Let’s make a cup of tea and sit down for a few minutes: first thing, I wanted to say that if you weren’t on the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society bus trip to Dauphin, you missed a great day! We toured two amazing yards, and they were full of ideas for us in terms of landscaping, layout, and plant choices. One of the yards had an astonishing amount of hostas, and they looked stunning! You know that’s one of my favorites, so I was entranced as soon as we walked into the garden! The amazing thing, though, was that they were planted in areas of bright sunshine, and were absolutely flourishing. So there’s goes the myth that hostas will do well only in shade.
In this same garden we saw another exciting plant, placed abundantly in planters and in the ground among perennials, and this plant was new to me; I’ll tell you about it in a minute. But it was bright and cheery and added a real pop of color wherever it was placed. One other thing that surprised me was a long border made of alternating dark red coleus and those lovely petunias that are those amazing brick/coffee/pink colors; you know the ones I mean. Not only was the unlikely color combination a real winner, but again the surprise that coleus could do so well out in bright sun. So I guess we learn two lessons: try something new, and talk to the experts at the greenhouses to find out about new varieties of plants that are more sun tolerant.
Thank you to Liz for arranging this wonderful trip for us and the fun bus games and jokes; to Don, our great bus driver from Westerhaug, who managed to get us down some very tight streets with ease; to Joyce, our Manitoba contact who escorted us even though she was using a crutch and recovering from a fall: you just can’t stop gardeners! Thank you to the kind folks who shared their gardens with us in Dauphin, they were beautiful! And thank you to everyone who came on the trip, it was great fun to spend the day with you!
The plant I wanted to tell you about is bidens. Perhaps you already know about it, but it’s new to us, and one that we want to add to our “favorite plant list”. Bidens is a member of the aster “family”, and part of the coreopsis “tribe” in the plant world, so that gives you an idea of the type of flowers that it has. It is a plant with a mound of base foliage, and from this, long slender stems emerge in all directions. The flowers are bright yellow, with a defined star shape. It grows twelve to sixteen inches wide, and does very well in containers or window boxes because as it tumbles over the edge it will soften the edges of the planter. Be sure to give bidens well-drained soil and full sun.
I also read that it will attract birds and butterflies, so that’s another positive reason to add this plant to our gardens. In zones 8 and higher, this plant would be a perennial, but here we have to treat it as an annual. I want to ask members of the group if this plant can be wintered over in the house. I’ll let you know! Bidens is a great little plant — there’s always something new to learn about in gardening!
On another topic, I notice a lot of bees in the garden, good to see! Let’s keep the bees in our gardening thoughts, and try to plant things that will attract them to our gardens. I found a great site from the Canadian Honey Council, www.honeycouncil.ca, and it states “Honey bees will tap about two million flowers and fly 50,000 miles (80,000 km) to make one pound (454 g) of honey.” Amazing! Visit the site and learn more about these amazing creatures and how we can help their survival.
Have a great week, and be sure to wear a hat!
