Canadian Tire Garden Centre: Spring Review 2013

I did a recon missing to check out the Canadian Tire this year... looking pretty good this season, I might say. The inventory looks very healthy, very vigorous, nice sized plants, no pests, no moss. Some plants of course are decent deals and where as others are absolute steals. They like to rip you off in some areas, but I'll always give it high grades for clearance sales. I have also never lost a plant from Canadian Tire, they always come back the next year.

Large pots of Strawberries, Rhubarb, and Raspberries

Tradescantia "Red Cloud"...
I bought Tradescantia "Pink", they also had "Osprey"
(Must add that to my Wish-List)

Giant Colombine Flowers "Red & White"

Bonnie's Plants (Herbs, Veggies,  Fruits, Annuals)

Small perennials on sale for $1.89... price usually dips
again in July when the centres close for the season

Fruit trees selection at Canadian Tire,
Plums, Pears, Cherries and more...

They were flowering the second time I visited,
really lovely plants,  about $40.00 each

...More Canadian Tire visits to come!

It's Garden Shopping Review Time!

I love to shop for my garden, plants, seeds, supplies, gadgets, tools you name it! Shopping is great, and shopping online can be even better than heading to the garden centre, especially in the dead of winter. Don't get me wrong, when spring rolls around, I check every single garden centre in my area and make repeat re-con missions out of prices and quality, but when it comes to getting my winter fix, I can never resist checking out bulbs and seeds right at my finger tips.

Online Garden Shopping: Pros and Cons

Cons

Shipping and Shipping Costs; you're going to pay by the weight and protection of live plants, seeds and bulbs. They can become damaged or sick during the journey to your house.

Photo examples not meeting the description of the plants you receive. Sometimes they like to exaggerate the visual aspects of the plants and flowers. Their is also the potential for order error in the product warehouse. Often bulbs get accidentally mixed between each other when your order is being filled out.

Quality can be iffy, even for great online plant companies. You never know how a plant is going to thrive after you get bare roots or bulbs. Unlike picking out the healthiest and most vivacious plant at the nursery, someone else is doing the picking blindly for you, this could result in weak or sick plants. Quality can be amazing or very poor, its a risk most are willing to make.

Pros

Prices are typically very reasonable and you always get deals for bulk, selection specials and mix deals. Companies often through in free gifts or extras. If you spend enough, they give you free shipping too!

Variety, you cannot match the varieties available online, any plant you ever imagined can now be purchased online, in every shade of the rainbow. Including exotic and rare varieties. I always go for what I haven't seen in stores, and typically I always see something new. Sometimes I'll see something get very popular online, and the next season its in nurseries everywhere for 3x the price.

Convenience is key. With online plant shopping you can budget, plan and have it all delivered right to you. They send them at the perfect time for planting and tell you how to make the best of your order.

Online Reviews!

To help you get through the winter blues, I'll be reviewing online sites and making plant recommendations from each. I've ordered from a few sites and I was very satisfied, having purchased bulbs and seeds, I couldn't be happier. Happy shopping, don't forget, always read the reviews online!

My Potting Shed Haul

In my last post I raved about The Potting Shed in Dunnville, ON. What I didn't add was my haul from that garden-shopping trip! I had a small budget, and there was so much to choose and consider, my main goals were; Quality, Size and Collection. In general the quality and size at The Potting Shed are above average, and I don't have to worry about choosing an unhealthy plant. They also stock plenty of unique and rare varieties that are hard to find anywhere else in the area.

Here is a photo of my haul, sitting at the side of the house, in the "Bike Walk-in Area" construction zone. Its protected from any intense sun and I can water them all in one place, before direct plantings. My haul included: Giant Variegated Reed, Hosta "Final Summation", Hosta "Alakazam", Hosta "Rainbow's End", Hosta "Variegated Mouse Ears" and a pot of Candy Lilies. The other plants you're seeing are a haul from a Zehrs garden centre clearance; Hosta "Abiqua Drinking Gourd", white echinacea, and "Big Bang" Coreopsis.

This is the super tall flower stem to Hosta "Final Summation", it actually ended up flowering on three separate stems over the course of the summer. It has gorgeous semi-shiny foliage and lavender flowers.

My placement for my three mini-esk Hosta varieties in my small shade garden, it's getting very cramped in there, I think I'm going to have to expand my shade garden.

Why The Potting Shed is my favorite nursery...

I love, love, love The Potting Shed! The Potting Shed, in Dunnville, Ontario, is one the best garden nurseries I've ever visited, ever. I've been to many nurseries in North America and this one has a great recipe. The layout and design of the place is wonderful, including a shaded perennial sale area, amazing (not too big, not too small) display gardens, multiple green houses, a daylily field, a converted barn/green house, corn silos with chickens and peafowl, a small barn with chickens, rabbits, goats and pot-belly pigs and one very grand pond and waterfall at the centre of the property.

The shaded perennial sale-display area. Looks like an old barn foundation.
Lots of little treats and surprises in each row and around every corner!

The pond feature is spectacular! Very stunning, yet natural and welcoming. 

The hosta display garden, designed to perfection with height and colour at play. 

Willow-leafed Sunflower, I absolutely love the texture of this plant!
The variegated Giant Reed is in the background, I took one home with me after this trip.

The display plant choices are a-typical and very modern, in the sense that its surprising, intriguing and very unique. The owner Jack Kent is very friendly, extremely knowledgeable and a kind soul. The nursery offers a very special "plant-shopping" experience, I find it very hard to spend less than an hour there and I still have more plants I want to take a peak at. The plant quality is very good, and it is priced accordingly. Although it's a bit out of my price range (being a starving student, and all),  I'm the perennial advisor to my family-home garden, so my say on plants usually wins out. The plant size and vigor is very consistent, I've never had one of there plants die on me, nor will I ever have to worry.

A collage of the various lilies I encountered, there were honestly so many nice ones to choose from! I especially liked the spider-daylilies! You can order 12 varieties for $99.00 through The Potting Shed's website.

If your in Dunnville Ontario, or live in Southern Ontario, go check out The Potting Shed! You won't be disappointed!

The daylily display area by the pond, plenty of show-stoppers.

The hosta display and sale shade-house, a stunning crop of over 200 varieties.

Daylilies and Asiatics together on display.

Hosta "Niagara Falls", a big beauty.

The daylily beds, too many varieties, its like a candy-shop!

More daylilies in a house.
 Stay tunned for a follow up post about my July plant haul and garden updates!

Chris and Jim's Poolside Garden

Take a look at Chris and Jim's poolside garden from my neighborhood. I did some dog-sitting and watered this garden while they were away. I just had to show off there amazing little garden and blooming choices. It has a cottage flair that I love, and so many busy blooms happening at once!

View from one end of the garden, towards the water-slide.

Mr. Sun and Echinacea

Light blushing pink Asiatic lilies, Lavender and Echinacea

Mallow, Monarda, Daisies, Annuals

Garden Design: Dark-dreamer

In the extreme heat we've been having, I've been playing inside, working on some different garden concepts. In this "Garden Design" post I've focused on the dark side of plants. Not the evil or temperament, but the hue of these gorgeous plants! There is something so haunting and unique about dark flowers and foliage. I found some great plants as examples and I hope it inspires you, like it did me. The contrast of light green foliage and dark, almost black flowers and dark purple-black foliage of other species.

Centaurea montana "Black Sprite",  Lillium "Landini", Black Mondo Grass, Helleborus hybridus "Onyx Odessey",
Heuchera "Geisha's Fan", Rudbekia occiddentalis "Black Beauty"

Clematis Recta "Velvet Night",  Pennsemon "Dark Towers", Sedum "Bertram Anderson",
 Hellborus "Black Diamond",  Dianthus "Velvet & Lace",  Eupatorium rugosum "Chocolate"

Cimicifuga simplex "Hillside Black Beauty", Phlox paniculata "Wendy House", 

Geranium psilostemon "Bressingham Flair", Aster lateriflorus "Prince" 

New Lilies! When "Mona Lisa" Smiles...

This is a new lily I picked up at Costco in Kingston, Ont. It was $9.99 and I don't think I've ever seen such a healthy shipment of plants anywhere! They had probably 4 kinds of Asiatic lilies, Astilbe, Coral Bells, Hosta and others. The lilies were by far worth the money, with 3-4 tubers per pot and super healthy plants. Somehow I managed to find one that wasn't blooming so I could take it the long drive back to Guelph. Now about three days later it's in full glory!

Lillium "Mona Lisa" (Oriental) Isn't she gorgeous! Super fragrant too!

They also had a few "Tango" lilies but I didn't want to crowd our full car, maybe I'll head back to Costco next week and they'll all be reduced...here's to hoping. Honestly, I just want them all!

Here are the other options from Costco, both Asian and Orientals available. I'm dying to have a tango lily in my collection! Please Garden-Gods, make it so! 

Cactus and succulent blooms!

Recently I've been exhillerated with the idea of collecting some cold hardy succulents and cacti. Anything weird and beautiful always holds my attention. It's also a great idea for dividing up areas of the garden for interest. The last motivation would be the gorgeous blooms they produce at this time of year... they just look so juicy and tender, bright and happy! The "store" garden centres will be closing up very soon, so it's time to swoop in and get killer deals on some plants... The clearence period is exactly why I love "store" garden centres, (no offense to starting gardeners, but...) many high value and gorgeous plants are left behind because most shoppers are blinded by flashy blooms, names and fake sales. A veteran in training (like myself) can spot hidden value, rip-offs and uniqueness that most cannot eye. I'll have my eye on past-high value flowers like lilies, spring perennials, and soon-to-bloom fall perennials. The good news about the past flowers is that they are often started in greenhouses and very early to bloom, next season they will be on track with the other plants in same blooming period!

...anyways, back to the cacti! I wanted to show-off some of the blooms on my cacti and succulent area which is growing and growing. Stay tuned for new additions after Canada Day!

Here is my backyard Prickly Pear, expanding beautifully 

since I weeded and removed all the stonecrop.

This is my neighbor's (from down the street) Prickly Pear. Its a bit crowded with weeds right now, but, boy is it blooming! Behind it are a few Yuccas and some different ground cover surround it. I'm jealous because its way-bloomy-er than mine!

The last picture is my blooming hen & chicks that I picked up at metro for about $1.50. Its actually quite cute and whimsical! I'm slowly placing succulents and tropical looking plants around the cactus. I think I need to find something bright pink or magenta...

Elaine's Lovely Rockwood Garden

 I wanted to share my family-friend's beautiful garden! She lives in Rockwood, Ontario. Elaine is a great gardener with an eye for special plants, design and classic style. Her plant choices usually consist of pinks, white, purple, red and deeper pinks with contrasting green hues. I also have to commemorate her on starting most of her annuals from seed and battling cancer over the past year.

 Gorgeous large and lush clematis staggers over several fences areas in the yard.

Dainty light pink lilies contrast beautifully in the shade of her half pergola. You can also see the deep pink clematis in the background.

 Seeded husk-planters off the deck, filled with nasturtiums, purple sweet-potato-vine, and small purple flowers. More gracious clematis nearby, travel vertically throughout the yard.

Click the photo to see a larger version of Elaine's garden in a panorama-view.

The lilies I ended up buying...

I fooled myself, and my blog post from earlier! I do think that the varieties I stated were gorgeous, but not the variety I had on my mind, I was slightly (very much) off. Anyways... isn't she lovely!? It's a dwarf Lilium Hybrid called "Lollypop". When I got there I had a 50% coupon on the small perennials, so I picked four pots with the largest plants and three blooms per stock. Two aren't even blooming yet, the woman at the cash questioned this and I giggled... because three is better than one and twelve is better than three?!

I haven't exactly decided where she will go yet...

Garden Centre Recon I

Now that I've had my smart phone for a while, it's the perfect time to use it like and garden spy and record what I've found at local garden shops and centres. Take a look at my late April, early May finds!

 The "Ontario Natives" plant stand at Zehrs in Guelph.

I saw this stand outside of Zehrs one day and I absolutely love this! For $3.99 you can have a small biodegradable Ontario native plant. They are very small, but the pricing is just right, garden centres pump up the prices of native plants because "they can" and they can be hard to propagate, not to mention the fines for removing some native plants. In this selection they have a great mix of forest and meadow dwelling natives; white, yellow, light pink and red trillium. Violets, blood root, ferns, cone flowers, foam flowers, false solomon's seal, and jack-in-the-pulpit. Unfortunately I waited too long to see if it would reduce, and when I returned they had some serious slim pickings left. The nicest looking plants left was a foam flower with lots of new growth (very important) and flowers. I took it home and popped it in a nice space in my shade garden.

I also took some photos of the rest of the President's Choice plant stock.

What I think is nice about this brand and stock is that they like to carry the "fads" of the garden world, they bring the special garden centre selects and only carry them. I like this because it brings really interesting plants to the eyes of beginner gardeners and lets people try something new. I don't like this because it means they can and will inflate the prices. They prices are not terrible, but they certainly aren't deals. I'll check back at the end of June for the clearance sale. 

Costco Bags of Bulbs. Great Prices, great quality, looks like a nice selection.

I bought a bag of giant lilies and a Dahlia mix, about 15 bulbs in each bag, each bag $12.99.

I found these beauties at Home Depot. Home Depot tends to have the best deals. Creeping Speedwell "Goldwell" and Sedum "Autumn Charm".