Category Archives: Videos

Advice, Annuals, Health, Information, Injuries, Perennials, Shrubs & Trees, Videos

beware! Think twice about these plants for your garden

July 13, 2021 peterboroughmastergardeners 1 Comment

by Rachel Burrows, Master Gardener

Plants are unable to hide or run away when faced with danger such as being eaten by a hungry rabbit. However some plants are toxic and can cause anything from mild discomfort to fatal consequences. Many of them are lovely to look at but it is wise to know which are poisonous especially if you have young children or pets.

Castor Bean Plant (Ricinus communis)

A friend phoned me and said that she had a fabulous plant with very unusual seed heads and would I like to take a look at it as she didn’t know what it was. Castor bean plants contain ricin, one of the most toxic substances known. The ricin is in the seeds which are covered with a prickly coating and are pretty shade of dark red. If the seed is swallowed whole without damaging the seed coat it will likely pass through the digestive system harmlessly. However, if it is chewed and swallowed the ricin will be absorbed within minutes and is usually fatal. One seed is enough for a deadly dose for a child and about four for an adult. My friend was very surprised and agreed to dig the plant put of her garden and dispose of it safely. These plants are often grown for their ornamental properties as they are tall and a lovely colour.

Yews (Taxus)

Again, another popular plant for hedges and often seen in gardens. The entire shrub is poisonous except for the red flesh of the berries. The oval, black seeds within the berries are highly toxic and can be fatal within a few hours of eating as few as 3 seeds. The toxin in yews is taxine which is a cardiac suppressant. I grew up on a farm and we all knew not to have yews in fields with livestock.

Rhododendron

Not so hardy and a little harder to grow in this area but very common further south and in parts of England. All parts of the rhododendron are poisonous, even honey produced form the shrubs is poisonous.

Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)

This shrub is a close relative to Mountain Laurel and all the green parts, twigs, blooms and pollen are toxic. It’s blooms are gorgeous but beware!

Lily of the Valley (Convalliaria majalis)

Lily of the Valley is valued for its lovely perfume and as a ground cover, although some people see it as a menace as it does spread quickly. The entire plant is poisonous and causes the heart’s contractions to intensify.

Monkshood (Aconitum)

This is a stunning, tall perennial which blooms late in the season with striking purple flowers. All parts of the plant especially the roots and seeds are extremely poisonous. Eating as little as 1 gram may cause death. Even the sap can cause fingers to become numb.

Delphinium

Another lovely and showy perennial, but all parts of the plant are poisonous, especially the seeds. Death can be caused in as little as 6 hours.

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)

Another commonly grown plant that produces the well known heart medication. However, the whole plant is poisonous and the toxin is deadly in high doses.

There are several other poisonous plants that you might want to think twice about before bringing them into your garden. Be aware of their deadly potential especially if you have young children or pets. By all means grow them if you love them, just be careful.

Did you know? There’s a garden in England dedicated to poisonous plants? Take a tour – virtually..

For further information and pictures of other poisonous garden, wild and house plants check out these websites

Ontario Poison Centre – Plants

Good Housekeeping List of Poisonous Plants Around the Home

Landscape Ontario – List of Poisonous Plants

Advice, Light, Seeds, Videos, Websites

And Sow it Begins

March 8, 2021 peterboroughmastergardeners Leave a comment

By Marilyn Homewood, Master Gardener in Training

The season has begun! Canada Post has delivered seeds for this intrepid gardener to coax into cutting garden participants by providing the right conditions for survival and growth. In order to germinate, seeds need water, oxygen and warmth. Some like foxglove have additional requirements such as light. Once sown, seeds soak up water to soften their outer coat (“imbibition”) and then begin to metabolize stored food reserves. A seedling soon appears. At my house, seeds are germinated in a warm room and then moved to the sunroom where it is cooler and brighter. My growing set up consists of a metal cart (two main levels) with adjustable grow lights hanging above the bottom shelf. When space runs out on the cart, the tables in the sunroom are enlisted. To brush up on seed starting essentials check out the articles in the resources list.

Tips that have come in handy for me are highlighted below:

Online seed starting calculators. I wish I had known about this before I calculated all my dates this year! Based on your last frost date, the calculator gives you the date to sow your seeds as well as an approximate date for transplanting seedlings outside.

Sowing tiny seeds: Gadgets don’t work for me. This year I discovered pelleted foxglove seed and loved it. Not only does the pellet make it large enough to handle easily, it is coloured so you can see it on the soil. For non-pelleted tiny seeds, I use a moistened toothpick to pick the seed up from a dish and drop into the plug tray.

Vermiculite: Once seeds are sown, covering the tops with vermiculite prevents the formation of a hard crust. Tiny seeds such as snapdragons and foxglove get barely covered with a fine dusting.

Cold Germinators: These are hard to start seeds like dara and bupleurum. Some annual varieties fall into this category. Put these seeds into the freezer to stratify for a few weeks. Try to not to forget where you put them.

Consistent Warm Temperature: Most plants will germinate around 70F. Bottom heat from a propagation mat can provide faster and more even germination.

Bottom Watering: Using plug trays or cell packs in trays allows you to water from the bottom. Water wicks up from below reducing incidence of fungal disease and preventing tiny seeds from washing away. Option 2 – use a turkey baster to water small seedlings. Time consuming but precise.

Supplemental Lighting: Seedlings need 14-16 hours of good light to develop strong, stalky stems. Even in the brightest room, the daylength is too short early in the season (February/March).

Succession Planting: This involves sowing in batches, successively, every few weeks. This spreads out the flowering window and provides blooms over the season.

Resources:

www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/flowers/succession-planting-flowers-planning-frequency-recordkeeping-tips.html

www.finegardening.com/article/10-seed-starting-tips

www.floretflowers.com/resources/seed-starting-101

www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/flowers/succession-planting-flowers-planning-frequency-recordkeeping-tips.html

YouTube Video: Indoor Grow Lights — $ vs $$$ comparison

“It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become”
Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

Bulbs, Dreams, Garden Design, Links, Videos, Websites

virtual garden tours

February 15, 2021 peterboroughmastergardeners 2 Comments

Exploring gardens around the world makes the winter pass so much faster

By Emma Murphy, Master Gardener

I have the February blahs. Although I am absorbing each minute of our ever increasing daylight (when it’s not cloudy!), I’m craving lush greenery and blooms anywhere I can find them. I spent part of yesterday looking through some trip photos to Florida from 3 years ago where I visited just about every botanical garden and specialty garden I could find – it was heaven!

Clockwise from top left – Flame Vine (Pyrostegia venusta), a bromelaid (Hectia montana), orchids in greenhouse at Selby Gardens – all taken in Florida

And while my seed orders have arrived from William Dam Seeds and Richters and I can look forward to some sort of virtual Peterborough Seedy Sunday, the traveller is me is still feeling unfulfilled.

So..the solution..virtual garden tours! So many wonderful botanical and famous gardens have adapted to not being able to have guests by launching virtual tours or live broadcasts from their locations since the pandemic. Here’s a few of my favourites.

Time to travel around the world from your living room. (additional links at the end).

Keukenhof, The Netherlands

Built in 1641, the Keukenhof Castle (west of Amsterdam in the Netherlands) and estate is more than 200 hectares. In 1949 a group of 20 leading flower bulb growers and exporters decided to use the estate to exhibit spring-flowering bulbs. 2021 will be the 72th edition of Keukenhof, with A World Of Colours as its theme. Check out their virtual tours and the initial invitation by Managing Director Bart Siemerink in March 2020.

Claude Monet’s Garden, Giverny, France

Over 500,000 people visit painter Claude Monet’s famous gardens each year (so glad to be one of them in 2018!). There are two parts to the garden – the Clos Normand flower garden in front of the house and a Japanese inspired water garden on the other side of the road (where he completed his Water Lilies painting series). Enjoy a commentary alongside a video tour of the famous garden, including the wonderful lily pond. More info here.

National Trust’s Hidcote Manor Gardens, England

The National Trust site allows you to take a 360-degree tour around the old garden, plant house and spectacular red borders of these Arts and Crafts-inspired gardens in the rolling Cotswold hills in Gloucestershire.

Scotland’s Garden Scheme

One of my favourites. Established in 1931, it helps garden owners across the country open their private gardens to the public to raise money for charity. The properties range from cottage gardens to stately homes; allotments to therapeutic and physic gardens; and formal gardens to wildlife sanctuaries. There are more than 100 tours to look at here.

Australia’s Blue Mountains, New South Wales

Further afield in Australia’s Blue Mountains just outside Sydney, artist Trisk Oktober’s steep, cool temperate gardens in Katoomba are transformed into a living artwork. I visited the nearby Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens in 2010 and it was magical. It’s also the only botanic garden within a United Nations World Heritage Area.

The view from Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens of the Blue Mountains

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, Hawaii

Located on Hawaii’s Big Island, the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden includes not only a garden but a nature preserve. If you need to zen out and feel like you are on a tropical island, this is the tour for you. And this one.

Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania, USA

Closer to home across the border is Longwood Gardens, consisting of 1,077 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows. It is the living legacy of American entrepreneur and businessman Pierre du Pont, inspiring people through excellence in garden design, horticulture, education, and the arts. The Our Gardens, Your Home initiative is their way of keeping gardeners connected.

There are so many more virtual garden tours going on around the world.

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, Virginia, USA

This botanical garden was one of the first to go virtual when the pandemic started. They have great virtual tours and visits and a terrific Facebook page.

Gardens Illustrated‘s Virtual Garden Tour series

Gardens Illustrated has assembled a collection of some of the most amazing tours – everything from Chatsworth House (a 105-acre garden with 500 years of careful cultivation) to a Virtual Chelsea Flower Show.

Kew Gardens, London, England

On my bucket list when we can travel again, this video gives you some of the highlights to see. The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew has 37 acres of woodland, 14,000 trees and 50,000 different plant species.

Wisley Gardens, Surrey, England

The Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Wisley in Surrey (south of London), is one of five gardens run by the Society, and top of my list of gardens to see. Check out their website, and also they have a great collection of videos on YouTube.

If you’ve found a great virtual garden tour please share it with all of us in the comments! Spring will be here soon!

Advice, Books, Fruits, Information, Links, Pruning, Shrubs & Trees, Videos

My Favourite Pruning Book

June 22, 2020 peterboroughmastergardeners 1 Comment

by Suzanne Seryck, Master Gardener

I have a lot of gardening books and whilst I do search on the internet if I have a quick question, there are a few books that I go to repeatedly and often. One of these is from the UK Royal Horticultural Society – Pruning & Training. I am sure you could find a similar book in Canada but as this book was given to me a few years ago by my father-in-law as a present, it has special meaning for me.

I love growing fruit, apples, grapes, currants, blueberries, to name a few and as I have a smaller city garden, this comes with challenges. I have to make use of all available space and prune effectively to fit everything I want into my garden. Hence the reason why this book is so important to me and why I use it so often.

There are chapters on ornamental trees as well as ornamental shrubs and roses and a good introduction describing the parts of a plant as well as the principles of pruning and training. But it is the chapters on tree fruits, soft fruits and climbing plants that I refer to most often. I actually have PostIt® notes on the sections that describe the pruning shapes I have chosen for my apples, currants, gooseberries and grape so I can check I am doing it correctly. I must admit it took a few years to observe the effectiveness of pruning well, I was always hesitant to cut off too much of the plant, much as I still save every perennial seedling that comes up in my garden. In my last house we had a grape for approximately 6 years and whilst we did get some fruit on it, we could have doubled or tripled the harvest with better pruning, but I hated to cut so much off.

For my grape vine I originally had it growing over an arch, but it soon outgrew that support, so we had to build a new support system and then re-prune it into its new system. There are many different systems that can be used for grapes including the rod and spur system in which the grape is grown along 3-4 horizontal wires to the guyot system in which shoots from two horizontal stems are grown vertically.

The chapter on tree fruits starts by showing diagrams of all the different forms or shapes as well as describing basic and pruning techniques. There are lots of photos and diagrams in this book so that you can visually see everything being discussed, which I really like. There is also a section on renovating neglected tree fruits.

I chose to prune my apples trees as espaliers on a four tiered tree, this is my trees fourth year and first year that they have blossoms, so I am hoping to have my first apples. It is fairly time consuming, especially as I didn’t know what I was doing the first couple of years, but I followed the instructions religiously and am now beginning to approach the trees with pruners in hand confidently.

espalieredapple — Espaliered apple tree (Year 4)

My currant and gooseberry bushes were pruned as multiple cordons with three vertical arms. I have this grown both on the same support system that I have for the fruit trees but also on bamboo poles. I find that by growing them in this way as opposed to a bush, I can fit more currant bushes into the same space, I grow red, pink, white and black, and they are easier for me to pick. I still have a high yield of berries and am able to harvest almost all of them.

There are plenty of videos on the internet showing different pruning techniques, maybe even too many as it is often difficult to choose just one, and then you end up getting side tracked. As I was writing this article and looking up videos, I ended up watching three including one on heucheras. Here’s one you might like from the RHS on renovating fruit trees.

Advice, Bees & Pollinators, Birds, Children, Communication, Dreams, Garden Design, Health, New Gardens, Planting, Research, Seeds, Tools, Videos, Websites

Gardening Is Not Cancelled

March 14, 2020 peterboroughmastergardeners 2 Comments

by Emma Murphy, Master Gardener

Just when Ontario gardeners thought spring was peeking through the piles of snow – with warmer weather and the change to daylight savings time – we’ve been derailed, and not by Mother Nature.

It’s been a tough few weeks with the increasing spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to North America. People are becoming increasingly alarmed, and in the past few days we have seen measures by our local health authorities and governments to ‘flatten the curve’ of the pandemic by imposing restrictions on travel, movement, and large events. For best information on the COVID-19 situation contact your local health unit or the Government of Ontario website. Peterborough Public Health, led by Medical Officer of Health Rosana Salvaterra, also has great resources.

Flattening the curve – Proactively instituting protective measures to protect our healthcare system’s capacity to respond.

For Ontario gardeners, the past week has seen the cancellation of two major garden shows, numerous Seedy Sundays (and Saturdays), various Ontario Horticultural Association District meetings, and local meetings (in venues that have closed their doors to external groups). The biggest shock was the last minute cancellation of Canada Blooms just before its opening (March 13-22) as so much hard work and preparation goes into this event (6 days of building, but also plant-forcing, planning, designing etc.). But all is not lost! Thanks to Paul Gellatly (new Director of Horticulture at the Toronto Botanical Gardens), Sean James (Master Gardener and gardening consultant), and Helen Battersby (Toronto-based writer and garden speaker), we have photos and video of Canada Blooms before it was dismantled so that everyone can appreciate the results, even if we don’t have “smell-o-rama” and can’t see it in person.

Photos of Canada Blooms (thanks Paul Gellatly) Here and here

(note that all the TBG’s plants from Canada Blooms will be on sale at the TBG at 777 Lawrence Ave East on March 14th and 15th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.)

Video Tour of Canada Blooms (thanks Sean James) Here

More Photos of Canada Blooms (thanks Helen Battersby) Here

The Peterborough Garden Show is also a huge draw for Ontario Gardeners. This year was to be the 20th Anniversary show – completely community run by volunteers from the Peterborough Horticultural Society, with all profits being reinvested in the community in Peterborough.

In addition, our beloved Peterborough Seedy Sunday this March 15th has been cancelled (along with many others across the province). Organizer Jillian Bishop (of Nourish and Urban Tomato) is encouraging people to visit the website and click on links for the various vendors to support them by buying seeds online.

What are Gardeners to Do?

Don’t give up hope.

Bring spring inside! Check out my recent blog on bringing dormant spring flowering branches inside and forcing them for early colour and bloom.
Plant some seeds! You may not be able to go to Seedy Saturdays/Sundays but you can order seeds from local companies or find them at your local nurseries. A great activity for March Break with kids.
Do some virtual garden tours! Google Arts and Culture has some, or there’s a virtual tour of Prince Charles’ Highgrove Gardens that I just found. I’m sure a quick Google search for “virtual tour” and “gardens” would bring up many more.
Plan your 2020 garden. Whether it’s reworking your perennial beds, planning a new garden, or deciding on your vegetables and herbs for this year, best to get your design ideas laid out now before spring arrives. Maybe think about a rain garden or pollinator garden for this year?
Clean your tools. Get in your garage or garden shed and take inventory of what tools need repair or replacing, and what new tools may be helpful this season. Clean your tools now so you are ready for the season.
Get outside. Yes we might still have snow (well some of us do) but that doesn’t stop you wandering around your garden and dreaming does it?
Go wander in nature. Many of the COVID-19 restrictions are stopping our regular activities in our communities. But that is no reason not to enjoy our wonderful environment. Take this opportunity to get out for a hike, see the plants emerging from their winter hibernation, listen to the spring birds singing, and relax in nature. (more on this in our MG Sharleen’s blog on Monday)

These are challenging times, but our gardens and love of gardening will help get us through. If you have other ideas please tweet them out to us or share them on our Facebook page.