The Dollarama Garden

Wow Dollarama, could you get any better? Take a look at what I found at Dollarama! Plastic Tarp Planting mats; perfect for the trunk or pot holding area. Pop-up mini green houses for spring or fall, seeder pots, mini seed starting green houses. My goodness bulbs, bulbs and more bulbs. The had peacock lilies, dahlias, glads and more. I checked the bulbs and they seemed to be correct. I bought some dahlias from them last year and I started them in a pot near my window. They also had a large box of wild/mixed flower seeds, great for covering a large area or making seed bombs! 

If anyone has tried any of these products or bulbs, let me know, how was it, what did you do? What would you do? What was the quality like? Thoughts! Share them!

Look at all these bulbs! I should have bought one of each and made a Dollarma-test garden. Only $2.00 a bag. The smaller bulb bags had almost 6-10 bulbs in each! What? Where do they get this stuff?

Jiffy Fiber Pots, Wildflower Mix and a Seeder Tray.

You really can do a lot with items from the dollar store. They also sell, 

tomato stakes, bamboo poles and terra-cota pots.

The two dahlias I started, $2.00 each.

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!

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! 

Garden Update: Late June 2012!

Welcome to my garden near the end of June, many mid-season bloomers coming to life, the main focus this year was to work on improving the structure, quality and variety of the gardens. The vegetable patch was pretty much un-planted aside from an array of tomatoes and potatoes.

Pink-Red Rose, Mini-petunia, Pink Yarrow, Yellow Daisies and "Blue" Spiderwort.

Orange-Peach Day lily, "Strawberry Short Cake" Echinacea, Spiderwort, "Fire-Cracker" Coreopsis and a basic purple geranium. 

Campion, and a variety of Daylilies blooming in the garden.

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.

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".