Does your garden need a little love this summer? How about a little Electric Love? Electric Love has been named as the Plant of the Year by Canada Blooms, the annual garden and horticultural industry show that takes place each winter in Toronto. It’s the first weigela ever bred with deep red blooms and dark […]

Every year plant breeders release new varieties of annuals, which landscapers and homeowners eagerly snap up. There are fresh colours, bloom configurations, and growth patterns, all giving designers some exciting new options. Here are some of the ones we’re excited about. Angelface Snapdragons It’s hard to believe that breeders could do something new with such […]

We all know that a lovely landscape makes you feel good, but researchers in the US have shown it does more than that: turning vacant lots into low-maintenance green sites caused depression rates in the area to plummet. The study was done in Philadelphia. Researchers selected 110 vacant lots around the city, focusing on sites […]

August is one of the loveliest seasons in the garden. This is when the last of the early-summer flowers are still in bloom, but we start to see blossoms emerge that hint at the fall to come. Whether you love perennials or annuals, exotics or wildflowers, there’s lots of action happening in the garden. The […]

When we talk about pollinators, most of us picture a honeybee. And if you’ve seen The Bee Movie, the animated feature film from a few years back, chances are you can even hear Jerry Seinfeld’s voice every time you see a honey bee pollinating a flower. There’s no denying honeybees are important to farmers: the […]

The look and scent of roses adds a treasured touch to any garden, but many people shy away from planting them at the cottage. They know that a lot of the popular varieties in the south just won’t survive in Muskoka, where our summers are too short, our winters too cold, and our springs too […]

It’s got texture and shape and it looks wonderful in just about any garden. When clients ask us about planting ornamental grasses, one of the first plants we look at is Miscanthus. Of course, that’s a bit like saying “one of the trees we look at is the willow.” Both Mischanthus and Willow are terms […]

Every creative area has its own awards: the Oscars, the Junos, and the Grammies are all fun to watch. The PPA Plant of the Year awards aren’t quite as well known, but those of us in the business still tune in to see which plant the Perennial Plant Association will name as the year’s best […]