MARCH 2001

ANNUAL SPRING FEVER ARRIVES

Despite Uncertainties of Weather, pruning and other work awaits.

     Top o’ the mornin’ to yer!  ‘Tis the Day of the Blessed Saint Patrick on the seventeenth this month.  According to Entertainment Weekly, Tim Allen says. “I’m only going to eat mint-chip ice cream that’s white.  None of that green stuff.  Ice cream shouldn’t be green, even on St. Patrick’s Day.”  We prefer the story of the Irish-Canadian scientist who used genetic codification to cross a shamrock with poison ivy.  He got a rash of good luck.  Enough of the blarney; ‘tis time for getting down to gardening.

     Or, more accurately, up, for March is pruning time.  It is also the month to apply a dormant spray, which will prevent many an otherwise serious problem from arising later in the season.  We cover some of the science and art of kind cuts later in this issue.

Despite temptations of mild spells, do not be hurried into pulling back the protective mulch blanket applied lovingly late last year to perennials, herbs and other garden plants.  Leaving it to the last week of the month is safest.  The earlier weeks are the worst for frost damage as freeze-thaw, freeze-thaw cycles expose plant crowns to killer conditions.  Left late, however, and the self-same mulch offers protection to early rising earwigs, slugs and other assorted pests.

     Take advantage of those mild spells though to potter around the garden.  Look for stray fruit that fell from the apple and other trees that have become mummified over the winter.  These carry disease spores and should be disposed of in the garbage.  The same applies to rose foliage, another notorious over wintering site.  Do not drop in the composter, which does not reach temperatures high enough to kill the possible pathogens.

     Good news from the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources John Snobolen that a rare native cactus from eastern Ontario will not be ground into pieces in a new granite quarry and road in the Mellon Lake Nature Reserve north of Napanee.  But a native cactus?  Actually, there are several such claimed by the province.  This one, according to a most helpful information officer at the Ministry, is the Little Prickly Pear Cactus.  He describes it as a “tenacious little thing” growing in cracks in the rocks.  And, he adds, it might be advisable to watch where you sit as a consequence.  Hmm…somebody with a similar sense of humour to us.  

    Ontario gardeners who also enjoy a little adventure might also note that it is most certainly possible to have cactus gardens in the province year round.  A fascinating subject we may return to at a later date, perhaps.  Meanwhile check out the Toronto Cactus and Succulent Club 905-877-6013.  

     Spring officially arrives on March 20.  Or, as Ira Gershwin said it: “When I’ve got shoes with wings on --/ The Winter’s gone, the Spring’s on.”  Given our climate it might be better to sit back to listen and watch this plus more with the incomparable Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers in The Barkleys of Broadway (MGM 1949).  About this time the tree rats, a.k.a. squirrels, will be preparing to whack off every emerging bulb flower.  Granulated blood fertilizer, hot pepper powder or any of several commercial repellents will discourage the furry little varmints.

     Finally, in recognition of distinctly unseasonable pluvial discharges, let us recall this month an old Irish saying:  “If you can see the top of the mountain, it’s going to rain…and if you can’t see the top of the mountain, it’s raining.

Preparing for Spring Thaw

     The 20th of March marks the official first day of spring.  According to the magazine Men’s Health from south of the border, on this day down east in Newfoundland, they practice a “pagan custom” of having sex with whom they choose.  Here in Ontario, things are a little more restrained.

     We’ve all experienced the dilemma.  It’s late March or early April and the weather is everything we’ve been waiting for.  Everywhere it seems, spring bulbs are poking their shoots up for a breath of balmy spring air.  Then, without warning, the weather changes and 20 centimetres of snow is deposited on those delicate green shoots.  Panic!!  What to do, oh what to do?

     “The best advice,” says Carol Cowan, director of the Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Centre In Toronto, “is to do nothing…Tulips are tough, they can take whatever Mother Nature dishes out.  They’re accustomed to spending their winters outside, underground.  Cold winters are ‘business as usual’ for bulbs like tulips, crocus, hyacinths and all the naturalizes like snowdrops, muscari and scilla”

     Another frequent query from neophyte gardeners is, ‘Where can we buy spring bulbs for planting now to have a display?” Sorry, you’re out of luck.  But bring a spring sing to front door urns and other containers by purchasing pots of bulbs already in flower.  Plunge them, pot and all into the container and don’t forget to water well.

CANADA BLOOMS 2001

Canada Blooms – A celebration will open its doors to the public at ten on the morning of March 14.  By the time it is over at six the following Sunday evening something more than 100,000 people will have conclusively demonstrated their interest in gardening.

Those who wish a preview can attend the Canada Blooms Opening Night Party with a cocktail reception, magnificent dinner, entertainment and oh yes, a chance to see the show.  Tickets for this are $125.00 each and can be obtained by calling 416-447-8655.  Last year this portion of the event alone raised $7,000 for the City of Toronto’s Tree Advocacy Programme.  This year, it is the Ontario Heritage Foundation’s Garden Conservancy Fund that will benefit.

     Thirty-eight full-size gardens will anchor the show.  Notebooks are essential for visitors, possible  a camera or camcorder also, although note the light is not designed for ease of such recording.

     There are restaurants and snack bars for those with weary feet and good appetites, then it is onto the many organizations associated with gardens and gardening who will have booths at Canada Blooms.  This is a great opportunity to get to know all the many support groups, associations, parks, private gardens and many more that will be of interest to visit in the coming season.

     The Marketplace is always a popular feature, with some of Canada’s leading horticultural companies displaying their wares and eager to assist.  Expect to find a smattering of foreign businesses also, as more of such seek entry into the Canadian Market with new and unique offerings.

     Looking to just take a load off the feet and listen?  Why not drop in on any one or more of the many speakers featured on topical garden topics.

     Tickets are $15 or $12 in advance, $10 each for groups of 20 or more, and $12 for seniors and students.  Find them at Loblaws stores and Weall & Cullen Garden Centres along with Yorkdale Shopping Centre.  Otherwise be prepared to line up at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Caring for Deciduous Trees and Shrubs Starts Now

     City Gardening’s timely pruning primer will save you from neighbours’ cutting remarks.

“It’s out of the question to prune the vines today or dig around them while the ground is damp.”  So says the old soldier in Aristophanes’ Peace, written about 400 B.C. Shakespeare also was well aware of the necessity of pruning Comedy of Errors (act III sc I) as well as no less than John Milton in his Paradise Lost (book 9, lines 209-11).  With such illustrious forbears, we need not fear then to undertake this vial art and science of kind cuts.

     We prune for three basic reasons:  to control shape, to reduce or eliminate pathogens and to increase or improve foliage, flowers and/or fruit.

     Every good gardener depends on  appropriate tools.  Never mind the wretched items arriving from mainland China and similar countries.  Quality is the name of the game at any time and never more so than when it comes to the upper cut.  A pair of hand pruners will be required, preferably of the “scissor” or “sabre” action.  This gives a cleaner cut than the anvil and single blade type, while the former has a pointed tip that allows work in confined areas.  If the garden has a large number of shrubs, then long handled pruners of a similar cutting pattern will be found a wise investment.  Otherwise a folding pruning saw will suffice.  To reach high into trees, extension or pole pruners are used.  Well-made ones cost several hundred dollars and, consequently, are usually best rented.

     Two tips when using pole pruners: first, if you do not wear spectacles, invest in a pair of safety goggles and, secondly, never, ever, ever, climb up into a tree with pruning intentions.  If you cannot reach it from the ground, call in a professional,  It may help to remember the old saw about the tree surgeon who fell out of his patient,  we would also like you back as a reader next month.

     Obviously, now is the time to prune.  Or is it?  True, most trees are pruned at this time, including fruit trees.  But those that “bleed” profusely, the maples, birches, poplars and willows are left until later.  So are all spring-flowering shrubs until after they have bloomed,  Prune now and it will eliminate their glorious display.  It is also still too early for the roses.  So we are left with the summer flowering shrubs, fruit bushes and trees, including crab apples and, yes Aristophanes’ grape vines.

     What to remove?  Despite what has just been said above, any time you see dead, dying or diseased wood, cut it out.  Do the same for branches crossing each other – one or both must go.  Ditto any branch growing down when that is not the normal habit of the tree or shrub.

     A golden observation on pruning is that the best foliage and flowers, hence fruit, occur on young growth,  In general then we will wish to remove older growth in shrubs from their base and allow new shoots to take over.  A good plan is aiming to replace two older branches each season with a pair of new ones.

     Never, ever hack back into symmetrical shapes unless topiary is your aim.  The yellow forsythia balls, cubes and other geometrical shapes might please Pythagoras, but are an abomination in the garden.  Allow the plant to achieve its normal growth habit.  If that is simply to overpowering for its locale – replace it.

     Another simple rule to keep in mind is that the more is removed, the greater future growth will be.  And that frequent question as to when to apply pruning paint or compound: Never.  Experts agree it is just as likely to seal in a problem as exclude it.  That’s why professionals don’t use the stuff.  But it makes money for the manufacturer and retailer.

     How to prune?  All cuts should be clean with no ragged edges.  Twigs and branches should be severed so that the cut is made at a forty-five degree angle.  Do not cut large branches back flush to the tree trunk but leave a small “collar” about half-an-inch wide, sloping from the top.  The resulting wound will heal better and faster.

     Always clean every last twig up.  Dispose of as municipal regulations dictate.  Larger branches may be cut into firewood but should be seasoned for a year at least before use.  Twiggy branches make excellent perennial supports.

     Looking for further cutting remarks?  Most gardening centre staff have little knowledge of pruning.  Probably the best book on the subject comes from the computer of that doughty citizen of Vermont, Lewis Hill.  Pruning Made Easy is a modest $25.00 Canadian, plus Chretien’s tax on knowledge of course.  Published by Storey, it is 200 concise pages of instruction and illustration.

Horticultural Happenings

Toronto Field Naturalist Outings

Free guided walks; children welcome but please no pets; all are TTC accessible; dress according to weather, bring beverage, camera, notebook and binoculars.

18 March Trees in Winter:  2 P.M. St. Clair West subway entrance, north side; trees and land form.

24 March Dorset Creek Nature Walk 10:30 A.M. at the S.E. corner Lawrence/Markham; bring lunch

28 March Wilket Creek Nature Walk:  10 A.M. S.W. corner Lawrence/Leslie; bring lunch; south from Edwards Gardens looking for spring signs

Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre

3-4 March Haru Marsu 2001.  12:30-5:00 P.M. at 6 Garamound Court, Toronto; Family $10, adults $4, children & Seniors $2.  Spring celebration includes demonstrations of flower arranging by the Ikenobo and Sogetsu schools; more 416-441-2345 or e-mail jccc@jcc.on.ca; web site www.jcc.on.ca

20 March Ikebana classes: Sogetsu School 7:30-9:00 P.M. Beginners

21 March Ikebana classes: Ikenobo School 7:30-9:00 P.M. All Levels

22 March Ikebana classes: Ikenobo School 7:30-9:00 P.M. Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced

22 March Ikebana classes: Sogetsu School 7:30-9:00 P.M. Intermediate, Advanced, Extension

Details on all classes 416-441-2345, fax 416-441-2347; or web site www.jccc.on.ca

Richter’s Free Seminars

Sundays at 2 P.M. 1 km east of Goodwood on south side of Hwy 47 (Bloomington Rd at Hwy 404); more from 905-649-6677/www.richters.com

4 March: Success with Seeding

18 March: Container Herb Gardening

25 March: Herb Gardening Feng Shui

also:

11 March Workshop: Propagating Herbs $40; as with all Richters workshops pre-registration two weeks in advance is required; limited space; all materials included in fee; commences 2 P.M.

Canada Blooms

14 – 18 March Metro Toronto Convention Centre for more see article previous.

Mycological Society of Toronto

19 March, Meeting, 7:45 P.M. Civic Garden Centre, Lawrence at Leslie; visitors welcome

Royal Canadian Institute

4 March Termite Control 3 P.M. free in the Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building, 1 King’s College Circle

Catalogues Received

Gardenimport 

PO Box 760, Thornhill, Ontario L3T 4A5; Tel: 905-731-1950; Fax: 905-881-3499; e-mail flower@gardenimport.com

Website: www.gardenimport.com

Catalogues:  $5/two years with $5 credit to first order.  Receiving Dugald Cameron’s catalogue is one of the highlights of the year, Dugald is as ever a gardener’s gardener.  No better than to quote from a letter accompanying this catalogue of perennials, wood plants, bulbs, Sutton’s seeds, ferns and more;  “This year we “took the pledge”, but the wonderful works of horticulture are so enticing, self restraint proved impossible and we ended up with 80 new plants, shrubs, climbers, bulbs and seeds…” No gardener worthy of the name can be without this catalogue for Spring 2001.

Leowen Garden Plants 

PO Box 1160, Ridgetown, ON N0P2C0 Tel: 519-674-3635 Fax: 519-674-5784.  

Those of you who mourned the demise of Stirling Perennials, take heart:  Steve Loewen, former customer ad college professor of horticulture has purchased Jim Sterling’s stock and has, for this season, a modest list which, he says, will grow.  Border perennials, groundcovers and rock garden plants will be his stock-on-hand.  And he welcomes calls, faxes and letters, so don’t be shy.  A flourish of the trowel, a tip of the garden hat to Steve.  Who better to seek new plants from but a horticultural professor?

The Gardener’s Bookshelf

If you have been waiting impatiently for a novel that involves gardening and gardeners, don’t get over excited by the release of The Constant Gardener by John Le Carre (Hodder & Stoughton).  If you believe all big business is despicable and, in particular, pharmaceutical companies, this may appeal to you.  Oh yes, it is partly set in Canada on the Prairies which apparently Le Carre never visited.  If you are dubious of government intelligence services, please remember that the author was employed in one such.  And surely it is about time he ceased to hide behind the nom de plume and admit that he is David Cornwell.

News From A Gardener’s Point of View

City Gardening peers at the past month’s news from Canada and elsewhere

Landscaping

     London, England’s fabled Kew Gardens receives a flyer offering landscaping services.

Also from London, the new nine-hectare Thames Barrier Park opens where former polluting industry and docks stood.  Toronto mayor and councilors, please note.

Sculptures are installed on the lawns of Florida’s Orlando International Airport.  Toronto’s similar facility, names after a defunct politician, has no lawns, period.

Trees

     An ancient acacia is felled by farmers in Egypt.  Coptic Christians claim it to have been 2000 years old and have “bowed down” to Jesus and his parents as they escaped through the Land of the Nile from King Herod.

     Outgoing President “Wild Bill” Clinton finds time before departing to pass laws to protect a third of all forests owned by the federal government from road-building and lumbering.

     Only a third of all European trees are healthy.  20 percent are showing distinct signs of damage, remarked upon by visitors,  Britain’s Forestry Commission suspects (surprise!) air pollution.  From those friendly folks that brought you mad cow disease and the expression “frankenfoods”.

     New Brunswick concedes it is losing some $2-million a year to timber thieves.

An enormous Sitka spruce, possibly the largest on eastern Vancouver Island, it threatened by logging and subdivision.

Lawns

     As of April 1 (really!) Toronto residents are forbidden by city council to dispose of grass clippings in their garbage.  “Leave the grass on top of the grass.  It’s great for your garden; it helps your garden grow,” said that well-known gardener, Mayor Mel Lastman.  Bureaucrats claim this move will save the city $100,000 a year while failing to admit fining two civic employees would result in similar savings.

     Dogs tracking in pesticides from the garden may be a major source of contamination, according to preliminary research by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Beijing paints its winter brown lawns green to impress the Olympic inspection committee.

Flowers

     Swiss scientists insert two daffodil genes and one from a bacterium into rice to create high levels of the precursor to vitamin A with the potential to save the eyesight of 124 million children and a million deaths.

     Researchers from universities in Japan, Mexico and the U.S. report they have succeeded in manipulating plant genes that change foliage into flower petals.

Down in the Vegetables

     A fake US $200 bill is circulate featuring the likeness of new U.S. President George W. Bush along with the White House, on whose lawn there is a sign reading “We Like Broccoli”.

     English peacocks, running wild in the country are reportedly tearing up vegetable patches in sexual frustration over being unable to find a mate.  And you thought pigeons were a problem.

     New Brunswick ends the “Potato Break” in gall, which saw students given time off school to assist in spud harvesting.

     New Brunswick farmers in the province’s “potato belt” fail to see eye-to-eye with education authorities, protesting loss of labour.

     Germans, world-renown for their logic, panic over mad cow disease and consequently decide to cancel extensive field tests on GM corn.

     A tractor-trailer load of green beans destined for Toronto is found by Custom officers to conceal 517-kg marijuana, worth $7.7-million.  The importers are now has-beens.

Fruit & Nut

     Actor Mel Gibson is reported as countering aging with a diet of raw steak, avocados and olive oil.  If tigers can eat raw meat, so will he, or so he claims.  Doctors remain dubious.

     Chiquita Bananas sues the European Commission for $785-million, allegedly for preventing the sale of it’s bananas in the EU.

     A 110-year-old Saudi Arabian bridegroom attributes his long life and health to a diet of dates, along with milk and homemade brown wheat bread.  He also has 70 children and grandchildren by two previous wives.

Herbs

     A couple discover Colonel Sander’s ultra-secret recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken in a discarded 1964 day-journal.  An excellent substitute is a teaspoon of thyme, two of marjoram, one of onion powder, a quarter teaspoon of ground black pepper, the same amount of ground celery seed, a half-teaspoon of ground sage and a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

     Nancy Hollander, lawyer for Jeffery Bronfman and the Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal (UDV), denies that the religious group’s sacramental tea is hallucinogenic and submits a corrected translation of the name as being not Union of the Vegetables, but Union of the Plants.

     Over 200 years of collection ginseng from the wild has resulted in dwarf plants, says research James McGraw of West Virginia University.

Indoor Gardening

     The international orchid business reaches $15.0-billion a year.

Bugs and Gardeners

     Colombia. Long fabled for its cocaine production, is turning to exporting native exotic butterflies and their cocoons alive.

     Almost 30 per cent of American farmers planting Bt corn ignored the biotech rules, claims a survey.

     New pill packaging containing a microchip allowing it to talk to those unable to read the instructions would seem to be a new invention begging to be used similarly on pesticide containers, given the number of retailers and their customers seemingly unable to understand labels.

     Swedish scientists deter pine weevils from trees by imitating the smell of the insects’ excrement.

Gardening in the City

     Head of York University and keen Rosedale gardener dons a “flowing dress and straw hat” to go about her hobby, reports the National Post’s Gillian Cosgrove, for the benefit of all fashion conscious gardeners.

Science and the Gardener

     The news of the mapping of the rice genome is greeted by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization as a major advance in feeding the world’s malnourished.

Xylem cells, formerly thought to be merely passive plumbing for plants, have been shown to actively direct water to where it is most needed.

     Greenpeace is reduced to filing a misleading ad campaign in Canada against the Council for Biotech Information.

     The Royal Society of Canada calls for stricter regulation of GM foods.

The European Parliament renews restrictions on GM foods, feeds and pharmaceuticals but may commence licensing new GM products.

     British research shows that, contrary to environmentalists’ fears, GM crops do not turn into “superweed”

     Charles Darwin’s famed vegetable and fruit garden is being restored to its original condition at Down House, Kent, south of London, England; for a great deal further information check website http://williamcalvin.com/bookshelf//down_hse.htm

Travel

     Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s wife Aline leads the Team Canada’s spousal delegation on tours of famous Chinese gardens.  The official spousal program does not mention whether included was the famous “Garden of the Failed Politician.”

Business

     Sowing seed of genetically modified crops has been reduced a miniscule amount In the U.S., with soybeans and corn down four per cent.

     Pop bottle caps make crop-saving measures for fertilizer in the sub-sahel nation of Niger, saving their millet crop.

     Representatives of Ontario’s tobacco industry accompany the Prime Minister on a trade junket to China over Health Minister Alan Rock’s howls of the “national evil”

     Flin Flon becomes Canada’s cannabis capital due to a federal $5.8-million contract to grow marijuana for research.

     Vermont threatens to ban Quebec maple syrup, claiming producers there use a banned pesticide to enhance sap flow.

Environment

     The Chinese ladder brake fern, Pteris vittata, absorbs poisonous arsenic from the soil in which it grows and can then be harvested, according to a patent filed by researchers at the University of Florida.

     A Cornell University ecologists suggests taxing food according to the ecological cost of producing it.

     Researchers declare Canada had the world’s third best environmental quality, following Norway and Finland.

     Ontario Natural Resources Minister John Snobelen prevents the destruction of a rare cactus by road builders in the Mellon Lake nature reserve north of Napanee

     Not content with predicting global warming, the UN’s IPCC also decided that hemispheric-wide ozone smogs will cause plant destroying, people killing conditions.

     The WHO and FAO report that about one-third of pesticides sold in the Third World are substandard, mis-labelled or actually dangerous                                                              Health and Gardeners  

     The fruit of the chaste tree, Vitex agnus castus, is highly effective in reducing PMS symptoms, reports scientist Ruediger Schellenberg at the Institute for Health Care and Science in Huttenberg.

     Allergies caused by plants and especially leguminous trees are on the rise, claims author Thomas Ogren.  Those allergic to peanuts should be particularly cautious what they plant in their garden, he advises.  Even chamomile tea has caused near-fatal reactions.  For more, see http//www.allergyfree-gardening.com

     “Witch hazel is good as an astringent.  It’s like $1.39 a bottle,” says Jennifer Lopez.

     An extensive article on St. John’s Wort in the National Post has several good websites.  McMaster University offers a good start at www.fhs.mcmaster.ca/direct on how to search for medical info.  Also mentioned were the American Botanical Council website at www.herbalgram.org along with www.superlab.com and www.cassmd.com.

Law and Gardeners

     The Policeman who plugged an unarmed Montreal flower pilferer in May, 1999, will face a police ethnics commission inquiry in a demonstration of the qu ick, efficient dispensing of justice.

Weather

     Incorrect weather forecasts resulted in the loss of a half-month’s salary for the head of National Hydrometerological Committee of Turkestan, one  of the late and unlamented Soviet Republics.

     Canadian groundhogs Wiarton Willie and Shubenacadie Sam predict an “early spring but in the U.S. Panxsutawney Phil disagrees.

     “We have no right to complain.  It’s winter.  We haven’t really had it that badbad.  Compare it to places like the Maritimes and Saint John’s.  We are the second coldest country in the world, we are the lance of ice and snow, and so I often wonder why people can’t deal with it” says David Phillips, climatologist, Environment Canada.

     Hockey playing Canadian actor Rick Moranis and friends are ordered off Central Park ice by the New York police citing “Global Warming,  The ice really can’t be trusted.”

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