Jenny Wren
Like a kid in a candy store or a child in the sweet shop as my mother would have said, I love pouring through seed catalogues at this time of year.
Depending on the stage of my life, it has been vegetables, dried flowers, herbs, perennials, clematis, roses and most recently annual cut flowers. I look at and love them all but space restraints means limiting what I can indulge in.
Practicalities of raising a family and doing so economically meant I tried many different varieties of vegetables over the years. I froze, canned and dried but now the novelty has worn off and thanks to our thriving farmers market, I can purchase only what we truly need on a regular basis through the summer. It means I don’t have to sweat it out over the veggies and I can grow the flowers I love!
After my children left home and I was able to take over a room in my home and my dried flower phase took over for a while. Helichrysums, Bells of Ireland and Statice galore adorned my new free room. Topiaries, garlands and wreaths were everywhere. Believe it or not I still have one or two of them very faded and crispy but they remind me of the fun I had making them. I am told dried flowers are making a comeback, which is good to hear as they can be a wonderful cheerful addition to the home.
This year I am doing away with the last remaining veg, zucchini included. I have roses in the front garden, to take away from the deer and transplant. They will fill up one available area and then loving flowers as I do I shall grow more cut flowers. I have always said a room is dead without flowers and one of my guilty pleasures is to always try and have flowers in the house. Making bouquets throughout the year is so rewarding and soothing to the soul.
It becomes a challenge at times. What fresh flowers can I have from my garden in March! Bulbs fill la large void but by March I will be starting some seeds indoors so that will fill the need for green at least. I also like to force buds such as Forsythia into flower by cutting branches and bringing them inside. It works with apple blossom and many leafy plants too. Simply cutting some ubiquitous yellow willow branches and popping them in water will provide a beautiful display of opening leaves. By observing the branches, you can usually tell when would be a good time to bring some in. Look for slightly swelling buds. The time varies depending on weather but March and April are usually good times.
In perusing cut flower online catalogues I decided to try a few annuals I have never tried before and putting a bouquet together in my head was interesting as I realized nearly everything in my cart was pink. I didn’t realize I had such a penchant for pink. Of course I do not expect all of these annuals to be successful for me. I do not have a large area of full sun anymore and that is what is needed for these annuals. The dream and the reality are always far apart but it is fun to try.
My biggest thrill in checking all the small seed breeders out, was that I discovered Heirloom Roses is now shipping to Canada. This is huge for rose lovers as after Pickering Roses closed, there were no more heirloom rose breeders left in Canada. Having plants shipped across the border is no easy task and expensive for small orders in any circumstances but this will make it so much easier. The beauty of’ Heirloom Roses’ is that they are located in Oregon and shipping through Fedex should not be too traumatic for the plants. In looking at their catalog on line, the roses are not cheap by any means but for rose lovers, it is a treat to think we can find some of these old varieties again.
The roses I must transplant this year are all heirloom roses purchased many years ago but the deer have literally chewed them into near death. For the longest while I was able to keep the ungulates at bay by spraying with Bobbex but over the last few years as the roses became chewed down, they simply could not recover as they used to. The fragrance of heirloom roses is hard to beat. On a hot summer’s day, combined with lavender the scent can be heady. Heirloom or Heritage roses are also frequently hardier than many modern roses.
After digressing into roses for quite some time, I returned to my seed order and easily spent $100. I hope I see some success but with a garden full of perennials and little room for anything else, I can easily rationalize the expense as I will not be purchasing trees or shrubs or other large items. The hours of pleasure that these seeds will reward me with is worth every penny. From waiting for germination, to nursing the seedlings, to harvesting the flowers is a summer’s worth of entertainment for me.
Now where could I possibly plant another rose?
