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

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.

I freaking love Tradescantia/ Spiderwort!

I love Tradescantia. otherwise known as Spiderwort! It is possibly one of my favourite plants in the garden, but like having multiple children, you can never just pick one favourite. This plant is amazing!

Clockwise from top left; "Concorde Grape", "Bilberry Ice", "Osprey", "Blue and Gold"

It comes in many more forms and colour variations, with typically a purple or violet bloom and green foliage. It likes partial shade, and only a few hours of direct sun and moist soil, although it will do nicely in a drought. The flowers only last about a day or two, but bloom consistently throughout the spring/summer season and even into the fall! I also love how they look like a grass and many other types of flowers depending on where you have them, a true chameleon. 

 Here is my Spiderwort blooming this year. "Sweet Kate" is the variety.

My favourite nursery has this variety in stock now and I want it!... Canadian Tire also had a lovely variety I haven't seen around, and I'm going to investigate that one.

"Sunshine Charm"

I have my eye on a few things...

I did some garden centre recon and found some plants I'd like to haggle for later today... I would wait until close up for buying most plants on discount, but when it comes to more showy bloomers, it's important to buy them right before they bloom or during. This way can can better assess what kind of blooms you will get; wither it be the colour or size or number of physical blooms on the plants. Store garden centres (as explained in THIS post) tend to have a bad reputation for mis-labeling plants... or over pricing poor quality plants. One rule to keep in mind is typically, if it looks great in the pot, just imagine how it will look in your garden with root space, and special care. If it's healthy and you like the blooms, its the best time to buy it. That way you also get to enjoy a bit of time with it in your garden also.

I really have my eye on some Asiatic lilies I saw yesterday, some were dwarfed and others giants. I'm going back to "Metro" to try and haggle my way into getting a few lilies for cheap. I don't know the variety name, but I'll post that later. They kind of looked like these nice varieties.
                                                         

 "Cappuccino" Asiatic Tango Lily

"Nettie's Pride" Asiatic Lily

"Black Spider" Asiatic Lily

I guess we'll find out later what variety I picked up... I also saw some very tall beauties from Canadian Tire with double blooms... maybe my dad will be into those... can't exactly bike with a 5 ft potted plant in my basket.

Snow in late April?!

Yes, its April 24th and there has been a light dusting of snow! Thank goodness I haven't planted any seeds yet. We're all worried about the beating that they my have suffered, but I guess only time will tell. At least it did make for a great photo opportunity!

 Tiny hills of frozen droplets.

Icy dew drops!

Garden flox is coated like sugar piles!

Garden Update: Early April

Here's what's blooming now in the garden! Stay tuned for more updates, feel free to ask questions about any plants or my gardens!

A mix of daffodils coming out, 

we have lots and lots of bulbs now!

Pulmonaria Red Start and other pulmonaria blooming!

View of the garden below the first step. Taken on April 13th.

Some dwarf irises in bloom!

Some tulips we re-planted from a spring planter-basket last spring!

The new tulips my dad picked up on 

discount last fall, can't wait to see this display!

He bought two types; one with ruffled foliage and dark red-pink double blooms and the other has traditional tailoring and light pink-white stripping on the edges of the leaves, the blooms are double-triple with white and red strokes.