Yes, Mason Hogue Gardens is now Mason House Gardens. Had they asked me (it’s one of the things I do for a living), I’d have suggested a different re-naming strategy. Too many similar letters; people are going to be confused – as anyone who has tried to change their email address has experienced.

However, the name is the name now, so let’s pray that Marjorie Mason and her son Jeff will still own their old URL and have made sure there will be an automatic redirect to their new web address and website. The link is now changed in our righthand column. Currently, the new site is clearly in the “sleep” or “creep” mode; we expect it will graduate into “leap” in time for spring planning.

These guys remain one of Toronto’s go-to garden sources, especially for interesting varieties of plants. On Tuesday night, I attended Jeff Mason’s informative presentation at the Toronto Botanical Garden on new and newer shrubs, perennials and annuals for 2010. Lots of good stuff, a little of which I actually have and more of which I want to have.

Really, my garden is far too small for me to subject myself to this kind of torture temptation. Luckily, with my garden makeover officially in the mulling stage, I now have an excuse a reason to yank out all that old stuff and replace it with oh-so new and improved.

UPDATE:

I was going to try to post on Jeff’s highlights. Without pictures, though, it’s not as ooooh-aaaaaah. While researching, however, I came across this article about 2010 perennial introductions [update: link is no longer active] from the August 2009 issue of Greenhouse Management & Production Magazine.  It’s a comprehensive overview and several, though not all, of Jeff’s recommended perennials are here.

At the talk, some new and newish plants that caught my eye were: Heuchera ‘Miracle’ whose leaves mature to a deep red edged in yellow; the Coreopsis ‘Big Bang’ series, among which Jeff highlighted Coreopsis ‘Full Moon’, like ‘Moonbeam‘ but with flowers twice as large; and Chasmanthium ‘River Mist’, a variegated northern sea oats. I’ll post on some choice annuals later.