words of wisdom: go with a list.

I’ve never seen so many gorgeous plants and it you want them all you’ll find yourself in serious trouble. And have a look at what Loblaws is showing this year. They’ve had a programme of working with Canadian nurseries for the past few years and here’s one of the beauties they’ll have: Hakonochloa macra ‘Aureola’ which has been one of my favourites for many years. When I bought mine it was $34 for a couple of stalks, now you can have a big healthy container for $10. I hope this one is everywhere. It’s a beauty. I have it all over my garden and have never regretted that initial price.

they also have some great ferns, a selection of clematis and the great new Heuchera ‘Georgia Peach’ which has amazing veining and will work with almost any colour.

They also have a new very small version of the Buddlea or butterfly bush which is an exclusive from Sheridan nurseries.

There is one plant they have, no doubt a good one, and that’s Carex ‘Ice Dance’. It’s a lethal spreader and forms a huge mound. We dug it out of here and are donating the whole pile to the big GRASSROOTS ALBANY PLANT SALE  this Saturday 211 Albany Avenue. I may see you there after 10 a.m.

Here’s is the Hak in my garden today: that one has been under water for over a month and it’s looking really good. It combined with an extraordinary strawberrey geranium,Saxifraga ‘Maroon Beauty’ which I bought at Fiesta Gardens 200 Christie Street. Another absolutely wonderful place to find great plants you won’t be seeing everywhere else.

It’s combined with European ginger, Asarum europeum another sneaky little devil that moves around. In this case I like what it does. Great ground cover.

And here’s what I found on my tour this morning: a Trillium grandiflorum. My friend David refers to the garden at this time of year as being “effulgent.” He is so right. And wonderful.

spring 09 flood

 Spring perennials, spring ephemerals and anything to do with spring struggled to be know in the garden this week. I did not expect this flood on the left would make me stop, sit for hours in the middle of the garden on a bench, feet in water, sump pump humming nearby. It reminded me of being a little kid and playing in a stream making dams, directing the water where I wanted it. There I was back in childhood and skipping work in the sunshine.

But of course there are bigger upsides for gardeners. Stranded and forced to sit for an hour or two means you see what’s around you. Patrolling doesn’t do it. I savoured the cow bird who’s on the lookout for a nest—she’s got several lovely songs; the sight of all these plants I forgot I’d put in: the intense magenta of our native Trilliium erectum, still small here but it survived; the magnificent Mertensia virginica(Virginia bluebell); I felt ravished by the scent from a pile of hyacinths I’d packed in last autumn. What good luck to be trapped by beauty.

It’s the tiny things all around that were so dazzling (like the Tulipa tarda and the Narcusus ‘Tete a Tete’ here).

I intend to spend more time sitting in my garden than I have in the past. The squirrels are busy eating all the buds off the magnificent magnolia; the new grasses are springing up.  Yes there are lots of holes but I’m betting they’ll get filled up very quickly.

I had my very first volunteer in the garden this week: Monique. She knows her way around the garden and having someone so knowledgeable working along side me for a few hours was another pleasure of the week. As a treat, I invited her to go with me to the annual Loblaw bun bash.

This is an amazing event because you get not only to see the new plants they’ll be carrying, you get to take them home. Well it turns grown people into screaming meamies (including Miss Greedy guts here). One dame accused us of stealing her plants. An honest mistake on Monique’s part, she put the wrong plants on our trolley. Quite a view of gardeners.

But I’lll report on what’s going to be in their stores in a few days. Meantime the mud pile is looking much better:

 And hola more volunteers are coming in to help move trees this week. It will look so different. If to no one but me and, after all, who does anyone garden for except themselves.

Spring really did arrive this week and the garden is growing at a remarkable clip. Can’t keep up with it. The only disappointment is that the ephemerals so necessary to bumbles and other bees were drowned completely. The mud was just too daunting for them and I don’t see a sign of the trout lilies at all. But here’s what going gangbusters:

hellebores on the left that a Helleborus niger; right is a purple form

Helleborus niger

purple-hellebore

There are more hellebores in the garden and I have to cut back the crappy looking foliage and will do so any minute now. I sort of like the mix of new growth, seductive satiny bloom, with decaying old foliage. It brings everything nature together in one plant.
Spring Flowering shrubs like this:

Wonderful spring flowering bulb such as this Chionodoxa lucilea. I have masses of them now all from a couple of dozen planted decades ago.

Are we spoiled? Was it just the longest running winter in memory? We are so eager to get out and doing in the garden and it should be okay from now on. But hold off clipping shrubs for a week or until you see some growth on the interior of woody plants. Then whack them back.

Today is our wedding anniversary and my adorable husband gave me some glorious yellow tulips and a bottle of Prosecco which I really adore. Tonight we celebrate decades and decades of living with each other. And him not interfering with the garden. Perfect marriage.

If you would like to have the Spring 09 e-letter it’s ready to send to you. Just sign up. We have to keep track of all the names somehow and that’s the only way I can think of doing it. Here are some wonderful events you might want to note:

UP COMING:

Toronto Botanical Gardens fabulous plant sale is on May 5 . Go to the really great web site: www.torontobotanicalgarden.com
Parkdale Hort’s great one day (11 to 2 p.m. on May 9) plant sale go to
www.parkdaletorontohort.com
Nancy White sings for gardens in Guatamela. this is a great event have a look at the powerpoint presentation to see how much difference a little garden can make. Their fund raiser is on May 7th at Holy Trinity Chruch; see www.warehouseofhope.com.