Garden Clippings

Virtually any plants that bloom with white, cream, or yellow flowers can be part of the moonlight garden. As these plants reflect moonlight, their blooms jump out of their muted green surroundings.

The most common nut trees grown in Ontario are heartnut, hazelnut, sweet chestnut, black walnut, Persian walnut, butternut, ginkgo, northern pecan, hican (a cross between a hickory and a pecan), shagbark hickory, shellbark hickory, nut pines, and almond.

Diagnosing a pest problem on a plant is easiest if you catch the pests in the act. Identifying the pest takes patience. Walk through your garden, or look carefully at your houseplants weekly and record your observations.

Many winter-hardy cacti can grow in southern Ontario. The prickly pear (Opuntia) and Escobaria are good specimens for the winter garden.

The Viola x wittrockiana, commonly known as the viola or pansy, is a member of the Violaceae family. Roman mythology has it that Jupiter, who was the chief god, created pansy's sweet blossoms as food for his mistress, Io.

The peony is a hardy plant that grows to be 60-80 cm tall and has a similar spread. It has magnificent, large, satiny, multi-petaled blooms that can range in color from white to purple.

When choosing perennials, you should always consider their light requirements. Some plants love the shade while others long for the sun.

Grass grows best in a biologically active soil in which soil organisms, such as earthworms, recycle plant material so that nutrients are slowly released in the root zone of the grass.

Phlox ‘David’ is an offspring of Phlox paniculata. It was preserved in the 1980s by volunteers at the Brandywine Conservancy, near Philadelphia.

In 1829, after four years of serving as the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett returned to his home in South Carolina. With him he brought cuttings of a beautiful Mexican wildflower, which we now know as the poinsettia.