Sunday 8 May 2011

Tiny rose garden in Toronto

my tiny rose garden

view of Lake Shore Boulevard West

Clematis Arabella will hopefully soon adorn this trellis
It's really not much to look at, but hopefully in a few weeks, things will be much more promising.

Order of Work for week #18:

  • Planted crinums (Powellii & Alba) and Brodiaea (Queen Fabiola) in 24 inch terracotta pots
  • divided geranium Rozanne
  • relocated clematis (name unknown) from backyard to front yard.  Erected visually unappealing chicken wire cladding against municipal guy-wire, in the hope that the clematis will soon cover up the unsightliness
  • hauled dormant oleanders up from basement into a shady spot to acclimatize for a final position in a hot, sunny spot
  • planted lilac and pink moss phlox, pink rock cress and white alpine saxifrage, in hopes of gradually replacing at least some of the masses of creeping thyme, which really take a while to get going in the spring
  • applied wood ashes from toasty winter fires to plants that like such treatment (peonies, clematis, lavender, japanese anenomes)
  • fretted about bougainvillia, which was stored dormant over the winter in the basement.  The initial signs of swelling buds appear to have faded, and all that's currently there is a thorny, gangly stick.  The wood is green when I make an exploratory pruning cut, so I'm not sure what is needed to force it to spring forth, short of taking it on an all-inclusive to Barbados for a few days to shake of the winter blahs.  Have put it in my sunroom (lots of lovely heat and sunshine) to see if that does the trick.

2 comments:

  1. Looks like your garden is going to give a great show in Summer. I wonder will you plant your bougainvillia outdoors.

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  2. If the bougainvillia wakes up from its' winter slumber, it will certainly go outside for the summer - Toronto is generally quite hot and humid, and it seemed to thrive last summer. I'll plant it up in a large container so it's easy to bring indoors for the winter.

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