Recent Posts
Grow Hardy Citrus
Grow Hardy Citrus These 17 varieties are hardy or potentially hardy outdoors in coastal BC or grow them with less heat in colder climates! Citrus are beloved subtropical fruits that originated in Asia but have been cultivated for thousands of years by diverse cultures. They are loved for [...]
Growing Roses in Containers
Growing Roses in Containers Roses are one of the most beautiful and beloved flowers you can grow. Their wide range of colours and flower forms and their fragrance have endeared them to generations of gardeners. But in today’s modern world with our ever denser cities and [...]
Grow Avocado, Guava & Passionfruit
Grow Avocado, Guava & Passionfruit With a little winter protection, you can grow your own subtropical fruits! If Canadians can grow citrus, then why not try avocados, guava and passionfruit? Avocado Few people in the Great White North have tried to grow avocado. Information is [...]
Mini and Patio Roses for Small Spaces and Containers : Small Roses with Lots of Flower Power
Mini and Patio Roses for Small Spaces and Containers : Small Roses with Lots of Flower Power Compact patio and miniature roses offer you more options to plant roses not just in your garden but also in containers on your patio and on your balcony. You'll [...]
Grow Milkweeds : Support Beneficial Butterflies and Insects to add intriguing Beauty to your Garden
Grow Milkweeds : Support beneficial butterflies and insects to add intriguing beauty to your garden Asclepias is a genus of hardy perennial plants that belong to the family Apocynaceae and are commonly known as milkweeds. Milkweeds are well-known for their ecological importance as they provide nectar [...]
New Striped Roses
New Striped Roses Striped roses are like plants with variegated foliage, they're not for everyone but those who like them, like them a lot! And even many of those who say they don't like them come around eventually. Striped roses make an intriguing and bold statement [...]
Discover and Grow Pawpaws : These hardy trees produce delicious fruit with tropical flavours
Discover and Grow Pawpaws : These hardy trees produce delicious fruit with tropical flavours Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is an intriguing eastern North American understorey tree that grows across much of the eastern US and into southern Ontario. It is a member of the Annonaceae (Custard [...]
Aeonium: Succulents for Drama and Vertical Appeal
Aeonium: Succulents for Drama and Vertical Appeal Aeonium, sometimes called tree houseleeks, is a wonderful group of rosette-forming succulents that have the added appeal of growing atop woody trunks into architecturally beautiful branching sculptures. Young plants look a lot like an Echeveria but over time Aeonium will rise upon [...]
The Five Different Types of Rose Fragrance
Roses are famous for their visual beauty but also their fragrance. Learn about the five different types of rose fragrance and the different cultivars that offer these intoxicating perfumes.
English Style Roses for Canadian Gardens (Other than David Austins!)
The English style rose was made famous by the pioneering work of David Austin combining the beauty, fragrance, and romance of old roses with the colour range and performance of modern roses. While David Austin is the most famous breeder of English style roses, he is not the only one!
David Austin Roses for Canadian Gardens
David Austin roses are some of the most renowned and beloved roses in the world. Since the 1950s David Austin has been working to combine the beauty and romance of old roses with the performance of modern roses. His work has lead to a stunning range of beautiful and fragrant top-performing cultivars for Canadian gardens.
Colchicum: The Autumn Crocus
In the garden, Colchicum or meadow saffron, is a beautiful and intriguing bulb with two seasons of interest: the first in the spring with beautiful, lush foliage and the second in the fall when the white, pink or purple-pink flowers are produced in profusion.
The Benefits of Fall Planting
Fall is one of the best times to plant perennials, vines, shrubs, and trees. Learn about the benefits of fall planting and some tips for success.
Haworthia: An amazing genus of southern African succulents
Haworthia is a lesser-known genus in the world of succulents — especially relative to favourites like Echeveria, Aeonium, Agave, and Aloe — but it is a spectacular and fascinating group of small succulent plants with an incredible diversity of structures, patterns, and colours. Haworthia also have cool evolutionary innovations that help them survive in the challenging, semi-arid environments of southern Africa and make them more beautiful and more intriguing.
The Joys of Edible Gardening During a Crisis
Edible gardening is fulfilling and inspiring, it provides exercise, gets you outside, saves money, connects you with family, friends, and neighbours, and provides you with delicious produce. In times of crisis, growing your own food becomes all the more important for economic reasons and for psychological and physical health. Learn more about the benefits of edible gardening and get some valuable tips to success.
All About Hellebores
Hellebores are an incredible group of evergreen perennials for gardeners from zone 3 to zone 9. In warmer zones, they are winter and early spring-blooming plants providing colour from late November through April. In colder zones, they bloom in late winter and early spring as soon as the snow melts. In any zone they provide interest when most other plants are soundly dormant bringing forth the first major burst of colour for the season.
Like it, Love it
In Phoenix Perennials owner Gary Lewis's article in Fine Gardening Magazine, take 10 plants you've always liked and consider 10 exciting alternatives that you just might love.
How to Grow David Austin Roses in Zone 3
David Austin roses are some of the most renowned and beloved roses in the world. Though they are usually listed as hardy to zone 4 or 5, here are a few strategies to grow them in zone 3 in some of the coldest parts of Canada!
A Canadian Breeding Success Story: Alan McMurtrie’s Incredible Iris reticulata
Bred right here in Canada, Alan McMurtrie is creating new colours and colour patterns never seen before in the reticulated iris. Learn more about his amazing cultivars.
Broken Tulips: Grow the Fabled Bulbs that Inspired Tulipmania
Through their beauty and unusual flower patterns, Broken Tulips offer not just a pretty display but a connection to a dramatic and tumultuous history.
Hardy Cyclamen
Cyclamen is a genus of plants known best for the florist cultivars of large, boldy-coloured flowers and dramatic mottled foliage grown as decorative, seasonal or short-lived pot plants. Many people remain unaware that there are species that are hardy in temperate gardens or that they are in leaf and in bloom in the fall, winter, and early spring!
Oddball Bulbs: Explore the Beautiful and Unusual World of Bulbs
Bulbs, corms, and rhizomes represent a particular life history strategy that has evolved in almost every region of the world. Applied to gardens, they offer us beauty, intrigue, and additional strategies for layering in interest and colour. Explore some of the most interesting oddball bulbs for your patio or garden.
Erythronium: Elegance for the Shade Garden
Erythronium is a genus of shady bulbs from North America and Eurasia that form beautiful carpets of ephemeral spring flowers on the forest floors of their native regions. They are known as fawn lilies, trout lilies, and dogtooth violets. They can be used for beautiful early spring displays in the shade garden.
Corydalis: Drifts of Colour for the Early Spring Shade Garden
Corydalis solida is a beautiful spring ephemeral that blooms in the shade garden when most perennials are still dormant. Plant them in clumps or drifts to give you colour and spring inspiration at the very beginning of the season.
Anemone: Windflowers for the Spring Garden
The beautiful wood anemones or windflowers produce carpets of dainty foliage and masses of beautiful flowers in shades of white, yellow, pink, lavender, and pale blue in early spring. Plant them in drifts in your shade garden to put on a show when your Hosta and ferns are only just thinking of breaking dormancy.