Farmer's Almanac Weather Prediction for Ontario: "Fair Great Lakes and points east."
Huh? I think that means 'fair around the Great Lakes and eastward' but frankly I'm not sure.
I've been having a lot of fun lately. Last week I went to Canada Blooms twice (as predicted) and it was great both times. The weather has been mild and pleasant with lots of sun lately (minus Saturday which was cold with snow). I've been getting out everyday in order to soak up the sun that I've been missing for so long.
 My first trip to Canada Blooms was last Thursday with my brother. We thought we'd miss the morning crowds by going in the afternoon. Unfortunately it was as crowded as ever. As a result we only stayed a few hours. Being in a crowd tends to tire me out quickly. Too much slow shuffling and being on alert so as to avoid smashing into people. People at garden shows tend to be looking anywhere except where they are walking.
Most of the displays were rather boring. Last year the Royal Botanical Gardens created a beautiful display that mimicked a woodland setting. They brought in trees, soil, leaves; the works. I was really expecting something like it again this year, but sadly they didn't even have a display. This year the most impressive display was by far the Montreal Botanical Gardens. In fact it won several awards including the "Outstanding Garden Award".  They went for a minimalist Japanese water garden-type theme with slabs of rock (used as pedestals) displaying gigantic bonsai, orchids and a Sansevieria. The back wall was covered in mosses and other small plants in an array of greens that I couldn't see very well because I have bad eyesight.
There was only one other display that really impressed me. It was an assembly of floral arrangements put on by various floral designers. The best one was a sculpture made of glass boxes and metal that contained water, flowers, fruit and other plant parts all of the same colour yellow-green. I think it appealed to my sense of taste in colour. I hate too many colours in one place. My brother noted that silver seemed to be popular this year.
 Speaking of my brother; it was hilarious going with him. He's young and male which is a strange sight at a garden show. I really got to see the gardening demographic in full view. It's kind of sad really. So many people in silk blouses walking around looking like they didn't give a crap and were just there for--I don't know what really. To say they went? To see what's new in patio design? We both wished we had brought the mini disk recorder. You could be listening to all the hilarious sound bites right now. We overheard several people point my brother out and say "It's nice to see the young people coming out this year". At the Montreal Botanical Gardens exhibit I overheard a guy exclaim that the Sansevieria was a "hemp plant". The display listed the common name as hemp something and he thought it was "the hemp". He kept pointing to a woman saying "look that's hemp" in a a hushed tone. Like that was real marijuana (Cannabis sativa) growing right there at Canada Blooms! How can someone not know what hemp looks like? It looks exactly like the same marijuana plant that people smoke. Where was he in the early 90's when marijuana leaves were THE ICON of suburban North American youth? Every kid had a pot leaf shirt, wallet, hat, or necklace. Better yet, where was he in the 60's and 70's when he was young? Maybe he only saw it in dried form inside little baggies. That's how it grows right?
I had a HUGE headache all day Friday. I wouldn't doubt if it was the massive pollen levels in the place. That and the awful mall feeling that I couldn't shake.
On Saturday I went again with a Saskatchewan and BagORats from the forums. It was much better. First of all we went late in the afternoon/early evening. The place was cleared out. We could actually walk without shuffling. I noticed that people were actually handing me pamphlets whereas when I went with my brother people continuously skipped me over. I hate when people don't give me pamphlets. It's not like I want them, or that I'll even buy anything. It's just that I know that they skip me because I'm not wearing a silk blouse and lipstick. I don't look like the typical plant enthusiast. I don't look like I have money to spend on gardening crap. It's like when clothing stores refuse to stock normal sizes. It's as if they don't want the business. Dumb asses. Don't they realise that if they could make gardening cool with the youth they could expand their target market? Everyone knows that people my age have a disposable income. It's good no one has figured that out yet.
 Now the good part. The part in which I list off the heaps of stuff I bought over the span of two days. [See above paragraph ha ha!] I really tried to keep my spending at a minimum. Not because of the money, but because I don't have the space. I can only rearrange things so many times before it's no use. On the first day I had a list of things I wanted and I sort of stuck to it. I got more tilandsia (6 in all), a marshmallow plant (Anthaea officinalis), a cactus, a Pachypodium (possibly sandersii), a giant urn plant bromeliad (Aechmea fasciata), and some seeds. For the record marshmallow is not where marshmallows come from. It's an herb that can be taken as a tea.
I spent all of Thursday night rearranging all the plants (AGAIN!) in order to accomodate the new plants and still provide a good location for every single one. That was no small feat. I made a nice display of a few of the tilandsia that I'm pretty proud of. I love the Pachypodium. Even my brother had to admit that it was the craziest thing he'd ever seen.
 On Saturday I tried to hold back a bit. I wasn't about to attempt to reconfigure everything again. I could have bought SO MANY plants. With every turn I was in awe. Things were there that I had never seen for sale. I wanted an agave so bad. In the end I accepted that it was better not to buy it. What I did buy however was a piece of drift wood for my tilandisia, two stone plants (lithops), garlic (Allium sativum) (already sprouting so I can harvest this year) and some herbs from Richters. I bought an interesting type of basil called African Blue Basil (Ocimum 'African Blue'). It has green leaves with a dash of purple in them and a spicy smell. I wish I could identify the flavour. The catalogue describes it as a cross between the camphor and dark opal basils. I was looking for Russian sage but since they were all out both days I got a new plant (new to Richters anyway) called Mexican bush sage. It has elongated leaves and purple, spikey flowers. I had hoped to get stevia but they were all out. I think when planting season comes in May I'm going to order everything else I want and have it delivered. I also bought lots more seeds (too many to list), some light blue beach glass (it's tumbled by a machine, I'm a sucker), and a huge bag of moss.
Afterwards we went to my favourite eatery in Kensignton Market called "King Vegetarian" aka "Good Vegetarian" and stuffed our faces. Saskatchewan and BagORats both bought lots of basil seeds so once we got back to my place I got out the 250 box of tiny envelopes and we traded seeds. None of us have big gardens so we were able to get lots of different kinds instead of tons of one kind. And that was a good end to a great day.
As a testament to my 'disease' I popped into the local mall on Sunday to pick up a few things and I couldn't help but look at the plants. Sick.
I'll post photos of the new plants another day. I'm too tired now.
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