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By Miles Hunter, January 5, 2012

January 5th, 2012

Heavenly Helleborus!

Helleborus, or Christmas Rose, are an easy to grow perennial that bloom continuously for many months. Some varieties start in early December and can bloom until March. They grow best in a dry shady location. They are fairly disease resistent, drought tolerant, and deer resistent. For more infomation about growing Helleborus click here.

For 2011 you can choose from a number of the “Helleborus Gold Collection” (HGC) varieties as well as several varieties that have proven their worth over the years:

• Cinnamon Snow (HGC) – pink buds open creamy white
• Double Queen Mix – double flowers
• Ivory Prince - an excellent cream colour that blooms profusely
• Jacob (HGC) – pure white blooms, slightly fragrant
• Josef Lemper (HGC) – upward facing cup shaped pure white flowers
• Pink Frost (HGC) – burgundy and white blooms
• Silver Dollar - Corsican type with silver foliage
• Winter Bliss (HGC) – creamy white flowers with pink centres

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By Miles Hunter, August 22, 2011

August 22nd, 2011

It is never too late for some Summer Flowering Perennials!

Although the best times to plant perennials are the spring and the fall it is never too late to plant summer flowering perennials like Rudbeckia. Rudbeckia are among the best perennials available. One of the most popular varieties is the ‘Goldsturm’. Goldsturm is a variety of one of our native North American wildflowers. The plants make a bushy, upright clump with a profuse display of brown-eyed, golden-orange daisies from midsummer through the fall. In addition to their brilliant fall colour their seed heads have good winter interest. They make a terrific choice for mass planting, combining especially well with ornamental grasses. They are excellent as a cut flower in bouquets. By removing faded flowers when the flower petals start to fall lengthens the blooming time. Rudbeckia plants can be easily divided in early spring as they start to emerge from the ground. The flowers are attractive to butterflies and make a great centerpiece to any garden bed. The ‘Goldsturm’ variety was the Perennial Plant of the Year in 1999.

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By Miles Hunter, August 15, 2011

August 15th, 2011

Add warmth to your garden with Echinacea!

Echinacea, or Coneflower, are one of the most popular perennials. Echinacea love full sun and lots of heat. They have large, showy flower heads, blooming from early to late summer. Many varieties bloom until frosts in the fall. Some varieties can be used for herbal or medicinal purposes. They work well at attracting butterflies to your garden. There are many varieties for you to choose from including:

purpurea

This is the most common form of Echinacea which has large purple flowers and grows to 24 to 36 inches high. Click here for more information.

purpurea ‘Double Decker’

This is a unique form of Echinacea. In their second-year plants produce a large magenta-pink daisies with a second smaller flower produced on top of each dark brown central cone. In their first-year plants usually produce only single blooms before becoming double in the second year.

purpurea ‘Magnus’

This is a classic purple coneflower. Beautiful rose-pink ray petals with a coppery-brown, spiky central cone comprise the huge, flat flower heads. They flower from midsummer thru fall. Click here for more information.

purpurea ‘Ruby Star’

This variety has larger, more vibrantly coloured flowers than the regular purpurea species. From a central brown cone the deep carmine-pink petals are held flat, rather than drooping. Click here for more information.

purpurea ‘Coconut Lime’

This variety is the first ever double-flowered, white Echinacea. The flower heads feature a ring of white petals surrounding a large pom-pom of pale green florets. These blooms are big, but the stems are strong enough to hold them. ‘Coconut Lime’ not only looks great in the border but also is a distinctive and very long-lasting cut flower. It’s as easy to grow as any traditional Coneflower. Click here for more information.

‘Pixie Meadowbrite’

This hybrid is a vast improvement over other dwarf Coneflowers on the market. Flowers are midsized, with flat medium-pink petals surrounding a cone that begins greenish-pink, maturing to deep crimson. Deadhead regularly for continual blooming into the autumn. Click here for more information.

‘Maui Sunshine’

This variety has large bright yellow flowers, that are sweetly scented. This variety is well-branched with strong, upright stems. Showy orange cones with green backgrounds (great for cutting and drying). Click here for more information.

‘Tomato Soup’

This variety has warm, tomato-red flowers that grow to 6″ wide. It grows to 32” tall and nearly as wide. Flowers cover the plant till frost. Plants are well branched and show excellent vigor. Click here for more information.

‘Big Sky’ – series

There are many new varieties including a group of new Echinaceas that belong to the Big Sky™ series. The Big Sky™ series currently has five members, all of which are sweetly scented. The varieties include; ‘Sunrise’, ‘Sunset’, ‘Twilight’, ‘Matthew Saul’ (Harvest Moon™), and ‘Evan Saul’ (Sundown™). These varieties all have large green leaves, strong branching stems, wide flower petals, and profuse blooming tendencies.

All photos courtesy of www.perennials.com.

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By Miles Hunter, August 8, 2011

August 8th, 2011

Enjoy the summer blooms of Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’

Crocosmia are one of the best summer flowering perennials to have in your garden. They produce clumps of sword-shaped leaves. These leaves are topped with tall, arching spikes of tubular funnel-shaped blossoms in mid to late summer. There are several named varieties are now available, in a range of hot colours. The most popular variety is the ‘Lucifer’. Lucifer has brilliant flame-red flowers, and a tall habit. They attract butterflies and hummingbirds and make an outstanding cut flower in a bouquet. Every garden should have at least one variety of Crocosmia in it and Lucifer is by far the most popular variety.

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By Miles Hunter, July 6, 2011

July 6th, 2011

Delight Your Senses with Dianthus!

Dianthus, or Sweet William, are a beautiful flower that lasts all summer long. There are annual and perennial varieties of Dianthus available for your garden. These are also known as “pinks” and the colour pink may have come from these flowers (See Here).

There are many new varieties of Dianthus and one of the best new series are the Scent First series. This includes three varieties; Candy Floss, Passion, and Tickled Pink. These varieties are incredibly fragrant and they bloom continuously all summer long.

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By Miles Hunter, June 1, 2011

June 1st, 2011

Delight Your Senses with Lavender!

Lavender (Lavandula) is a romantic flower and every gardener should have at least one in their garden. They love a sunny location with good drainage. Lavender is extremely drought tolerant once it is established but should be watered regularly when young. Two of the hardiest and best know varieties are ‘Hidcote’ and ‘Munstead’. These varieties of English Lavender produce wonderfully fragrant blue-lavender coloured flowers during the summer. There are several new varieties of English lavender that you can choose from this year including ‘Lodden Blue’ and ‘Melissa Lilac’. These new varieties are compact bushy varieties of English Lavender.

Another variety of Lavender is the Spanish Lavender ‘Anouk’. This variety produces a consistent display of flowers from June through September. To encourage them to repeatedly bloom is it best to cut them back after they produce their first set of flowers to encourage the second bloom. Two new varieties of Spanish Lavender include ‘Silver Anouk’ (Aka Silver Summer) and ‘Green Summer’. The Green Summer is a compact version of the ‘Anouk’ while the ‘Silver Anouk’ has beautiful silver foliage.

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By Miles Hunter, May 25, 2011

May 25th, 2011

Grow the “Perfect Peony”

Peonies are beautiful sun-loving  perennials which can be very long-lived in your garden. They are extremely hardy, easy to grow, and easy to maintain. They do their best when grown near the middle or back of full sun borders or beds. There are two main types of Peonies, herbaceous peonies and tree peonies. The more common herbaceous type die back to the ground every fall and come up again every spring. The tree type peonies leave a woody stem exposed during the winter months.

There are many beautiful varieties to choose from with a rainbow of colour choices. Come in today to see these beautiful plants in bloom.

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By Miles Hunter, October 7, 2010

October 7th, 2010

Add colour to your Perennial Garden with Fall Blooming Heather!

One of the most prolific flowering Perennials for fall is Heather. There are many types of Hether but the most common Fall Blooming varieties belong to the Calluna genus. Often classified as summer blooming varieties the Calluna vulgaris varieties will start blooming in late August and will often bloom until December or January. You can choose from a number of different varieties. Most have either white, pink, or red flowers.

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By Miles Hunter, September 3, 2010

September 1st, 2010

Fall Blooming Perennials!

There are many great fall blooming Perennials that you can plant now to add colour to your garden. Favourites flowers include Rudbeckia and Heather while there are many great foliage plants like Ajuga, Euphorbia, Lysimachia, and Heuchera to provide contrast to the flowers. Late summer flowering plants like Pestemon will continue to provide colour into September while many of these perennials will bloom well into October or November.

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By Miles Hunter, February 5, 2010

Winter Blooming Perennials!

There are many perennials in bloom during the winter. The cool weather can help the flowers last longer. Plants like Hellebore can bloom from December to March continuously. We have many long blooming varieties of Hellebores including Ivory Prince and the NEW Vancouver Medallion.

We also have a great selection of winter blooming heather to fill any garden with beautiful reds, pinks, or white flowers. Heather is great in a flower bed or in pots and planters.