Lilacs are nice but...

Snowball viburnums rock!

Detail of a Fragrant Snowball (Viburnum x carlcephalum) bloom

When we started planning our garden circa 1993, admittedly my wife and I knew very little in terms of plant selection. I suppose, like many other new homeowners, we were preoccupied by little distractions like a leaky roof and an ugly kitchen. The backyard was literally a junkpile! But we knew that we "needed" a plant that would give off a nice scent when we imagined ourselves relaxing on an imaginary deck some time in the distant feature. 

When plants come with warning labels

Buyer beware at a Toronto garden center

Maybe this is a start of new trend among garden plant retailers but I saw this notice at a big box store recently (actual location cropped to protect the innocent, me!):

Yer pays yer money and takes yer chances!

The March of the Emerald Cedars

(Cue the background soundtrack of the moans of howling winds)

An unusual and curious migration occurs every April in Toronto. This is the first documented report, that I know of, in recorded history. With temperatures rising slowly above freezing and snow slowly melting, this phenomenon is worthy of being on the Discovery Channel and, in the past, HGTV before the "G" was removed. After months of sub-zero conditions, biting winds, and mounds of snow (except this year), the Emerald Cedar (Thuja occidentalis "Smaragd") has returned from months of feeding and gorging itself on 20-20-20 in greenhouses all over southern Ontario to return to its breeding  selling grounds outside of big box stores and nurseries.

Huddled together to preserve warmth against April's cruel winds

Hitting the sweetspot

Or "How to succeed in writing a gardening blog without really trying"

Gardeners are masochists because we plant things we love but know, in the deepest parts of our hearts, that will suffer slowly and die. And we do this again and again. Garden bloggers are a special subset. After all, why do we write, offer our precious thoughts to a seemingly unresponsive and unappreciative audience? Insanity can be loosely defined as the condition of doing something we know is ineffective, over and over. Is blogging a form of insanity? Why all this crying out to the internet wilderness?

Blooming cherries, plums, and magnolias in Toronto

Maybe a reason to visit the cemetery?

Prunus serrulata "Amanogawa" in bloom

When you really think about it, a cemetery is a great place to appreciate trees any time of the year. I don't find it morbid at all!


Right now, members of the Prunus genus are strutting their stuff, to mix metaphors, and since my last post "Sakura dreams: Cherry blossoms at the University of Toronto" seems popular, why not give the reading public more of what they want?

Sakura dreams: Cherry blossoms at the University of Toronto

Beauty and the Beast

Detail of  Prunus serrulata blooms

You would never be fooled into thinking that you were walking along the shore of Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. or in picnicking in the hanami style in Kyoto but on a crisp spring day with a brilliant blue sky in Toronto, many were marvelling at the sights and smells of 70 cherry trees with heavily laden pure white blossoms. 


And I was among them!

Spring blooms in da 'hood

A little early this year but reminds me of Easter

Living in the concrete jungle that makes up my neighbourhood, I'm always looking for bursts of colour amid the urban chaos. There's so little green space around that I appreciate any effort to add colour. 


These spring bloomers are strutting their stuff across my house in the condo's front gardens. They are rather large beds for downtown and are filled with an eclectic mix of perennials and shrubs.