Get the Jump on Spring

Fairy gardens, honey bees, and flower arranging were the topics of the workshops I attended at this year's Toronto Botanical Gardens annual event, Get the Jump on Spring.

The fairy garden workshop really captured my imagination - I think it is just the antidote to the January/February blues and have marked my 2020 calendar to indulge in the creation of a garden or two. Maybe I will even try one a bit sooner. These little miniature landscapes are so whimsical, a playful way to spark a little magic. Maybe a bit of a seascape? I will have to keep my eye out for suitable containers that can come in and out of the house to overwinter. I'm already thinking the Irish moss could work well, a bit of myrtle, some enchanted doors....

Now I can just see myself with weird little horticulture landscapes all through the house and friends nodding politely as I take them on garden tours. Everything in moderation! Heinke Theissen gave the demonstration and spoke about how she crafted her accessories and added little touches like dinosaur footprints by Jurassic ponds. There is a workshop coming up at Canada Blooms and I am very tempted to sign up to design my own creation just to get a feel for it. Choosing plant materials, building miniature ponds or little deserts under terrarium skies. Such fun!

Beekeeper and breeder James Murray gave a brief history of honey bees in his Bee Happy talk that was absolutely fascinating. I had no idea that honeybees weren't native to North America, that English bees were aggressive and underproducing or that Italian bees were gentle and highly productive. Bee keeping dates back to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, then Romans. Different bees are attracted to different coloured flowers and their proboscis are designed accordingly... white clover vs. red clover.

There are usually several honey flows in each season, marked by the times different blossoms open... dandelion honey is not pleasant tasting to humans but highly nourishing for bees. James touched on pesticides and bee diseases, and also mentioned how bees create a ball in winter to keep each other warm, with the queen in the centre and the others in the hive slowly revolving from outside to inward, and inside out. Such amazing creatures!

Then there was a flower arranging demo, with three arrangements fashioned in 45 minutes. Of course that is with all material pre-sourced, pre-cut, and partially pre-assembled. I enjoy flower arranging but could definitely benefit from taking courses, and TBG offers a whole series for people at different levels of ability. As a novice I won a few ribbons at the East York garden club many years ago for my beginner efforts, but have a long way to go in building my skill set. It is a very absorbing pastime, however I always found it hard to cut down the flowers in my own garden, enjoying them more on the stem. Rob is actually the better flower arranger in our house, he seems to have a natural eye for proportion and colour. Maybe I could just sweet talk him into taking the certificate course?

Now signed up for an early morning tour of Canada Blooms March 9. Today there is a cold warning and lots of winter ice still on the ground. Gotta get my fix somehow!