Look on the bright side. It may seem as though we are off to a late start this year for gardening season yet, even in the best of years the weather has proven itself unpredictable in May.
We've all been itching to get our hands into the dirt -- and even with warmer days finally on the way -- there is never a guarantee of frost-free weather until the beginning of June.
A gardener's biggest concern each spring, though, seems to be the perennial fear greenhouses will be cleaned out of their favourite plants -- or worse, the hottest new plants -- before the May long weekend. I subscribe to the same fear, but somehow managed to restrain myself from purchasing plants too early, so as to avoid housing them in my garage until the ground warms up.
The good news, in a perverse sort of way, is the universally cold spring has resulted in delays of plant orders from wholesale growers for many garden centres.
Enough about the weather, garden centres are now brimming with oodles of plants to choose from.
Most of us have a favourite garden centre, but taking a road trip in the company of friends to visit as many as possible is half the fun. I dropped by several this spring and encountered some gorgeous plants along the way.
Green ball Dianthus (Dianthus barbatus) is among the unique annuals you will see this year. With little or no resemblance to the more familiar dianthus varieties, green ball dianthus grows 25 to 35 centimetres tall and looks like a lime green tennis ball on a stick. With the trend toward growing cut flower varieties, this full sun plant featuring masses of brilliant chartreuse green, soft, hairy filaments will be an eye-catching addition to beds, pots or bouquets.
I spotted it at T&T Seeds (Roblin Boulevard) together with an amazingly different looking cordyline variety. When burgundy-red Cordyline australis burst on the scene a number of years ago, it became a popular alternative to the ubiquitous dracaena whose narrow, pencil-thin green spikes were overused as the thriller in many container designs.
Today, spike-like thrillers have taken on a new dimension and the parade is being led by striking new varieties of cordyline. Cordyline terminalis Ruby has wide, rounded strap-like leaves that emerge bright pink, darkening to burgundy as the foliage ages. This exotic hybrid from India will be a stunner in containers or beds.
I saw another very attractive cordyline called Cha Cha at Van der Meer Garden Centre in éle des Chênes. A clump-forming cordyline, the foliage changes colour as it matures. New foliage starts out as apricot on brown and then matures to yellow on green.
T&T Seeds is also carrying Plectranthus argentatus, a vigorous growing plant that makes an excellent part-shade spiller for a container or can be used as a dense, lush groundcover. Plectranthus has been around for a long time, but in a short season, it's one of those indispensable plants for bushing out quickly and providing a full display.
With large pointy grey-green pubescent leaves, pair it with blush-pink Belgian dinner-plate begonias, with blooms 15 to 20 cm across. Kevin Twomey, co-owner of T&T Seeds which is celebrating its 69th year, said that the double ruffled flowers of Belgian begonias are larger than those of non-stop begonias.
New for this year is Velvet Elvis plectranthus, an upright variety which I found at Fryfogel Flowers near Oakbank.
It's not just the name that grabbed my attention. Unlike other trailing varieties, this one produces spikes of lavender blooms with leaves that appear almost black.
Don Fryfogel is featuring Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus), a particularly dramatic size-large plant for use either as a thriller in containers or beds. A member of the artichoke family with an almost prehistoric appearance, cardoon grows rapidly up to 1.2 metres tall with a spread of 76 to 91 cm. Silvery green leaves are long and pointed with serrated leaves and look great at night.
Gail Braun, a gardener in the Altona area, wouldn't be without Cardoon in her garden.
"I love it," Braun said. "I use it in backgrounds, alternating with Vertigo grass or Maple Sugar Hibiscus or Velvet Curtains Amaranthus." White, silver, mauve or purple plants also pair well with Cardoon.
Debbie Goytan, a south Winnipeg gardener, is passionate about cardoon as well for its unique vase shape and plants it in her beds with Purple Emperor Sedum.
"It's kind of a muscular plant", said Goytan, "with a wide spread so needs a large container." Remove the bottom leaves, though, from time to time, as they can get a bit ragged.
Garden-club plant sales can be a great source for hard to find plants. Goytan recently picked up milk thistle (Silybum marianum), another architectural prehistoric-looking plant with large spiny dark-green leaves with prominent white veins and thistle-like purple flower heads.
"It grows about (60 cm) tall, flourishes in full sun and has a beautiful flower head," said Goytan, who has paired this upright specimen plant with trailing plants such as calibrachoa and dichondra.
Goytan shares this advice: "It's a short season and you might pay a little bit more for plants that have some size to them, but it's worth it." Looks can sometimes be deceiving. The uninitiated who drive by Jardins St- Leon Gardens on St. Mary's Road can be forgiven for assuming its stock is limited. Claire Berube, perennial plants specialist for St-Leon, knows how to fill a small space with a great selection of diverse plants including perennials, annuals, herbs and shrubs.
The plant-hunter for owner Denis Remillard, Berube advises gardeners to consider the impact of colour in the garden when selecting their plants.
"Yellow brightens, oranges compliment, reds neutralize, and blues say ho-hum," said Berube, who recommends Cinnamon Curls, a new coral bell from Proven Winners.
"Its ruffled leaves are a beautiful coppery orange with a hint of red, purple and bronze," she said. For a burst of colour and texture, tuck this tidy, compact heuchera into containers or beds.
Still on the hunt for plants that would have an instant impact, I stopped into Schreimers Flower & Garden in East St. Paul. With a huge selection in its bright and shiny new location, the first thing I noticed was the cannas are beautiful.
That's important because canna bulbs have been plagued by Canna yellow streak virus, first detected around 2000. Growers are now only supplying cannas that are propagated by tissue culture. Seed-grown cannas will also be virus-free and it is worth it to ask.
I couldn't resist Canna Pink Sunburst which has deep salmon-pink flowers. With foliage that has dark red, pink and bronze striping and even a hint of yellow and green, I may not even need to accessorize it with any filler plants.
One of the most beautiful petunias this year is bi-coloured Rose and Shine. Self-cleaning and high-impact, it has a rich rose and dark red colour punctuated with bright white.
Nico Vonderbank, Greenhouse Manager at Schreimer's, has created some interesting designs with plant combinations that are worth emulating. Picture a container design with Red Cordyline spikes in the center complimented by grasses such as Juncus, fibre optic, and blue fescue. The brilliant addition of Diamond White Euphorbia and Petite Pink Karalee Gaura made this an enticing display indeed.
If some of your early plant purchases spent the past couple of weeks in your garage waiting for the weather to improve and are looking the worse for wear, give them a kick-start with an organic fertilizer, such as Evolve Organic Rage Plus. The buzz from local gardeners who have tried it is it actually delivers on its promise to increase a plant's metabolism and acts like a steroid for plants that are trying to produce foliage and flowers.
