Plans afoot

After about ten hours or more of pulling Scilla from the back garden I have a grudging respect for its ability to self-propagate. This plant was a traveller from my neighbour's garden and more than doubled its footprint in the last year. Despite my best efforts I think it will be returning next year, and HORRORS, I was pulling strands out of the patch of blood root. Now half the lawn is missing in the back and we have plans for sod to fill in the space.

I also wanted to slightly expand the front garden and take some of the non-natives from the back to the front. Hellebore, brunera, pulmonaria.

Just move things around, and try to focus more on native plants. 

This was also going to be the year I didn't spend much on new plants. Ha ha.

Our fence blew over in a winter storm and I lost quite a few plants when a crew fixed the damage. Thankfully we were able to keep the panels that Rob and Alex built together 18 years ago. But the frame and footings needed to be replaced, they'd rotted. Meanwhile, anything planted along the fence was trampled - including all the clematis I'd planted last year. I wanted Henryi, but couldn't seem to find any in nursery stock in Toronto, so settled for two white 'Ninon' that are easily pruned (cut back to 12" in spring).

I did want some more Canadian anemone and Jack in the pulpit. Ontario Native Plants was my first stop, ordering online. They had neither available, but that didn't stop me from getting some purple bergamot and scarlet bee balm.... and some butterfly bush, purple coneflower, and foam flower. This will ship in June. 

In the meantime I was still on the hunt for some Jacks and Anemone, and found a native nursery in Caledon called Plant Paradise. I left with some real treasures, some I'd been looking for and others I didn't realize I needed until I saw them.

Jack in the Pulpit x 3
Anemone canadensis × 2
Actaea racemosa (Black Cohosh/snakeroot)
Iris cristata
Pulsatilla (Pasque flower)
Myrrhis odorata (Sweet Cicely)
Artemisia lactiflora ‘Guizhou’
Paeonia Pink double dandy (Intersectional Peony - Itoh)
Root Rescue (mychorrizal fungi)

The Black Cohosh has already replaced a Smokebush that was surrounded with Wild Ginger and May Apple.  I'm looking forward to white plumes in autumn. Hopefully this won't get too large for the space, but if it does it will find a home in the ravine.

The trio of Jacks is under the Japanese maple, and one anemone went to the front and another to the back.

Sweet Cicely has gone under the bird feeder. Not native, but wonderfully aromatic. The Artimesia, also not native, will likely be gifted to Alex and Penny  as it likes more of a sandy soil and lots of sun (what was I thinking?). 

I'm still trying to decide on the best spots for the Iris and Pasque Flower, likely in the place of a hellebore or brunera.

The biggest surprise on the list is the Itoh Peony! This plant is definitely NOT native. This is 'intersectional', that is,  a tree peony crossed with a herbaceous peony. The blooms should last a full month, and the plant itself should last more than fifty years. This may have been the most I've ever spent on a flowering plant, but I'm already looking forward to seeing how it does this spring. But first we have to expand the garden.  My big garden 'to do' next week is to get this plant into the ground so it can bloom in June.

The other ambition is to potentially add a Japanese element in the back garden. Spirit lamp? Rain chain? Water feature? Rock? Moss? Karesansui dry garden? Probably best to finish the other two projects before starting in with this one. It will be fun to research!