Trellis - Winter 2015

winter 2015 • Volume 42 • Number 1

The Magazine of the Toronto Botanical Garden

Winter Program Guide inside!

Gardens Alive!

A conversation with RICK DARKE Page 6

YOU CAN GROW ORCHIDS Page 9

HORTICULTURE AS THERAPY Page 11

contents

Lorraine Flanigan

Design

June Anderson

Trellis Committee

Lorraine Hunter (chair) Lorraine Flanigan (editor) Carol Gardner Liz Hood Marion Magee Jenny Rhodenizer Paul Zammit

News

Editor

4 Hort Happenings

Intelligent plants, Canadian Garden Council and Garden Poetry Group Welcome Jennifer Casciani and Katie Pfisterer

5

From the TBG With your hearts and our flowers TBGKids City Critters Series: Winter Trackers Volunteers Susan Ackerman

Volunteer Editorial Assistant M. Magee

416-397-4145

Trellis is published as a members’ newsletter by the Toronto Botanical Garden at Edwards Gardens 777 Lawrence Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario, M3C 1P2, 416-397-1341 Trellis welcomes queries for story ideas, which should be submitted to the editor for consideration by the Trellis Committee at least four months in advance of publication dates.

Opinions expressed in Trellis do not necessarily reflect those of the TBG. Submissions may be edited for style and clarity.

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without written permission.

Charitable business number 119227486RR0001

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Gardens Alive! In conversation with upcoming TBG lecturer, Rick Darke

9 You Can Do It! Orchid enthusiast Synea Tan shares her growing experience 11 Horticulture as Therapy

The TBG’s latest certificate program adds a green thumb to helping hands.

12 In Our Gardens

Winter pruning video My Favourite Bug Lacewings Trade Secret Winter tips from Frank Kershaw Learning the Lingo Chamaecyparis

to do

Photos (From Top): Forest and Kim Starr/Flickr, Rick Darke, Toronto botanical Garden

Advertising

Features

Volunteer Proofreaders

m. Bruce, J. Campbell, L. Hickey, M. Magee, j. Mccluskey, T. Shields and L. Uyeno

winter 2015

Volume 42 N u mb er 1

13 Container Crazy

Quick-change pots In Your Garden Jobs to do Garden Gear Holiday amaryllis Anna’s Plant Pick Rosa Canada Blooms

Canada Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement #40013928 ISSN 0380-1470

14 Who’s Talking

Rick Darke Goings On HortiCULTURE Daytime Lecture Series

Cover photo

Rick Darke

Printed by Harmony Printing

Cert no. SW-COC-002063

- TREE & SHRUB PRUNING -INSECT & DISEASE CONTROL - PLANTING & TRANSPLANTING - TREE & STUMP REMOVAL - DEEP ROOT FERTILIZING

a toronto master gardener

AUTHENTIC

Josée Couture sales representative

tel: (416)486-5588 cell: (416)564-9450 fax: (416)486-6988 em: josee@joseecouture.net www.joseecouture.com

Derek W Welsh

TREE CARE INC.

hallmark realty ltd, brokerage

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President

I.S.A. Certified Arborist #ON-0129A

news TBGNews Announcements

Developments

hort happenings

Special Events

— Weston Family Library

Canadian Garden Council

Are you a poet at heart?

Join the garden poetry group What are your plants thinking?

Plant intelligence research shows that plants sense and react to the world. According to an article by Michael Pollan in the New Yorker entitled “The Intelligent Plant”, houseplants could be communicating, learning and remembering.

For instance, the sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica) collapses its leaves temporarily when it’s disturbed. After reading the article, you’ll never look at your garden the same way again!

Welcome

Like gardening, poetry nurtures our love for the natural world. The Authors of Soul poetry group meets monthly in the Weston Family Library and welcomes all poets at heart— experienced or novice. Here’s some inspiration:

The Waltz The whispering willow dances with the autumn winds Stirring up dreams of summers past As it prepares for the white stillness of the winter’s cloak.

—Joanne M. Sedlacek

goTo

torontobotanicalgarden.ca for meeting dates and times.

Jennifer Casciani, our Children’s Education Coordinator, joined the TBG team in August. She holds an ecosystem management technologist diploma, a BSc in environmental science and a BEd degree. Jennifer has worked in the field of environmental education for 10 years. She recently moved here from Calgary where she spent the last five years providing classroom programs and guided hikes to elementary and high school students about grizzly bears, species at risk, water conservation and natural resources. Jennifer has a passion for the environment that she enjoys sharing with others both in the classroom and especially outdoors. Jennifer loves identifying plants, hiking, camping, eating a good bowl of ice cream and travelling whenever she gets the chance.

Katie Pfisterer joined the staff as Rental Sales Coordinator in September. Her family history is deeply rooted in the hospitality industry. Her dad owned a coffee house (“the 71”) in Yorkville during the 1960s, her grandparents had a small bed and breakfast in Pörtschach am Wörthersee in Austria and other family members ran a hotel in Lech am Arlberg, also in Austria. Following in their footsteps, Katie graduated from George Brown College in hotel management and food and beverage management, landing her first job at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel where she worked her way up the ranks into a sales position. Before joining the Toronto Botanical Garden she was the events and membership coordinator at the University Club of Toronto. Katie enjoys spending free time in her garden where she has created her own pollinator B&B with hummingbird feeders, oodles of bird feeders, a ladybug house and two mason bee houses.

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PHOTOS (this page clockwise from Top Left): Forest and Kim Starr/Flickr, Canadian Garden council, Brian Jenniferc/flickr (opposite): toronto botanical garden, tbg, TBG

The Canadian Garden Council is your source for information about Canada’s garden experiences. Find out about Garden Days events across the country or check out Canada’s Garden Route, a guide to public gardens from coast to coast. Visit canadasgardenroute.ca or “like” Canadian Garden Council on Facebook at facebook.com/ CanadianGardenCouncil.

From the TBG

Making tracks

HARRY JONGERDEN Executive Director

With your hearts and our flowers

T

hese past months of news from the TBG may have seemed a bit of a tease to you. Such big plans we’ve been hinting at, and such a slow reveal of those plans. Well, back on November 5 we let it all hang out. That night, our landscape architect, Gary Smith, spoke to a packed house at a lecture called “The Big Reveal”. In the botanical garden world, such revelations don’t get any bigger.

We have proposed to the City of Toronto that the whole of Edwards Gardens should become a botanical garden landscape and that our garden should grow from four to 34 acres. This may sound like a bold plan, but it advances a botanical garden model that exists in major cities across North America.

Stay tuned for the next issue of Trellis where we’ll be giving you much more detail about our plans. Meanwhile, we’re still working out the costs of developing a viable botanical garden as well as all of the implications of that development. We’re also busy lining up support and discovering a pent-up passion for our proposals. Yes, finally a viable botanical garden!

What makes us not viable? It’s certainly not for lack of passion and heartfelt support. It’s simply a lack of land and a lack of money.

Botanical gardens can no more make enough money than the Royal Ontario Museum or the Art Gallery of Ontario can. We rely on a committed base of members, volunteers and donors to survive. Hearts and Flowers is our year-end annual campaign to encourage the support and the generosity that keeps us going. Our re-launch as a dynamic twenty-first-century botanical garden will depend on you. I’m confident that we can do this because I believe you’ll want to join us in transforming our city for the better. With your hearts and our flowers, what a potent combination we have!

Yours, Mine & Ours Volunteers Edwards Gardens has always been a special place for Susan Ackerman since her family moved to the new community of Don Mills in the 1950s. Gardening has been a pleasure for her too, so when she was retiring from teaching in 1998, she thought the new Teaching Garden in Edwards Gardens would be a lovely place to volunteer and

Not all animals hibernate in the winter. Many city critters are up and about in the wintertime, and there’s nothing like a fresh coat of snow or some late winter mud to help us spot their tracks. You can often tell what animal made the tracks by checking the pattern of their footprints.

Animals that gallop, such as rabbits and squirrels, land with their front paws together and their back paws on the outside. Round animals, including bears and raccoons, swing from side to side as they walk, moving the entire sides of their bodies at once, so that their front and back paws line up in pairs. To learn more about animal tracks, join us for:

City Critters Series: Winter Trackers Sunday, February 22, 1 to 3 p.m.

goTo

torontobotanicalgarden.ca/ learn/kids to register.

share her love of nature. After several seasons, she then became involved in giving guided tours specializing in English as a Second Language along with historical tours of the TBG. Susan also spends time in her own garden and in the neighbourhood as community police liaison and as one of the senior volunteers at the Scarborough Museum. In recent years, her young grandchildren give her pleasure and she enjoys travel and reading historical and mystery novels.

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Gardens Alive!

R

ick Darke and Douglas Tallamy’s book, The Living Landscape, is not your typical gardening book.

Darke says that this is because both authors came to horticulture through ecological studies.

Their joint book will challenge you to rethink almost everything you’ve ever learned about gardening.

The essence of their belief is that a garden has to relate to the surrounding landscape to be “full of life, human and otherwise”. Probably not many of us

would disagree with that statement. They talk about a “community of living organisms”, giving examples of interrelationships, including some that have developed due to clever chemical mimicry.

In conversation, Darke makes it clear that these types of interactions don’t

Rick Darke at the TBG: Hear all about the living landscape at Rick Darke’s upcoming TBG Lecture on Thursday, February 5, at 7:30 p.m. For details see page 14.

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Photos: Taken from The Living Landscape Copyright 2014 by Rick Darke & Doug Tallamy.

Published by Timber Press, Portland.

In conversation with Carol Gardner, Rick Darke challenges our thinking about “paint-by-numbers” gardening.

happen in many gardens “because we are conditioned to follow the practice of ornamental horticulture”. We work decoratively, starting a garden by choosing the plants we want, even if we don’t have the right conditions. “It’s like paintby-numbers.” Then we alter the soil, plunk down the plants, lay on the mulch and watch as more aggressive plants take over weaker plants, unsuitable plants die and things generally run amok.

Being something of a fan of ornamental horticulture, I feel both offended and guilty. Worse, I’m becoming convinced that he’s right.

A garden, Darke says, shouldn’t be started without considerable research.

If we spend more time studying the environment of our gardens and how plants and other organisms will work together in our conditions, we’ll save ourselves a lot of time, money and hard work. One of the easiest ways to do that research is by simple observation.

Instead of trying to change conditions to suit what we want to plant, we need to understand what will thrive in the conditions that we have. One of the key components in a beautiful and biodiverse garden is the use of native plants, which Darke defines as “plants that have evolved in a given place over a period of time sufficient to develop complex and essential relationships with the physical environment and other organisms in a given ecological community”. It doesn’t matter whether the plants were here originally or not; what matters is how they interrelate with the surrounding landscape and native wildlife. He is very specific about using definitions, refusing to use the word “nature” because, he says, we can’t define it. If we can’t define it, why do we need a word for it?

When we model our gardens after those in Europe—particularly in England—we have to remember that they don’t have the proliferation of native plants that we do in North America.

Here we are rich in native species, and our gardens should reflect that. We need, he says, “a little more wildness”.

The pictures in the book attest that taking this point of view does not sacrifice beauty in any way.

Darke agrees with more traditional landscape designers in saying that we also need to consider what functions

we want in a garden—things like beauty, shelter, privacy, fragrance, colour, wildlife habitat and places for children and domestic animals. Darke’s own garden has a number of garden rooms, each serving a specific function, and each one beautiful.

Darke cautions that we need to be realistic about our resources. When starting a garden, we are often overly optimistic about the time and effort it will take to maintain it. We should be asking ourselves how much time we really have for maintenance and if we’ll be content if that time is taken away from other things—socializing, hobbies, time spent with the family. How much money do we want to spend? How much water do we want to use? Because he and his wife travel a lot, Darke has selected plants for his garden that don’t need regular watering. Moreover, he says, if you have the right plants for the right conditions, you shouldn’t have to water except during a plant’s establishment.

The interrelationship of plants and garden wildlife is a continuing theme in the Darke/Tallamy book. There have been concerns about nature and gardening in previous times, specifically in the 1920s and the 1980s, but never so much as now, as we realize that we are losing species at an accelerated pace. In the back of the book are comprehensive charts about plants that thrive in different areas and their functions as well as their relationship to wildlife.

If you aren’t yet convinced about the value of gardening (and I know that you are), Douglas Tallamy’s chapter, “What do landscapes do?” will make you a convert. Plants, he says, deliver many of the ecosystems that support human populations. They can “protect our watersheds, cool and clean the air we breathe, build and stabilize topsoil, moderate extreme weather, sequester carbon and protect the biodiversity that drives ecosystem function”.

This book isn’t a light read, but it’s an extremely thorough, thoughtful book, written by authors who are well versed in both the science and the art of the garden—and the pictures are awe-inspiring.

Carol Gardner is an award-winning garden writer and member of the Trellis Committee.

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NEW IN THE

GARDEN SHOP FOR 2015

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Urban Harvest certified organic herbs will also be available at the TBG plant sale May 7 through 10, 2015. All seedlings are grown in or near the Greater Toronto Area to support the economies of Toronto, Ontario and Canada.

Garden Shop is open daily, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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07/11/2014 17:15

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Delight in the sights – and scents – of one of North America’s most prestigious flower shows on this 5 day tour.

BOOK EARLY & SAVE: Book by January 9, 2015 and save $100 per person.

DATE

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Single

March 1, 2015

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Prices are per person. HST does not apply.

PRICE INCLUDES: 3 Deluxe motorcoach transportation 3 4 nights accommodation 3 4 breakfasts, 2 dinners 3 Longwood Gardens 3 Guided tour of Philadelphia 3 Philadelphia Flower Show Admission 3 Winterthur House & Garden Tour 3 DeNureTours Tour Director 3 All taxes 3 Connections Program (ask for details) Operated by

Stewart Caledonia Tours

Join Marjorie and Jeff Mason as they travel this summer to Philadelphia and Scotland with Stewart Caledonia Tours. For more information, visit stewartcaledoniatours.com

Philadelphia Garden Tour Experience the beauty of a Philadelphia summer on this 6 day tour filled with horticultural mastery.

Double August 16, 2015 $1,495

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Gardens, Castles & A’

Visit Scotland’s colourful LED BY MARJORIE gardens and ancient castles, MASON! and experience the prestigious Edinburgh Tattoo on this 15 day tour.

Double August 12, 2015 $5,395

$1,895

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Prices are per person. HST does not apply.

Prices are per person. HST does not apply.

PRICE INCLUDES: 3 Deluxe motorcoach transportation 3 5 nights accommodation 3 5 breakfasts, 1 lunch 3 Brandywine Museum & Wildflower Conservatory guided tour 3 Temple University Ambler Landscape Arboretum 3 Meadowbrook Farm guided tour & lunch 3 Shofuso Japanese House and Gardens 3 Longwood Gardens 3 Terrain Garden Center 3 Bartram’s Garden 3 Philadelphia City Tour 3 Morris Arboretum 3 Chanticleer Garden 3 All taxes

PRICE INCLUDES: 3 “Transat Option Plus” return airfare from Toronto 3 13 nights accommodation 3 Transportation - motorcoach & ferries 3 All breakfasts and dinners 3 Glasgow Botanic Gardens 3 EDINBURGH TATTOO 3 Mount Stewart House & Gardens 3 Isle of Arran 3 Brodick Castle & Gardens 3 Arduaine Gardens 3 An Cala Gardens 3 Isle of Skye 3 Dunvegan Castle & Gardens 3 Culross Palace & Gardens 3 All taxes 3 Other Scottish sightseeing as listed in the itinerary

Longwood Gardens

Benjamin Franklin Parkway, courtesy of PCVB

Brodick Castle, Isle of Arran, courtesy of Scotland’s Gardens

Brodick Castle, Isle of Arran, courtesy of Scotland’s Gardens

Glasglow Skyline

For more information on any of these vacations or to make a reservation, please contact Hope Street, Lindsay, ON K9V 5N5 DeNureTours at 1-800-668-6859 or visit www.denuretours.com 71 Mount Registration: 50009376 and 50009377

You Can Do It!

Orchid Show

The Southern Ontario Orchid Society holds its annual show at the Toronto Botanical Garden on February 14 and 15, 2015. For more information and a $2 discount off the price of admission, visit soos.ca and click on the link to the show in the upper right corner.

Orchid enthusiast Synea Tan shares her growing advice with Tom Shields.

Ever tried to grow those most exquisitely exotic of all plants, the orchids? You can, you know. In addition to the moth orchid hybrids (Phalaenopsis) now found nearly everywhere, there are tens of thousands of other orchids whose intriguing, seductive, shimmering and often sweetscented flowers wait for you to discover. How can you grow and flower them? Listen to Synea Tan, local orchid grower extraordinaire.

What first attracted you to orchids, Synea?

A I came across a marvellous Chinese Cymbidium in a restaurant about 30 years ago. The fragrance was mesmerizing!

Did you make mistakes at first?

A Of course! I naturally started with a Cymbidium but soon killed it. I then tried several Phalaenopsis, which are easy, and killed them, too! Obviously I needed advice. From my music background I knew the need for constant practice and so did one thing right: I did not give up.

Photo: peter poot

What sort of orchids do you grow now?

A Because I grow in my home, I have mainly warm-growing orchids like Cymbidium, Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilum, Catasetum, Cycnoche, Bulbophyllum, Dendrobium, Oncidium, Miltonia and Vanda.

What? No greenhouse? How do you manage that?

A It’s really not hard. To get proper light, I grow on stands in rooms with south-facing windows, although west windows will do. I also hang two to four high-efficiency fluorescent tubes above plants that grow farther back from the windows.

Orchids also need high humidity, so on the stands I rest deep plastic trays with wire mesh elevated above their bottoms.

Plants sit on or hang over the mesh, so when I water, the

excess runs into the trays and humidifies the plants as it evaporates. Orchids also need to be cooler at night, so I turn off the room heat and close the door each evening to let the temperature fall to around 15°C.

What are some other secrets for growing?

A Most cultivated orchids need to be watered often but dry out quickly. I grow mine in a free-draining mix of bark, coconut fibre, sphagnum, charcoal, eggshells and perlite, or in Hydroton, compressed clay pebbles that are available from hydroponic supply stores. I punch extra holes in the sides of my plastic pots to let the water drain and evaporate more quickly. This means that I must water more often, but the results are worth it. I also use rainwater, although tap water is okay for beginners. Every year or two I repot in fresh mix, taking care not to damage the roots. I also check plants often to catch and correct problems early.

Which orchids are you especially proud of?

A My Vandas, because they are hard to grow in our climate, and my Miltonias, because they were a personal challenge.

I also love Dendrobiums because they are easy to grow and have flowers that are long lasting, numerous and often fragrant.

What advice would you give to beginners?

A Start with inexpensive, easy-to-grow orchids such as Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilum, and warm-growing Dendrobium.

Duplicate their natural growing conditions as best you can.

Accept some failures because that is how you learn. Be curious, ask loads of questions, always go to orchid society meetings and never, ever give up!

Tom Shields is a Toronto-based writer/editor and long-time species orchid enthusiast who serves on the Conservation Committee of the Southern Ontario Orchid Society.

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416.971.4068

Lorraine Hunter talks with Margaret Nevett about the TBG’s latest certificate program—it adds a green thumb to helping hands!

Horticulture as therapy

Professional tips for easier gardening

Photos ( from Left): Brian Fryd, Margaret Nevett

If you (or someone close to you) can’t garden any more, change your idea of what a garden looks like, says Margaret Nevett. She offers the following suggestions for making gardening easier.

• If you can’t install raised beds to make it easier to reach the soil, use large containers, such as blue boxes, so that you can sit and work.

• Use adaptive devices and lightweight enabling tools with large easy-to-hold grips and expanding handles.

• Replace uneven pathways with ramps or walkways wide enough for wheelchairs and walkers.

D

iscovering that horticulture can have a profound effect on people in all walks of life was no surprise to Margaret Nevett, a registered horticultural therapist who embarked upon a new career at the age of 50 and is now encouraging others to follow in her footsteps. The former corporate training video producer is the designer, producer and presenter of the Horticultural Therapy Certificate Program, recently introduced at the TBG. Horticultural therapy (HT), as Margaret describes it, “uses planned, deliberate and documented gardening and plant-related activities in professionally conducted programs to improve people’s physical, cognitive, emotional and social functioning”.

Working mainly in long-term care and rehabilitation facilities with other therapists and medical professionals, through her company Gardening for Life, Margaret develops programs to help achieve specific treatment goals.

The new program at the TBG will be helping to fill a need for more therapists, she says. The certificate course, which includes more than 200 hours of classroom and study, can be completed in one year. Classes take place at the TBG and Allan Gardens, and offer hands-on opportunities to work with real patients.

Students currently enrolled are “extremely diverse,” says Margaret, “including all ages from early 30s to more than 70, and from all areas.

Some are already working in longterm care or with new immigrants or children, for example.”

HT has many applications, including working with war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, youth at risk and elder care.

“Seniors entering nursing homes often face stressful lifestyle changes.

Gardening works to alleviate the effects of this upheaval,” explains Margaret. Many are not mobile, being confined to wheelchairs or using walkers. “And lots have the use of only one hand. Completing a project gives them a sense of achievement.” torontobotanicalgarden.ca

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Is horticultural therapy for you?

Attend a special workshop designed to answer all your questions on Saturday, January 24, 2015, from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Visit toronto botanicalgarden.ca/events/ horticulture-as-therapy for details.

One patient, a young man in his thirties, had been injured in a car accident. “They tried to bring him out of his depression but nothing worked so his occupational therapist called me in.

I brought in enabling garden tools and a bench and eventually he was able to work in his own garden. It was a major breakthrough.”

Rehab facilities are finding hort therapy beneficial for people with brain injuries, mental illness and other physical or developmental disabilities.

Gardening boosts dexterity and endurance and can help to rebuild strength and mobility after an illness or injury.

Through this new program at the TBG, Margaret hopes to give horticultural therapy the same credibility and status as music and art therapy in the treatment of people with specific needs.

Lorraine Hunter is a Master Gardener and Chair of the Trellis Committee.

winter 2015

techniques

In our

Gardens

Advice

My Favourite Bug Lacewings Lacewings, says Bug Lady Jean Godawa, can keep garden pests in check.

Winter pruning video In winter there are lots of things you should be doing in the garden. Nancy Eaton Director of Horticulture Paul Zammit gives winter tips on pruning wisteria, grasses, roses, trees and clematis.

goTo

youtu.be/dh TPBCEHJgw to see how its done!

trade

secret TBG gardening guru Frank Kershaw says that last winter’s deep freeze is a good reminder to check your woody plants for frost cracks or weakened branches. Watch especially for limbs that overhang the house or shed. During mid-winter thaws, check your perennials to see if any have been heaved from the ground by frost.

Before the soil re-freezes, gently press these back into the soil.

Most gardeners know that ladybugs have a voracious appetite for aphids and welcome these bright, spotted creatures into our gardens. But there is another, equally aphid-hungry insect just as capable of ridding gardens of the sap-sucking pests. Green lacewing adults (Chrysopidae) grow up to 15 millimetres long, have coppery coloured eyes, long threadlike antennae and, as their name implies, delicate lacy wings. At rest, the translucent wings remain tented over the insect’s long green body.

Female lacewings deposit eggs on the ends of small silken stalks, usually on the underside of leaves. After about four days, the eggs hatch into larvae with brownish, mottled colouring. Lacewing larvae resemble tiny alligators, and their feeding behaviour is just as violent. The larvae use sharp sickle-shaped mouth parts to grab and puncture prey, then suck out the bodily fluids. Aphids aren’t the only victims of these vicious but helpful predators. Insect eggs, mites, mealy bugs, thrips, caterpillars and other

soft-bodied plant pests are all potential lacewing meals.

Adults of some lacewing species are not predacious, requiring only nectar or the sugary excretions of aphids, known as honeydew, to produce eggs. They are clumsy fliers and typically stay close to their food source. Avoid handling lacewing adults as they can release a foulsmelling liquid when threatened. Their larvae have been known to bite, on occasion, leaving an itchy swelling much like a mosquito bite.

Most lacewing larvae spend the winter as pupae, protected by a silken cocoon attached to trees or other plants.

One species, Chrysoperla carnea, overwinters as an adult under leaf litter and garden debris. Adults emerge in spring, feeding on pollen from early blooming maples (Acer spp.) and other plants, and then disperse in search of suitable breeding grounds. With three to four generations per season, lacewings can easily keep pest populations in check in your garden.

Learning the Lingo Chamaecyparis (False cypress) kam ay SIP uh riss torontobotanicalgarden.ca

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Photos (this page, clockwise from top left): Toronto botanical garden, Ken Sproule, Tanaka juuyoh/flickr (Opposite from top): paul zammit, j.c. bakker & sons Ltd.

information

To Do

in season

In Your

crazy

Quick-change containers

Save yourself some time (and cleanup): create an indoor seasonal planter with interchangeable components.

First, in a decorative container large enough to hold three empty six-inch pots, plant a base of long-lasting ‘Frosty Fern’ club moss (Selaginella kraussiana ‘Frosty Fern’) and Kalanchoe. Place pre-potted, ready-tobloom amaryllis bulbs into the empty pots. (Check out the choices in the Garden Shop.) Once the bulbs have passed their prime, replace them with new potted bulbs in bud. Use decorative moss to camouflage the soil surface and the rims of the pots. Add a seasonal touch with cones, branches and ornaments.

—Paul Zammit, Nancy Eaton Director of Horticulture

Garden Gear Holiday amaryllis

Garden Jobs To Do Winter tasks, whether you stay home or get away…

Smarty-pants gardeners with cold frames can sow and harvest fresh salad greens even when snow covers the ground.

If you don’t have one, make one for next year!

Grow herbs indoors.

Thyme and oregano plants can be transplanted into pots.

Sow cilantro seeds every few weeks.

For the holiday season the Garden Shop offers a selection of choice amaryllis bulbs such as Hippeastrum ‘White Dazzler’ and the popular H. ‘Charisma’ and H. ‘Evergreen’. Buy multiples of your favourites and pot them up in 10-day to two-week intervals for a longer lasting bloom period. Shop early for the best selection. Prices start at $11.99.

(A limited selection of jumbo-sized bulbs is also available.)

Install watering spikes, such as the Plant Nanny, in indoor containers. These will safely hold water receptacles, including glass bulbs and water bottles.

Anna’s Plant Pick

The Canada Blooms rose is the official flower of the 2015 Canada Blooms Flower and Garden Festival. It made a brief appearance at last year’s show, courtesy of J.C. Bakker & Sons, and will be officially launched and generally available in garden centres this year.

This hybrid tea rose was developed by the Morden and St-Jean-sur-Richelieu breeding program in Quebec, by crossing the hybrid tea Secret (Rosa ‘Hilaroma’) with a hardy shrub rose (R. ‘Astrid Lindgren’).

The Canada Blooms rose has been rated hardy to Zone 4 after a trial across Canada

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Use a humidifier in rooms with lots of plants. It will keep moisture levels at comfortable levels.

Wherever you travel, visit a regional botanical garden— and take your TBG membership card with you. Many gardens offer free entry or discounts to TBG members.

Go through garden photos. Straighten, edit and make albums of your prize winners and favourites. Ruthlessly discard the rest.

✄

Rosa Canada Blooms— the Canada Blooms rose

supervised by the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre and the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association. But it should survive to Zone 2 if put in a sheltered spot and given additional mulch and good snow cover. It has grown back from its roots after severe winter kill in Zone 3.

Grown on its own roots, Canada Blooms reaches between 1 and 1.25 metres in height. This very fragrant rose has strong, long-stemmed pink flowers with 40 to 60 petals per flower. The dark green foliage is moderately resistant to disease.

Look out for this rose and plant it as you would any hybrid tea rose. When using it as a container plant, though, Michel Touchette, production manager at Jeffries Nurseries, suggests overwintering it in an unheated but insulated garage as long as the temperature remains above -10ºC. Cut the rose down to about 30 centimetres and place the pot on a bench in a sealed plastic bag. Take it outdoors when the temperature rises above freezing next spring for another season of bloom.

—Anna Leggatt is a retired Master Gardener.

CheckList

container

Take a class, attend a lecture or participate in a hands-on event at the Toronto Botanical Garden.

—Toronto Master Gardeners

Happenings goings on

Talking LECTURER: RICK DARKE TOPIC: THE DESIGN OF LIVING LANDSCAPES: PUTTING BACK THE LAYERS WHEN: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015, 7:30 p.m.

PRE-LECTURE DINNER AVAILABLE FROM 5:30 P.M.

Author, photographer and landscape ethicist Rick Darke’s work blends art, ecology and cultural geography in the design of living landscapes. In his lecture, Rick explores the richness of life in landscapes for both people and wildlife.

He unveils the layers of urban and suburban landscapes and shows how to conserve, create and manage them for beauty, biological diversity and livability.

Rick Darke’s many books include The American Woodland Garden, The Wild Garden and his newest, The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden, a collaboration with Doug Tallamy. Public $25, Students (with valid ID) $15, Members free (Bring a friend for $10). Door sales only. Floral Hall doors open: 6:30 p.m. Lecture 7:30 p.m

classifieds GARDEN TOURS with Margaret Dailey-Plouffe 2015 tours: NEWFOUNDLAND; NEW ORLEANS; VICTORIA/ VANCOUVER ISLAND plus PHILADELPHIA FLOWER SHOW; QUEBEC GARDENS including Reford Gardens & Quatre Vents; BUFFALO GARDEN FESTIVAL; New York City; Plus Frank Lloyd Wright –Fallingwater.

To receive more details/itineraries, please call 416-746-7199 OR 1-877-672-3030 or e-mail: Margaret@hnatravels.com Heatherington & Assoc. www.hnatravels.com TICO50017223.

• HortiCULTURE Daytime Lecture Series. Great Gardens of the World, Thursday, February 19: Garden journalist Veronica Sliva transports you to the world’s most intriguing gardens through lively dialogue and gorgeous images.

Reviving Rare Plants at the Riverwood Conservancy, Thursday, March 19: Nina Barabas, co-author of Wildflowers of Riverwood, explores the impacts of including native Carolinian wildflowers in our gardens.

Offered in partnership with the North American Native Plant Society. Saving Seeds in the City: From Aster to Zucchini, Thursday, April 16: Learn how to save seeds and how seed libraries work with Brendan Behrmann of the Toronto Seed Library.

Bring your questions and pick up some free seeds!

Lectures take place from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

Light refreshments included. Each session: public $28, members $22 or take all three: public $80, members $60.

goTo

toronto botanical garden.ca/category/ enjoy/special-events for details and to register.

torontobotanicalgarden.ca

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winter 2015

Photo: Melinda Zoehrer

Who’s

About The Toronto Botanical Garden The Toronto Botanical Garden (TBG) is a volunteer-based, charitable organization whose purpose is to inspire passion, respect and understanding of gardening, horticulture, the natural landscape and a healthy environment. The TBG raises more than 95 per cent of its operating funds through membership, facility rentals, retail enterprises, program fees and donations. The organization relies on the generosity and financial commitment of individuals, foundations and corporations to help maintain the gardens and support the many horticultural and environmental services we provide to our community. Charitable business number 119227486RR001.

GENERAL HOURS AND ADMISSION

Gardens: Free admission, dawn to dusk Administrative Offices: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Weston Family Library: Call 416-397-1343 or check torontobotanicalgarden.ca for hours of operation.

Garden Shop: Call 416-397-1357 • shop@torontobotanicalgarden.ca Master Gardeners’ Info Line: 416-397-1345, noon to 3 p.m.

(April & July, Monday to Thursday, Saturday; May & June, daily; August through March, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday).

Visit torontomastergardeners.ca and Ask a Master Gardener

Membership: $45 single, $65 family. Call 416-397-1483 or sign up online at

torontobotanicalgarden.ca/join

SIGN UP FOR BIWEEKLY GARDEN ENEWS!

Receive the latest horticultural news and information on events, workshops, lectures and other horticultural happenings. Free registration at torontobotanicalgarden.ca

FRIENDS OF THE TORONTO BOTANICAL GARDEN Toronto Botanical Garden (TBG) is deeply grateful to its Friends for providing continued and generous support towards programs and services. Our Friends enable the TBG to educate and provide the community with information on horticulture, gardening and environmental issues through lectures, courses and events.

The following individuals made their contribution to the Friends program between July 8 and October 20, 2014.

BENEFACTORS Helen Shaw Friends Kathleen Belshaw Elizabeth Bolton Linda Boyko

Andreea Iliescu Mary Margaret Kot Nina Lapin Francis Lee Alessandra Leopardi Linda J. Lynott

Jane McCulloch Toshi Oikawa Ian Ormrod Ana Sztabinski Joan Wright

PATRONS

Honorary Patron: Adrienne Clarkson

Brian Bixley, Mark Cullen, Camilla Dalglish, Sondra Gotlieb, Marjorie Harris, Lorraine Johnson, Michele Landsberg, Susan Macaulay, Helen Skinner

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President: Allan Kling. Co-Chairs: Allan Kling and Rebecca Golding. Tim Bermingham, Mark Bonham, Ellen Carr, Heather Cullen, Beth Edney, Colomba B. Fuller, Ryan Glenn, Cathy Kozma, Elaine M. Le Feuvre, Shelagh Meagher, Vaughn Miller, Penny Richards, Judy Shirriff, Nancy Tong, Barbara Yager

STAFF DIRECTORY Executive Director Harry Jongerden director@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1346 BUSINESS AND FINANCE Director of Business Initiatives and Finance Margaret Chasins business@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1484 Accounting, Nadesu Manikkavasagam accounting@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1352 Database & Technology Administrator Paul Galvez database@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1371 Marketing & Communications Department Marketing & Communications Director Jenny Rhodenizer communication@torontobotanicalgarden.ca Trellis Editor editor@torontobotanicalgarden.ca Development Department Director of Development Claudia Zuccato Ria development@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1372 Development Officer, Sharon Rashid annualgiving@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1483 Special Events Coordinator Christine Lawrance spevents@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1321 Rentals & Events Department Events & Facility Manager, Patricia Chevers rentals@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1324 Rentals Coordinator, Katie Pfisterer rentalsales@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1349 Rentals Accounting, Christine Adamus rentalaccounting@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1359

goTo

torontobotanicalgarden.ca to learn about the TBG!

777 Lawrence Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario M3C 1P2, Canada 416-397-1340; fax: 416-397-1354 • info@torontobotanicalgarden.ca torontobotanicalgarden.ca • @TBG_Canada

By TTC: From Eglinton subway station take the 51, 54 or 54A bus to Lawrence Avenue East and Leslie Street. The TBG is on the southwest corner.

Find us on... torontobotanicalgarden.ca

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Education Department Director of Education, Liz Hood education@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1355 Children’s Education Supervisor, Diana Wilson childrensed@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1288 Children’s Education Coordinator, Jennifer Casciani tbgkids@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-5209 Adult Education Coordinator, Rebecca Lamb adulted@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1362 Tour Guide Coordinator, Sue Hills tourguides@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-4145 Weston Family Library librarian@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1375 Horticultural Department Nancy Eaton Director of Horticulture Paul Zammit horticulture@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1358 Head Gardener, Sandra Pella gardener@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1316 Taxonomic Assistant, Toni Vella taxonomy@torontobotanicalgarden.ca Garden Shop Supervisor, Heidi Hobday shop@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1357 Head, Volunteer Services Sue Hills volunteers@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-4145 Maintenance Maintenance Manager, Walter Morassutti Maintenance Officers, Alvin Allen, Jonas Kweko-Teye, Marcos Tawfik maintenance@torontobotanicalgarden.ca 416-397-1344

winter 2015

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