Gardeners, we hope you can join the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society tonight, Wednesday, September 19, at 7:00 PM, for our first regular meeting of the new season. Our special guest will be Warren Crossman speaking to us about Heirloom Seeds and Growing Old Varieties of Vegetables. It will be a very interesting, informative meeting, so we hope you will be there! You don't have to be a member to attend the meetings; if you're interested in plants, we'd love to have you there! That's in the Sunshine Room at SIGN on North Street.
And don't forget, our Fall Plant and Bulb Sale is on Friday, September 21 at the Parkland Mall. The sale begins at 9:30, and there are always lots of eager gardeners waiting, so my advice is come early! The sale is scheduled to go until 5PM, but if we run out of plants earlier, that's it! So that's Friday, September 21 at 9:30 AM!
The other day, I stopped in to visit a dear friend and see her amazing plants. Even though she told me that she had already cleared away a lot of things, her deck was still a beautiful oasis of lush greenery and stunning plant combinations. We sat on the deck and chatted, surrounded by all those lovely plants and elegant tchotchkes that made the space so tranquil and inviting. I wished I could have sat there all afternoon! Our plants at home, which are dried up and looking very pathetic, would have blushed in embarrassment compared to the dewy, vibrant plants on that deck: they were simply beautiful!
Her planters were a wonderful mix of outdoor plants and houseplants. As we talked about the plants, she mentioned "abundance" more than once, and that is truly the key to creating lush planters. Just pack those plants in there; cozy them up to each other, and let them fill the planter and tumble out of it in exuberance! Creating a dynamite planter is not achieved by planting very sparingly and then waiting all summer for the poor things to fill in; go for the gusto and put lots of plants in the planters and start enjoying them right away! I noticed this idea in the City planters by City Hall, too; they were jam-packed with interesting combinations, and they looked fabulous!
So let's mark that down for future reference in our garden notebooks!
My friend had a very interesting plant that was new to me: she called it a "kangaroo apple". It was quite tall with lovely purple-blue flowers, similar to a petunia blossom, and glossy green "fruits" that were similar to the ones on potatoes that have gone to seed. It was very pretty; purple-blue flowers are always so pretty, aren't they! David Tarrant on "Canadian Gardening" always used to say that there are very few true blue flowers. Maybe that's why they are so striking.
Since kangaroo apple was new to me, I thought I would do some homework about it, and this is what I learned. The real name for this lovely plant is "solanum aviculare", and it is also known as New Zealand Nightshade or poroporo. It is subtropical, but will grow here as an annual until the first frost! If you are lucky enough to have a solarium, you might be able to bring it indoors for the winter. The information that I was reading says that it is a "shrub", that will grow from three to ten feet high. It likes full sun or part shade, and likes to be watered in moderation.
So, gardeners, this will be a full week: the meeting tonight, Wednesday, September 19, and then the Fall Plant and Bulb Sale on Friday, September 21 at the Parkland Mall.
