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Civic Garden Centre
GENERAL INFORMATION Vol. 16, No. 6
EDITOR: Iris Hossé Phillips
ADVERTISING INFO: (416) 445-1552
Registered charity number 0228114-56
TRELLIS is published ten times a year as a members newsletter by the CIVIC GARDEN CENTRE, 777 Lawrence Avenue East, North York, Ont. M3C 1P2. Tel. No.: (416) 445-1552. Manuscripts submitted on a voluntary basis are gratefully received. No remuneration is possible.
Lead time for inclusion of articles and advertising material is six weeks: manuscripts and material must be received by the 15th of the month to insure publication. For example, material received by October 15 will be included in the December issue of Trellis.Opinions expressed within do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre.
The Centre is located in Edwards Gardens, at Leslie Street and Lawrence Avenue East. It is a non-profit, volunteer-based gardening, floral arts, and horticultural information organization with open membership.
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Contents
Editorial
GardensiniBooks \Parti2. e SR AWalkintheParle meplDiidiet g L e
TheThird GreatGardening Conference . Fromithe Library s s il i Coming Eventsiitis s s i
Insect Outbreak in Ontario s ColtageCotintry | DR (s WL Through the Garden Gate SeeingGreece inSpring
Attention VegetableGardeners . . ... ... Mary sGarden VolunteerCorner
ClassifiedAdvertisement TrellisShop
A »MEMBERS PROGRAMME
June 7th 1989, 7:30 PM
Plants of Alaska and the Yukon
The Centre is pleased to once again welcome Dorothy Bovey, award winning botanical artist and noted traveller and photographer.
Dorothy will take us on a journey through Alaska and the Yukon, showing us the plants, flowers, glaciers and mountains of these areas.
Non-Members $4.00. Refreshments will be served after the programme. i n
Editorial
| have a new item in my garden this summer a Tauber Trap. The clear cylindrical plastic trap is part of a University of Toronto study which will calculate the pattern of allergenic pollen fallout in Metro Toronto. The Tauber passively collects pollen from the air and stores it in the collecting fluid (glycerine with a fungicide). The top of the trap has a circular meshed opening which allows the pollen to enter the trap and at the same time prevents passing bees from entering the trap with their load of pollen. The Tauber will be in the garden until the end of the pollen season usually late Octqber.
The plans for The Third Great Gardening Conference are almost finalized and the Centre has produced an excellent programme for the weekend conference. Brian Bixley previews some of the activities and lectures in this issue.
Happy gardening, enjoy the blooms, and don t be impatient with the ripening foliage of the daffodils and tulips.
Iris Phillips
Gardens in Books: Part 2
by Androsace
To create a full-fledged perennial border is perhaps the ultimate aesthetic achievement in garden design Susan Littlefield in Mari Schinz, Visions of Paradise, Stoddart, 1985.
In the second part of this selective set of observations on the creation of a perennial bed, and on some of the literature which | have found useful or entertaining, two new issues are touched upon: the shape and placing of beds, and the potential contribution to the year-round appeal of those beds through the use of non-plant elements.
Flower colour, its combinations and spatial distribution, is not the only important consideration in the construction of a perennial border. | have already referred to the problem of timing. Good gardeners pride themselves on their successes in August, but a falling off inevitably sets in from the middle of the month. It is the hardy perennials which falter (Christopher Lloyd, The Year at Great Dixter, Viking, 1987). At this time the texture and colours created by foliage and seed heads become increasingly crucial, as do the architectural (very in word) and structural qualities of the border. These qualities may derive from the plants themselves, but they may also flow from the shape and positioning of the beds.
There is frequently something utopian about the writings and recommendations of garden designers. The majority of gardeners probably begin their garden with little knowledge either of plants their needs, size, form, flowering time or of design principles, and have subsequently neither the will nor the income to reconstruct their gardens from zero. They are reformers, not revolutionairies, engaged in piecemeal garden engineering. The very notion of style is likely to be worked out retroactively, and to be hampered by what is already in place. Radical reorganization may be unthinkable, but we are always making changes a new hedge, a new view, a new border and these changes will, if we are serious gardeners, lead us to a second-best
approximation of that garden which has taken form in our mind s eye, but whose realization lies beyond our energy, our bankaccount, and even our lifetime.
If we are constructing a new bed, then we must think about its placing, its size (length in relation to depth), whether it is to be set against a wall or hedge in traditional fashion, whether it is to be floating (anchored somewhere), or whether it is to be an island. The traditional bed sharply limits the number of positions from which the bed can be viewed, and, by affecting the way in which light reaches the plants, changes the pace and shape of their growth. Island beds beds separated from their backing, viewable from many different angles, but not totally viewable from any one havea history as old as gardens themselves, but were given a new popularity in the 1950s and 1960s by Alan Bloom. * It was simply a matter of carving out from the sward shapes to fit in with the informal environment of a shelter belt and trees. (A Plantsman s Perspective, Collins, 1987). Not everyone admires island beds. I hate island beds an island bed is just a plonk. | can t bear them in any form boomerangs, sausages, harpoons or pear shapes (John Brookes in Shirley du Boulay, The Gardeners, Hodder and Stoughton, 1985) In Bloom s conception, the beds were to have a natural, organic feel about them, but many island beds do not produce that effect at all. The shape of the bed has its conseguences.
Whatever kind of bed we choose, whether it be free floating or tied to a permanent feature, we still have to choose between straight edges and more sinuous forms ( Take your hose. . . ) The choice is important, for they produce quite different experiences in the viewer. The straight lines are candid, tranquil, reasonable (think of the eighteenth-century); the curves puzzling, concealing, disquieting, romantic. Perhaps the ideal garden has both. Straight lines, according to Ruskin, are valuable because they suggest restraint, and set off by their monotony the freedom and variety of natural
curves: it follows that flowers will be fairer in formal beds. . . Irregularity and diversity naturally confuse and bewilder us, having no beauty of their own, but only by contrast with a background of order and unity. Symmetry, which gives a sense of rest, will be the law of the garden. . . Even the eclectic cottage garden was most frequently embraced by a strict rectangle of walls and hedges, though the eccentric Sir George Sitwell father of Osbert, Sacheverell and Edith was reflecting on the great formal gardens of Italy ( On the Making of Gardens in Hortus Sitwellianus, Michael Russel, 1984).
Many of us will try for this tension, creating beds with soft contours, but acknowledging that their beauty will be enhanced by a background or framework of order and unity . Or, if we have the space, we may opt for precision and definition close to the house and echoing its lines; and a softening into informality as we move away. Or again, we may attempt to confer some extra unity through a linking, homogenizing such as the gravel used in John Brookes West Sussex garden (The Gardeners). Rock and alpine gardeners increasingly use gravel, not just as a way to protect their plants against lingering damp, but also as a way of offsetting the typical spottiness of their plant collections. Some of Howard Pfeifer s beds, designed for alpine plants, glide like great gravelled galleons througha still sea of green turf.
It's a fact writes Derek Fell (Garden Accents, Henry Holt, 1988) that man-made garden accents establish the style of a garden more definitively than plants alone. Period gardens. . all demand the proper placement of structural and design elements to make them recognizable. it seems appropriate that Derek Fell should put style in quotation marks. Find some terra-cotta tiles and you have an [talianstyle terrace . Find some Greek statuary which will be reminiscent of Ancient Rome . Find some Versailles-style trees in containers, parterre hedges, and gravel walks , and you have a French Renaissance-style garden . Organized chaos produces an English-style perennial garden (O Gertrude Jekyll, Lawrence Johnston, Vita Sackville-West, where are you now?) Wrought-iron railings
and trellis work are Southern-style , while low English boxwood hendges and mounded ivy are Colonial-style . Guess what stone steps, a lantern and some goldfish are.
Contrast this with Russell Page. We must draw a very clear distinction between style and decoration. | would consider no modern garden remotely interesting as a work of art unless it could stand as such, stripped of every single purely decorative attribute. A garden artist will only use decoration to heighten the style, that is, the idea from which his whole construction has sprung (The Education of a Gardener, Random House, 1962). We may find Page s austerity a tad pretentious, but popping a Tiffany lamp into a grey stone farmhouse is simply tacky.
Let me add that there is much in Garden Accents of use to the garden whose composition and plantsmanship require reinforcement. Here | wish to draw attention to one possible use of non-plant accessories, their use in the perennial border.
Reaction to the use of statuary in the garden tend to be varied. Diana Saville, for example, is rather firmly opposed to its widespread use: The weakness of statues in most gardens nowadays lies in the fact that their powers of suggestion are irrelevant to their site. They are attentiongetters without logic behind them. And without logic, the intelligence and with it the beauty of a garden can collapse. (Gardens for Small Country Houses, Viking, 1988). Ms. Saville would admit them only to * period gardens and to Italian (-style?) gardens, a defensible but perhaps overly-refined position. (Christopher Lloyd, writing in the Times Literary Supplement, observed briskly that Ms. Saville is a tiringly sophisticated guide. Avoid horrible battiements (the male castellation complex) she enjoins us. Her own complex seems to centre on balls. )
Mr. Lloyd s own views are pragmatic: what he can afford he doesn t like, and what he likes he can t afford. He writes, somewhat unexpectedly, that there has never been a piece of sculpture at Dixter, but nothing is for ever. Nothing figurative seems right today (it's all been done before and better).
To deny oneself pleasure because the
source is not the best conceivable is unnecessarily puritanical (and peculiarly English) It is difficult to find acceptable reasonably-priced sculpture, and perhaps particularly difficult to find good figurative pieces. This is not the place for an extended discussion as to what makes good garden sculpture, but | think there is a strong case to be made for the figurative, inanimate but modelled from life, as the right kind of sculpture. If it can be found, it can be used in traditional ways, at the ends of your allées and vistas, flanking the water staircase, peopling the giardino segreto (for gorgeous examples, see Judith Chatfield, A Tour of Italian Gardens, Rizzoli, 1988). But in our less formal gardens, where the layout is more relaxed. . . sculpture can be positioned so as to create the centrepiece of its own enchanted world (John Brookes, The Country Garden, Crown, 1987). Some can, believe, be used with success in a perennial bed.
Figurative, yes; but no squat frogs, mock snakes, lounging bunnies. And no chipmunk crossing or flicker flypass signs, however ornate. If you reject the figurative, you might consider making your perennial bed emblematic by incorporating tablets and plinths and large rocks on which are inscribed profound and/or witty remarks. This is a dangerous move, since one woman's wit can be another woman s orison, and permanently embossed profundity can get to look pretty banal. Emblematic gardens have a long history. An extant example is that of lan Hamilton-Finlay in Lanarkshire, where you can read that the way up and the way down are one and the same , or alongside a circular temple of young sycamore trees, an elegiac inscription in the classical manner which simply says Bring Back the Birch (Peter King, Carol Ottesen, Graham Rose, Gardening with Style: A Private View of the World s Most Innovative Gardens, Bloomsbury, 1988) If these written injunctions seem frivolous, you can tuck in among the peonies miniature stone replicas of American and Russian aircraft carriers whose helicopter launching pads are perfectly scaled to serve as perches for drinking or bathing sparrows. Elsewhere, lurking among the dark shadows beneath the lower fronds of evergreen conifers, a stone replica of a Nautilus submarine
produces a frisson of surprise. Frisson indeed. | have not seen this garden, but one suspects that all of this was done more lightly two hundred years ago by Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby: They sent off, as requested, a plan of the cottage and garden to Queen Charlotte, together with copies of the Italian sentiments which adorned their trees on painted boards." (Elizabeth Mavor, The Ladies of Llangollen, Penquin, 1971)
We have placed a figure angel, cherub, androgynous in any case at the centre of a small border. The border is backed by a hemlock hedge. The figure rests against the pleached wands of Prunus padus commutata, the Mayday tree, kept to 2m., and is surrounded by peonies. When the bed is at its peak, this small figure constitutes a still point in a turning world '. It offers repose, recognisable repose, my repose, in the midst of a tumult of colour and movement. And then, when most of the colour is gone, it holds the bed together, its calm invitation deflecting our gaze from the subdued nature of the border. It is important that the figure not be maudlin. A perennial bed is romantic in its very conception, and its romantic nature needs a classical counterweight, not underlining. The line is fine, however. A leaden copy of a Verrocchio boy and fish emerging from a stone-edged lily-pond under the pink sprays of a Dorothy Perkins rose differs only in the quality from a painted concrete gnome fishing in a bird-bath surrounded with red salvia or blue lobelia. (The Education ofa Gardener)
Finally, when the perennial border has died down or been cut back, when winter comes, then the architectural details of the garden paths, walls, steps, terraces, statues and urns play a greater role. .than in summer. (Rosemary Verey, The Garden in Winter, Little Brown, 1988) | used to think that the notion of the winter garden in our climate was largely fanciful. But as our hedges have started to mature, as fences have been constructed, as statuary is positioned in the garden, so the lines and shape of the garden, the planned views, come into a focus which is obscured by the leafy days of summer. Even the perennial border is not entirely desolate. And if, after all of our planning and hard work, things
don t turn out the way we had hoped, remember that our failures in the garden are to be treasured, just like the unexpected weed. As Geoffrey Charlesworth wrote, in a book (The Opinionated Gardener, David Godine, 1988) of great wit and wisdon: Weeds in a garden give it a human dimension, like a flaw in a Chinese vase. Who needs perfection?
b I
Enjoy nature in the heart of the city
VisitEdwards Gardens for
A WALK
IN THE PArk
Tuesdays & Thursdays 11 a.m. & 2 p.m. May 2 Sept. 28, 1989
No Admission Charge
Meet in the front lobby
Flat shoes advised
CONDUCTED BY CIVIC GARDEN CENTRE TOUR GUIDES FOR INFORMATION ON BOOKING GROUP TOURS MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY CONTACT HELEN 445-1552
92ml»{" iL\
Preview of the Third Great Gardening Conference
by Brian Bixley
In October, the Centre will once again play host to some of the outstanding gardeners and garden writers of Canada, the United States, and England. The subject of the Third Great Gardening Conference is Great Private Gardens. Seven gardens will be featured, ranging from the relatively formal, to gardens where the concern for growing rare and difficult plants dominates. There are three Canadian gardens, from Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia; gardens from California and Massachusetts; and two from the south of England.
Participants who will be speaking about their own gardens are Francis Cabot (on his Quebec garden), Geoffrey Charlesworth (The Opinionated Gardener) and Norman Singer, Beth Chatto (The Dry Garden, The Damp Garden, Plant Portraits, Garden Notebook), and Christopher Lloyd (Clematis, The Well-Tempered Garden, The Year at Great Dixter). Pamela Harper will discuss Harland Hand's garden at El Cerrito, California, Allen Paterson (Plants for Shade, The History of the Rose, Herbs in the Garden, Plants for Shade and Woodland) will speak about Mr. and Mrs. Clair Stewart s Caldeon (Ontario) garden, while Barbara Durrant s Vancouver garden will be described by David Tarrant (A Year in your Garden with David Tarrant). Speakers have been encouraged to portray the creation and development of the gardens.
There are two dinner speakers. On Friday evening we are delighted to welcome Pierre Bourque, Director of the Montreal Botanic Garden, who will speak on The Quebec Garden Today , while on Saturday evening Patricia Thorpe (Everlasting: The Complete Book of Dried Flowers) takes a lighter look at *'Visiting and Being Visited: Some Words of Warning for the Great Private Gardeners.
This promises to be a marvellous weekend, and we look forward to seeing many of our members, as well as gardening friends from near and far.
WHITE ROSE ... Canada s Largest Craft and L Garden Centre has a complete selection of Tropical Plants, Flowers, Evergreens, Trees, and Shrubs, Annuals, Perennials, Pots and Planters, Patio Leisure Furniture and so much more... NOW WITH 15 BEAUTIFUL GARDEN CENTRES TO SERVE
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EASY CARE PERENNIALS, by Patricia A. Taylor, New York Simon & Schuster, 1989. Ms. Taylor makes a personal choice of 50 perennials, all grown in her Princeton; N.J. garden. She claims that if a plant does well there, it will grow almost anywhere in the U.S. To make selection easy, the plants are grouped seasonally, with detailed information on winter hardiness, cultivation and cultivars. This book is an excellent choice for the gardener planning a perennial border, and for those who do not enjoy trying to make choices from the dozens of plants and cultivars listed in nursery catalogues.
THE PERENNIAL GARDENER, by Frederick McGourty, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1989. One of America s most distinguished practicing writers and horticulturists, Frederick McGourty edited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden s handbooks for 15 years and currently manages Hillside Gardens, his Connecticut nursery. He has written an excellent book; it is one of those rare gardening works that are by turns informative, stimulating, entertaining and amusing. Chapters are grouped into three sections: Borders and Beyond, The Plants, and The Gardener at Large. Included are plans for seven of the twenty perennial borders in his own garden.
Mo
For the love ofgardens.
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If you need any advice to help make your garden even lovelier, just ask. Advice is free and
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Coming Events at the Centre
Rhododendron Society of Canada Flower Show
Toronto Bonsai Society Show
Toronto Cactus & Succulent Society Show
BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATION IN WATERCOLOUR with Dorothy Bovey.
Members $110.00 Non-Members $135.00
Men s Garden Club
Garden Therapy
Canadian lIris Society Show
Toronto Gesneriad Society
Toronto Bonsai Society
Milne House Garden Club Flower Show THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE, CIVIC GARDEN CENTRE TOUR OF DOWNTOWN TORONTO GARDENS, Registration required
Toronto Cactus & Succulent Society
North Toronto Horticultural Society
Jan Cooper and others, Aunty Jan s Advice
Column Horticulturally Speaking
Canadian Chrysanthemum & Dahlia Society
Canadian Rose Society Show
BASIC FLOWER ARRANGING COURSE, Reégistration deadline June 30
Members $40.00 Non-Members $50.00 6 week course
North Toronto Horticultural Society Flower Show
Aug. 1,2,3,4
GREEN THUMBS CAMP
Children 8 to 11
Members $65.00 Non-Members $72.00
GREEN THUMBS CAMP
Children 8 to 11
Members $65.00 Non-Members $72.00
Canadian Iris Society Auction
Canadian Chrysanthemum & Dahlia Society
The "@ountry
Squireo Garden
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Insect Outbreak in Ontario s Cottage Country
by Anne Marie Van Nest
Be prepared for the worst. The forest caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria) and eastern tent caterpillar (Malacosoma americanum) that caused such severe destruction last year are expected to be even more numerous this year. Estimates for 1989 from Chipman/C.I.L. predict that this pest will infest an area that is double in size (8,000,000 hectares) from 1988. This is the third year that the major areas of infestation have doubled. Some evidence suggests that this insect occurs in cycles every eight years. Marilyn Dykstra of the Pest Diagnostic Centre at the University of Guelph states that we are at year 6 of the 8 year cycle and that the infestation will get worse before it diminishes. Another insect that is increasing its geographic range is the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar). Severe outbreaks occured in 1988 in Brockville, Fonthill, Turkey Point, and especially in the Tweed area.
A 27% decrease in defoliated area was observed last year from the spruce budworm. It devastated 5,000,000 hectares of forest in Northern Ontario.
Massive defoliation of forest and ornamental trees greatly reduces their tolerance of other hazards such as drought. Chipman reports that 200,000 hectares of forest between Georgian Bay and Algonquin Park were damaged by drought last year.
How do we protect our trees? The tent caterpillars can be lessened by removing and destroying the shiny brown foam-like egg masses in the winter. Remove and destroy the newly formed tent at the fork of branches. Evening is the best time for this work as the insects return to the nest at night. Once the caterpillars have lost their shelter, they are often killed by the elements or eaten by birds. Tanglefoot, or other sticky barriers may help deter the caterpillars from travelling up tree trunks. If large numbers of insects warrant spraying, an effective bacterial insecticide is Bacillus thuringiensis
(BT). This is a microbe that is safe for humans, animals, and plants and will control only the leaf chewing larvae of butterflies and moths. However, it must be eaten by the insect to be effective. Other garden sprays are effective against the caterpillars when direct contact is made. Caution is necessary as spraying will also eliminate the natural parasitic wasp (Sarcophaga aldrichi) that helps to naturally control the forest tent caterpillar.
THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE
A Tour of 18 Downtown Gardens Exclusively selected for 1989
June 17 & 18
Noon 4 p.m.
Admission $10.00
The Civic Garden Centre presents Through the Garden Gate on Saturday, June 17 and Sunday, June 18. This is a fundraising event for The Civic Garden Centre and provides a special opportunity for the public to view some of Toronto s finest private gardens.
The gardens have been chosen in clusters so it is possible to view two or three with each stop. The complimentary shuttle bus will also make it possible for you to reach the three major areas quickly and efficiently. The Civic Garden Centre s Master Gardeners and volunteers will be on hand to welcome you to the gardens and help you identify material.
CABBAGETOWN gardens include a sophisticated city garden, an easy maintenance multilevel patio garden, a courtyard garden, a side garden with a vine-covered Mediterranean-style patio filled with colourful pots and a tiny pool, a formal front garden and a flower-filled garden entered through a pretty loggia with ornamental pool, and a refined garden, designed to enhance an 1850 s house.
In MOORE PARK, a copper beech towers over an oval lawn and pool, a plantswoman s ravine garden abounds with rhododendrons, azaleas and choice alpines, the newly designed side garden with perennials and enclosed patio garden speaks privacy while a woodland garden creates an escape from city life.
ROSEDALE S gardens range from a Japanese garden with stream and tiny bridge to an artist s ravine garden with sculpture, pools, a waterfall and roses. In this area there are traditional gardens, formal gardens, perennial gardens and a walled garden with lap pool, gazebo and grasses.
Tickets for THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE must be purchased in advance and are limited so that everyone can comfortably enjoy the tour. Your ticket is your map. You may start the tour in any of the three areas. Choose the most convenient place for you to begin and use the complimentary shuttle bus to see the rest.
Tickets are available at The Civic Garden Centre, 777 Lawrence Avenue East, North York; Darrell Kent Real Estate, 552 Parliament Street and 1650 Yonge Street; or to order call 445-1552 and charge it to either VISA or Mastercard. There is a $1 charge for postage and handling.
Registration Form: Through the Garden Gate
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Seeing Greece in the Spring
by Eleanor Irwin
About a year ago when we were planning a trip to Greece, we came upon a brochure from a travel company offering a botanical tour of the Peloponnese. The proposed itinerary sounded wonderful. One entry read: Two full days are spent botanising on Mount Parnassus. We should see Euphorbia, Anemone, Fritillaria and Onosma to name but a few. It was tempting, but we had already decided that we would rather rent a car and travel at our own speed than be part of a tour. | felt a bit wistful about that tour, but with our trip behind us seventeen glorious days in Greece in March | know that our decision to go on our own was right for us.
We are not botanists. In addition to maps and guides, we took A. Huxley and W. Taylor, Flowers of Greece and the Aegean (Chatto and Windus, London, 1977). It has colour photographs of 452 species with descriptions in non-technical language giving the months of blooming, the region of Greece where they are found and their habitat.
March is a very good time to travel in Greece. We avoided the heat of summer and the crowds of tourists who far outnumber the locals in high season. On many of the sites we were the only visitors and on many roads we met only one or two cars in an hour. The ancient sites were carpeted with flowers. The slopes of Acrocorinth were dotted with muscari and ornithogalum (Star of Bethlehem). There were scarlet anemones in the stadium at Olympia, where Olympic races were first run. Girls were picking armfuls of blue stock (Matthiola incana) at Mystra, the almost deserted mediaeval city near Sparta. Delphi was yellow with jasmine. At Sounion, there were bushes of white and pink rock rose (Cistus).
The view from the car was rewarding, too. Clumps of blue iris flowered in the dust by the road or on the rock faces. Fields in one place were covered in the white and gold of daisies and corn marigolds, in another with a fine blue mist of pimpernel, in still another,
with the feathery spikes of asphodel. Apple and almond trees bloomed in orchards and alone on the hills.
When we were walking and could take a closer look, we found some less easily detected flowers. Near Delphi we stopped to take pictures of poppies and found with them many other species, yellow and orange toadflax (which reminded us of Haliburton) and tiny sweet peas in surprisingly bright colours. There were unexpected finds: at Sparta it was a blueblack orchid; on Parnassus, just at the snow line, hillsides covered with purple crocuses; on the way from Osios Loukas, a patch of white Romuleas with yellow throats; in Delphi, a delicate blue Strangweia.
We had trouble with some of our identifications. What strange kind of iris with dark falls had the bees buzzing at Olympia? (It turned out to be Hermodactylus or Snake s head iris). What was that flower with shiny yellow petals like a buttercup at Vasses? (We're still not sure).
We were helped in some of the identifications when we visited (by invitation) the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Patras where specimens of many native species are grown. There we saw flowers which we were not able to find in the wild: many fritillaries, yellow tree flax and the red Boeotian tulip. We enjoyed the fragrance of violets Viola alba is sweetest and were introduced to Romulea and Strangweia which were not familiar to us.
In our travels, we probably missed flowers a botanist would have seen, but we were satisfied and more than satisfied with what we did find.
EASY GROW GREENHOUSES
More light, more air, less heat loss and healthier plants. No other Green Houses can make these claims as confidently. Send for our Free Catalog 4802 Hwy. #7 East
Beautiful from any angle! Here s a side showing the Unionville, Ontario handsome wide glass panes and the streamlined ap- . pearance created by the wide white plastic strips that Two models on dlSplay' cover the seams. It s a greenhouse you ll be proud to own.
For more information: Call 857-1849 or 292-7593
Attention Vegetable Gardeners
Do you enjoy growing vegetables on your patio, balcony or in your back yard? Are you interested in sharing your experiences and learning more about vegetables? The Civic Garden Centre is investigating the potential for a spring seminar/workshop and a fall harvest competition. Please send your comments to Anne Marie or Helen at the Civic Garden Centre by June 30, 1989.
1) Doyou growvegetables?Yes No
IfYes, where?
2) Doyou growoldfavouriteseach yearorexperimentwith newvarietites?
3) Areyourvegetablesorganicallygrown?
4) Whatarethe mosttroublesome problems in yourvegetable garden?
5) Wouldyou attend aseminaratTheCivic Garden Centreon vegetablegardening? 6) Whenisthe besttimeofyear?
7) Whattopicswouldyou liketoheardiscussed?
8) Wouldyou enteryourvegetables in afall competition?
Thank you very much.
Name:
Better Gnomes and Gardens
Introducingthe gnomesfrom Gormley Knoll. Each character sculpted in charming detail, cast in ciment fondu, signed, numbered and handpainted in enchanting colours. Capture the spirit of an English cottage garden. Send $1 for our colour brochure.
NAME ADDRESS
cmy
MARY S GARDEN
Virtuous Weeds
by Mary Perimutter
RALPH WALDO EMERSON asked: What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. We organic growers have discovered many virtues in weeds; in early spring they provide a nutritious tonic and excellent exercise when we stoop to pick them. During July they provide excellent mulch as long as they are pulled up before they go to seed. Weeds also nourish the compost pile. Bio-dynamic gardeners make their composting preparations from wild plants such as dandelion, camomile, stinging nettle, yarrow, valerian, equisitum, and oak bark. Each of these plants supplies specific nutrients to make a balanced compost.
One corner of your garden should be allowed to go wild in order to provide a natural home for the beneficial insects who help us by feeding on the chewers and suckers that debilitate our vegetables and fruit trees. Lady bugs, green lace wings and their larvae, aphid lions, the praying mantis, and trichogramma wasps all help us in our gardens by eating the leaf eaters.
Lamb s quarters (Chenopodium album) and pig weed (amaranthus) are both very tasty and nutritious when eaten young, steamed or raw in salad.
Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) and stinging nettle (Urtica diocica) both make good insecticidal and foliar fertilizer spray when blended with water, strained into a spray bottle with one teaspoon of insecticidal soap added.
Horsetail grows along the road side or any sandy place. It looks like a tiny pine tree. It contains a great amount of silica, an active ingredient against mildew, powdery fungus, and black spot.
Horsetail also makes an excellent scouring pad for pots, when camping.
Mustard and shepherd s purse will readily
absorb excessive salts in the sall, sweetening acid soil, and purifying overfertilized soil.
Camomile blended with water, strained througha fine sieve, or nylon, makes a spray that will control damping off disease in newly emerging plants in the house or cold frame. It is an excellent companion to cabbage, onions and spearmint or peppermint, improving both growth and flavor. Cut and dried camomile makes a good flea pillow for a dog's bed.
Volunteer Corner
AT THE CENTRE
Clover stores nitrogen in the roots. Cut the top off to put in the compost pile, but leave the roots in the ground.
Plantain and jewel weed both soothe skin irritations caused by an allergic reaction to poison ivy, raspberries and stinging nettle.
These are but a few of the virtues of weeds. God has put everything on this earth for a purpose!
A small group of Civic Centre Volunteers have been working at the Centre preparing for Cornucopia. If you enjoy working with natural materials you are cordially invited to join us on Thursdays. Wreaths, angels and topiary trees are beginning to fill our storage cupboards.
BE A WORKSHOP LEADER
Can you help by organizing a workshop? If you have an idea for a saleable item, preferably made from natural materials (for example our cork horses, paper birds, pressed flower cards) let us know about it. The leader assembles the materials and patterns and acts as instructor for the day. Members enjoy these days together and at the same time make a contribution to Cornucopia.
WORK INDEPENTENTLY
Many members of C.G.C. prefer to work independently on their favourite crafts. If you sew, knit or do needlework, we have patterns and materials to keep your fingers busy over the summer months. Do we have any folk who enjoy working with wood? Our answer to the flamingo awaits a willing saw.
GATHER AND PRESERVE
Are you a picker-upper '? We require a supply of Blue Spruce cones, as well as smaller cones such a larch and hemlock. Acorns and usual cones are always welcome. Glycerined materials, such as cedar, mahonia and holly can always be used for our wreaths. Over the summer months gather and hang dry Acrolinium, Bettersweet, Chinese latern, Corn (particularly the miniature kind), Feather grass, Dock, cut green and pink, Foxtail grass, Gomphrena, Honesty, Hydrangea Nigella, oats, Allium, Poppy Seed heads, Pearly Everlasting, and Tansy. All of these materials can be put to good use,
TELEPHONE NOW
Share your talents and support the Civic Garden Centre. Telephone Carolyn Dalgarno at 445-1552 and leave your name and telephone number.
A very special thank you to all the volunteers who have helped us through a busy spring season. The plant sales, Garden Festival and Catch the Gardening Spirit wouldn t have been successful without your help. Before you go on your summer vacation, you might like to sign up for one more volunteer shift for Through The Garden Gate on Saturday, June 17 or Sunday, June 18 from noon to 4 p.m. Please call Carolyn Dalgarno at 445-1552. I'm waiting to hear from you!
Bruce Nord Spring Blooming Bulbs
Qualified Plantsman over 400 varieties ® top size bulbs
Creative capabilities Tulips, Daffodils, Crocus and more 493-4702
Catalogue $1.00
S. Pengilley
7494 Creditview Rd.
R.R. 10 Brampton, Ont., L6V 3N2 field grown perennials 451-6958
TheTrellis Shop
2 &
Civic Garden Centre Executive Committee
President: Dr. Brian Bixley
1st Vice-President: Mrs. Susan Macaulay
2nd Vice-President: Mr. Klaus Bindhardt
Treasurer: Mr. Robert Saunders
Board of Directors
For 1988: Mr. Charles Coffey, Mr. Mark Cullen, Mrs. Margaret Killey, Mrs. Susan McCoy, Mrs. Judy Samuel, Mr. Robert Saunders, Mr. Phillip S. Tingley, Mrs. Dorothy Weir
For 1988 and 1989: Mrs. Anne Bawden, Mr. Klaus Bindhardt, Dr. Brian Bixley, Mrs. Eliane Hooft, Mrs. Heather MacKinnon, Mrs. Gail Rhynard.
For 1988, 1989 & 1990: Mrs. Cicely Bell, Mr. Stuart Gilchrist, Mr. Alan Grieve, Mr. Kenneth H.C. Laundy Mrs. Susan Macaulay, Mr. Victor Portelli of Metropolitan Toronto Parks and Ms. Laura Rapp.
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A CREATIVE LANDSCAPE BEGINS WITH A PLAN... AND
JUST KEEPS GROWING!
Have your planting plan prepared by a professional landscape consultant who will visit your home. The Landscape Consultant will listen to your landscape ideas and provide a scale drawing of your new landscape that is easy to follow.
This service is available for only $50 per front and back yard ($100 for both) within our designated area. Fee is refundable with purchase of Weall and Cullen nursery plants valued at $400 or more ($100 refunded with a SR minimum $800 plant purchase). Ask at your nearest Weall and Cullen location for more details.
7 locations to serve you #8 opening in Etobicoke in May.
Bulk Ennombre third troisiéeme class classe
May we invite you fo join us?
W at the Civic Garden Centre warmly welcome new members. Join us, and you will make friends who share the same interest in gardening, the floral arts and horticulture that you do. In addition to the many exciting classes, garden shows, speakers, clubs-within-the-Centre, etc., that will be available to you, our membership fee entitles you to the following:
e Annual subscription to members
e Free borrowing privileges from one of newsletter Canada s largest horticultural libraries
* Discounts on courses, lectures
* Discount on Soil Testing Service and workshops T
* 10% discount on most purchases in
* Free Admission to the the Trellis Shop Members Programmes
e Special local and international
* Access and discounts at special Garden Tours members day plant sales
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CIVIC GARDEN CENTRE
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