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Via EnjoyGardening)
Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-04-03, 08:55:07
Hits & Misses: Diversity & aphids
Question of the Week: Will any roses survive in Zone 1?
The Business: Alberta 100 Journeys
The Path to Enjoy 2009: Effective
I had the great pleasure to speak at the Gardenscape Show in Saskatoon this past weekend. Gardenscape is an annual three-day event that draws some 30,000 avid gardeners who come to learn, as well as to share their knowledge and ideas. The event was excellent, the hospitality was wonderful and I want to extend a special thanks to the staff from Early’s Garden Centre who took me under their wing and kept me on schedule. A special thanks also to Joe, who put many a kilometer on his vehicle shuffling me around and to Scott and his wife, Kerri, who took pity on me and prepared a wonderful home-cooked meal!
Hits & Misses:
Hit: Diversity
I walked into the warehouse last week and had a bit of a Dr. Seuss moment…Big Pots, Small Pots, Black Pots, Brown Pots, Skinny Pots, Fat Pots…
Okay, the Dr. Seuss publishing company has nothing to worry about, but my point is that I couldn’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed by the diversity of pots available today compared to when we started in the Garden Centre business. Not long ago, the vast majority of pots were little more than cheap vessels to hold soil. But as the backyards have evolved into extensions of our interior space, so too have the pots. And now the aesthetics of the pots are vastly more important than they ever were…pots with spots and pots with dots…ah, forget it.
Miss: Aphids
Not all peppers are created equal, at least from an aphid’s perspective. In the greenhouse, it seems that bell peppers are homing devices for aphids. But aphids don’t have the same affinity for the hot peppers. To make a long story short, despite our best efforts, aphids got the best of a small patch of our bell peppers, while ignoring the hot ones. Needless to say, a few dozen bells are now part of the compost pile. At least we have lots in reserve.
Question of the Week
Will any roses survive in Zone 1?
Some of the tough Explorer roses, the Rugosa roses and the wild rose all do quite well in Zone 1 climates. If you want to test the limits by growing something more tender, you’ll really have to give it extra winter protection. Thoughtful manipulation of the microclimates in your yard can also go a long way to defeating the harshness of a Zone 1 winter.
Champlain is an Explorer rose that combines beauty and hardiness.
The Business
Celebrating Passion, Pride and Achievement
The Alberta Motor Association has published Alberta 100 Journeys, which presents stories about our province and its people and encourages each of us to explore the locations where these tales took place. We were flattered last year when the AMA approached us and asked that the story of our mother Lois Hole’s life be included in this interesting project. Last week we received a plaque from the AMA that’s designed to mark the ‘location’ of Mom’s story. Deciding where to hang this plaque is a daunting task because when you think about it, Mom viewed the entire province as part of her personal journey. After much debate, we’ve decided to find a spot here at the greenhouse. If you’re interested in Mom’s and other great Albertan’s journeys, visit www.ama.ab.ca to obtain a copy of the book.
The Path to Enjoy 2009
Effective
I love it when people with creative minds think about how things could be and, ultimately, should be. Take for example St. Albert’s magnificent pathway through Red Willow Park. Each year as the city grows, so too extends the path onto public land. In one of the recent meetings with our architects, we discussed the desire to connect the future Interpretive Centre in the Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park with the lands east of Ray Gibbon Drive. The proposed path would extend behind industrial areas and along the road. Not an ideal location but it was the only way to stay on public land. Well, not according to our architect, Ernst, who said “Why not design the path through your land?” A public path through private lands? Why not! Ernst said we could design a magnificent path that would not only improve the access to the park, but also enhance the whole area. Imagine how this path could create a magnificent access way that would engage people. I guess it just goes to show that when one thinks outside of the box, problems seem to solve themselves.
Did You Know?
Dutch farmers in Japan and the Netherlands have used smoke to promote the flowering of Dutch iris and Narcissus tazetta.
“April is a promise that May is bound to keep.”
–Hal Borland
