It’s the new year! The days are starting to get longer (we may not see it yet but they are!) and by now you may have received a few seed catalogues! Do we dare to start to “think spring”?
Why not! It’s roughly 140 sleeps until the May long weekend, the traditional “planting weekend”. So make a cup of tea and sit down with me, and let’s take a spin through one of the seed catalogues to see what’s coming up this year!
I have the W.H. Perron catalogue in front of me, a beautiful, glossy catalogues with lots of plants to get us enthused for spring planting! This was Dominion Seeds, in case you are wondering about the new look. I’m glancing through the pages, and one plant that looks interesting is a cauliflower called “Fioretto”, a “long stem” cauliflower with a sweet taste, and one that we harvest in sticks rather than in a head. The cauliflower pieces look like little flowers in the picture; it would be an interesting addition to a salad, wouldn’t it!
There’s a beautiful green bean called “Green Sybaris”, and the catalogue says that the beans grow higher on the plant, helping them to grown long and straight, and stay clean.
I think red onions are one of the prettiest vegetables, and the catalogue has a new one called “Monastrell” that is early, yet stores well. We can early direct seed this one.
For those of you who like growing sprouts and shoots, there are several things to try like “Rambo Radish” and kale, as well as accessories to help this interesting form of gardening. We can become mini-farmers, because one of the sprout seed choices is hard winter wheat, which the catalogue tells us is rich in proteins, vitamins, and carbohydrates. There is also a picture of beet sprouts, and my, they are pretty: lovely raspberry-colored stems that look so appetizing! The daikon radish red sprouts are beautiful as well. No one would have to encourage us to “eat your sprouts!” when they look like this!
Since we’re aware of wanting to include plants that attract pollinators, there is a new celosia called “Asian Garden”. It is a lovely pink, multi-branched stems, and will stand up to the first frosts. The catalogue calls it a “pollinator magnet”.
If you like begonias, there is one called “Funky Pink”, a semi-trailing variety that has large double flowers all summer long. For marigold fans, “French Strawberry Blonde” gives us multi-colored blooms on the same plant, imagine! The flowers change from yellow to pink to red. There is also one called “French Fireball” that changes from yellow to orange to red. Amazing!
Under “Novelties- Perennial” there is a plant called “Perovskia Blue Stell”, a heat and drought tolerant plant with silvery foliage and stems, and small blue flowers. Sounds lovely!
Wait, there’s more! A rosy-skinned and rosy-fleshed potato called “AmaRosa” that keeps the rosy color when cooked! That would make an interesting potato salad! Or how about an aster called “Hulk Green” that has a yellow centre, but instead of petals has a ring of green leaves!
We could go on, but there are too many fascinating items in the catalogue! I hope that you will order your own catalogues, they are interesting and educational reading to get us eager for spring!
January 6 is Christmas Eve under the Julian calendar. Christ is Born! Wishing you a holy season of grace and blessings.
Visit our website, wwwyorktonhort.ca to see what’s new. Have a great week!
