red maple
Cut flowers, harvested fresh from your garden
Four examples of how to bring cut flowers from your garden inside and present them in simple but beautiful arrangements. Tips and techniques for vases.
Cimicifugas: Superstars of the autumn garden
In late summer, the aristocratic purple-leaved cimicifugas are in heavy bud and the first Japanese anemones are just beginning to flower.
The joy of growing figs
Enjoy the singular culinary delight of growing an ancient fruit – sweet, voluptuous and totally decadent figs (Ficus carica cvs.). How to grow figs in pots.
Super-sized flowers for late summer
Cooler zones are already beginning to get subtle hints that autumn is coming. Flowers for late summer include spotted Joe Pye weed and common rose mallow.
Bountiful midsummer flowers: Hardy hydrangeas
Hydrangeas are one of the most loved and widely planted flowering shrubs in Canada. Stephen grows the smooth hydrangea and the panicle hydrangea.
Reach for the top with foxtail lilies
Tall perennials are beautiful and useful for dramatic accents, focal points and floral screens. Several species of foxtail lilies produce flowering spikes.
My Canada 150 summer reading list
Canadian classics: Manitoba’s Frederick Philip Grove, British Columbia’s Martin Allerdale Grainger, Ontario’s Anna Brownell Jameson, Nova Scotia’s Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Bunchberries make national headlines
You may not recognize the name, but you may have seen bunchberries hiking through a Canadian forest in late spring (small, upward-facing white flowers).
Baptisias: Favourite almost-native perennials
In 1990, blue false indigo (Baptisia australis) was considered a rare plant, but by 2010 the Perennial Plant Association named it Perennial of the Year.
Three tricoloured plants for Canada’s 150th party
Flowering plants that simultaneously bear blooms of three different colours – tricoloured plants – Campfire rose, ‘Genpei’ Japanese spirea, Carnaval weigela