Wes Porter

Questions We Are Often Asked: Boston Ferns

When the question is raised, “How do you look after a fern?” the inquirer is almost always asking about the care and culture of Boston Ferns, Nephrolepis exaltata bostoniensis. This old time houseplant has fronds up to three feet long that droop gracefully. It is less stiff and formal than the species type which ranges from Florida to Brazil, through Africa, southern Asia, and down into Australia. Since in the garden or wild, ferns are usually found flourishing in heavy shade, it is often assumed they will grow under similar conditions in the home. This is the first error. Boston Ferns enjoy filtered light, to the side of a south or west facing window, even suspended in an east or north window. With care, it is possible to raise such ferns close under artificial light such an the energy-saving “curly” neon bulbs.

Hats Off to Heuchera

The names roll around the mouth like a rich red wine: Berry Marmalade; Berry Smoothie; Blackberry Crisp; Cherry Cola; Ginger Peach; Midnight Bayou; Mysteria; Peach Crisp. Following Hemerocallis and Hosta, Heuchera moved into the limelight. Members of the family Saxifragaceae, these genetically unstable North American natives are named after Johann Heinrich Heucher, 1677-1747, professor of medicine at Wittenberg. Commonly referred to as Alum Root or Coral Bells, a dozen or more species are to be found from near Hudson Bay south and west even as far as coastal British Columbia, mainly in dry woods with neutral pH soils.

Right Royal Wedding Gardens

The extra weekend “bank holidays” in Britain announced for the royal wedding on 29 April is expected to set up the best fortnight ever for garden centres there – if they can ensure stock deliveries, industry sources predict, gleefully predicts Horticulture Week. Between 22 April Good Friday and the British May Day holiday, this year on 2 May, garden centres should be extraordinary busy. So will Her Majesty the Queen. The wedding of Prince William and Katy Middleton on Friday, 29th April will centre of historic Westminister Abbey dating from 13th century. Not quite so ancient, but still venerable is Buckingham Place, originally Buckingham House, built in 1703 by the Duke of Buckingham. “Buck House” as it is fondly known occupies 42 acres in the City of Westminister – 40 of those acres gardens.

Proper Plant Choice Can Help to Protect Your Home

Richard Taylor, a reformed British burglar, says there are many simple things that homeowners can do, such as buying a dog. The best deterrent is a dog, Taylor told The Daily Telegraph. “Burglars don’t like dogs, even small ones because they make too much noise. But then again, no, a dog is not always man’s best friend, or a woman’s for that matter. Thanks to burglars becoming increasingly busy in Britain, some homeowners have taken to setting booby traps such as the classic garden pit beloved of comedy shows. Then there are large plant pots and ornaments connected to trip wires. Alas, a man’s home may be his castle but taking such precautions could land you in court, prosecuted as a criminal causing injury by the Crown as well as being sued by the injured burglar.

A Wet April Predicted by Meteorologists

Old gardeners never die they just spade away, although some do throw in the trowel, horticultural wisdom has it. But the past few weeks have sorely tried the earthy fraternity to say nothing of sorority. As Stephen Fry observed: “Wet and windy. Then I looked out of the window and saw that the weather is too.” April however is here to bring hope to a wilting gardener’s breast, even if it was but originally the second month of the Roman calendar before January and February were added by King Numa Pompilius about 700 BC. It became the fourth month about 450 BC.

Sheridan’s Howard Stensson

Past president of Sheridan Nurseries Howard Stensson is dead at the age of 98. Brought to Oakville, Ontario with his family from England in 1914 as an infant, he graduated from the Ontario Agricultural College (now University of Guelph) in 1936. He taught science at high school until rejoining the family firm in 1964 and was president at Sheridan Nurseries from 1972 until his retirement aged 80 in 1993.

Turbo Vegetables: Bigger, Better or Bunk?

Across the wide Atlantic, in that home away from home of gardeners, ‘turbo charged’ vegetable plants are all the rage among English ‘grow your own’ aficionados. And when high street marketers such as B&Q get in on the act, there must be something in it. Then the popular newspapers woke to the backyard innovation. Headlines proclaiming “Bigger and Better, the ‘Turbo Veg’ Cultivated to Provide a Bumper Crop” appeared. In the Daily Mail’s Science Section, Liz Hull explained how the turbo vegetable starts life as two top-quality seeds that are grown into two small plants. The plant that is used for the root version has a high resistance to soil borne diseases and the plant that is used for the shoot is selected for the flavour and abundance of its produce.

March Madness

While England is famed for its eccentrics the briefest of glances south of the border reveals that citizens of the United States are hardly underachievers when it comes to the weird and wonderful. Perhaps designating March as Cabin Fever Month has something to do with their penchant for declaiming unusual events. Then again, perhaps not. After all, few Canadians would cavil at calling March Maple Sugar Month, given that we produce about 90 per cent of the stuff. Nor would we find fault with florists assigning daffodils and jonquils to the next 31 days. But the mind boggles at a National Frozen Food Month or a National Peanut Month, never mind a National Floor Month or – wait for it – National Umbrella Month. But our American cousins have enjoyed each and every one of those doubtless noble causes before designating individual days of March to other activities.

March Gardens

'Spring has sprung, the snow’s all gone/The lawn’s all covered with doggie dung', laments many a gardener as winter retreats, officially at least, from the land. A popular practice in days of yore was to kick-start spring by bringing branches of select shrubs and trees into the home. Many a gardener would purposely plant a bush of # willow, forsythia, witch-hazel or flowering quince or perhaps mark down where long twigs of the deliciously sticky horse chestnut, or perhaps crab apple and red maple could be scavenged. Few must be even those embedded in the depths of our largest cities who do not have a relation or friend with such a resource before resorting to the local florist.

Questions We Are Often Asked

In becoming the owner of an orchid, you have now joined the ranks of such orchid lovers as movie actor Boris Karloff, the original Frankenstein’s Monster, who grew them in his apartment on the top floor of The Dakota in New York. Also the CIA's Counter-Intelligence Chief James Jesus Angleton along with English author Roald Dahl. Orchids are everywhere these days.

Valentines: Blooming Good Reasons for Flowers

“A sort of valentine on the back of your hand,” said Sally Benson of her memories of living in St. Louis about 1904 that had appeared in the New Yorker in 1941, later to become the MGM hit musical Meet Me In St. Louis starring Judy Garland. “Women who are given flowers enjoy a more positive mood for three full days after they receive them,” according to MSN Health & Fitness and Prevention magazine.

Gardeners Can Fend Off Cabin Fever

Cabin fever stalks the land, at least among the non-gardening fraternity. Those that delight in the pursuit of their hobby of horticultural fear no such affliction. For it is time for all good gardeners to visit the local gardening depot there to load up on summer bulbs such as dahlia, begonia, canna and other exotics. Returning home with the floral treasures, set aside for an hour or so while six-inch-diameter clay pots are fetched from storage. Scrub off and soak in boiling water for 15 minutes or so to destroy any lingering fungal infestations then set aside. Next make up labels, either purchased or cut from empty white plastic bleach bottles. Using a commercial medium such as ‘ProMix,’ plant up the bulbs. Water well and then set aside; they will not require light until sprouts commence to emerge in a few weeks’ time.Having exhausted oneself with these propagation exercises, it is time to leave the spouse to tend to the mounting mounds of snow. You must now undertake the exhaustive examination of catalogues and plan the next season’s garden . . .Diversion No. 1

Epsom Salts: A Morsel of Magnesium

Epsom Salts Bath Crystals for use in bathtubs, hot tubs and whirlpool baths, advises the package from Recochem ($3.99 for 2kg at the local drug store). Add four cups to the bathtub for relaxing, soreness and to ‘help soothe away daily stress’ as well as ‘helps relieve the discomfort of insect bites.’

Plants for Chinese Year of the Rabbit

On the 3rd February in bounds the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, with a choice of representative plants to keep gardeners hopping until 22 January 2012. It is said to be a lucky sign with friendly people who are keen, wise and intelligent, neat and tidy and careful in money matters.

January Gardens

“In January everything freezes,” wrote the poet Ogden Nash. “We have two children. Both are she’ses/This is our January rule:/One girl in bed, and one in school.” This New Yorker’s advice was to “spend the winter at the bottom of Florida and the summer at the top of the Adirondacks.”

Gifts for Gardeners

What to buy for your favourite gardening buddy? A very upscale Brit periodical recently featured French enamel buckets with wood handles, slightly battered to ”add to their character” at just £20 each or about Cdn$30 ( deepuddy.co.uk). Or how about a lamp with a paper shade covered with skeletal magnolia leaves from greatenglish.co.uk for a mere £125 plus p&p? Then can we interest you in The Gluttonous Gardener’s wine-and-vine crates, with a grape vine ready for planting along with a bottle of Bordeaux ( .glut.co.uk)? No? Then there are reproductions of educational German botanical charts costing £48, plus p&p, each from Whippet Grey ( whippetgrey.co.uk). Ah well, perhaps something more Canadian orientated . . .

Amaryllis Will Flower Again and Again

Amaryllis finished flowering? Don’t dump it! Such a beautiful bloomer doesn’t deserve to be sent to the great green compost heap in the sky. And it is so easy to persuade her to a repeat performance.

December Gardening

“Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it,” Mark Twain (1835-1910) once observed. Perhaps not so true now: “Thinkin’ about hibernating for winter,” recently tweeted rock performer Pink. Certainly that is what most of the garden believes in commencing this time of the year.

Charles Dion O’Banion: A Florist of Note

Recently, reputed mobster Antonio "The Florist" Mucci, 56, was freed on $40,000 bail in Montreal. He is said to be a contender to succeed Vito Rizutto as head of the Montreal Mafia. Mucci, who served eight years in jail for attempted murder in the 1970s, formerly ran a florist shop in the city, hence his nickname. He had, however, a far more notable predecessor.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

According to Environment Canada's ubiquitous chief climatologist, David Phillips, this winter looks like being drier and warmer than normal. While greeted with glee in some quarters, it is definitely bad news for gardeners seek to overwinter their precious perennials. Snow is what they want. But snow is not what they are likely to get, not if Mr. Phillips is right.