May 1999

IT’S THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY!

Time to Enjoy, So Don’t Try to Do 

Too Much, Too Early

Two important factors in the Year of the Toronto Gardener: don’t leave everything until the Victoria Day weekend, and don’t be in too much of a hurry.  The weather appears to be returning to what is laughingly regarded as “normal” for Toronto.  But during the last half-century in Hogtown-on-the-Humber the climate has steadily become milder.  North of Steeles Avenue, where even now they are tying up their dog teams and storing snowmobiles, the last frost date is usually about May 15.  In the Big Smoke it is April 20.  Note that this is actual air temperature and does not take into account any possible wind chill factor.

The moral of this tale of temperatures is not to trust basil to survive outside too early.  The garden centres tend to sell anything anytime.  They are not reliable guides for safe planting dates.  Yes, you may get lucky, but it would be far safer to leave purchasing that basil, along with the tomatoes, peppers, begonias, impatiens and other very tender plants until at least the last week of May.  Indulge in marigolds and alyssum, along with almost every other vegetable from the first week of May on, if that planting urge cannot be resisted.  Better still, look to new perennials, shrubs, roses, vines and even trees, to satisfy the primeval planting rites.

Hoary local folklore notwithstanding, the Victoria Day weekend is not an important gardening time.  And since every garden centre, nursery and supermarket becomes a bedlam of buyers all seeking garden nirvana, this is not a good time for calm contemplation of the latest exotica.  Better to sit back on the patio or deck and observe the neighbours as they work themselves into chiropractor’s cases.

Earlier in the month, apply fertilizer to the lawn.  If weeds have intruded to such an extent that hand weeding is impossible, then apply a weed-and-feed.  Since the forsythia flowers have largely come and gone it is too late to apply any crabgrass preventer.  Never mowing the lawn shorter than two inches and watering regularly will discourage that weed, however.  

Perennial borders will be starting to display their crop of weeds.  Early and regular attention will take care of them.  A weekly hoe will wipe the beggars out when they are young and still easily controlled.  Thick mulches will discourage weeds and help to conserve moisture.

Deadhead tulips, daffodils and other, larger bulbs to help force them to concentrate on starting next season’s display.  If not already applied, sprinkle with a fertilizer high in phosphate.  Do not remove the foliage until it dies back naturally as the bulb requires it to support the new roots.  If the dying leaves are unsightly, hide them with annuals or perennials.

Keep safer insecticidal soap close at hand for the forthcoming invasions of aphids and other unwanted critters on the roses as well as elsewhere in the garden.  Keeping the birdbath filled will attract birds.  They will eat many of the blighters if you miss spraying.  The warm days and cool, wet nights will encourage powdery mildew on lilacs.  This unsightly disease is largely cosmetic.  Most controls, natural or chemical, are vastly overrated by those trying to sell them.  Removing suckers and allowing extra air in around the bushes assist almost as well if not better.

Plant out hardy herbs and annuals in containers of all sorts. Use mixtures rather than mono-plantings for greater effect.  Lightweight soil-less mixes are best for this work and be sure to water daily in hot, windy weather, while fertilizing every other week.  Find time to explain all of this to the neighbours.

Daphne and her Laurel

In Greek myth, Daphne was a lovely young nymph who passed her days frolicking innocently in the woods.  To her misfortune the Greek god Apollo one day discovered her.  Being both Greek and a deity, he immediately fell head over heels in love with poor Daphne, who fled terrified from his amorous advances.

This inflamed Apollo’s lusts still further.  Finally the poor nymph was reduced to praying to the other gods on Olympus for assistance.  So great was his passion, however, that they could not stop Apollo but could only turn Daphne into a laurel bush.  A dismayed Apollo was always to regard the laurel as sacred, Daphne being the Greek word for that herb we call Bay (and which the botanists call Laurus nobilis).

Unfortunately this verbal clash raises further problems; but not, we hasten to add, amorous ones.  Notwithstanding poor Hellenic claims, gardeners now call a small, sweetly scented shrub by the aforementioned name.  D. mezereum is more frequently mentioned in gardening books as it flowers extremely early in spring, often by the end of March.  As far back as 1827, the Toronto Nursery catalogue offered it as “Mezerion”.  Diplomatically the catalogue compiler and business owner William Custead declined to mention that the bark was used in the 18^th-century for the treatment of syphilis.

Many prefer Burkwood’s Daphne, with evergreen foliage and white, fragrant flowers emerging at about the same time as the common lilac.  Whichever you choose, grow it in a moist, organic loam, free of peat moss with plenty of lime added at planting time, and with an additional handful applied every year.

Gardening is Booming:  Canada Revenue Ecstatic?

Four decades ago, if you replied to enquiries as to your profession that you were a “horticulturalist”, more often than not the questioner hadn’t the faintest idea what that was.  From sea to shining sea, nary a horticultural degree was offered.  Nor were there any available in the U.S.  With more than a little hint of the truth, it was claimed that in order to succeed as a horticulturalist in the Toronto area, you had to have either an English or a Dutch accent.  Horticultural diploma courses had been offered for some two hundred years in England.  They are not even twenty-five years old in Ontario. 

What a difference forty years can make.  Consider the following:

• Gardeners and landscapers purchase $7 billion annually from ornamental plant nurseries.

• The export of ornamental plants has increased 100% in the last four years to reach $280 million, ranking only second behind potatoes, which we are now eyeing.

• The G.S.T. that Prime Minister Chretien said he would kill applies to ornamental plants and yields over $250 million annually to government coffers.

• The Canadian horticultural industry employs over 125,000 people.

• Combining GST, payroll and corporate taxes, the ornamental plant sector contributes almost $350 million annually to the federal government.

• Ornamental plants receive no government production subsidies.

• All research is funded by the industry.  The federal government allocates no funds.

Bulk Dried Herbs

Strictly Bulk, the bulk food emporium people, already have three stores and have now opened a fourth at 2436 Danforth, a block west of Main.  This joins 638 Danforth at Pape and the two on Bloor W: 924 near Ossington and 2389 near Jane.

Introducing Ferns For The Urban Garden

There Are Far More Than Fiddleheads Available for the Toronto Gardener

According to Wilfred Blunt, writing in 1978, pteridologists are fern experts while pteridophilists are fern lovers.  A century early, Charles Kingsley labelled the Victorian fern craze as pteridomania.  While the Robertson clan of Scotland chose the fern, and not a jar of marmalade, as its floral emblem, in the Victorian language of flowers, the fern signified sincerity or fascination.  And that is exactly what the renewed interest is – a sincere fascination with ferns for the garden.  This interest has spread even further than can a single fern spore through the air, some 20,000 kilometres.  It is questionable whether this is done on frequent flyer points.

Ferns are almost exclusively used by humans, at least as ornamentals.  The Bracken Fern, Pteridium aquilinum, of New Zealand provided the root that was the staple diet of the Maori, who called the country they had discovered by 1200 AD (perhaps as early as 800 AD) Aoteroa, Land of the Long White Cloud and the fern itself aruhe.  Our own native bracken, however, is not only a persistent weed once introduced into the garden.  It is also carcinogenic.  And the young emerging spring shoots of bracken have an uncanny resemblance to the delightfully edible ones of Ostrich Fern.  In order to remain a reader of City Gardening, adhere to the old but true advice: when in doubt, don’t eat it.

The English according to written record, seem to have made use of any and every form of plant life.  A 19^th-century English “Depilatory Vegetable Essence” recipe advises one to “take polypody of oak, cut into very small pieces, and put a quantity into a glass cucurbit.  Pour on this as much Lisbon or French white wine as will rise an inch above the ingredients, and digest it in a hot water or vapour bath for twenty four hours.”  This seems to be a waste of two good things:  the oak fern and the wine.  Looking for both an excellent selection of ferns and perhaps to join the nascent Ontario Fern Society?  Contact: Humber Nurseries, Highway 50 south of #7 Phone at (416) 798-8733 or Fax at (905) 794-1311.  They have their own excellent list of ferns that are hardy in our area.  This is invaluable to the novice and the experienced grower alike.  Since they list around a hundred, Your garden will not suffer for want of fern planting material.  There are many of the old favorites on the list, especially native forms that have been known to pteridophilists for many years.  These are all reasonably easy to raise.  They include such as Dennstaedtia punctilbula, the Hay-scented Fern which can grow to a couple of feet high; the Ostrich Fern; Matteuccia, of both Europe and eastern North America at four feet; the shorter Sensitive Fern, Onoclea Sensibilis; and the ever-popular Cinnamon Fern, Sound cinnamomea.  Then there are many that have come to us especiallyu from Korea and Japan.  All again are perfectly hardy to south-central Ontario.  The Tassel Fern, Polystichum Polyblepharum, from Japan and southern Korea will grow to around four feet while the Japanese Shield Fern, P. Rigens will not achieve even half that height and even shorter is the Korean Holly Fern, P. Tsussimense.  Some find the various Maidenhair ferns, or Adiantum, to be easy to grow.  Other gardeners struggle with these beautifully graceful small ferns.  Perhaps, like the Hart’s Tongue Fern, which should make such a superior wall specimen, they cannot tolerate Toronto pollution.

If you are attempting to start off any of these ferns in pots an excellent soil-less growing medium consists of four parts perlite to three of Canadian peat moss.  If growing limestone-loving ferns add twelve level tablespoons of horticultural lime to every bushel of the blend.  In the garden, most ferns require shaded cool conditions with adequate moisture over good drainage.

The superstitious will swear that some are jinxed, however.  The Sensitive Fern for example appears to be when it comes to fall frosts.  It disappears seemingly hours after their first arrival.  The best of luck if you believe in the old story that fern seed makes one invisible or that it enables you to win at games of chance.  It's spores, not seeds, that they have, which will pose something of a problem to would-be magicians and gamblers.  The fern seed was said to be used by the fairies, which might explain the dearth of that form of wildlife.

The Pink Flamingo Award

The warmer weather brings the pink flamingos on their annual migration north.  Well, actually some seem to hang around Ontario all winter, despite the cold.  The best dressed goose craze down south o' the border was described last month.  Time now to give credit where credit is due.  Stand up and take a bow, Pursell Vigoro Canada Inc., Tillsonburg, Ontario.  Your Pansy Booster is what all gardeners have undoubtedly been waiting for, to say nothing of every pansy across the province.  Pansy Booster contains Poly-On, which is not a roll-on deodorant for parrots, but an additive that assures extended feeding for the bloomin’ dears.  Pansy Booster is a part of a new line, which also includes a Mum Booster.

The Gardener’s Bookshelf

Finally, there is a book specifically concerning Ontario.  Steve Whysall deserves all our praise for his 100 Best Plants for the Ontario Garden (Whitecap Books: $19.95).  Each one of his selections gets the full treatment.  Covered are ‘Chief Characteristics’, ‘Where to Plant It’, ‘How to Care for It’, ‘Good Companions’ and finally, other plants ‘For Your Collection’.  A hundred colour photographs of the trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, grasses, bulbs and ferns are included.  Steve Whysall is a reporter transplanted from England in 1975.  After several years in this province, he transferred allegiance out to the Wet Coast, which is also known as British Columbia, where he now resides.  He fully deserves to, after producing such a book, which is highly recommended for all gardeners, whether they are urban, suburban or rural.  Hopefully this will be the first of many such volumes.

Horticultural Happenings

Tree Plantings – Volunteers Needed!  Lower Donis scheduled on May 2, 1999; the Brick Works May 1^st & 4^th, 1999; Milne Hollow May 8^th, 1999.  Call 392-0401 and find out how you can assist.

Toronto field Naturalists - meeting 2 p.m.  May 2^nd, 1999 at the Northrop Frue Hall, 73 Queen’s Park Crescent East is always of interest to gardeners.

Perennial Sale - Civic Garden Centre May 7 to 9, 1999 at 777 Lawrence Ave E at Leslie in Edwards Gardens with plenty of free parking; more information available at 397-1340

Wildflower Plant Sale - Canadian Wildflower Society May 16, 1999.  Tichets along with Specific information available from (416) 222-5736

Annual Annuals Sale - Civic Garden Centre, May 20^th to 25^th, 1999.  At 777 Lawrence Ave E at Leslie in Edwards Gardens with plenty of free parking; more information available at 397-1340

Wes Porter’s

Green Side Up

2^nd Edition

The Canadian Book on Lawns

And Alternative Groundcovers

In fine bookstores everywhere

Back to the City Gardening Archives Page