If you didn’t have the planting bug before, you must have it now, as all the beautiful plants are beckoning to us from the greenhouses! Don’t they all look enticing? It’s hard to resist! Before we sit down with a cup of tea to “talk plants”, I’d like to remind you about a couple of upcoming events: the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be holding their next regular meeting on Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00 p.m. at SIGN on North Street. Our guest speaker will be Carol Miller from Windthorst telling us everything we need to know about “How To Grow Sprouts All Year Round”. Hope you can be there!
Another reminder: Our Spring Plant and Bulb Sale will be on Friday, May 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Parkland Mall. This is a one day sale, and your chance to choose from a nice selection of plants at great prices. I always suggest that it is better to come to the sale sooner rather than later for best selection! We have our regular shoppers who know this, and they are there first thing when the sale starts at 9:30! We are always so pleased to see them, and we look forward to seeing all of you at the sale!
Now let’s sit down with tea for a minute. Seeing all the plants this past week made me think of my Mom and how she loved this time of year! It was one of our joys to go and visit the greenhouses; how I miss her and those happy times! But good memories are part of gardening, so let’s chat about a beautiful plant that my Mom grew years ago, and I know many of you have it as well.
The plant is mandevilla, and it’s pretty cousin, dipladenia. Mom had a pink mandevilla vine, and it was stunning with the exotic-looking pink flowers. The only problem was that it took up a lot of room, and because of its viney growing habit, it had to stay where it was established. But guess what? We can enjoy the beauty of the plant with the dipladenia, a bush-type cousin of the mandevilla.
The dipladenia likes bright sun, doesn’t have any special water requests except good drainage, and to dry out in-between waterings. This plant is a lot more mobile since it does very well in containers that we can move around where they suit us best, and doesn’t need any kind of staking. It will give us quite a show with pink, white or deep red flowers, glossy dark green leaves, and no deadheading is required! Pinching back the plant’s foliage will make it even more lush, and we want it to produce all those extra blooms because they attract not only bees but hummingbirds as well. When I was doing my homework I also read that this plant is deer-resistant, so gardeners who have these lovely guests in their gardens might want to give this plant a chance!
It sounds like a very easy-going addition to our plant collection this spring; I’m going to give it a try in one of our containers!
Don’t forget, gardeners, you can read about the group’s upcoming events on our website at www.yorktonhort.ca. New information is always being added to the site, so visit often!
If you’ve still got your calendars out, please mark down Tuesday, August 11, the date of our Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Show; and also October 23 and 24, when the Yorkton group will host the Saskatchewan Horticultural Association Convention and AGM. More on that as it gets closer!
Have a great week and savor every day in your garden!
