Canada Blooms opens the gardening season
As difficult as it was to tear myself away from this garden, the scents from across the aisle drew me to the Royal Botanical Gardens' "Meditteranean Spring" landscape. I watched as people strolling along the pathway reached out compulsively to crush the fragrant leaves of rosemary and lavender, then stood to stare at trees ripe with olives, figs and oranges. And bless their hearts, the folks at the RBG know a thing or two about gardeners -- every plant was labeled to satisfy curious plant hunters who added names like Mandevilla, Artemesia, and Oleander to their spring shopping lists. (O.K. so maybe I jotted down a few for my own list -- like the tiny Tulipa clusiana whose yellow-orange petals grew up through mini clumps of blue fescue.) Many of the plants on display will be available at the RBG's Auxiliary Plant Sale on May 6th and 8th.
The show featured lots of stone, lots of wood and lots of wrought iron. The garden that pulled together all of these elements with style was entitled "Amazing Space". Cut stone steps led to a vine-covered pergola constructed of grey-beige stained lattice that stood about eight feet high. Crowning the wooden sides of the pergola were simple, wrought iron arches entwined with clematis. On the door of an open gate at the far end of the pergola hung a plaque bearing an ode to the gardener. Whimsically corny rhymes like "Advice I offer, And freely do conifer" greeted visitors to the cedar-lined maze beyond.
As I wound my way through the maze, I was surprised at each turning by terra cotta pigs laying in a flower basket, and a tromp d'oeil mirror tucked into a cul de sac. Finally finding the way out, I fell upon a natural stream that trickled into a charming koi-filled pond.
There's only so much garden gazing a gardener can do -- even an obsessive one. So, I headed upstairs to the seminar rooms. Marjorie Mason-Hogue can always be relied upon to tempt the gardener's palate (or is it palette?) with a feast of slides featuring plant morsels like Nicotiana Langsdorfii accompanied by Sweet Potato Vine (Ipomoea Batatas) 'Blackie' or its lime green sister combined with one of the many new velvety-leaved Coleus. What else is new for spring? Bronzes and burgundies, nasturtiums like 'Margaret Long' grown from cuttings, a Nemesia that smells like lilacs, 'Pillar' Pelargoniums
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