We don't get enough good weather in Canada to take it for granted. When the summer season hits, one of the most engaging and rewarding ways to get the most out of the warm weather is gardening. Though everyone enjoys a nice garden from afar, not everyone has discovered the joys of actually planting and nurturing one. To help you along, we've asked long-time HGTV.ca gardening contributor, Veronica Sliva, to post weekly gardening pep-talks, full of tips, plant varietals and ideas, to get you on the planting train. Today, we begin at the source: shopping!
Veronica Sliva is a professional journalist who specializes in gardening and lifestyle, as well as travel and business topics. She is the Director for the Garden Writers Association (nationally and internationally) and her work appears in a variety of magazines, newspapers and on the Web.
By: Veronica Sliva
When I wasn’t on my hands and knees last weekend planting annuals, I was cruising the garden centres looking for plants to tempt my better judgment. There was a ton of great plants to choose from. “King Tut” really caught my fancy. Not he of the pyramids, but he of the Cyperus genus. Cyperus is a grass that’s at home at the edge of a pond or in a garden that is kept on the moist side. This eye-catching type has tufts that sit regally on top of 3 to 5 foot stems. What a stunning centrepiece for a container, I thought to myself as I jostled another shopper for the best one. It pleaded with me to take it home (I did).
“Juncus” caught my eye too; another grass that’s all curly and looks like someone plugged it into a light socket. Really cool. Then I saw “Pretty Much Picasso”. It’s a petunia. With a name like that you’d expect it to set itself apart. I used to shun petunias as being too common place. But, this one’s not boring at all. The blooms are all dressed in raspberry pink centres surrounded by a lime green edging (that’s called a picotee). This one is coming to my garden party for sure! The problem with garden centre cruising is that not much gardening gets done…but oh well.
Tip: And, my oh my, what a difference a day makes in the life of a plant at a garden centre! I’ve learned that if you get to one of the box stores on the day the stuff arrives from the grower, you are in luck. But, a day or two later thanks to a helping of neglect by unknowing staff members, it's curtains for the poor plants. No amount of TLC will make a stressed out plant recover, so if the plant is wilted and sickly looking, you’d best leave it where it is. I find that independent garden centres offer a wider selection and the plants are better cared for. You pay more, but it’s worth it.
Petunias at Linwell Gardens
The exception to this is Loblaws /President’s Choice brands (yes, plants are branded too!). Typically these places employ gardening enthusiasts (often garden club members) for the season. They know a thing or two about looking after plants and are happy to dispense advice. I recently visited a couple of President’s Choice growers in Beamsville, Ontario (Freeman Herbs and Linwell Gardens) and I was impressed with the care they take in producing quality plants, not to mention that their plants are grown here in Canada.
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