Free Garden Catalogues

Here's a link to a bunch of free garden catalogues. Canadian all. http://www.highway7.com/t_nature/nat_0302_gardens.html

Canada Blooms in March in Toronto

Celebrate Canada at our 13th Anniversary "Canada Blooms" March 18-22, 2009 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, South Building.
Click Here to Buy Your Tickets Today!

Canada Blooms: The Toronto Flower & Garden Festival invites you to visit a paradise bursting with six acres of glorious gardens in full bloom, more than 100,000 square feet of green thumb shopping and much, much more at Canada's largest and most prestigious flower and garden festival.
Interested in learning more about gardening? With four different stages going non-stop, the show offers over 200 hours of seminars, workshops and demonstrations in five days from some of the best garden experts in North America. And it's free with your admission to Canada Blooms.
Need a little inspiration or looking for ideas? Over twenty dazzling and unique display gardens designed and built by the best of the best around the theme "Canada Blooms", where we celebrate our tradition of gardening and horticultural excellence.

To learn more about Canada Blooms 2009, visit Canada Blooms.

Nice Gift

My seeds arrived and with them a gift for sending my order in on line. A small envelope of Dry Seaweed Concentrate Fertilizer packs a big punch. Seaweed, of course, has been used for fertilizer by generations of Maritimers.

The dry stuff is extremely concentrated. One packet of 15 grams has the almost fairy tale ability to never run out. The packet is first mixed with a gallon of water. Then you use two teaspoons ! to a litre of water in make the mixture you use for the plants.

According to the blurb, this stuff works for houseplants as well as garden plants. Powerful? Not really at a 2-5-2 or 2% nitrogen, 5% phosphorus and 2% Potash. But a fine gift and thank you T&T seeds.

February Re-start

In January, it was too cold to think of gardens but now I am fired up and ready to go. I sent off my first order to T&T seeds. This was the flower order which I'll start in my basement under lights. (T&T Seeds at garden@ttseeds.com)

I am scaling back this year. I have to. The flower beds are so chock full of large perennials that there is little room for annuals. We have had such a good snow cover that I am confident my perennials are ready to burst as soon as it leaves. (Unless it floods. With so much snow, that is always a possibility).

But I did order some of the old favourites: pink lavatera, canary vine - the best annual climber, godetia, mixed colour impatiens for the shade garden, sweet peas for cutting and lemon gem marigolds to finish the season. I had such good luck growing geraniums from seed that I ordered several packs for the patio posts T&T does not carry the variety of cosmos that I like (sea shell) so I will look for it around town.

I will be going to some bird festivals in April. This means I have to give up some of the more "picky" plants such as schizanthus, pansies and wave petunias. I did order a few seeds that I will plant straight into the garden, namely bachelor buttons and nasturtiums. These last flow over the bricks that edge the patio. I plan to plant lots of sunflowers along the fence in the back lane as a treat for the birds.

Meanwhile the house is full of the scent of hyacinths. The stems are a little stretched and have to be propped on twigs. Hyacinth stems are hollow and boneless. They will practically lie down across the pot unless they are propped.

The King Alfred Daffodils came along nicely. They bloom for a few weeks, easily the longest blooming indoor bulb. They too stretched in our low northern light conditions but they do not seem to mind. Three pots of three plants each massed together on a side table make a grand winter show.