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February 2008
City Gardening by Wes Porter
VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL FOR GARDENERS
The Sex Life of Trees + Posies of Rosies
Climatologists Wiarton Willie, Shubenacadie Sam, Punxsutawney Phil
Horticultural Happenings + News of Interest to Gardeners
Notwithstanding claims by now-defunct The Weekly Word News that “February Sues for More Days,” this month will have that extra additive but not from any judicial judgment.
However, here’s giving all Bachelor Boys advance warning: Beware of 14 February. Thanks to the blessed St. Bridget of Old Ireland, it is the girls who can propose marriage on that day during such an auspicious year. Tradition has it that she received approval on suggesting this to St. Patrick himself. Alas, he was less than enthused when St. Bridget purportedly proposed to him.
In the gardening world, this is a clear case of how to make friends and anemones, also known amongst the horticultural hoi polloi as casting aspersions on nasturtiums.
But according to that highly ornamental actress Hilary Swank, “Every day should be Valentine’s Day. Everyday you should show the person you love how much you love them.” According to Canadian Florist magazine, 156 million fresh cut flowers are sold in Canada over Valentine’s Day. Québecers are most likely to give Valentine’s gifts, Manitobans the least likely – and Ontarians to spend the most.
Nevertheless, you are reminded that horticulture of an exotic nature has its uses come Valentines Day. How else would you learn that giving of dark chocolate is signifies not only l’amour but also good health? Ignore the milk chocolate – according to a recent New Scientist article, pigging out on 50 kilograms of the stuff might cause you to depart this planet. Merci, mais non? Then how about roses to last, feather roses that is, distributed by Touch Me Flowers of Thornhill, Ontario, and made of goose feathers. It’s the gesture that counts. Still haven’t roused her passion? Here’s the very thing to say I love you: a photo frame made from panda poop courtesy of the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base in Beijing. Oh well, then certainly the gardener in your life will just adore the sturdy brush hook from www.rittenhouse.ca, the very thing to eliminate unwanted growth . . .
Eliminated also is the ground hog, Marmota monax. The rotund rodent’s reputed meteorological abilities are, let’s face it, more fun than Al Gore and the entire IPCC. Outside 2 February, however cute it may be in the country it is a pest in the garden – especially the vegetable garden.
And the vegetable garden is fashionable once again. Many of the green thumb brigade, regrettably, lack suitable space for such an enterprise. Six to eight hours of sun a day, with well-drained, good loam free from competition by tree roots are called for.
Longing for home veggies but lacking these basics? Check out you municipal allotment gardens right now, this month when spaces are allotted on a first-come, first-assigned basis. Toronto, for example, has about a dozen such allotments but the plentitude of plots therein go fast in February. As with much gardening, it is the early bird that gets the worm.
Certainly it is the early – and smart – bird that orders in the season’s catalogues. One never to be missing from the gardener’s bookshelf is the Richters 2008 Herb Catalogue. Page after page of herbs that you probably never heard of, plus a health section of gourmet vegetable seeds, all invite perusal along with lingering longings on how to squeeze every last one into the urban acreage. Of course, there they will then assume cafeteria status for pests too numerous to enumerate. Fortunately, Richters offers natural controls hard to find elsewhere in our verdant nation: Neem Oil and Scanmask Predatory Nematodes, for example. A site worth visiting (www.richter.com) or order a hard catalogue to read in bed at night.
Likely the long in the tooth act of Britain’s Spice Girls will have shortly departed our shores, or at least Toronto that they christened ‘Spice City.’ Doubtlessly this did nothing to endear the metropolis with the rest of the nation. Spice has been defined as the plural of spouse. Gardeners hereabouts, however, will more likely take herbs to heart – Elvis and Priscilla Parsley, perhaps.
We are left to contemplate that over in the home habitat of this cosmetic surgery demonstration, Valentines Day is also proclaimed as National Impotence Day. Truly remarkable, given the obvious skills of those insular inhabitants when it comes to propagation of all things horticultural.
The Sex Life of Trees
Despite the depictions of Hollywood and even more explicit viewing available through purveyors of pornography on the Internet, procreation among plants remains a mystery to many.
Concerning the bees and the flowers
In the fields and the gardens and the bowers,
You will note at a glance
That their ways of romance
Haven’t any resemblance to ours.
A few years ago, we were assured by a new homeowner in Thornhill, north of Toronto, that the maple trees on her street were either male or female. Home handyman Harris Mitchell in his wonderful 1200 Household Hints You Wanted to Know (1983: Ancaster, Ontario) tells of a similar experience. “ I have a male and a female maple tree, which are growing close together,” his correspondent queried. “I would like to cut the female tree down to make room for a driveway, but understand the male tree will die if I do. Is this true?”
Mitchell’s reply was that maple trees are bisexual. There could not be a male and a female. “Removing one will probably improve the other if they are growing close together,” he concluded, somewhat unsportingly.
Horticultural, the hermaphrodite maples are monoescious. Other species, however, have chosen the dioecious way of life, with male and female flowers on separate trees. And not only trees either but many other samples of flora delight in separation of the sexes.
Cannabis for example, as every grow-op operator knows, is normally dioecious. The male or staminate marijuana plant is a spindly and weaker grower compared with the opposite sex. The female or pistillate plant marijuana plant is what it’s all about. The active constituents that make Canadian cannabis so desirable to a certain portion of the population are found principally in the developing female flowers and adjacent leaves and stems.
More familiar to many is the cottonwood (Populus deltoides) of our river valleys. Dioecious, during late spring the female trees produce seeds in a cottony mass. This is carried far and wide by the wind, perhaps kilometres away to coat city streets. Like its cousin aspen, the cottonwood has another trick up its sexual sleeve. It also spreads by cloning itself from root suckers. A thicket may thus comprise a single sex of genetically identical trees.
In the same river valleys, where the soil is often rich, deep and moist, stinging nettles, Urtica dioica, invade. In summer these will bear small green catkins with male and female flowers on separate plants. Alas, like poison ivy, many a city type is unaware of the potential hazard. It is unwise to examine these sexual parts to closely, lest one becomes like the miserable miss from Mississippi:
There was a young lady in Natchez
Who fell in some nettle-wood patches.
She sits in her room
With her little bare moon,
And scratches, and scratches, and scratches.
All this is by no means a recent occurrence. Separate sexes of plants have been around for millions of years. As early as the dinosaurs, palm-like cycads were making out amidst the trampling, trumpeting Tyrannosaurus rex. While T. rex might have been big, a species of cycad has the largest sperm of any living organism. Like many other primitive plants such as ferns, the male cycad plant produces swimming sperm. The enormous cones these come from are distinctly suggestive in many species, enough to arouse the envy of Priapus, the Roman god of fertility.
Humans have both helped and hindered dioecious plants. The sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnodies) is a small tree with bright silver foliage, tolerant of poor soil and wretched growing conditions in general. Late in the season the female trees are dense with masses of colourful fruit. Since this does not appeal to all gardeners, a Danish selection called ‘Sprite’ recently entered the market. All are male and therefore fruitless.
On the other hand, hardy hollies are becoming ever more popular. In selling Ilex meserveae, many garden centres insist that, as in the song, ‘you can’t have one without the other.’ So a couple of I. meserveae ‘Blue Princess’ are accompanied by a single I. meserveae ‘Blue Prince’ to assure pollination and resultant berries. Yes, the polygamous prince enjoys multiple partners. Truth be told, a single male bush may be sufficient to take care of 20 or more females although it might be unwise to reveal this in front of avowed feminists, especially as another male holly rejoices in the highly suggestive name of ‘Blue Stallion.’
In fact, it is often no fun being a female tree. Take the marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea) of central and southern Africa for example. The tasty fruit a sought by elephants, to be spread far and wide. In doing so, the unfortunate female marula tree has her bark stripped off, branches torn away, and in general is badly battered by pachyderms pining for her produce. The fruit may also ferment somewhat, increasing its attractiveness to the elephants – and humans. Amarula, a creamy chocolate-tasting liqueur, is made from the fruit.
Adding to the fun, some normally dioecious plants may, like oysters, choose to change sex. The late Berton Braley (1882-1966), valiant versifier, weighs in for the bivalve:
According to experts, the oyster
In its shell – or crustacean cloister –
May frequently be
Either he or she
Or both, if it should be its choice ter.
Some fruits also, as for example the delicious tropical papaya, Carica payaya, may decide in mid-career to cease to be male and become female or, to add to the fun, even hermaphrodite. Confusing things even further Carica, while it looks like a tree is, like the banana ‘tree,’ technically an herbaceous perennial.
If all this arouses envy to the extent of perhaps even dressing up as a tree the better to woo in exotic fashion one’s true ladylove, consider the unfortunate experience of one such experimenter in the ways of wood:
There was a young man of Bengal
Who went to a masquerade ball
Arrayed like a tree,
But he failed to foresee
His abuse by the dogs in the hall.
Children’s Gardening
Wiarton Willie, Punxsutawney Phil, Shubenacadie Sam
Last June was a disaster for British Formula One driver ace Anthony Davidson. And it was all the fault of a rodent. Positioned third in the 37th lap of the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, Davidson in his Super Aguri Honda made unplanned contact with a groundhog.
Well, it may have been a woodchuck, whistle pig, ground squirrel or even a marmot. Or, if you want to get scientific, Marmota monax. By whatever name, it was not a beaver although media from New Zealand to England claimed such.
Up in the small town of Wiarton near the base of Ontario’s Bruce Peninsular, a groundhog attains equal fame every 2 February – and lives to tell about it. Wiarton Willie, as he is known, emerges from his burrow on that morning. If he sees his shadow, so they say, there will be six more weeks of winter.
Wiarton Willie does not always take kindly to being hauled from his home in mid-winter. Once, he tried to hide under a reporter’s car. On another even more memorable occasion he peed on the town mayor’s tuxedo.
It is not surprising. There is no truth to the story. It didn’t even start with the North American groundhog. The legend of emerging on the second day of February and observing its shadow commenced with a completely different mammal from the central parts of Europe.
Wiarton Willie and his fellow climatologists such as Shubenacadie Sam and Punxsutawney Phil often can’t even agree among themselves. Sounds something like humans, doesn’t it? Twentieth of March is usually said to be the first day of spring. According to scientists though, the northern winter ends 31st March. So, scientifically, spring arrives on April Fools Day . . .
Groundhogs, Marmota monax, will come out of hibernation about that time. Found all across Canada except in Newfoundland, they burrow in or near pastures, parks, even gardens. Weighing as much as seven kilograms, it takes a lot to keep these vegetarians plump, up to half a kilo of food a day.
Farmers are not fond of them because of this appetite and if one discovers the home vegetable garden, look out! They’ll pull down corn stalks to get at the cobs while adoring fallen apples and other tree fruit, even raiding melon patches to satisfy their sweet tooth.
Since they can construct burrows as long as 10 metres, any fence must be buried at least 30 centimetres below ground and extend 60 cm above to keep them out of the garden. Sprinkling hot pepper on plants is also claimed to send Willie and his relatives elsewhere.
The unfortunate driver Davidson ended in 11th place at the race’s finish. He was luckier though than new condo owners in Gatineau, Quebec a few years earlier. Construction of the new homes had evicted groundhogs from theirs and they didn’t like it. They bit through vehicle engine wiring, pulled insulation from beneath the hoods for their nests while keeping their strength up eating flowers around the condos.
As a final insult, the owners could not remove or harm the groundhogs. The Quebec law left not a shadow of doubt.
A VIEW OF WHAT IS NEW
Posies of Rosies
Paintings of roses decorated rooms in the Minoan city of Knossos near the north coast of the island of Crete about 3,000 B.C.
Three millennia later, in 41 B.C. Cleopatra demonstrated how the rich could really live it up on her royal barge at Tarsus in Cilicia. According to Ernle Bradford’s 1971 biography: “At another banquet she had the whole floor of the saloon covered with roses to the depth of several feet, the roses being held in place by nets attached to the side walls, so that the guests found themselves walking upon a solid, scented carpet of flowers.”
The tradition if not the extravagance continues. Here in Canada, Sheridan Nurseries rapidly approaches its 100th anniversary after moving to somewhat expanded facilities than were available at Bay and Charles streets in Toronto. Sheridan continues to offer an excellent selection of the Ottawa Explorer series of very hardy disease-resistant shrub roses along with related Parkland series from the prairies.
These Canadian developed roses receive rave reviews in the northern tier of the United States but a prophet in his own country . . . well, you know the rest. Sheridan also offers the Easy Elegance Series™ also noted for their hardiness, colour and disease resistance.
Pickering Nurseries have long been the port of call for rosarians in south-central Ontario. Now some 100 km east of their named birthplace they can be found on the outskirts of Port Hope. They also carry a very wide selection of Explorer and Parkland roses hybridized by Agriculture Canada. Why not then the widely hyped new Artist Series? The Pickering people told us they looked and failed to be impressed. They are not as good as the aforesaid Explorer or Parkland series, we were told.
Pickering Nurseries offer literally hundreds of other roses, new, old and antique. Every one are grown in their own fields, including the famed David Austin® roses from across the Atlantic.
Ah yes, a name any modern-day Cleopatra make an asp of herself. English roses developed by famed David C. H. Austin (now joined by David J. C. Austin) have been perhaps the greatest revolution in the Rosa since Napoleon’s Josephine. The Shropshire nursery rose garden contains over 900 varieties. Many rose fanciers rightly take anything Austin proclaims as almost gospel. A number of Canadian nurseries, wholesale and retail, offer a selection of those that have been found to be hardy in our climate – alas, not all are.
David Austin® recently decided it was necessary to re-classify the English Roses. They are now divided into five separate groups, all related in some way to Old Roses. Look now for English Old Rose Hybrids, English Musk Roses, the Leander Group, Alba Rose Hybrids and Climbing English Roses.
In the romance of the rose garden, tree roses border beds and walkways, or maybe centred in planters. Extreme southwest coastal B.C. may offer gardeners the chance to enjoy such an experience. Until recently in the rest of the country this was a thing only of dreams except for the very keenest, most painstaking rose fanciers. Now many wholesale nurseries have discovered that by budding hardy shrub varieties onto multiflora rootstock results in a reasonable hardy tree rose.
While Napoleon Bonaparte was busy extinguishing the lives of tens of thousands to the glory of his vertically challenged self, his elegant first wife Josephine was sponsoring the collecting and creating roses. Perhaps a little of this rubbed off on the self-crowned Emperor. He once observed that, “Where flowers degenerate man cannot live.” Rose fanciers everywhere would be inclined to agree.
Look for all these and other roses, old and new, at your local garden centre this season. Or start by visiting web sites of those mentioned above:
www.davidaustinroses.com
www.pickeringnurseries.com
www.sheridannurseries.com
Horticultural Happenings
Mycological Society of Toronto
18 February – Meeting: commences 7:45 pm in the Auditorium of Toronto Botanical Garden, southwest corner Lawrence & Leslie; for further details, visit www.myctor.org
Toronto Entomologists’ Association
23 February – Doug McRory, Ontario Beekeepers Association; meeting commences 1:15 pm Room 006, Northrop Frye Hall, 73 Queen’s Park Crescent East, Toronto; more at www.ontarioinsects.org
Toronto Field Naturalists
Visitors and children are welcome at all TFN free outings but please, no pets. Walks go whatever weather prevails – check with 416-661-0123 and dress according to the forecast. Most walks begin and end close to TTC routes. Bring binoculars, camera, notepad plus, if desired, a snack and beverage. Details of specific walks had not arrived at press time; visit www.torontofieldnaturalists.org for details.
3 February – Monthly Meeting: Reptiles & Amphibians of North America with Sid Daniels; meeting commences 2 pm Room 001, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto, 75 Queen’s Park Crescent East.
16 February – Birds & Trees, Leslie Street Spit: meet 10 am at park entrance, Leslie St at Unwin Ave; bring lunch and binoculars.
Toronto Region Conservation Authority
A large number of programs conducted each month, some of interest to gardeners; details www.trca.on.ca
16 February – Black Creek Upper Reaches: commences 1 pm, free; TRCA tour bus, short walk; for further information contact ghorvath@trca.con.ca
23 February – Hoot and Howl at Claireville Conservation Area 7 to 9 pm
Toronto Botanical Gardens
A paradise outside and in awaits area gardeners at Lawrence Avenue East and Leslie Street in Toronto. Event follows event, activity after activity, with just a sampling listed here – check www.torontobotanicalgarden.ca for details (events/calendar)
5 February – Designer Plants for the Home Gardener 7 to 9:30 pm public $35/members $30
6 February – Clematis for Small Spaces 7:30 pm; admission $15, TBG members free
16 February – Get the Jump on Spring 10 am to 4 pm; free
20 February – The Tropicalesque Garden 7 to 9:30 pm public $35/members $30
21 February – Green Roof Conference
23 February – Rhododendrons, Azaleas & Other Broadleaf Evergreens 10 am to 12:30 pm $35/members $30
24 February – Style Series 2008 – Bridal Workshop
28 February – Condo & Balcony Gardening 1 to 4 pm public $35/members $30
High Park, Toronto
2 & 16 February – Ramblers Hiking Club for Kids 9:30 am to Noon
3 February – Volunteer Stewardship Program 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
5 & 19 February – Knee-High Naturalist Tuesday Club 9:30 to 11 am & 1:30 to 3 pm
9 & 23 February – Saturday Morning Naturalist Club for Kids 9:30 am to Noon
10 February – Photo Buffs Photography Walk 10:30 am to Noon
Ian Wheal’s Toronto Walks
23 February – Lost Ponds of Dentonia Park: free; meet 2 pm outside Main Street subway station
Society of Ontario Nut Growers
5 February – SOG Technical Meeting: Simcoe Experiment Station Hall, Blue Line Road at Highway #3 from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm; $15 includes lunch; call Bruce Thurston 519-740-6220 to register.
Ontario Daylily Society
16 February – Meeting commences 10 am Royal Botanical Gardens Centre, 680 Plains Road East, Burlington, Ontario; for further details, visit www.ontariodaylily.on.ca
Ontario Rock Garden Society
3 February – Monthly meeting commences 12 noon with socializing ‘picnic lunch’ with the main speaker scheduled for 1:30 pm. This month join Glenis Dyer ’Hellebores and Companion Plants’ at Toronto Botanical Gardens, 777 Lawrence Avenue East at Leslie Street; www.onrockgarden.com
Ontario Water Garden Society
24 February – Monthly meeting commences 12 noon with ‘greet, eat and meet;’ meeting commences 1 pm at Toronto Botanical Gardens, 777 Lawrence Avenue East at Leslie Street; www.onwatergarden.com
Oakville African Violet Society
27 February – Monthly Meeting commences 7:30 p.m. White Oaks High School, North Campus, 1055 McCraney Avenue, entrance west side of building behind greenhouse; more at http://members.tripod.com/~oavs/
Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton
The place to head for horticultural happiness west of Toronto; many meetings, courses and much more; located at 680 Plains Road East, Burlington; more information www.rbg.ca
Until 24 February – Glass Under Glass: exhibition of spectacular glass art in the Mediterranean Garden at the RBG Centre.
9 & 10 February – Chinese New Year Celebration: RBG Centre 10 am to 4 pm
16 February – Romance in Bloom: Valentine’s Dance, RBG Centre
23 February – Seedy Saturday: RBG Centre 10 am to 3 pm
Orchid Society of Royal Botanical Gardens
17 February – Monthly Meeting: commences 1 pm in Rooms 1 & 2 Royal Botanical Gardens Centre, 680 Plains Road East, Burlington, Ontario; www.osrbg.ca
Hamilton Naturalists Club
This very active organization conducts regular outings and meetings year-round for both adult and junior naturalists; included here is a sampling to interest gardeners; visit www.hamiltonnature.org for details of specific activities and further information of the HNS.
10 February – Hawks and Owls of Saltfleet: hike begins 5:30 pm; for more information, contact Ken & Angie Williams at 905-547-8580
11 February – Monthly Meeting commences 7:30 pm at Royal Botanical Gardens, 680 Plains Rd W., Burlington; David Morris talks on “Your Garden Matters.”
Success With Seeding
24 February – Free Seminar with Inge Poot, who will demonstrate how to get difficult seeds to germinate and reveal trade secrets; 2 to 3 pm at Richters Herbs, Highway 47 a kilometre east of Goodwood, northeast of Toronto.
Friends of Rideau Park
A National Capital Commission activity; more www.canadascapital.gc.ca
February – Wolf Howl
Orchidacious! Annual Show & Sale, Orchid Society of Alberta
22 to 24 February – Grant MacEwan College South Campus, 7319-29 Avenue, Edmonton; for further information, e-mail info@orchidsalberta.com
Butchart Gardens
15 January to 15 March – The Blue Poppy Conservatory invites you to step out of a West Coast winter and into spring. While there, don’t miss visiting ‘Benvenuto,’ the family residence of Jennie Butchart who developed these world-famed gardens from a quarry outside Victoria, B.C.
Victoria Orchid Society Spring Show
29 February to 2 March – Students’ Union Building, University of Victoria, B.C.; more information, contact Show Chair Noreen Taylor e-mail creamofthecrop@telus.net.
Southeastern Flower Show
Until 3 February – Atlanta, Georgia is the place if you are already sick of winter, although it has not been in exactly warm in the Peach State of late. www.flowershow.org.
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