A noun. A verb. A blog.
February 25th. That’s the earliest snowdrop this year amongst my usually fearless few. In other years, I’ve had snowdrops as early as January 1st. To have the first appear near the beginning of March is a sign of our unusually cold winter, 2008/9. This one appears particularly feeble. But let’s take what we can get.
Everybody has one of these. Not a Nectaroscordum, though I wish. No, I mean a plant growing in exactly the wrong spot. Too close to something, too far away to be seen. Or, in the case of this pretty cousin of the Alliums, too buried under an ‘Annabelle’ Hydrangea … and mired in too impenetrable […]
You don’t like dancing with crazy Ted, he’s always jumping on your head? But, oooooooo, you love onions? Join the club. Now is the time the popsicle-like flowers of Alliums come into their own. I captured the display above on a small street in the Junction. All the neighbours seem to have shared in the […]
Yesterday, I want on a fabulous Toronto Tree Tour, sponsored by LEAF, and the Toronto Public Space Committee, this one of the trees of Danforth East. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to talk about all I learned just now. So more on this soon. However, I did want to quickly post a pic of […]
Tulipa ‘Angelique’ is a beauty – one of the first “peony-flowered” varieties on the market. I planted half a dozen of them in my garden a few years ago from bulbs purchased through the Beach Garden Society. And this one is really plumped-up and gorgeous. Trouble is, this one isn’t in my garden anymore. It’s […]
Ah, the anticipation of springtime. Waiting for the blooms to unfold after a long and trying winter. I look out over my domain at the sea of green and notice the garden is punctuated… by spikes; yes, once again, spiky stems of snapped-off tulips. Alas, lopped in their prime, before the buds burst into bloom. […]
Okay, it’s a laboured title, but an apt one. Someone gave me these pink hyacinths in a pot of three when our daughter Lucy was born, 21 years ago. I let them ripen and dry, and thought little more of them. Later that year, we bought a house – the one we still inhabit. The previous […]
People think of flowers as just there. If someone asked you to draw a tulip, you’d probably draw a fluted cup on a stick. But really they are animated things, moving with the sunlight – opening wide, closing tight, leaning left and right. Tulipa tarda is one of my faves, and deserves to be planted […]
Talk about time travel. Yesterday while walking around the city, I moved from April to May in a single day. In the morning, I was strolling along in mid-April at the edge of the Bluffs, and arrested by a blanket of blue coming up in one garden. Scilla siberica, bluebells, even the rather nasty-sounding “squills.” […]
The rain is pelting down on the crocuses in my neighbour G.’s garden; the crocuses that stopped me in my tracks the other day — before I’d realized spring had really sprung. A small patch of organic sunshine at the corner of the street, these little guys have boisterously multiplied in the two or three […]
The first snowdrop sighting on our street actually happened on Saturday. But this picture, snapped yesterday, really shows the tenacious nature of these little guys. Even snow doesn’t stop them. Unless there’s a mile of it sitting on top. Until neighbour M. transplanted a huge unwieldy shrub for me, I had one tiny patch of […]
Look at that Amaryllis (Hippeastrum), a gem called ‘Charisma’ – the gift of my dear sister. I was a little skeptical when I saw the static looking picture on the tag. It didn’t seem to match the name. But, wow, in real life, this is clearly a charmer. The bulb itself looked on the petite […]