Blooming where we're planted...however we want!

It's not an earth-shattering secret to declare that I don't like garden gnomes. 

I resisted the temptation, some years ago when I was stuck at an awful bed and breakfast locale in Newfoundland and Labrador, to swipe the two ugly garden gnomes out in the 'garden' as I was leaving, and ensconce them on the top of Gros Morne. I did bump them with my suitcase and knock them over, but didn't hurt them in any way. Whew. I feel better for having 'fessed up to that. 

My dislike of garden gnomes, however, is purely personal and really rather good-humoured. I LOVED the whimsical book "How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack", which might not be high lit-er-ah-chure, but is darn funny, and hey, I can even enjoy a whimsically placed gnome or three. I'm not a zombie-fan but I've seen zombie gnomes and they reduced me to chortles of glee. 

The reason for this confession comes as a result of a discussion that happened on Twitter and on the blog of my friend and fellow gardening addict, Colleen Vanderlinden of In the Garden Online. Colleen took umbrage, rightfully so in my opinion, at some negative and critical posts and comments about 'crimes against gardening' posted by another writer. She didn't like the idea of being critical of other gardeners just because we don't share similar tastes. 

Finding my way home to the October Country

Well, it's been six WEEKS since I've updated here, but in my defence, life has been crazily busy, mores than usual. Between adopting three kittens that became five kittens, travelling around to various events, working on some interesting projects for clients, and trying to do some home and yard improvements, there hasn't been much spare time for writing blog posts. And now suddenly, it's October, and that happened very quickly. Unfortunately, it's been a rainy October so far, as two large weather systems dump a drenching on the province. It's good for the gardens, but a little hard to get anything done.

There is still a gratifyingly large number of plants in bloom in my garden, partly because I do manage to sneak time to deadhead, and partly because I've planted with fallscaping beauty in mind. The 'Sungold' buddleia in the top photo is in its second year of life here, highly unusual for butterfly bushes of any colour but especially of the delightful golden-yellow cultivar. My Japanese anemones have settled in very well here, being planted where they have decent drainage, and they continue to bloom like crazy.

Lotsa August Colour & Heading to New Brunswick

What a wonderful few days I had on the road, talking gardens with fellow enthusiasts, photographing plants, cheering on fellow gardeners...thanks to my gracious hosts for their many kindnesses and generosity of spirit. We had great attendance at the talks and seminars, and as always, I think I learned as much as or more than those who came to the events. Tuesday I head out to New Brunswick, and I'll have more to say about that shortly.

My mantra in these dog days of August, as many people know, is that we CAN have plenty of colour as we go through late summer and into autumn. The photos in this blog post were all taken today, in my gardens. Above is part of the coneflower garden, but all of the garden is looking pretty enthusiastic. Perhaps there are a few weeds, but we'll declare those pollinator plants and carry on.

Astrantia 'Lola' is in the background of this photo, and I did cut back all the dried flowers, the better to encourage more bloom and show off the richly coloured 'Beaujolais Bonnets' scabiosa and 'Jade Frost' eryngium. 

So Tuesday morning I head out first thing to catch the Digby-Saint John Ferry, which is always a great trip.  I love taking the ferry every chance possible; the ship is lovely, the crew knowledgable and pleasant (I've been up on the bridge on one crossing, and had a great time). After landing in Saint John, I will hustle off to Fredericton, or more accurately, Lincoln, to visit Scott's Nursery, which I profiled in the most recent issue of Saltscapes magazine. I'll be at Scott's from 130-330, and hope to see some of my New Brunswick gardening friends there. Plus of course we ALL know there will be plants I can't live without, won't there? I'd better sell some books so I can afford plants without dipping into the grocery fund. Tee hee. 

When Yellow isn't, and On the Road Again (soon)

Once again I am madly charging along trying to catch up with the rest of the blogosphere, and have been absent without leave. Or is that without Leaf? In truth, between plenty of work, some family matters, mostly quite pleasant but time consuming, new kittens, and other entertainments, it's just a very full time of year. There's way more social media to follow now than there was even two years ago, and there's no way I can keep up with all of it, so I don't even try. I do read blogs but don't comment too much because I often read them at night in bed on my iPad, and I dislike typing on that. I don't have those 20-year old flexible thumbs...

The next two weeks are busy, and I do mean busy, as I combine book sales with garden talks and article research. This week, Thursday sees me doing a morning Talk, Tea, and Walk at the Carmichael Stewart Museum in New Glasgow, 11 am-130 pm. I'm looking forward to this especially because it's a fundraiser for the Museum, so I hope we have a good turnout.

After I leave New Glasgow, I'm off to the Other Island, Cape Breton Island. Hugely looking forward to that as well, because I'll be doing two events at The Bayside Garden Centre and Farmer's Market in beautiful Whycocomagh. (If you don't know how to say that name, you should come visit and we'll teach you). Friday, I'll be at the Farmers Market with several other authors, and we'll all be reading from (or talking from, in my case) our books and doing sales and signings to coincide with the grand opening of the Market. Saturday, I'm scheduled to do one or two seminars on "Never too late to plant!" and hopefully doing more book sales and signings.

Next week, I'm going to be in New Brunswick from Tuesday-Friday, doing assorted events at several of my favourite nurseries. I'll be at Scotts Nursery in Fredericton on Tuesday; Kingsbrae Garden on Thursday, and Corn Hill Nursery near Petitcodiac on Friday. I'll have more to say about these this coming weekend.

So, now what's all this about when yellow isn't? Well, we all know what yellow looks like, right? It's not a colour that's easily mistaken for another colour. That soft yellow rose in the top photo is definitely yellow, whereas you might find it more challenging to describe the Rudbeckia in the photo above. (It's called 'Cherry Brandy', by the way, but that doesn't help you to determine the shade it is.)

Sometimes flowers are named with a description. This hemerocallis (daylily) is called 'Sweet Hot Chocolate', and despite the challenge in photographing some daylily colours, I think it's pretty well named. It doesn't smell of chocolate the way chocolate cosmos does, but oh well.

This spider daylily is as yet unnamed, and is described as being green. Even with the wonky colour of one of my monitors, I don't see anything green about it. However, this is also its first year to bloom so who knows what it will look like in a year or two.

There are several varieties of true lilies in this photo, including 'Golden Splendour' trumpet lily, one of my favourites, and 'Tom Pouce' oriental, which is sort of yellow and has a yellow throat. Pretty much as advertised.

Now, I have no idea who this fragrant, splendid oriental lily is, but I can assure you it is NOT Yelloween, which is what I bought it to be. Neither are any of the other bulbs that I planted as Yelloween. Now that's not the end of the world, because I never met a fragrant lily I didn't love, but still...I believe sometimes I'm cursed when it comes to yellow.

This is a yellow tiger lily that was here when we moved here. It has multiplied over the years and is a very pretty yellow shade. Again, it's pretty hard to mistake yellow for any other colour.

Now, if you've been a reader of Bloomingwriter for a couple of years or so, you know there are certain things that thwart me. One of them of course is goutweed, which we should just all say no to. The other is my inability to get yellow hollyhocks in my garden. The only way so far I've succeeded is to plant a metal sculpture of one. Even that isn't quite yellow.

People take pity on me, send me seeds, give me plants. Last year, my friend Lee Dickie at Briar Patch Nursery in Berwick took pity on me and gave me two plants, one supposed to be yellow, the other red. She had them labeled, and I planted them carefully, marked where I planted them, and waited for this year to arrive. I anticipated finally, FINALLY having a yellow flowered hollyhock in the garden.

This spring, one of them had succumbed to the weather. The label said it was the red one. I was okay with that. The other was healthy and vigourous. I started to hope. Until today, when I went out and discovered THIS...

This is not yellow.

Not even close.

I know when I'm defeated. I'd better not see ONE yellow hollyhock on my travels over the next two weeks. Not one. :-)

Plants & Pages: Gaspereau, the Giller, & Gardening.

The past few days since author Johanna Skibsrud won the Giller Prize for her novel The Sentimentalists have been somewhat surreal, at least in book-lover-land. Many of us were delighted that a young writer had been given this big boost (and large cheque), and thrilled to bits that our local artisan publisher, Gaspereau Press, had been the ones to publish her AND nominate her for this award. However, many of the so-called Toronto intelligentsia have had their knickers in a right twist because Gaspereau hasn’t had thousands of copies already printed and ready to go to the bigbox stores like Amazon and Chapters. In some cases, I think there's more than a little Green Envy going on (matching the exquisite Echinacea of the same name in the photo above).

There has been a lot of bashing of Gaspereau over this, often by people who don’t know what they’re talking about, but unfortunately also sometimes by people who ought to know better. I won’t even touch the whole judgery tempest except to say I hope the Giller committee tightens its rules about behaviour by judges prior to the winner’s announcement.

The team at the award-winning Gaspereau Press are known for their commitment to quality publishing and printing. Their books are created by hand on old-style printing presses, using beautiful papers and interesting types. I have a number of their books in my permanent library, and have read many others. This isn't a diss at other publishers--I have lots of quality books from many quality publishers. Gaspereau is just...different, in the best of ways.

Andrew and Gary can produce about 1000 copies a week of any particular book. They are working away at meeting the sudden demand, but here’s the interesting thing. Although the book hasn’t been available on Amazon, it’s been at a number of independent bookstores. Until the last day or so (I haven’t checked today), The Box of Delights in Wolfville had copies. I’ve seen Twitter comments reporting purchases at other indie bookstores around Canada. There’s also an e-copy available for purchase and download for those who use Kobo readers. (I don’t like ebook readers myself but that’s merely my personal tastes, nothing else. )

So those who are loyal to local book stores are or have been, in many cases, able to sate their desire to read this book right away. Others are content to wait, or to download an electronic copy and then buy a print copy later. The wailings about how much missed opportunity the writer is having because everyone can’t buy it Right! This! Minute! are primarily coming out of Toronto, where the street of the bank barons (Bay Street) is littered at night with homeless people sleeping on subway vents.

Regular readers of bloomingwriter can be forgiven for being puzzled about my passion, as a writer, for standing up for the publisher instead of totally saying “Oh poor thing,” to the writer, and offering hankies to the handwringers whining on the pages of the national newspapers. Well, books are an odd subject in commerce. Bookstores can order them in, and then return unsold copies to the publisher at a later date. So what happens if Gaspereau prints 50,000 copies of a book and has 30,000 copies returned to them? Can you say fiscal disaster?

Bigbox stores have a certain amount of clout, but they also can be bullies, in just this regard. To drawn an analogy between two of my passions, books and plants: I know of several nurseries in this region who had been contracted to grow certain types of plants or cut flowers for the bigbox stores. When BogBoxX store cancels its contract, or declines to renew for subsequent years, the grower is stuck with massive amounts of certain types of plants, which they can’t always market quickly in a reasonable amount of time. See nurseries exit the business. This isn’t a situation known only to my region—I imagine most parts of the US, the UK, and beyond have seen similar situations.

The bigboxes buy in bulk, and set the prices they want to pay, often less than it costs to produce a product, whether a plant or a potato or a well-printed novel. We (gardeners, readers, eaters, everyone) don’t make enough fuss about low-quality crap from China, or produce flown in from thousands of miles away and grown under questionable conditions, or plants sold here that were grown in some warm part of the US (which means they won’t thrive here), or any other number of quality-versus quality concerns. Want something ordinary, the same as thousands or millions of others have? Go to a bigbox store. Want something special, unique, wonderful and less than quotidian? Get it from a local nursery, or from a publisher with a passion for creating not just commodity, but actual heirlooms and works of art.

In Gaspereau’s case, as was noted by another writer (I can't remember who or I'd put the link up), they filled the orders to their independent customers long ago, when Amazon or Chapters didn’t perhaps bother to order any copies in the first place. Loyalty breeds loyalty. The bigboxes know nothing of loyalty, so it puzzles them when a small publisher doesn’t fawn over them and impoverish itself to meet their demands.

After a couple of days of reading obnoxious articles in the Post and Globe, people around the country began to post rebuttals and defend Gaspereau's integrity. Some writers are, like me, recognizing that it's a complex story and are hoping that all will be happy soon despite the complexities of the story. No less a sage than Rex Murphy put up an excellent article in the NaPo, including this thought:

I can hear all the objections to this perspective — it isn’t sensible, it isn’t practical, it’s so unfair to the author. In answer to the first two complaints: I say, let’s have a lot more of what isn’t sensible or practical, at least as those qualities are perceived in our fame-besotted, Jersey Shore world. The last objection, that it’s unfair to the author, is more difficult to deal with. Maybe there’s some consolation in the fact that her winning is, precisely because of this story-controversy, now quite singular, and so her book will be all the more welcomed when it does show up in the stores.

Gaspereau, after all, is merely taking a stand for the book — the book itself, as a beautiful object, as a piece of art. I would have expected, even at the higher altitudes of the Giller constituency, some fellow-feeling for that perspective and some respect for the idea that art doesn’t — necessarily — always kneel before commerce and fame.

My friend Ami McKay, a best-selling author and also a Gaspereau-published writer, wrote a post that included a letter to the Globe from another writer, which says, in part:

That Gaspereau Press has been reviled for this incredibly beautiful act of faith is a stunning collective failing of our collective imagination--but it doesn't surprise me given how debased our relationship with art has become. I do have to agree with the final sentence of today's editorial: "The true measure of any book's success is not a prize but its ability to connect with readers."

Johanna Skibsrud is going to be just fine, what with her Giller cheque, her UK agent and contract, and the thousands of copies of the book that have been and will be sold. Gaspereau has a plan to solve their publishing bottleneck which will hopefully make most everyone happy, including their bookkeeper. Andrew and Gary are to be commended for cherishing books as things of permanence and beauty, not merely tossaways to be composted along with the day’s newspaper. And for doing the very best they can for all involved. That's how they roll.

LATE BREAKING NEWS!

Gaspereau announced this morning that Douglas & McIntyre has acquired the trade paperback rights to The Sentimentalists and will be printing 30,000 copies at once. Gaspereau, meanwhile, will continue to create the handmade copies for purchase by those who desire a unique item. Group hugs for all involved (yes, including Toronto, of course). We love it when a plan comes together.

Busy as a Bee...or maybe three!

It's been busier than life as this bee the past couple of weeks. Figuring I have had only a couple of days off in the past four months, I decided it was time to take a little partly-me time. So with Lowell and the rest of the family guarding the family homestead from invasion by giant hogweed, I headed out this morning to visit a number of sites before ending at my good friend's place in Sandford, outside of Yarmouth.

Along the way, I called in on several friends gardens, garden centres. Photos were taken. Plants were dug up. Plants were purchased (for the friend I was going to visit, mostly. Honest.) Among the ports of call a garden in Greenwood that has a truly impressive collection of graceful grasses, from tiny baby grasses only a couple of inches tall to giant miscanthus. I want this grass, the Arundo donax (forget its cultivar. )Not invasive here, though I read that it gets rambunctious in other gardens.

At a friend of a friend's garden, we were dazzled by his selections of grasses, including the giant Miscanthus giganteus. Here it is attempted to eat him. We nicknamed it 'Audrey Too.'

Around lunchtime, I stopped in Annapolis Royal and after checking out my favourite store, 'Charade,' I went down to the farmer's market where I discovered a woman doing a wonderful art using painted paper tole reproductions of monarch butterflies. I was so totally delighted with them, I bought one for a gift and may have to go back and get a second one for me. This woman's brochure includes a little story about why she started creating jewelry and sculpted works of art using monarchs as her inspiration. It was a nice story.

Short post because I'm way tired, and tomorrow is another busy day. Opps. Make that, today is another busy day. You just never know where we might turn up, but I can guarantee there will be plants involved. And for those of you who are interested, I saw purple hydrangeas tonight. We'll see some tomorrow, for sure.

Local nurseries and great food

What do you do when it's too muggy to work in the gardens, too sticky to work in the house, and definitely too rainy to do much of anything but wait for plants to bloom? (Like Hot Papaya echinacea)?


We get in the car and go off to nurseries, of course. What's a little rain when there are plants to go looking at?
I hadn't been down to Ocean View Garden Centre in Chester for a couple of years. I'm really sorry that was the case, but it's been rectified now. And how! What a terrific place, even in a rainstorm (which is what we had when we arrived there.)

They've expanded their garden centre enormously in the past couple of years. It was always good, but now it's amazing. Because it was raining so hard at times, I didn't take many photos or explore the whole thing. Having seen their perennial catalogue, I knew there were certain plants that I didn't have that they did have. Which would solve the problem of MY having them.

I did walk around one display garden, that included a variety of perennials, including an impressive collection of grasses, which are just starting to flush into flower now. More about grasses in coming posts.

It's always a thrill to discover plants that I haven't heard of yet, or hadn't expected to see locally yet. Like this echinacea, 'Secret Passion'. I happen to like the double echinaceas--well, okay, I have never yet met a coneflower I didn't like, except the Meadowbrite series, and that's only because they do not do well here. But when I saw this one, a dwarf, branching beauty with orangy-pink flowers...well, I gave up on the umbrella. One can't juggle purse, camera, umbrella, tray of plants, AND pick up more plants to put in tray. Rain-rinced hair is a good thing, isn't it?

Anyone remember the band 'Tangerine Dream'? I can't name a single song off the top of my head, but I'll always remember their existence because of this striking coneflower by the same name. I think I like echinaceas better than electronica. No question, actually.

For those of us who are fond of pollinators and native plantings, here's a new-to-me Veronicastrum, or Culver's root: 'Roseum'. I had white and blue forms but had never seen pink before. Til now. Tee hee hee. Glad hubby doesn't mind waiting in the car, listening to the radio, staying dry while I squish around in the rain picking out plants.

When I buy coneflowers, the first thing I do is cut off any current blooms (sometimes buds, too), to give the plant more chance to focus on settling in roots and developing strong foliage and stems, so that LATER it can bloom fabulously. This is 'Meringue', a new and welcome addition to my green-flowered cones. Today I picked up several others, but you're going to have to wait til they bloom to be introduced to them.

On our way home from Chester, we stopped in New Ross at a little place called 'Vittles'. Where we had the best fish and chips we'd had in a long time. Now, sadly, I didn't think about taking photos of our supper til it was half done, and it wouldn't have looked so great with tartar sauce and ketchup on hubby's portion. So you're just going to have to take my word for it that this little place, with its fresh fresh fish and home-made home fries, is a jewel in 'real' restaurants. It's only a little more than half an hour from our place, so I know we'll be visiting there at least once a month...and hopefully you will too! You can make a day of it; visiting Ocean View in Chester, touring around that lovely town, heading to Ross Farm Museum, and finishing up with fresh seafood at Vittles. What's not to love?

Just keep planting, just keep planting...

Okay, gardening peeps, I know it's hotter than the hinges of hell in much of North America--even in Nova Scotia--but I want to have a wee chat with y'all about gardening in summer. So go pour yourself a tall ice tea, or coffee, or other fluid (ruby red grapefruit juice for me) and let's converse about a few things.

The plant in the top photo is Geum 'Eos'. It has gold-green foliage as well as those blaze orange flowers, and naturally, I had to have it. I saw it the other day at a nursery, thought about it for a few days, and went back today to get it. And a few other things for good measure.


Now, I realize it's July. And That a lot of the asphalt 'garden centres' have already folded up their tents and scuttled back to being bigbox purveyors of soap, soup, tshirts and tires. But they aren't real garden centres, run by real people who care about plants. They'd like you to think that because they're done for the season, you should be too.

But I like to gently chant, "Just keep planting, just keep planting", much in the same way that Dorrie sang 'Just keep swimming' in the movie Finding Nemo. Yes, it's still one of my favourite movies. I am sometimes twelve. And am all right with that.

Here in Atlantic Canada, (I can't speak for other regions, but I'm sure it's the case) lot of REAL nurseries and garden centres are still very much open, and still very much carrying excellent, interesting, and oh yeah, HEALTHY plants. Like this rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy' which insisted it needed to come home with me too.

Going to real garden centres--you know, where the people actually know, like and can talk about plants honestly--gives you a chance to see plants that you're not real likely to see at the bigbogblowout place. Take astrantia. I don't remember where I first saw this plant, probably in a book, but I got my first one from Lloyd Mapplebeck at Hillendale Perennials in Truro. But I've also bought them from Brooklyn Farms in Grafton, Lavender Hill in Jordan Falls (outside of Lockeport), Dayton Red and White in Yarmouth, Lowland Gardens in Masstown/Bass River, and a few other places that I can't remember now because I didn't write them down at the time.

Do you know this cool plant? It's blue star, Amsonia sp, and while I don't remember where I got my first two plants--I think possibly from a mailorder nursery in British Columbia--they've been star performers for a decade--so much so that I added a cool cultivar called 'Blue Ice' when I found it at Briar Patch this spring.

Centaurea dealbata. Persian coneflower. A bee and butterfly magnet. Again, I've had mine for years, and I got it from one local nursery or another.

I KNOW this alpine sea holly came from Baldwin's Nurseries in Falmouth, because I bugged owner Rob Baldwin to get Eryngium for his perennial collection. If you're a pollinator fan, this is an exquisite plant for attracting bees and butterflies, plus it's astonishingly gorgeous.
We all know Maltese Cross, but have you seen this salmon-coloured cultivar before? I also have the common blaze-red one as well as a pure white variety, and am hard-pressed to decide which one I like the best. Of course we all know that I have that problem on a daily basis. All of my plants are my favourite. Except goutweed, of course.

For the first time since I got 'Black Lace' sambucus, it's flowering this summer. I thought I would be unimpressed with the flowers since I'm so much about the foliage of this great shrub, but the flowers are charming me too. And the bees seem happy with them, too.

Here we have a mutant foxglove, to go with the mutant strawberries I wrote about last week. I don't know what caused this weird flower on the top of an ordinary pink foxglove, but with the odd weather we've had this spring, plus the excessive numbers of some bugs, who really knows. Has anyone else seen a foxglove do this before?

Planting new stuff at this time of year just requires that you make sure to water newly planted and not-yet established plants regularly, especially if you're having grilling heat. I keep planting new things all summer and even into autumn (until I switch to planting bulbs, of course). So long as I can find something I want/need at a local nursery, I will drag it home and find a place to plant it. I don't plant in the heat of the day, of course; I have holding areas where shrubs and perennials waiting to be planted just hang out, getting some sunlight, some shade, and regular watering.

This bellflower is as tall as I am (over five feet). I have NO idea where I got it from nor what species or cultivar it is, but I really, really like it a lot. Anyone recognize it?

Despite the fact that some places are well and truly ahead of where they 'normally' would be in growth and blooming this year, my garden seems to be holding on its normal schedule. This honeybells (whether you call it Nectaroscordum siculum or Allium siculum is up to you) is just coming into full, happy flowering this past few days. I wish they multiplied faster than they seem to do, but they are ensconced among many other plants so maybe they just don't like the competition.

Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but there are plants waiting to go into the ground--I hope you'll scoot out in the next few days and visit YOUR local plant nursery. I have some good Nova Scotian ones listed in the sidebar to the right--not everyone has a website, of course, and I don't have everyone's website up, but these are some favourites of mine. And I'll be visiting them more now that the big project is finally almost out of my hair...

All together now..."Just keep planting, just keep planting..."

Buyer Beware: When a Perennial isn't, and other warnings

It all began with 'Limerock Ruby' coreopsis. Remember when we saw that little charmer, with its reddish-rose flowers, and read it was hardy to zone 5, and we all rushed out and got it, only to have it die?

Now it's listed as zone 8, or a tender perennial. Funny about that. Unfortunately, I still see nurseries around here selling it as a perennial--and charging top price for it.

Plenty of us sent up a cheer when we first saw Lysimachia 'Beaujolais' because it's so gorgeous a goosenecked loosestrife, with its deep wine flowers and blue-green foliage. Only one problem...it's not reliably hardy in Nova Scotia. Yet it's being sold here as a perennial, despite the fact that the most reliable sites I could find have it hardy to USDA zone 6, AND I've had friends in zone 6 have it die on them, too. We don't have to worry about it being a rampant spreader--death over winter takes care of that.

Let me tell you a bit about hardiness zones throughout Atlantic Canada. Most of us are in zone 5a or b; some are even cooler, zone 4 or even zone 3; a few localized areas such as the south shore of Nova Scotia (the banana belt, as it's fondly referred) or some microclimates are zone 6, and even fewer microclimates (as in someone's sheltered back yard) MIGHT stretch to zone 7. Might. Most of us think we're pushing it if we try to grow something labeled as zone 6. I'm zone 5b , with erratic, annoying winters, freeze-thaw cycles, usually-late springs and awesome autumns.

So seeing this euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' and a similar striking one, 'Tasmanian Tiger', sold in Nova Scotia when they are zone 7 plants didn't make me very happy.

Likewise, this 'Sea Star' stonecrop is given a variety of ratings; MOBOT says it's hardy to zone 5, which would be delightful, but other sites rate it as frost-tender as zone 8.

And what about Sedum 'Salsa Verde'? It's rated as hardy to 6-7 depending on where you read about it, so it might come through a winter here with protection. However, I like it and 'Sea Star' so I've put them both in a trough planter, which I'll bring into the greenhouse for the winter.

Now, let's be clear: I BOUGHT both sedums and both euphorbias at a couple of garden centres, but with the knowledge that they wouldn't be hardy in my garden. Because I had read about them in various sites, and because they were on sale so they actually cost less than a patented annual like the Proven Winners plants. I don't mind paying 3 bucks for a plant and having it not overwinter.

What irritated me, however, was that these plants were not even labeled as to their hardiness.

The little plastic tags that came with them gave no sign of hardiness at the places I bought them (although I did see Ascot Rainbow at another nursery, with its label showing its hardiness zone, and significantly higher priced to boot).

For inexperienced gardeners who either don't recognize that the plant isn't hardy, or can't read a zone rating, they're getting fleeced. Some of these places ought to know better, while others, I put it down to a lack of caring/knowledge. But there can also be legitimate mistakes. Like when I saw some aeoniums and echevarias being displayed in the perennial section of one place, next to the sedums and sempervivums, I quietly told the staff that the plants weren't hardy, and they were moved accordingly. At another nursery, one I know well, they had similar succulents BUT also had signs beside them stressing that they are not hardy in our area.

Then there was a salvia similar to this one, being sold at this one place that isn't exactly reputable--not a bigbox store, I hasten to add, but a 'chain' of related garden centres that uses a relative's name in its different incarnations. Well, I don't care if you're uncle, farmer, or cousin, a zone 8 salvia isn't going to flourish in Nova Scotia and shouldn't be sold as a perennial.

This same place had 3-gallon, overgrown (looking hydroponically force-fed) hostas with enormous leaves. I mean enormous. 'Cathedral Windows' is a nice hosta, with good sized leaves (10 inch long, 9 inch wide) but these were much bigger than that. And the price was equally inflated. Who is going to pay 49 bucks for a force-fed, probably grown-in-the-southern-US hosta they can get elsewhere for at most $20? I took this photo in late May, and one of my hort-spies, who was in that place late last week, reports that the plants are sitting unsold, their leaves turning brown and crispy. They also had heucheras that were equally overpriced and overgrown-looking; granted, one of them was Southern Comfort, which does boast large leaves, but there were also 'Palace Purple' plants with leaves the size of a big maple leaf. These plants, too, were dying. Big surprise, that.

Let me also stress, none of these were being sold at bigbox stores, which I don't frequent except to buy plant containers or occasionally annuals--from the Canadian owned stores, not from WallyWorld or HomeDespot. These plants were all being sold at farm markets, garden centres, and other such places around Nova Scotia, and at more than one of them I have brought the questionable hardiness to the attention of staff, some who have been good about correcting the situation, others of whom apparently don't care.

The thing is, if people like me want to buy plants like these and try to push the zone, that's fine--it is a game for some of us, after all, and some of us are very good at it. And sometimes a plant is rated for zone 5 but it can't deal with our particular winters with our freeze/thaw cycles, and that's fair enough too. We've learned that the 'Meadowbright' coneflowers don't thrive here, despite being bred in Chicago, but the 'Big Sky' series do just fine. I buy lithodora every spring because I can't resist its cobalt blue flowers, treat it like an annual because it's marginal with my zone and winter, and that's also fine. I mostly know what I'm doing, and it's also my job to test out plants and let others know what my experience is.

But if someone who is just starting out buys a few of these either unhardy or overgrown plants, paying high prices for them, and then have them die--that's discouraging for the new gardener. And to my mind, it doesn't build a business's reputation, but gives them a bad one.

In a recent article about garden pests, I suggested that people ought to boycott nurseries that sell goutweed/bishopsweed, knowing full well that it is an invasive, noxious plant but not warning customers of this trait. The particular publication edited out that sentence, probably afraid they might lose advertising dollars even though I didn't name names. But this being my blog, I will still suggest that if you see it offered for sale, you ask the nursery operator to remove it or else you won't buy plants there. I do know that several good nurseries have stopped selling it (and others never did have it) but it's still around.

What about you? Have you encountered much of this sort of thing where you live?

The Return of the Native...Plant!

We have had a blessed, blessed amount of rain in the past few days, including a truly impressive drenching last night with a spectacular thunder and lightning storm. It's almost too wet to work in some parts of the garden, but I did take a little break and go out to pull some couchgrass, plant some heathers and astilbes and look for the right locations for some of the new plants sitting in the dooryard. I came in the house with scratches from roses on my arms, wet feet, bits of spruce buds in my hair, and a serene attitude.

Tomorrow, the annual Friends of the Acadia Forest Region Society Native Plant Sale is being held at the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens at my other alma mater, Acadia University in Wolfville. This will include plants grown by the Friends as well as plants from local nurseries, such as Bunchberry Nurseries in Upper Clements and Baldwin Nurseries in Falmouth.

The owner of Bunchberry Nurseries, Jill Covill, and I went to Agricultural College together back some years ago, and it's always a treat to go visit Bunchberry and catch up with her, which Long Suffering Spouse and I did on Wednesday. Jill was preparing for tomorrow's plant sale and deciding what she should bring, and we got into a discussion about native plants and what parameters we should use in defining natives.

I said for me, it's easy; I decided some time ago that I'm going to follow Allan Armitage's definitions of native, and use North America as my region when considering natives. Of course, not all North American natives are hardy or suitable for a zone 5b maritime climate, but still, there are plenty of options for my garden.


For those who enjoy bird watching or encouraging wildlife in their gardens, the use of native plants can put out a big welcome mat to wild creatures. If you visit a garden that includes natives in its plantings, you’ll find it alive with sound and activity, far different from the “green pavement” of many subdivision gardens.

I'm not an absolute, 'natives only' gardener, and never preach that at others, either. I simply make a case for adding natives to a property because there are so many beautiful, functional, effective plants to choose from. I also stress that they aren't all fool-proof, pest-free, or maintenance-free. No matter what we expect to grow in our gardens, we have to know our soil and climate conditions before we add any plants, native or introduced, heritage or hybrid, to our plantings.

I do find people are often surprised by just how many gorgeous plants ARE native, and how multi-season they can be. The same amelanchier whose flowers enchanted me just a couple of weeks ago will be causing me to oooh and ahhhh this autumn, putting on a display of colour as spectacular as any shrub or tree you could imagine.

So that's my stand on natives. Wonderful plants, many of them--they aren't all perfect--and great for encouraging wildlife and pollinators, providing multi-season colour, and just adding more charm to any garden. I'm glad to see more landscapers--real ones, not the fly-by-nights who think Stella d'oro daylilies and globe cedars and Norway maples make a perfect planting--are also embracing adding natives to their designs. I bet there will be a great turnout of people to tomorrow's sale at Acadia; and if you're there, do have a walk through the native-plant botanical gardens, because they are not to be missed either. I probably won't be there, as LSS tells me I have over 100 things (perennials, annuals, shrubs, trees) that need planting at the moment...