Coming soon - Hostas

Going to be writing a long hosta post soon as I've just been to the most amazing hosta garden/display of a moderately local hybridizer (well, he was local to someone I was visiting who lives far away from my house if that counts).


Preview picture - this place was amazing!


Hostas I brought home with me: Top left 'Fireworks' Top right 'First Frost' and bottom 'Captain Kirk'

On top of the three I bought I also got a lot of good advice and a wanted list that could fill my yard twice over. Post will be coming soon... hopefully by Wednesday but I have a lot of pictures to go through and I'm hoping to write about hosta varieties I've tried (even if only briefly) - maybe I'll do it in 2 or 3 parts. We'll see as I get working on it.

Roses

Two new roses this year:



Florabunda Rose 'Sexy Rexy'


Shrub Rose 'Yellow Jacket'

We'll see how these work out. I haven't tried too many roses, my yard is very shady (not to mention small) and the landscaping work I've been doing hasn't made any high maintenance shrubs or perennials practical (upcoming Hydrangea post will cover one moderate maintenance shrub that I grow for the leaves - it's a zone 6 and will grow and flower in a sheltered spot in zone 5 but in an exposed spot like I have it it will likely only just survive by dying back and coming up from the roots but I'm getting off topic) though I've wanted one or two around for a while now. on top of these two new roses I'm also growing a red carpet rose which is doing extremely well without any work at all (I wish I still had the tag!) likely because it's sheltered and gets a good deep snow cover that sticks around all winter.


Red Carpet Rose

I do not claim to be any sort of rose expert but I'm hoping these work out as well as my carpet rose and that I'll find myself with enough sun and enough space to get to know these a little better someday. Next post will likely cover a more shade tolerant plant so I'll have a little more to say.

Pictures from spring

It's now summer and I have a lot to get caught up on! Just going to start out with a few pictures from this spring to get caught up and bring us to summer where the real fun can start.



Trillium

It would be a shame to have a shaded garden and not have some trilliums around - especially in Ontario. This is one of four varieties I have planted (a red variety). Another is white (I believe - I had bought either two red and a white or the other way around and squirrels eat one shortly after planting and it hasn't flowered for me... either way I'll be happy). My newer purchases, both Trillium sessile - I figure if they won't flower well for me I'll at least get some stunning leaves out of them early in spring.



Daffodil

This one speaks for itself. Was doing poorly in shade so it got moved to sunnier grown and it doing very well since.



Iberis

Another great spring plant that makes a huge impact when flowering, just as nice in my books as moss phlox but a lot less commonly used.



Iris 'Starship Enterprise' - My mom jokes we should get a Hosta 'Captain Kirk' to pair this with. As much as I hate the idea odds are I'll be buying that hosta as soon as I see it available - sometimes a good pairing can be made with a subtle joke rather than counting on the plants to do all the work.



NOID Blue Iris

And then of course Irises with the dwarf varieties coming first followed by the taller species in late spring - the two pictured here along with a yellow variety stand 4' tall in flower and just finished flowering within the past week.

Welcome to Zone 5 Gardening

I've had blogs before and I've had gardens before but this will be the first time I'll have had the two together.

My name is Andrew and I garden in zone 5. I did not study horticulture in university but it has ended up becoming what I do. I work in sales in a large commercial store where I have worked in perennials (for two years) but now find myself in trees and shrubs. Thanks to this I have had huge exposure to plants that I'd never heard of five years ago and all good in zone 5.



Panicum 'Heavy Metal' in winter.

Many of the spaces I work with (my own yard and some landscaping work I do) are also small, shady, filled with the roots of large trees and have terrible clay soil. Small and shady are fine but I could use some better soil and I don't know anyone who likes root competition! Because of these conditions I've have learned to appreciate colour, form and texture to be critical for all plants and often flowers become a bonus rather than the focus - obviously flowers are nice too though so I'll definitely point out a few must haves that I've grown which have particularly interesting or long lasting flowers.

Post types I'm planning on including are brief plant profiles with personal experiences, "what's flowering" type posts will be picture heavy - I'll try to group these with the profiles but that may not always be possible, comments and musings on goings on in the industry (expect an angry rant that will become confused and start praising the many Echinacea cultivars popping up) and basically just whatever else happens to cross my mind that I feel like writing about.