YORKTON - The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be holding their annual Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Show on Wednesday, August 6, from 11:00 AM till 3:00 PM at the Parkland Mall in Yorkton.
Bring a friend and come see the best of the gardening season! Every garden is a challenge, and every garden year has its challenges, but it great to bring treasure from the garden for our guests to see. We do our best to make it an interesting show! The first flower show in Yorkton was in 1907, and I am always amazed that even as those long-ago pioneers worked so hard in their daily tasks, they still thought it was important to take time off and gather together for the social aspect of a flower show, and enjoy seeing the beauty that their gardens brought forth.
And so it continues! Please join us, you’ll see a variety of displays, and maybe these displays will give you some ideas of plants or flowers to try next year. We try to label the varieties of entries when we can, so that the show provides an educational aspect as well.
We all know how important it is to include plants for pollinators in our gardens, and one that the bees just LOVE is veronica. Also known as speedwell, this flowering perennial should go on the garden list for best plants to anchor any perennial bed.
Why? Though the veronica family is a big one, and comes in many sizes from a few inches tall to almost two feet tall. But probably the most common veronica that gardeners enjoy is a deep indigo-blue-purple colour, growing about 18 inches high. The shape of the plant is a sturdy, beautiful shape: a dense clump. And when this ‘clump’ is in bloom, it is a real eye-catcher in the garden! FYI—it also comes in white, with very elegant spires of flowers, and shades of pink, but if you want a stunning shot of colour, the dark blue is the one to go with! (I have also read of a variety called “Red Fox” that has electric fuschia-coloured flowers, it looked like a bright beauty as well that you might be interested in! I mention the blue variety because we love blue, and this one has always attracted bees to our garden.)
Veronica is another one of those easy-care plants. It likes full sun. If it is in a shadier location, it might get a fungal problem, but otherwise it is not bothered by diseases or pests. Veronica is not too particular about soil, but well draining soil is preferred. (Most plants that we would have in our gardens do not like a setting where their feet are wet all the time). It can tolerate dry conditions once it is nicely settled in.
Another ‘plus’ for veronica is that it blooms and blooms and blooms. We can deadhead it to keep it looking its best. Get out the snips and trim the finished blooms just below where the flower spike ends, and this will encourage another flush of flowers.
Every few years the plant can be easily divided, which will make them more robust ad give new additions to your garden collection, and I have read that we can even take cuttings from this plant as well. From what I have read, we would follow the same procedure as with other cuttings , using rooting powder and being patient!
This is a great plant for a perennial bed, but it would also be wonderful in a setting like a rock garden. I have seen a few pictures where it was used as a background border in a flower bed, and that was very striking, too.
Whatever color we pick, whatever size veronica we pick, it will be a plant that will reward our gardens with years of almost-carefree beauty! Thank you to our friends at YTW for their fine work; visit the hort society at www.yorktonhort.ca and have a good week!
