The Wasaga Beach Horticultural Society is celebrating spring on Saturday May 25 at Oakview Woods (beside the Wasaga Beach RecPlex). I will be selling plants, along with another native plant grower - eARTh Revival. The event, which features a number of nature and conservation organizations, will run from 9am to 2 pm.  FLAP I will also have material to promote FLAP Canada, the Fatal Light Awareness Program, an organization that campaigns to curtail the danger of building collisions for birds. This is a cause that's close to my heart - migration is a perilous journey at the best of tim ..read more

As the snow swirls outside, I hear you say, it’s way too early to think about seed. And indeed, one of the mistakes that is often made is starting too early and ending up with sickly seedlings, dying to go outside when they may not because it’s still freezing. On the other hand, there’s nothing more joy-inspiring than seeing little green shoots pushing their way upwards while the snow is swirling outside. And it’s the start of a relationship. Once the true leaves appear (not the first two, which look the same for most seeds) and you follow the seedling’s development, you remember; it’s a grea ..read more

It was while researching gardening for butterflies and moths recently that I was reminded of the story of the Golden-crowned Kinglet, Regulus (little king) satrapa (governor), an olive-grey bird named for its brightly coloured crest - orange in the male, yellow in the female. What a fascinating little bird it is! The first amazing thing about the kinglet is that it’s so tiny, our smallest songbird. It weighs in at 5 grams - not much more than a quarter - and is half the body size of a chickadee. Which leads us to the second amazing thing: it eats only insects, but unlike most insectivorous b ..read more

A cold grey windy day, marking almost the end of seed-gathering season. I pop out hastily to get the seed of the Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis), which was resolutely unripe a few days ago but has now turned brown and is ready to split open. I’ve been watching the Sky Blue Aster (Symphyotrichum oolentangiense) which had closed damp flowerheads when last visited but now quite a few have opened into a small dandelion-like globes, waiting to be blown off by a puff of wind, or pinched off by me. The Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa) which had its glorious flowering in September and October now h ..read more

These days, the Norway Maple doesn’t show up on lists of the best tree to plant in your back yard. Arborists don’t recommend it. In fact, most positively discourage it. “It’s a ‘bad guy’ - number one in our black book,” says Tobias Effinger, owner of Arboreal Tree Care, a Thornbury-based arboriculture firm. But the tree – which goes by the botanical name Acer platanoides - is widely available from nurseries and is popular with homeowners for its tolerance of urban conditions and the attractive foliage, from deep purple to variegated, of many of its cultivars. What else is in the black book ..read more

A little dialogue from September 2020 - reposted for its timeliness! Tree - What are you doing down there? Human - Tidying. Tree - That’s my stuff, leave it alone, I’m going to need it. Human - Why did you drop it on the ground if you need it? Tree - That’s where I want it to be. Human - Don’t be ridiculous ..read more

The sun is already well up in the sky, the bright light rippling off the water. An angler’s boat chugs quietly across the inlet. It’s still early for the constant drone of summer traffic. A soft breeze gently stirs the air. I’m visiting an island on Stoney Lake (or is it Stony Lake?), relaxing in the dappled shade of mature white pine, red oak and red maple, tall trees many decades old, quite close together and because of that, with no branches for 20 feet or more - the view is perfectly framed. The cottage is nestled among outcrops of ancient rock, the great grey and pink forms crowned with ..read more

Tracks in the Snow - Poems and Essays from Life and the Land by Patrick Lima with illustrations by John Scanlan The Ginger Press (2023) 8.5x11'', unspecified pp, black and white, soft cover, $20 - special $5 discount price here at ROTN!) A new book from Patrick Lima! You’d have to be a gardener of a certain age to understand the excitement the news conjures up. Lima was one of a wave of writers who surfaced in the late ’80s and ’90s to tell Canadians there’s more to gardening than impatiens and petunias. He and his partner John Scanlan created Larkwhistle, a wonderful garden on the ..read more

I still have lots of plants after closing my business last year. The ones left over and cleaned up. Plus those that I propagated for myself, of which there is a surplus. Plus the volunteers that showed up where they're not needed, but are still desirable, so they got potted. All native, all pollinator-friendly. And now I want to clear the space!  So I’ll be doing a two-day sale on Saturday August 26 and Sunday August 27 2023. Hours: 10-4. If you need to come earlier or later, let me know approximately when. Prices will be $3 to $5, some in large pots, some in small ..read more

When it comes to native plants, I like them all! From the Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense), for which you have to get down on your hands and knees in order to appreciate its lovely three-petalled maroon flower – to the lofty Flat-topped Aster (Doellingeria umbellata) with its clusters of white-petalled flowers set off by yellow centre disks, making for a creamy effect. But I do have favourites. And I also have reservations. The number one example of qualified affection comes with the spiderwort. The species I have is Tradescantia ohiensis; like others in the genus, the flower has three petals ..read more