Stephen Westcott-Gratton

Campfire roses bearclusters of flowers with 20 petals that open yellow and develop pink edges that gradually spread and turn rose-red before they drop. (Photos by Stephen Westcott-Gratton)

Three tricoloured plants for Canada’s 150th party

Stephen Westcott-Gratton

Flowering plants that simultaneously bear blooms of three different colours – tricoloured plants – Campfire rose, ‘Genpei’ Japanese spirea, Carnaval weigela

sugar maples have three lobes (like the flag) while Norway maples have five lobes with pointy, tapered tips.

Viking maples invade Canada

Stephen Westcott-Gratton

The widely planted Norway maple (Acer platanoides) is native from Scandinavia to Turkey, but imported to Canada and now an invasive species.

The native mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum is the last spring ephemeral to bloom, but sometimes lasts all summer. (Photo by Stephen Westcott-Gratton)

Mayapple and maidenhair fern flourish in woodland garden

Stephen Westcott-Gratton

Stephen Westcott-Gratton enjoys a large, robust mayapple colony and maidenhair ferns in his woodland-style front garden 100 kilometres north of Toronto.

Illustration from 1868 Canadian Wild Flowers by Catharine Parr Traill : Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) Wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum) Showy lady’s slipper orchid (Cypripedium reginae)

“Canadian Wild Flowers” book: a labour of love 150 years ago

Stephen Westcott-Gratton

Catharine Parr Traill, Canada’s first popular chronicler of native flora and fauna, published Canadian Wild Flowers book with hand-painted images in 1868.

The prairie crocus (or “pasqueflower”) often bursts into bloom before the last traces of winter snow have melted. It bears sumptuous cup-shaped lavender-purple flowers held above finely dissected fern-like leaves

A gift from the West: The prairie crocus

Stephen Westcott-Gratton

The prairie crocus (or “pasqueflower”) often blooms with sumptuous cup-shaped lavender-purple flowers before the last traces of winter snow have melted.

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