Recently I enjoyed a 2nd early spring, a trip to Ontario.

I was treated to massive displays of tulips, which I miss living here.

One day we went to Cullen Barns. Mark Cullen, who sold his company (the barn gardens and also his chain of nurseries) is akin to Walter Reeves. We enjoyed his company at church on Sunday before heading off to the gardens. These are very well planted and laid out gardens, a mix of very hardy perennials and bedding annuals. Set within the gardens is a complete miniature village!

At one end of the gardens there is now a native woodland garden, and it was lovely to see some early risers like bloodroot, native solomon's seal etc (a cultivar called "Stary" which was particularly nice. I WANT!!) - all again.

A few days later we went to the Niagra region. This is a very unique area that is predominatly fruit farmed, and now also has large farm areas incased in beautiful glass greenhouses where many of our fruits and vegetables are growing in the ground, but under glass. The climate in this area is quite different than the rest of Ontario, and we again enjoyed tulips, but also loads of flowering trees. The majestic horse chestnut trees with their huge upright panicles of white flowers, and the locally native redbuds which grow abundantly in this region. Niagra Falls (Canadian side) has a very interesting botanical garden, part of which can be walked, part of which can be driven through. The gardens are seperated into fairly large sized squares of individual plants - although they grow many cultivars of each plant. The masses of blooming lilacs in various colors and forms were breathtaking!

From there we travelled to a small and quaint historical town called Niagra-on-the-Lake. One look at the abundantly planted gardens made me realize that if I ever moved back to Canada, I would choose to live there! The more gentle climate, grounds often insulated with more snow than in Toronto and Hamilton etc. mean that plantings can be more diverse than almost anywhere else in the province. It was clear that they were at least two weeks ahead of the plant growth in Markham, Ontario where I stay when I visit.

However, I will say that Markham gardeners are PLENTIFUL. The plantings of choice are perennial "bones" like shrubs etc. and lots of bedding plants. Short season gardening means that the bedding plants can be sold in abundant bloom, and stay that way until their first frost...June 1st-Sept 15th or so (if they are lucky!!). EVERY home had a garden of some sort, and each was different and unique. The need for green space is emphasized there, and I really noted the difference compaired to Atlanta, which is a very "green" city compaired to many others in the USA.

On this trip, I was fortunate enough to meet a 92 year old gardener named Carmen. Carmen LOVED his plants, and at one time gardened 3 acres of flowers, fruits and vegetables. Several years ago he donated 11/2 acres to the town of Markham for community gardens. Carmen still flower gardens 1 acre. He was spending most of his time tilling in ammendments and digging plants for gifts during the week of my vacation. Carmen has no help. It's all done by hand! He is an avid composter and uses every bit to nurish all the plants that he is GIVING AWAY! At 92, he is a bit worried about keeping all these flowers going. And FLOWERS! My goodness! Carmen plants his flowers in rows as many of us do our vegetables. This is a rather unique sight! He has row upon row of lupine (not yet out), dwarf irises, daylilies, various tulips, peonies and many plants he doesn't know the names of but attemps to describe. When we were there, he was planting row upon row of zinnias to fill in the spaces of early bloomers.

I really enjoyed my 2nd spring, and am hoping to also get a 2nd fall this year too!

GGG