In the winter, when the fields are white,

I sing this song for your delight –

In spring, when the woods are green,

I’ll try and tell you what I mean.

In summer, when the days are long,

Perhaps you’ll understand this song.

In autumn, when the leaves are brown,

Take pen and ink, and write it down.

                                                -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, 1872

New Year’s resolution number one:  explain in language as simple, precise and clear as Lewis Carroll’s what is happening in the horticultural world.  I would continue to quote Carroll, but George Mammoliti might read this and become more confused. 

Welcome back to the wonderful world of gardening.  Your houseplants certainly noticed the new millennium, now didn’t they?  Jean Chretien did so by acknowledging Canadian gardeners when he appointed Lois Hole as the new Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta. Mrs. Hole is the Pride of the Prairies.  One of her six gardening books –that on perennials- has sold nearly a quarter-million copies.  West of Ontario, she runs one of the country’s largest garden centres with her husband, Ted, in a suburb of Edmonton.  Active in many a good cause over the years, the community voted her repeated return as a school trustee.  More recently she became Chancellor of the University of Alberta.  Despite all of this, she continues to write a gardening column for the Edmonton Journal.  So finally one of ours has made it.  Only the churlish would point out that this is purely a patronage appointment, the only way Chretien is likely to have any Liberal representation west of the Lakehead. 

Turning to warmer climes, the news from New Delhi is about a new poppy.  Derived from exposing the wretched Papaver somniferum with radiation and equally unpleasant chemicals, J.R. Sharma of India’s Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants announced a new strain of opium poppy whose seed is sans all those ugly alkaloids.  It also has a content of 52% oil that is good for the heart and, if that doesn’t appeal, can be used as a nutritious food.  What Sharma and his colleagues have is anyone’s guess, but they were beaten by the Egyptians 4,000 years ago.  They raised the plant for oil.  Somewhat later the roman scientist Pliny wrote of the seeds being a popular snack.  The Greek physician Galen recommended they be added to bread.  Artists today use in salad oils as well as the oil as a drying agent.  The seeds are ever-popular on breads, as fillings for coffee cakes and in many desserts.  And you can eat poppy seed until you pop and never feel the slightest buzz.  Physiologically, the seed of P. somniferum contains no active alkaloids. Back to the drawing board, Sharma et al.

Meanwhile back home, when will we get more snow this winter?  Has Mel Lastman called the Army?  These are serious questions and equally responsible answers.  According to Ligurian tradition, cats predict the weather.  Sitting in front of the fire, if your cat leans towards it, then snow will shortly arrive.  Well, it works for cats in northwest Italy, anyway.  Isn’t it wonderful what you find out by gardening? 

This knowledge comes too late though, if you didn’t heed advice late last fall to mulch your perennials, hardy herbs and bulbs.  A nice blanket of snow insulates them from winter’s fury.  Now we can but wait and see what survives.  Houseplants offer relief from such worries.  Don’t be surprised if the soil in the pots of many indoor plants seems to stay moist for weeks.  Short days and low light induce semi-dormancy.  It can be fatal then to overwater or, unless the plant is in bud or bloom, to fertilize.  Rest assured, there is plenty coming in the weeks ahead to keep busy with.  Meanwhile, start planning that spring garden with Toronto expert Judith Adam’s book The New City Gardener.  A good basic book for the gardener’s bookshelf, Adams deals with the problems that face an urban gardener.  Well illustrated, with the text supplemented with lots of nifty notes, just $24.95 from Firefly Books.

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