Winter has come properly decked out finally and I’m continuing to be fascinated by thinking about where our gardens are going in the next year or so.

5. An emphasis on trees. More conferences, more concern about their condition especially for native trees. Finally we are getting seriously worried about our canopies. Not just the urban canopy but canopies everywhere. Our trees have been assaulted by pollution, lumbering, invasions by exotic aliens.  The latter is being taken extremely seriously by those who want our native forests to survive and thrive.  Trees can’t go very far with global climate change and those that can’t adjust quickly are going to croak.  They give us so much we all have to become stewards of the forest. Forget that epithet tree-hugger, become one.

6. Sustainability has become a confusing term, but we’re going to have it slammed at us in almost everything that has to do with nature (which takes in everything not just gardening). We all need to get up to speed on what it really means and how it affects our gardening, lives, homes and what we can do about it.

7. Hellebores are my personal Plant of the Year:  a never-fail (though it may be slow to get a grip in some gardens), evergreen, glorious, magnificent plant. You can use it as a houseplant;  fill up a container if it’s out of its zone; or have a collection that will bloom pretty much year round. Here’s a wonder Helleborus ‘Pink Frost’ which landed in nurseries last year and should be in everyone’s garden.

8. Self-seeding plants. The whole trend toward having looser, more casual gardens means we’ll be using more and more self-seeding plants without being terrified of them (rampant, and invasive). Learn about a few of them that work well in your area. Start with a palette and then move into the plants that will work with what  you’ve got.  I’m going to write more on this so please sign up for the newsletter.

And here’s  what I’d really like to be doing now: glugging down a lovely glass of Italian wine and watching the sun set over an Italian villa. Join me, have a look at our Italian trip for this year.

The Saturday before Christmas a group of lads showed up late in the afternoon. They got the gigantic earth movers going and then drove them off rather quickly I thought as I turned back to work. When the cop arrived on Monday he asked:  ”Did you notice anything odd over the weekend?”  Of course I had, at 4:35 on Saturday  two giant machines left the site.  ”What did the guys look like?” he asked.   Well, like construction workers: puffy vests, toques, steel-toed boots. “Where are the machines now?” I enquired.  Oh,  on a ship to a foreign land; or off to another construction site.  The contractors were convinced it was organized crime.

It certainly looked organized but it’s hard  to feel sorry for them. Apparently all Caterpillar machines have the same key. All you need is one bent person and you’ve got yourself a $120,000 chunk of metal.

TRENDS

Trends come slowly to the mind when this sort of annoying stuff is going on.  But I’m as willing as the next person to take a shot at it. We used to joke at Gardening Life magazine that whatever we declared as a trend one year, we’d say was out of style the next. Not completely true but now there are so few garden mags, I still like this pretentious little ritual–it  makes us all feel like the season is about to swing over into something new.

1. Vegetable gardening in the front yard or among the perennials is going to be as big this year as it was last. People have fallen in love with growing vegetables, not just for eating but also for the aesthetics. A gigantic fennel or edging of Swiss chard looks great among autumn bloomers such as Salvia bonariensis and other plants of its ilk.

2. Orange has been declared the colour of the year by the fashionistas,  and gardeners have been ahead of the curve on this one. We chose orange tulips, dahlias and echinaceas to marry up with purple and magenta plants a few years ago. This year, we’re trendy.

3. Fewer lazy landscaper gardens:  you know the kind–thirty hydrangeas, 18 grasses et voila a Piet Oudolph garden.  Well, not bloody likely. Oudolph is a genius at colour block planting and I haven’t seen one garden in this style that passes muster. This sort of  dreary garden is so foolproof and so boring that even the most visually illiterate of clients wants it to be replaced by something requiring both thought and individuality.  Most of our work last year at Marjorie Harris Gardens was taking out this sort of egregious mess, moving plants around and adding new and exciting ones.

4. Flowering shrubs. Instead of putting in tall perennials, smaller flowering shrubs are catching the eye of gardeners. There are some staggering beauties coming into the market place and it’s a matter of demanding them at your own favourite nursery. There are such dishy ones as my favourite plant du jour:  Calycanthus floridus an eastern native with maroon blossoms and long tapered leaves.  I’ll have a list and  pix of the new ones I adore coming up shortly.

More trends to come, I hate these blogs when they get too long. I also apologize for having been absent such a long time but between our tour to Italy last autumn and recovering from  knee replacement surgery immediately after, I seem to have been totally preoccupied. I’ll keep this up on a regular basis from now on. And I’ll be sending out the free midwinter newsletter next week. If you’d like to receive it and are not on the mailing list,  just get in touch. And we’ve got the new itinerary for this year’s trip to Italy just hit the button up on the banner and you’ll find it in all its glory.

On CBC’s Fresh Air this morning, I mentioned the newsletter.  If you get in touch with me I’ll put you on the list and send a link to the old one and I guarantee I’ll have a new one this week.

I also mentioned a shrub called Lespedeza which I think if a wonderful autumn blooming shrub. I’ll try and take a decent picture of it and put it up here.

There will also be a new batch of videos on the Globe and Mail web site  called Gardening 101.  I’ll also be better at putting things up her from now on. I cannot be working harder than I am right now. It’s crazy.

But here is one:  my garden this week.  

The summer has winged by. Last week in The Globe Plant of the Week was Clematis ‘Meine Belle’  a gorgeous vine which I longed for myself. Well forget about it. Gardenimport was so swamped with orders that they are out of it already and will be even when the next catalogue comes out. It touched a nerve that plant.

We all want lovely little clematis, different species. But what are we getting:  the great big cultivars that the growers have decided are all we can get. It’s been appalling. So only a few outlets have interesting clems. Gardenimport has others so give them a try as well, as does Lost Horizons.  And put some pressure on your local favourite nursery to search out more clematis for you next year. If they know they can make money on these plants, they will stock them. So they will put pressure on the growers to try the better ones.

Clematis ‘Betty Corning’ is going bananas in my garden in two spots. Nothing holds back this beauteous lady. But you can’t buy it anywhere anymore.  

The Globe and Mail has more videos up of me furbling on. It was a lot of fun doing them so I hope you enjoy watching them .

Gardening Basics

A new free newsletter is being worked on so if you’d like to sign up, I’d like to send it to you.

Some day I’ll go into the garden and not be critical of each and every plant.  What’s missing from the photograph below is a giant Rosa glauca and that left  the path a little easier to manage, a seedling of the mother plant will flourish and it will continue to live here.

I’ve never ever seen a year like this one for weeds and diseases.  Unbelievable. That warm winter didn’t kill off a lot of offenders, the humungous amount of rain that never seemed to end lead to fungal diseases. I had one tree so infected, so covered in aphids and ants farming them that I had to whack it right back (it was a Heptacodium miconoides). Derek Welsh the arbourist says it will probably come back all right. My soil is good. So take courage with your own plants. It might not be the end of them.

In the background you can see a tricoloured beech. This year it’s glorious beyond belief. Makes me want to change one of the Japanese maples in the foreground.  Gulp.

Over the next few weeks I’ll get out a summer newsletter.

And I thank  those who’ve asked about my husband Jack Batten. In the past week he’s starting improving. The man I love has returned and feels so much better. It’s been a hellish couple of months but I feel as if life is going to return to something close to normal.  Yeaaaaaa

Sign up for the free newsletter:  marjorieharris@rogers.com I’ll welcome you joining us. I apologize for not answering you really terrific comments. I am expecting any day that all this media stuff will actually become very clear to me and I’ll know what to do instinctively.

Agapanthus ‘Black Buddha’
Alternanthera ‘Purple Knight’
Angelonia ‘Angelface White’
Canna ‘Durban’ (African Sunset)
Coleus ‘Purple Duckfoot’
Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff’
Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’
Ipomoea ‘Midnight Lace’
Ipomeoea ‘Sweet Caroline Bewitched’
Plectranthus ‘Mona Lavender’
Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’

I’ve done a bunch of videos for the Globe and Mail and the column starts on May 28th. Monique Dobson took this picture of  us working away.  I must say we had fun and they should be on the Globe’s web site this week.

Here’s a really piece that was in the Edmonton Journal:  

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Lessons+from+Marjorie+Harris+garden/4801463/story.html

He was either looking at the little squirrel bashing about next door, or had his eye on anything fallen from the feeder which had been filled that day. When he took off it was breathtaking. How can they do that?

It was cheery this week to make my way to Canada Blooms and actually see and smell plants in bloom. They have an amazing track record of forcing plants and it made slogging around on the those cement floors worthwhile. I like the show very much and there’s lots to see without it feeling smooshed together.

My highlight was talking to Ben Heppner the great Heldentenor. He was standing in his garden named Parisifal (designed by Judith Wright). He was ever so patient being interviewed and I couldn’t resist speaking to him.

Parsifal is the opera that changed my life. Turned me into an opera nut. I also has actually met Mr. Heppner years ago. It was up at the Red Barn on Jackson’s Point when Peter Gzowski used to have fabulous fundraisers for his literacy campaign.  I was doing a small gig on gardening;  and Ben Heppner was the surprise star of the evening. So I like to think I once sang with Ben Heppner (he at the mic me at the back of the stage belting out Oh Canada!).

So we chatted on amiably.  I am his slave forever he is so kind and patient. I didn’t ask if he was a gardener which was fairly stupid.

All  of this  took my mind off the flood that’s begun and will continue until the ground can absorb the snow melt and the water coming in from all around (and rising from Taddle Creek our underground stream). There are snow drops up everywhere. And it really is beginning to feel like spring might make an appearance soon.

Barry says:  ”My favourite plant combo is Cotinus ‘Royal Purple’ and Baptisia ‘Purple Smoke’. First thing in the morning when there is still dew on the leaves they are spectacular!”

Couldn’t agree with him more. The foliage on these two plants are both so well-defined they make a gorgeous contrast. It works really well.

Cotinus, smoke bush, now has many sizes in varying cultivars but ‘Royal Purple’ is still one of the strongest and best available.  In cold areas it will die back in winter. But here in Z6 we can expect it to winter through most years. It doesn’t cause much trouble and the leaves are such a rich texture.

Baptisias in any form is not the easiest plant to grow. They take forever to have their lovely blooms, followed by dramatic beans.  It’s easy to get discouraged about it but it’s drought tolerant with smokey blue foliage and then amazing purple-blue spikes of bloom are staggering.  This is a combo I’m doing to be keen to try if I can shoehorn a cotinus into the space near the baptisia.

Thanks so much Barry.   If anyone else has a great combo I’d love to see it.

The catalogues are coming in and speaking of worth the wait. Dugald Cameron’s Gardenimport is so delicious, it’s definite bathtub reading. Really great new stuff. A friend calls it garden porn, but I think of it as a reflection of Dugald’s ebullient personality. It’s such a good catalogue I keep it on hand for reference all the time.

Harvey Wrightman is another absolutely first class plantsman and though you have to get his catalogue   www.wrightmanalpines.com as an excellent reference to rare and unusual plants, you have to go to his site and look at the videos. Most garden videos are unbelievably boring, not Harvey’s. The one with the little kid making a rock garden is funny, charming and one I go back to regularly just to be cheered up.

Hallelujah Lost Horizons catalogue is with us as well.  It is one of the most complete and interesting catalogues in the country. Larry Davidson is very careful with his plants and he’s also a grower in a tough area  (windy not a lot of snow cover) so it’s plants are tough and very well grown. I can tell I’m in trouble already, stickies abound. He doesn’t ship any more but you wouldn’t want to miss the nursery anyway.   www.losthorizons.ca It takes about 4 minutes to print out the catalogue. Worth the money and the paper.

Fraser’s Thimble Farm has nary a picture and it is definitely a must-have. Tons of unusual plants and they will ship the little stuff. www.thimblefarms.com.

More to come. It’s the only way to ward off February blues.

Barry

I asked one of my favourite gardeners, Monique Dobson, if she would come up with her favourite combo and this is what she sent me:

This is Gentian scabra ‘True Blue’ with Hakonochloa macra ‘All Gold’  and a dazzling combination it is

The hak is Japanese hedge grass and it has practically no down time at all. In spring all it needs is to be whacked back to the ground the minute there’s new growth and it will be popping out looking absolutely great.  You have to wait until late summer  for the gentian to look this good and for this moment.  They are glorious plants and that blue is so intense it carries for a huge distance. But what’s so smart about this combination is that the gold background makes it pop even more than usual.

This is an Asian gentian and hardy to Z5 but it needs sun though not hot full sun and must have really well drained soil. What a great genus because there’s a gentian from almost every part of the globe and it’s a fantastic plant to collect.

I’ve tried G. septemfida but  ignored the well-drained part and it drowned in the spring flood.  Next time I’d put it in a raised bed with lots of organic matter in the soil.

I got an e-mail from Darrell Probst the developer of this cultivar (cultivated variety). He says:

“It is a hybrid of several species including Gentiana makinoi and so it is tolerant of a variety of situations. It will take full sun in all of Canada as well as most of the US. It is actually hardy to at least zone 3 and should be fine in most garden soils although it might turn chlorotic in especially alkaline soil.”

If you have a combination that’s as stunning as this one, send it to me and let me comment on it.  I’ll throw in some of my own as well. It’s going to be a long winter.

But this is a dangerous situation for trees and shrubs laden with snow as the sun hits them and  makes them incredibly heavy. Brittle or frozen branches run the risk of snapping. This can cause an enormous amount of damage. I hate to much this up  because the garden just makes my heart fill up when it this serene. Very hard not to spend a lot of time gazing at it and ignoring the situation as it actually is. So out I went and trammelled up the untrammelled.

Things here are a bit nasty. My adored husband, Jack, has to have heart surgery and I haven’t felt like blogging or doing anything but spend time thinking about him (and being with him).

We don’t know when the tests will begin and we don’t know when the surgery will take place, so it’s a waiting game at the moment.  It’s hard to feel like going out and being social.

So once again the garden is a solace. This fact has kept me going through a lot of crises.  Something smashes you in the face, you spend time in or looking at the garden and you can feel the beat of your heart change. You can feel the calm entering your body.  The garden does heal but of course you have to let it do its work. I can’t imagine being without a garden whether it’s what I see behind my house or having plants in pots to gaze at.

Speaking of plants to look at. The Amaryllis from Gardenimport are all coming into bloom and they are gorgeous. This is truly  looking into the face of nature. All those complex little details and the subtle striations of colour. I’d love to post a picture, but my brand new camera doesn’t work properly. So another schlep to the camera store.  I was banging away with it over Christmas and anything took was not properly in focus. Not good.