Posts tagged serviceberry

Garden Visits: Folmer’s Botanical Gardens

August 21, 2013 · Filed under bulbs, garden visits · Tagged , , , , ,

I have wanted to visit Folmer’s Botanical Gardens in Walkerton for years, but it never worked out. This garden was featured in Canadian Garden magazine a few years ago and I became even more determined to get there. However this spring, I finally succeeded. And I wish I had made more of an effort because I loved it.  I got so inspired, I feel like I need to buy thousands of Anamone blanda bulbs this fall.

Certainly need me a display like this,

and this

what about this.

Gorgeous!!

Brian Folmer has been passionate about gardening since he was 15 and studied Landscape Architecture at the University of Guelph.  in 1996 he purchased 108 acres and began planning a garden centre, garden design and display gardens.  According to their website, they are the largest privately owned botanical gardens in southwestern Ontario.  There is over 30 acres of display gardens, both formal and informal.

Gates,

I need gates,

just like these ones.

And a gazebo,

all good.

Now this I could do,

I certainly have enough muscari, just need to put a path in.

And lots and lots of spring bulbs.

Vistas,

we got vistas for days, (need to work on mine, it is one of my favourite design features).

And did I mention the serviceberry allee,

certainly longer then mine, and with single trunk specimens, rather then multi trunked,

it gave me lots of hope that mine will one day be as gorgeous. Love the vistas and focal points in every direction.

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On to May…

July 10, 2013 · Filed under bulbs, perennials, shrubs, trees · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Now after that short break to show you Kilbourne Grove from the air, we will continue on the ground.

I took lots and lots and lots of photos, don’t want to forget a thing,

From my redbud flowering again this year, yay, (shall have to limb it up a bit)…

to my favourite euphorbias flowering. These have seeded everywhere in the garden, but I love them so much, I can’t bear to pull them out.

The red Ohio buckeye, Aesculus Pavia, has twice as many flowers on it this year,

love how the stems match the flower colour.

My favourite camassia. leichtlinii, need to divide it and spread the love.

Another camassia, this one is quamash. I have read the native Americans used to dig the bulbs and use them for food.

Fothergilla just starting to flower,

My mothers tree peony also starting to flower,

love this shot, I am now using it as a screen saver.

The Serviceberry Allee,

with the serviceberry or Amelanchiers just starting to flower.

And a new hellebore, “Amber Gem”,

I think planting it beside some chartreuse and chocolate foliage will make the colour pop even more.

Just so I do not bore you too much, I will show you the last half of May next time.

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A Birds Eye View 2013

July 3, 2013 · Filed under design · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Lucky you, it is that time of year again, where I brave life and limbs, standing on the roof to take photos of my garden. Don’t hold back your screams of delight, I can tell how excited you are.

So this is where it stands this spring, our 7th,

Front Garden

Last spring I planted Acer campestre ‘Carnival’ here, and you can just see it against the cedar hedge. What you can’t see is a purple smoke bush, Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’ just to the side and behind it. I think it will be a lovely contrast between the Acer and the Cornus alternofolia ‘Golden Shadows’.

 

You can just see the Fritillaria meleagris (at least the white ones) in the grass.

Lime Walk

Note to self, finish extending the muscari the length of the walk!!!!!

Nothing to report on the Lime Walk, although my friend David Leeman had been here the week before,

 and had tamed the shaggy monsters the box balls had become.

Now I just have to keep them in line.

The Serviceberry Allee

The Allee just keeps ticking long, although I do have to get in, divide the Narcissus ‘Bridal Crown’ and space them through the length of the allee. These were forced pots from work, and I just threw them in the ground when I started the very first bed.

The Flora Glade and The Kitchen Garden

Here you can see the Flora Glade and Kitchen Garden.

Ooops, still have not got my path finished, the one that I was working on last spring, lol. That has to go on the list for the fall, it would be really, really embarrassing to show you the Flora Glade next spring, with the path not done.  Added a couple of shrubs here this spring, hopefully I remembered to take some photos of them before I left and I can update you.

And just for your viewing pleasure, a bit of a further away shot, called not using the zoom on the camera.

You can probably see what looks like a tall post to the left of the garage. This was a diseased red maple that we had cut down in the fall. I have the bright idea of growing a clematis up it, just another thing to add to the list.

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A Rosedale Garden

July 27, 2012 · Filed under design, garden hedges, garden visits, parterre, topiary, trees · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I know the Toronto Botanical Society’s Rosedale garden tour was a couple of months ago. I soooo wish I could have gone on it, but was flying back to Barbados that weekend.  But I wanted to share a garden with you that is gorgeous enough to be on it. It is also in Rosedale, and belongs to a friend of mine.  We met in Barbados through my neighbour, and immediately bonded over gardening. When I returned to Canada in May, I was invited for lunch and a garden tour. This garden was a true labour of love for my friend, thought about in great detail and it shows. We are both huge fans of structure in the garden, both hard and green, flowers while gorgeous are an accent to the space.

You enter through two massive beech hedges, kept softly in shape rather than firmly clipped.

This allows you to enjoy the movement of the hedge as the wind blows and allows dark then light to shine out from them.  These are accented with a clipped box hedge which in turn leads to a square box of roses sitting directly in front of the main entrance.  The paving laid in a diamond pattern directs you towards the door where two more beech hedges on either side of the door echo the ones at the sidewalk,

repetition at its finest.  A yew hedge separates the house from the sidewalk and encloses two more planting areas. 

 Another enclosure of clipped box is a frame for peonies and sedum, both plants that look good all year. A serviceberry accents one corner, allowing for early season blooms.

On the other side, directly under the window is a box parterre. This is accented seasonally with a colourful annual, this year a dark coleus was planted. I love the structure and shapes in the front garden. Even if you did not have any flowering plants in it, the different colours of green and textures make it interesting.

I took this photo from the third floor so you could get a good look at the overall design of the back yard. The back yard is divided into three main areas.  A lovely brick garage has been accented with trellis-work, breaking up the expanse and allowing roses and clematis to climb. Beside it is the dining area, bordered by box, heuchera and carex.

Two steps down and you arrive at a small sitting area where you can admire the pool with its infinity edge. Water pours out of four opening into the pool allowing the sound to mask any city noise. The copper beech hedge looks dark and mysterious against the light stonework of the pool.

This provides a lovely backdrop in the third area, which is the main sitting area.

Two identical small buildings are joined by columns, roof and backed by a large mirror. This not only hides the neighbours beside them, but the mirror doubles the size of the garden, you can see the pool (and me) reflected in it.The overturned pot on the pedestal is planted up by now, usually with grass, which is also reflected.

Changing the flooring material sets off the sitting area beside the pool, the brick looking like a carpet.

 Four laburnum trees are also enclosed in diamond shaped box, that is also underplanted with coleus for colour later in the season. Box hedges edge the garden here as well and act as a frame for the hydrangea, fern and hostas that are planted behind them. The japanese maple beside the pool is the only remaining plant from the original garden. It was dug up and saved off site while the hard landscaping was going on. Then it was returned and replanted, and it certainly adds to the overall scheme with its size and colour.

Love it against the blue of the pool.

Although there are not a lot of perennials in this garden, there is colour all year.  This garden was designed to be low maintenance (although I am sure you do not believe it). The hedges are cut a couple of times each year, and the rest is really just a few varieties of easy care perennials. And if you did not want any colour, you could remove all the perennials and between the trees, hedges and ground covers, you still have an exciting and dynamic garden.  I LOVE it!

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A Birds Eye View 2012

May 25, 2012 · Filed under design · Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Are you all addicted to seeing me in high places? Do you like the idea of me on my roof, bracing myself against the wind? Come on, want the truth here.

The third most popular post ever, (about my garden) is this one. My first is this, makes sense, people want to get ideas for Christmas, who better to come to then a florist. This one, I was a bit surprised about, I think it is just starting to get popular, however I have had mine for a couple of years, and just love it. But number three, lucky number three. This is the one where I climb up on the roof, and risk life and limb to show you (and me) a bird’s eye view of the garden. Of course, the best time to do so is in early spring. I have a lot of big, old trees around the house and garden, when the leaves are out they really screen it. But now, you can see every detail.  For me, it is a great way to plan out my garden, does something look wrong or out-of-place or scale from the roof. I am always surprised how small the garden areas look from the roof, when I am in them they seem enormous. Take the Kitchen garden for example. Looks tiny doesn’t it. The space actually measures 20 feet x 20 feet, that is actually larger than our whole backyard when we lived in our first house.

I had really hoped by now, (this is the 6th spring for us in Kilbourne Grove), there would be more accomplished.  I guess it is not too bad, after all we have never lived in the house full-time, only weekends for the first 4 years and then the last two, in Barbados. How much can you really accomplish, not actually living there, all the weeding and lawn cutting to take care of, never mind life and relaxation, (after all it is the weekend). My father kept cautioning me, (every spring), don’t make so many gardens that you can’t maintain them all, and I had no intention of listening to him, lol. However, a job transfer accomplished what parental advise never could. There has been no time to design anything new, although certainly in my mind’s eye I have.

So this is where it stands this spring, our 6th,

Front Garden

Not many changes in the front garden, although I did add a Cornus ‘Golden Shadows’ to the top right hand corner. This Cornus becomes a tiered beauty of chartreuse and green variegated leaves, and should add a lovely light look against the dark green of the cedar hedge. You can hardly see the Daybreak and Magic Fire here, they will have to get a lot larger to be seen from the roof at this time of year.

Front Garden

Can you see the dark dirt spot, just under the maple leaves, that is where Golden Shadows is planted? I can’t see it either, the darn program cut off the end of my photo and I can’t figure out how to change it, trust me, it is there!

Lime Walk

Lime Walk April 2010

Lime Walk

Lime Walk 2012

The muscari in the Lime Walk  are even thicker this year, although they are just about finished, what a difference an early spring makes. . On the right, the path will lead into the Yew Garden, on the left, I still need to move the plants to create a path to the croquet Lawn. I love seeing these two photos together, just when I feel like my hedges are not growing, here is some hard evidence that they are.

The Serviceberry Allee

The Serviceberry Allee 2010

The Serviceberry Allee

This is the hardest one to see, hidden at the back of the garden, and a huge maple branch in the way.

The Serviceberry Allee at the top of the photo, leads into the Kitchen Garden.  I finally added the last two serviceberry to the Allee, for a total of 11.  Now, it is finished, except for the growing part, tee hee.

The Flora Glade and The Kitchen Garden

Here you can see the Flora Glade and Kitchen Garden.

Flora Glade 2010

Flora Glade 2011

Flora Glade 2012

Except for the plants (hopefully) getting larger nothing was changed here. Although I am in the process of moving the path, filled it in on the left hand side, and slowly changing it on the right. Moved the perennials last fall, and in the process of moving the bulbs after they flower. Hopefully I will be able to finish it in the fall. The stone paths and the pedestals certainly make a difference in the way it looks just 2 years ago. If you want to read about me (Ian) building the pedestals, you can here.

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