Hello everybody, It has been quite a long time since I've posted on GardenWeb as my schedule has been exhausting and perhaps some of the regular posters remember me from the guru garden (Patrick Studio retail). As a former exhibitor at Canada Blooms, I find that since Loblaws stopped sponsoring the show, it has been going downhill. For individuals who've attended the show several times, the content is no longer original and often, the same speakers are back with the same topic from previous years. The last year we attended the show in 2006, we were within earshot of a booth that was selling absorbent sponges/cloths to wipe counters and wash floors. The salespeople at the booth talked non-stop and were really loud and I found it tacky and inappropriate to have this company exhibit at a garden show. Although some of the gardens are spectacular, there is less interesting plant material on display or available for sale. The seed that is offered (except perhaps for Florabunda seeds) is commercially packaged seed like McKenzie, Sutton Seed, and Thompson and Morgan. So if you are main goal in visiting Canada Blooms is to shop for seeds and plants, you might be disappointed. I don't feel it's necessary to pay an entrance fee of $ 18.00 (which to me is highway robbery) plus another $ 20.00 to park your car to buy products that are available at the most of the box stores. Occasionally, Home Depot has some interesting and inexpensive packaged plants (like Brugmansias and Passifloras) but so many of the more interesting vendors will not be displaying in 2008. Mason Hogue, Wild Flower Farm, Fiesta Gardens, Terra, and many others are gone. I feel that the main reason for this is that it is very expensive to grow plant material in early March given the enormous increase in energy costs. There are very few Canadian growers (in either Quebec or Ontario) that are willing to provide plants for Canada Blooms. The show is just too early. It is too bad that the show cannot be scheduled in April because I feel that it would be better for the public and the exhibitors. Given the changes in the horticulture world - two major growers, Janet Anderson and Epic Plants are both out of business and the little support horticulture is receiving from the media - just take a look at the few gardening shows (most are really about renovation) on HGTV I have the feeling that if the Canada Blooms management team does not change their approach - innovation and creativity are required here - this show will go the way of the Successful Gardening Show in Mississauga which is totally commercial and pretty awful. On the other hand, if you are interested in attending a show with interesting speakers and great plant material, there is a show in Peterborough - For the Love of Gardening in mid April that is a treat. I've supplied the link to the show. Marilena

I used to start about 200 tomato and 200 pepper plants indoors. One year, I was anxious to put them outside as they were started indoors way too early in March. The tomato plants were over 3 feet tall indoors, and were all moved to my small greenhouse about May 10. They were getting used to strong sunlight and my greenhouse could reach 110 degrees inside if I left the door closed. I used fans and a small electric heater for about a week, and then started to transplant into the garden area about May 22. About two days later, we had a sudden frost and I lost about 3/4 of all the plants. The frost lasted only about 3 hours and I was outside all night spraying water on the plants in hopes of preventing any from freezing. I recall the terrible sound of the water spray which was like tiny hail falling on the foliage. I only had a small piece of heavy weight plastic cloth to protect maybe 20 plants. The rest were all lost to frost. Obviously, that year, I had very few tomatoes and was forced to buy some plants that were types that were just too watery for making canned sauces. After that major lost (about 12 years ago), I decided it was too early. Most local nurseries also lost many plants that year.

We were on the way home, so we missed the whole show. Our neighbors saw everything. The tornado funnel cut across Lakeview Golf Course, which is just across the bay from us. It shattered trees on the course and at a house directly across the bay from us. It then entered the bay, becoming a waterspout, and spewed lake water all over the houses. North Arm is only about 1,200 feet wide at our house, so the funnel was about an eighth of a mile from us, 600-700 feet. Incredibly lucky for us, the funnel veered a little north and did a lot of tree damage three houses to the north of us. We just had one medium-sized willow branch blown down at our place. There was no rain falling at the time of the funnel, and the sirens started wailing just after it passed our house. We were without power for about six hours and without cable/internet for 18 hours. Another lucky pass...

Molly, I think moving to Oklahoma will be culture shock, but in a mostly good way. THE WEATHER: Most years, you'll see the last frost in the OKC area in April, although sometimes a little earlier and sometimes a little later. April and May tend to be gorgeous and mild. The real heat arrives in June and then July and August are roasting hot most years. The cool-down arrives in September and we often have nice mild weather throughout September, October and Novemeber. A little cold arrives in December some years and other years it can be a bit colder, but still not too bad. January and February are cold (in the way we Okies define cold--it may not seem to be to you after Minnesota), and March is transitional with some warm, almost hot weather, and some cold. THE SOIL: Lots of Oklahoma does have red soil and it comes in all types. There's clay in lots of areas, red sandy soil in others, brownish or yellowish sand or sandy loam in yet others. Northeastern and eastern OK mostly has great soil and higher rainfall. Central OK has lots of clay but lots of sandy loam areas too. Southern OK has lots of wicked red clay (the Red River is our border between Texas and Oklahoma) but some very sandy or very rocky areas. Some areas have fairly acidic, or at least neutral soil but others have fairly alkaline soil (and water). No matter what kind of soil you have, the key to success here is to add compost and other organic matter that will help it both hold water in our heat and drain well in our famous spring and summer downpours. THE PLANTS: Many plants grow well in Oklahoma, but the specifics depend on your soil pH and type. You probably will notice that even though you can grow many of the same plants here as in Minnesota, they likely will bloom earlier here. Some plants that bloom in the summer in Minnesota may bloom in the spring here. Having never lived further north than my current location in southern Oklahoma, I don't know when plants bloom elsewhere. Here in my part of OK, about 100 miles south of OKC, daffodils and hyacinths start blooming in mid- to late- February and tulips start in March. Larkspurs and poppies often start blooming in February or March and burn out because of the heat in May or June. Hollyhocks start blooming in March or April and are 'done' most years by June, but this year lasted into July. Daylilies start blooming most years in late May here and last through fall if deadheaded. Cannas pop up out of the ground in March (in a mild spring) or April (in a colder one) and bloom util the first freeze in October or November. My flowers may begin blooming a week or two or three earlier than those in OKC, but sometimes Lisa and I have the same types of plants--like larkspur or poppies--blooming at the same time even though we're more than 100 miles from one another. One of the big mainstays here for summer flowering shrubs is the Crape Myrtle, and they come in a wide variety of sizes, from dwarf weeping types to small tree types, with blooms in shades of white, pink, lilac, purple and red. The summer weather is hard on plants here, so it helps to include very heat-tolerant plants in your plans. It is hard to know which ones to suggest for you before you find an actual place to live and know what kind of soil you have. Lisa's and Moni's photos will give you a good idea of what grows in their parts of central OK. Some heat lovers that tend to do well in most parts of Oklahoma include zinnias (annuals that often reseed here), four o'clocks, cannas, lantana (not all named cultivars are reliably perennial), salvias/sages, yarrow, tall verbena (verbena bonariensis), marigolds and some lilies. I've linked the Oklahoma Climatological Survey pages for Oklahoma County. Looking at them will give you an idea of first and average freeze dates, average rainfall, etc. for the Oklahoma City area. There are a couple of books about gardening in Oklahoma that contain detailed plant descriptions. Another way to get an idea of what you can plant here would be to visit the website of Sooner Plant Farm, which you can find by googling. Once you look at their website, I think you'll have a great idea of the variety of plants that are either native or adapted here. A lovely native tree here is the Oklahoma Redbud. It looks gorgeous when blooming (generally in mid-March in southern OK, and a tiny bit later further north, so maybe in later March to mid-April). I'm not crazy about it the rest of the year. It has nice foliage but is disease prone, especially in terms of fungal diseases that cause the foliage to get spotted leaves, yellowing and browning leaves, and sometimes quite a few dropped leaves. So, what else do you want to know? If you'd like, list some of your favorite plants and we'll do our best to tell you how they perform here. Oh, one more thing....welcome to Oklahoma! You're going to love it here....unless you truly adore freezing cold weather. In that case, we'll just do our best to convert you to loving the ten months of the year our weather is great.....September through June....and we'll teach you how to endure the the two hotter-than-heck months, July and August (air conditioning, iced tea, swimming pools, lakes, etc.). Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: OCS Data for Oklahoma County