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You are here: Home / Archives for Beckie Fox

Beckie Fox

Waiting for colchicums

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

Colchicums are a welcome surprise in fall. (Garden Making photo)

The pale buds of colchicum flowers will soon be pushing their way through the detritus of fallen leaves. These hardy bulbs play hide and seek as their strappy leaves emerge in spring and then disappear and lie low until early fall when their large cupped pink, white or purple flowers burst forth.

Two late-summer beauties

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

joe pye weed

The aim of many flower gardeners is to have something in bloom from the cool days of early spring to the shortening days of early fall. Now that we’re in the last days of August, two bold perennials are hitting their stride: Joe Pye weed and rose mallow.

Time to plan your bulb strategy for spring blooms

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

'Daydream' Darwin tulip (Garden Making photo)

I’ve placed a small order for spring bulbs — late if I had wanted new or rare varieties, but there is still plenty of choice. I concentrated on adding a few more daffodils as well as early crocus because they are so easy to pop in here and there.

Graceful grasses

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

Variegated 'Morning Light' is a clump-forming ornamental grass. (Photo by Brendan Zwelling)

Ornamental grasses are beginning to shine as we enter the end of summer. Grasses add much to a garden design — verticality, interesting seedheads, warm colours in autumn and architectural interest in winter — but it’s their gentle swaying in a breeze that draws my eye these days.

Hydrangea love

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

hydrangea

Hydrangea hybridizers must be a very busy bunch of plant people. Undoubtedly, it’s an exaggeration to say a new hydrangea cultivar is introduced every month, but sometimes it seems that way.

Veronicas in the hue of blue

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

veronica

Flowers that are true blue are relatively uncommon in the plant world, which makes them especially desirable. Several blues are available in the large Veronica genus, many of which are useful groundcovers, such as V. whitleyi and ‘Georgia Blue’.

A new favourite: giant coneflower

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

Giant coneflower (Rudbeckia maxima

Giant coneflower (Rudbeckia maxima) certainly lives up to its name. The perennial’s tall, stiff stems easily reach six or seven feet (1.8 to 2 m) and are topped with prominent brown cones circled with drooping yellow petals in midsummer. However, my favourite part of the plant is its large, steely blue, paddle-shaped leaves clustered near the base.

Midsummer beauties to behold

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

eremurus-romance

Mid-July is high season for flower borders. There’s so much in bloom, so many colours to enjoy and so, so, so much to do. But let’s pause, instead, and focus on how much there is to enjoy at this moment.

Making a case for meadow-rues

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

thalictrum

The meadow-rue family (Thalictrum species and cultivars) has several sturdy players; some tall and statuesque, others good for the middle row of a border and a few that could serve as a pretty edging plant or groundcover. Their colour range is limited to rosy mauve, purple, creamy white or soft yellow.

Planting trees for privacy

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

cedar screening for privacy

A frequent design conundrum for gardeners with a small space is how to create privacy without resorting to a fortress of wooden fencing. A few well-placed columnar trees can create a lovely green screen to block an unattractive view or muffle the sounds of car and pedestrian traffic.

Baptisias, take a bow

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

baptisia

The three clumps of baptisia in our front garden are peaking right now and will soon need to be thinned out in order for us to have a safe view of the street when backing out the car. That’s the ultimate size of a happy, healthy baptisia at maturity: mammoth.

Caring for columbines

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

columbines

Columbines (Aqueligia species and hybrids) are an old-fashioned cottage garden perennial, happy to weave here and there among more substantial companions, such as peonies, roses and daylilies.

Container plants filling in

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

container plants

Most of the containers I planted three weeks ago are filling in now that the weather is consistently warm. I like to try a new colour scheme every year, depending on plant availability.

June is for roses

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

rose

Sadly, there are fewer roses in my garden every year, casualties of encroaching shade from maturing trees and persistent Japanese beetle invasions. But the half dozen that remain are coddled along, because I can’t imagine a garden without a rose or two or more.

Fetching spring vetchling

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

Spring vetchling (Lathyrus vernus), sometimes called everlasting pea

Pass-along plants, the term to describe plants we share with other gardeners, are examples of a gardener’s generosity. Spring vetchling (Lathyrus vernus), sometimes called everlasting pea, is one example of a pass-along plant that has been blooming for several weeks this spring.

Kicking off with containers

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

container summer 2019

The start of a new gardening season is different for everyone. For me, it’s when all the containers are placed around the porch and patio, filled with fresh potting soil, and waiting for the trays of bedding plants to be upended and arranged into — what is hoped — a pleasing picture.

Small, but not shy, irises

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

'Blue Hat Boy' , classified as a standard dwarf bearded iris,

Short bearded irises have all the advantages of tall bearded iris (beautiful blooms, often bicoloured and intricate), but none of their minuses (tall, gangly stalks and leaves). I grow about a half dozen cultivars that have gradually increased over the years.

How to plan and plant a perennial border

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

Perennial border

If one of your Big Projects this year is planting a new perennial border, that’s terrific. There are perennials for any site, no matter the soil, the sun or the hardiness zone.

Pink wands of early spirea

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

Fujino Pink' spirea i

Spireas are generally bulletproof shrubs, easily found at most garden centres. Many of us are familiar with the ubiquitous bridal wreath variety (Spiraea x vanhouttei), blooming in early June. New cultivars of Japanese spirea (S. japonica) are popular, too.

Planning this year’s lawn care

By Beckie Fox Filed Under: Garden Newsletter

pasqueflower

Certainly, a string of warmer days would mean that serious garden cleanup could commence and that warm-weather flowers and edibles could be seeded or transplanted. However, for now, the cool days give me time to strategize.

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