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Canada Blooms, International Home and Garden Show

March Gardening



“Indoors or out, no one relaxes/In March, that month of wind and taxes,” declared Ogden Nash. True, alas how true, for gardeners too.

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Shakespeare’s Henry V proclaims: “The Welshmen did good service in a garden where the leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps . . .”(Act IV, scene vii). Sufficient reminder this, that inside it is time to seed tender vegetables, herbs and annuals for planting out in May. Novices to the great game that is gardening may purchase plants at the local garden centre. Experienced gardeners know the way to obtain the newest introductions as well nowadays, ironically, heirloom plants, is by seeding your own. Stock plants saved from the very best of last season’s tropical perennials can now yield up cuttings for the coming year. Geraniums, impatiens, fuchsias, hibiscus and lantana along with fibrous-rooted and cane begonias are some of the commoner candidates for this treatment. Every windowsill becomes a nursery for nurturing new plants while the spouse mutters morosely about household jungles and similar matters. Time also indoors to resume fertilizing the houseplants, now awakening from their semi-dormancy as days lengthen once again. An extra hour in the day is also on the way, come 9th March when, at 2 a.m., Daylight Saving Time commences. Clocks and watches move forward an hour from sea to shining sea – excepting Saskatchewan. There, in those memorable words of the well-known Prairie politician Augustus Windheaver Jr., “Daylight saving means secession.” Studying data on 55,000 people, Till Roenneberg of Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich and his colleagues found that there might be something out on the lone prairie. According to the journal Nature (vol. 449 p. 950), Daylight Saving Time really does mess you up. In the research of Roenneberg et al. no one adjusted completely to the imposition of daylight saving time, but natural early risers did better than night owls. Outside in the garden, there are chores waiting in this extra hour gained. Later in the month, pull back the mulch protecting perennials and herbs. Cut back those ornamental grasses and others left from last fall. The discarded mulch can be dug into the vegetable garden late in the month. This will improve the soil as well as expose bugs and their eggs along with weed seeds to the attention of our feathered friends. Need a break? In Toronto and elsewhere it’s show time. Locally, first up is the International Home & Garden Show 6-9 March (www.successfulgardeningshow.com). Plant question with gardening gurus, including CFRB’s Mark Cullen, CBC Radio’s Ed Lawrence, CityTV’s Frank Ferragine or expert Marjorie Hogue Mason. All will be found at the show’s Toyota Ontario Gardener Theatre, then stroll landscaped gardens and exhibits to tempt novice and green thumbers alike. Canada Blooms has by a process of metamorphosis become the Toronto Flower & Garden Festival, 12-16 March ( HYPERLINK "http://www.canadablooms.com/" [url=http://www.canadablooms.com]http://www.canadablooms.com[/url]). Under a new general manager, it is in co-organizer Landscape Ontario’s Gerald Boot’s turn of words, “being refreshed and renewed.” But what is in it for you? Over spectacular featured 30 gardens presented by the province’s premier landscape designers and architects await your exploration. Visit Scotts Wild Bird Habitat and learn how to attract the beautiful sights and sounds of wild birds to your garden. The new Home Depot Outdoor Living Centre can help you create an outdoor oasis of your very own – culture instead of kirsch. Canada Blooms is, says Boot, “focusing on integrating the community and the ownership of the show, positioning it as a festival or event, as opposed to a consumer show.” A recurring complaint of visitors to local shows is the emphasis on landscape. Such reportedly has our southern neighbours envious. If, however, you are a plant person, it is indeed a rocky prospect. Two of the oldest North American horticultural events well worth visiting then are both flower shows. You can make it down to the City of Brotherly Love for the Philadelphia Flower Show, 2-8 March and still arrive back in time for the International Home & Garden Show here, as some enthusiasts do (www.theflowershow.com). Then from 8 to 16 March Boston beckons with the famed New England Flower Show (www.masshort.org). Both are guaranteed to gladden the horticulturist’s heart. Then it is back home to more down-to-earth affairs. The art and science of making kind cuts that is known as pruning also gains prominence this month. There are three reasons for this basic gardening activity:
  • Controlling pests and disease
  • Controlling size and shape
  • Encouraging foliage, flowers and fruit
  • The tools required are hand pruners, long-handled loppers and a pruning saw plus, later in the season, a pair of shears. Unless an aficionado of chainsaw massacre movies, forget such noisy, exceedingly dangerous and diabolical equipment. Cut out all dead, diseased and dying wood as well as suckers emerging from or near the base of trees and shrubs. Prune out to prevent branches crossing each other, thin out to avoid overcrowding. The best and most productive foliage, flowers and fruit are produced on young wood. Therefore, remove older unproductive branches from deciduous shrubs and encourage younger growth. This month, prune fruit trees and bushes and summer-flowering shrubs. Do not prune spring-flowering shrubs or evergreens yet. Leave maples, birches, poplars and willows until later as, cut now, they will ‘bleed’ sap excessively. The first day of spring arrives on 20th March, co-incidentally National Agriculture Day although, checking the calendar, it is to be noted that a Full Moon follows on the 21st March. This would have delighted Sarah Binks, the Sweet Songstress of Saskatchewan, that unspoiled child of the soil from N.E. ¼ Sec. 37, Township 21, R. 9. W. Municipality of Willows, halfway between Oak Bluff and Quagmire. Ogden Nash notwithstanding, Sarah celebrated the season thusly:
    For spring is coming with its mirth, And breezy breath of balmy warmth, And burbank, bobolink, and snearth, Shall banish winter’s chill and dearth, And luscious joy shall fill the earth.
    Scientists, as one might expect, have to throw a curve at us. Just as we welcome those wonderful words, they advise us that the “northern winter” does not end until 31st March.


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    Wes Porter -- Bio and Archives

    Wes Porter is a horticultural consultant and writer based in Toronto. Wes has over 40 years of experience in both temperate and tropical horticulture from three continents.


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