Farmer's Almanac Weather Prediction for Ontario: "Sunny."
Wow, so much has happened since my last entry I barely know where to begin. It started last Wed. night when I attended Canada Blooms. I went with two friends who aren't gardeners. That was a bit of a mistake since we really weren't there for the same reasons. They wanted to stroll through the gardens. I wanted to race through the boring gardens, look more closely at the plants that caught my interest and then head over to the shopping area to make some purchases. As non-gardeners they really didn't have the attention spans for inspecting racks and racks of seeds.
I have to admit that despite the big deal I make out of attending Canada Blooms it really is aimed at the homeowner who spends a lot of money on their garden and not on "the plant lover at large". That's not to say that I don't spend money or wasn't there to spend money. However, I go to Canada Blooms to buy things I don't have access to (due to a lack of transportation) the rest of the year. I'd rather pick up those essentials there (with all the local vendors in one place), then beg my friends with cars to drive me out to the suburbs during the spring and summer. And frankly despite the amount of cash I drop on plants and plant-related merchandise throughout the year, it is small potatoes compared to the big money that is spent. After all here at You Grow Girl we believe in doing it ourselves cheaply, rather than buying every product on the market that claims to do it for us. Gardening is not and should not be a pastime for only the rich or strictly a way of improving your home's resale value.
 Getting back to the story, I was kind of disappointed by my first trip to the show this year for a number of reasons. After 4 years of attending the show, I don't have high expectations, because after all, it is a rather traditional garden show designed to promote products. However, I have come to notice that gardening is an awful lot like fashion -- you have the creatives that come up with great ideas, those ideas become trends, and they eventually trickle down to the mainstream. Canada Blooms is no exception. This year there was a lot more creativity as far as the displays went, but many were just bad knock-offs of more innovative ideas. Of course there was the exception. I really enjoyed the pussywillow sculpture and the 'Banana Republic' garden (that was the name of the display but doesn't refer to the store). However, I really felt the Banana Republic display went too far by adding blue dye to the water. It reminded me alot of the fountains at "Super Putt" in my hometown of St. Catharines.
So just what did I buy on my first trip to Canada Blooms? I bought a few plants from Richters' Herbs: African blue basil, Vietnamese coriander (Rau Ram), Oriental poppy (white) and Lesbos basil. I also bought a few packs of seeds: anise basil and purple sacred basil.
On Thursday night I realized I was going to be in trouble if I bought even one more plant before spring planting time. I have reached maximum capacity as far as window space goes (I know I announce this every few months and then manage to find room for more). I had a few extra plants that I wanted to get rid of and a friend who wanted some plants so I gave them to her, freeing up space for my second trip to Canada Blooms. It was a win, win situation for everyone involved.
 Some friends of ours have just bought a house and we were to attend their housewarming party on Saturday night. Friday night I went out and bought supplies to make a cactus and succulent garden. Of course I couldn't resist and brought home two plants for myself in addition to the nine plants I bought for them. I bought two aloes; aloe variegata L and the other unknown.
On Saturday morning I didn't have enough rocks to cover the surface of the cactus and succulent garden so I went out to get a few bags. While I was out I got an excellent deal on a mini glass greenhouse. I put one of my African violets in it. It's a bit fancy and Victorian which is not my usual taste, but for some reason I really like it. At home I completed the garden with the newly acquired rocks. I have to say I am extremely proud of it. It turned out exceptionally well!
Saturday evening with the housewarming gift complete, Beate showed up for our trip to Canada Blooms. This time we didn't even bother to go through the display gardens. We made a bee-line directly for the shopping section and spent nearly the full 3.5 hours there. I never check the first floor sale area (when you first come in) because it always seems to be a bunch of overpriced bourgeois crap. But this year the Royal Botanical Gardens had a booth so we checked it out. I was so glad we did! The one plant I had come back to the sale to get was stevia. I had one two years ago but shortly after its purchase we went on a two week vacation and the plant died. It was a perfectly acceptable loss as I had no expectations that our home sitting friend would be able to keep up with the variety of needs of each of my zillions of plants. Especially not after a five minute schooling. Last year I tried to get a stevia plant but Richters Herbs sold out every single day before I could get to it. I had planned to order one online but then decided against it. So this year I was determined to find one! Well as luck would have it the Royal Botanical Gardens not only had one but several large plants that were more than two dollars cheaper then Richters' plants (which they were again sold out of). I ended up with three good-sized stevia for $12.00 as opposed to the $7.00 for one small plant I would have purchased from Richters had they had any left to sell. I also bought a lemon verbena plant from the RBG booth. Later on I directed several people to the RGB booth because so many people were impressed with the size of the plants I had purchased.
Having purchased the stevia plant I had come for, I was really focussed on getting some seeds. I did not manage to find seeds for the green zebra tomatoes I hope to grow this year. I did however get organic seeds for California Wonder peppers and green onions all from Aimers organics who by-the-way have the cheapest organic seeds I have ever seen at $1.99 CDN/pack (3 packs for $5.00). I was thoroughly tempted at the Florabunda Seeds booth but managed to resist the good selection of black heirloom flowers and merely come out with one packet of black cornflower seeds. I'm a little disturbed that the name of the variety is "Black Boy" but I suppose I'd be more disturbed if a trend hadn't already been set in the naming of the blue variety as "Blue Boy". I gather from that, that the name is not racially motivated. However, these are a very old variety and you can never really know the origin of the name or be naive about its meaning.
To conclude my seed shopping I impulsively bought a packet of 500 Cape gooseberries (Physalis edulis) because... well... I like the taste and the fact that they are related to tomatillos hence the neat husk that covers the fruit.
 From the tillandsia booth in the far corner I bought four new tillandsia plants: a very large fasciculata that is about to bloom, two ionanthas with beautiful burgundy foliage and a small paleacea that Beate named Freddy. I tend not to name my plants but Freddy has stuck. I'll never be able to remember the latin name for the plant and will always think of it as the Freddy plant. All the tillandsia (minus the big one) are currently happily coexisting with some of my other tillandsia in a terrarium.
My final purchase was a few bags of unpolished rocks and concentrated sea kelp fertilizer that is supposed to be really good and makes 25 litres of fertilizer. I'm looking forward to trying it out. I already use a dry sea kelp fertilizer that I add to water to make into a liquid tea. I have a feeling this may be the same thing minus the extra steps and the steeping time.
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